So we love her sharp barbs and share her horrified amazement at what he can get away with. She’s totally unimpressed with Bernard’s self-infatuation and is completely on to his not-so-clever, really shabby scam. Irreverence is the key to Overton’s Berthe. Director Matt Chiorini is asking two students to pretty much meet their standards. These were roles taken by Christine Baranski and Mark Rylance in the New York City revival. More importantly, the cast must meet professional-level performance standards in breath-stopping timing and balletic clowning.Īlthough every cast member knocks out a good share of laughs, a disproportionate share goes to two characters: the skeptical, independent-minded house maid Berthe (Samantha Overton) and the guileless schnook-pal Robert (Tom Vazquez), who dropped in at the wrong time. The cast is small, and not so generous in providing roles like last month’s Heathers: The Musical. Boeing, Boeing is an unusual choice for a college production for two reasons. That’s one reason why we laugh.Ī greater reason is what farce demands of performers. Transgressors are humiliated for their sins. As French critic Roland Barthes observed, the bedroom farce not only serves up scant eroticism, it is fundamentally a sternly moralistic genre. Nervous parents should not be concerned about a bedroom farce produced by a Catholic college, however. His reward, of course, is only one thing. He professes the deepest love to each one of them, offering gold engagement rings three times. Jet flights to distant venues, like San Francisco or Caracas, can keep two stewardesses occupied to allow Bernard to enjoy whichever third lady happens to be in town.īernard embodies the Hugh Hefner style of male sexual exploitation, also popular in 1960, with a flattering portrait of himself on display in his living room. And feisty blonde Gretchen (Kelsey Rich) in blue tends passengers on Lufthansa. Bosomy Gabriella (Marisa Valent), wearing green, flies with Alitalia. Tall, lithe Gloria (Rachel Crumley) is in red for TWA. They are each stewardesses for different airlines. In 1960 playboy entrepreneur Bernard (Fred Pienkoski) needed only a bound paper ledger, literally a “little black book,” to keep track of the ladies in his life. How could one be sure if a flight were on time? How soon could one know if a plane were turned back by a storm at sea? Set Boeing, Boeing in the present, and one smartphone call could annihilate the whole enchilada. More importantly, communication technology lagged behind. The notion of a “Jet Set” of sophisticated travelers was new, and rapid transportation hither and yon opened doors to subterfuge. And that’s when people traveled with hard-edged, inflexible luggage in bright colors. Costume designer Katie Stomps delivers the kind of uniforms that stewardesses (not flight attendants) wore when the airlines made them retire at age 26. To remind us of the era, set designer Karel Blakeley has come up with a kidney-shaped coffee table and wrought-iron legs, Danish modern furniture and a beanbag chair. Rylance, the noted Shakespearean who won an Academy Award for Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, said that Camoletti wrote roles demanding the utmost from a performer.īoeing, Boeing is as securely fixed in 1960 as the farces of Georges Feydeau are in le belle epoque. Yet Boeing, Boeing’s luster was restored when Mark Rylance took on the role of the hapless pal Robert in the prize-winning 2008 Broadway revival. A Broadway run lasted only 23 performances in 1965, however, while the American view of the play has been further sullied by the 1965 Jerry Lewis-Tony Curtis film version. An adroit English translation by Beverly Cross (husband of Maggie Smith) and Francis Evans opened in London in 1962 and ran for seven years. Boeing, Boeing opened in Paris, 1960, and ran for 19 years.
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