Boeing Boeing at Barrington Stage
Comedy Takes Flight
By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 25, 2024
Retirement for Julianne Boyd, founding artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, has been liberating. Free of administrative responsibilities she returns to direct the comedy/ farce “Boeing Boeing” a perennial favorite by French playwright Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverly Cross and Francis Evans.
She has cast a dream team of Barrington’s frequent flyers; Christopher Innvar as the scheming bachelor, Bernard, the nubile Mark H. Dold a visiting long lost friend Robert, and Debra Jo Rupp, a comedic national treasure as Bernard’s maid, Berthe.
This is farce which requires the de rigeur six doors. The Parisian bachelor pad and love nest has been neatly designed by Kristen Robinson. Through the picture window we catch the silhouette of landmarks Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower. At intervals we see a jumbo jet, the eponymous, Boeing streak by.
Based on their schedules Bernard is “engaged” to three flight attendants; the American Gloria, (Giesela Chipe), Italian, Gabriella (Stephanie Jane Lane, Alitalia) and the statuesque German, Gretchen (Kate MacCluggage, Lufthansa).
As Bernard, smarmily explains to Robert why have one fiancé when you can have three? We wince and look away in a gale of laughter as this now somewhat dated comedy reeks of sexism. As a house guest Robert gets to share in and ultimately score in this best of all possible worlds.
Everything works like a charm, breakfast with Gloria, lunch with Gabriella, and dinner with Gretchen. As travelers know all too well schedules fall apart for a variety of reasons. Setting the scene in the long, and at times dragged out first act, things fall apart with warp speed in the quick-step second act.
Trying to keep balance in this mayhem is the stressed out and irritable Berthe. She has to make up rooms and serve meals. There is a running gag as she bangs the kitchen door. Wearing a tussled fright wig her mobile facial expressions add punch to her zingers. Discussing the menu with Bernard the cuisine is tailored to the individual women. Dinner with Gretchen means frankfurters with sauerkraut. In a colossal screw-up the sauerkraut gets served to Gloria the tasteless American who insists on consuming it with whipped cream. A can of that stuff plays an improbable role in a sex scene.
We got the remarkable performances we have come to expect from Innvar, Dold and Rupp. In this comedic romp they were in top form.
The unexpected surprise of this production was the terrific trio of flight attendants. As the plot unraveled they were fully dimensional characters and not just sexy plot points. The costumes by Sara Jean Tosetti were spectacular. The smartly tailored and colorful uniforms evoked an era when flying was an adventure. Back then these amazing women served actual meals and did more that toss customers a tiny bag of peanuts.
While, to be sure, Bernard is a male chauvinist pig this sprightly production makes us almost forgive and forget. Unfortunately, in the denouement he does not quite get what he deserves. Gloria, a true New Yorker, actually has several fiancés and leaves for a better deal. That cuts the farce down to two. He ends up with Gabriella and Robert picks up the slack with Gretchen.
By then it was time to buckle up and land.
At Barrington Stage Company
Boyd Quinson Stage
Through August 3