#boeing-boeing

“Boeing-Boeing” Comes to the Majestic Theater

“Boeing-Boeing,” a classic French farce by Marc Camoletti, will be presented at West Springfield’s Majestic Theater February 21 – March 31. The comedy, translated and adapted by Beverley Cross, premiered in London in the 1960s where it ran for seven years. A 2008 Broadway revival garnered Tony Awards for Best Actor (Mark Rylance) and Best Revival of a Play.

The story is set in Paris, home to an…

January 19, 2012

BOEING-BOEING is a farce written by French playwright Marc Camoletti.  In a Paris flat, bachelor Bernard has three beautiful flight attendants engaged to him without knowing about each other. But his  perfect life gets bumpy when his friend Robert comes to stay and a new (and speedier) Boeing jet throws off all of his careful planning. Soon all three women are in town simultaneously and Robert is forgetting which lies to tell to whom.

The French-language version ran in Paris in 1960.  The English adaptation by Beverley Cross and Francis Evans was first staged in London in 1962 running seven years.  In February 1965 the show opened on Broadway but was a flop, closing after just three weeks.  Despite this, that same year it was adapted as a Hollywood film starring Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis.  In 2007 there was a London revival staged by Matthew Warchus.  It transferred to Broadway the following year winning a Tony for best revival and another for its star, Mark Rylance.  The play is now extremely popular in regional (see below) and community venues worldwide.

BOEING-BOEING was performed at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn) from January 18 to February 12, 2012.  It was directed by James Brennan with set design by Ray Klausen, costumes by Brian Hemesath, lighting design by F. Mitchell Dana, hair and wig design by Bettie O. Rodgers, and sound design by Randy Hansen. The cast featured Anne Horak (Gretchen), Brynn O'Malley (Gabriella), Heather Parcells (Gloria), John Scherer (Robert), Matt Walton (Bernard) and Beth Leavel (Berthe).  

I hadn't seen this play on Broadway, but I am glad to have seen it produced at the Mill, an organization who typically produces mid-winter farces to “chase the blues away.”  This was the last production that I audio-described at Paper Mill, and being a farce, it was particularly challenging.  I imagine that the original Warchus staging with Mark Rylance made the show worth seeing, but it was still mildly amusing (silly) viewing here.  

John Scherer had done many shows at the Mill but I remember him best as Bertie Wooster in Alan Ayckbourn's By Jeeves. It took me a while to figure out where I had seen Matt Walton, but it finally hit me while I was riding up in the elevator with him one day: he was the Optimum man – the TV spokesperson for Optimum Cable Television.  And come to find out he's a Jersey boy. Brynn O'Malley had played the Judy Garland role in Paper Mill's Meet Me in St. Louis and went on to take their production of Honeymoon in Vegas to Broadway.  But if anyone stood out in the cast it was the comic genius Beth Leavel.  Most of us at the Mill went to the previews of The Drowsy Chaperone because our Roy Miller was one of the producers.  Leavel was brilliantly funny in the title role – just as she was here in the supporting role of the maid.  By the way, the people in the show's postcard and program cover (above) are just models, not the actors in the show.  I always hated this practice, which was deemed necessary to promote the season in advance of the casting.  

I'm on a Tony kick and this is a Mark Rylance appreciation post. This man gives the best speeches! XD It's a shame he didn't continue the tradition with his latest win this year. But it was a lovely speech regardless. =)