Paulanne
Simmons
" Boeing-Boeing" Lands Safely at Paper Mill Playhouse
"Boeing-Boeing"
Directed by James Brennan
Paper Mill Playhouse
22 Brookside Drive, Millburn
From Jan. 18, 2012
Wed. & Fri. at 7pm, Thurs. Sat. & Sun. at at 1:30 and 7 pm
Tickets: $25-$96 (973) 376-4343 or www.papermill.org
Closing Feb. 12, 2012
Reviewed by Paulanne Simmons Jan. 22, 2012
Laughter is not very easily exported. What’s funny onstage in
Paris may not be so amusing onstage in London. But French playwright
Marc Camoletti had a success on both sides of the Channel with his
1962 comedy, "Boeing-Boeing." Beverley Cross’s English
adaptation was first staged in London at the Apollo Theater in 1962,
and three years later transferred to the Duchess Theater, making for
a 7-year run.
In New York, the show was less well received, running for only 23
performances. But in 2008 a revised version arrived from London and
garnered two Tony Awards and two Drama Desk awards. Go figure.
Now the show is once again on stage, this time at the Paper Mill
Playhouse, directed by James Brennan and featuring Tony Award-winner
Beth Leavel as Berthe, the long-suffering housekeeper of the philandering
Bernard (Matt Walton).
Bernard, who lives in the swinging Paris of the 1960s, juggles three
flight attendance fiances: the materialistic American, Gloria (Heather
Parcells), the effervescent Italian Gabriella (Brynn O’Malley)
and the strident German Gretchen (Anne Horak). With Berthe’s
reluctant if not approving assistance, Bernard is doing a great job
of keeping track of all his women and keeping them all away from each
other, until a series of unforeseen events puts them on a collision
course.
Fortunately, just in time for all the fun, Bernard’s schooldays
friend, Robert (John Scherer) arrives. Robert tries his best to occupy
one woman while Bernard takes care of another. For Robert this is
alternately exhilarating and threatening.
Call it a farce; call it a burlesque. "Boeing-Boeing"
is throughly funny in any language and thoroughly French. This production
is blessed with tremendous energy and outstanding performances by
Leavel and Horak as the teutonic Gretchen. While Scherer makes the
unsophisticated Robert an appealing alternative to the conniving Bernard.
Despite Leavel’s over-the-top performance, one cannot help
but wonder why Brennan chose to turn Berthe into a stout, sloppy and
not very attractive aging woman. French women are seldom overweight
and even a maid would never be caught not looking her best. I lived
in France for five years during the late 60s and early 70s, and although
I did not have a maid, I observed that my concierge often made me
feel embarrassed at my lack of style. Berthe may be eccentric and
overworked, but it’s hard to imagine her as totally lacking
in feminine charm.
Ray Klausen’s set, with its many doors and exit/entrances,
not only sets the time and place but also gives an immediate indication
of how the comedy is going to be produced. Like those comic routines
in which one overstuffed drawer is shut only so that another one can
pop open, women are constantly being shoved into one room and bursting
out of another. When will they come together and explode?
"Boeing-Boeing" is definitely an old-style comedy coming
from a time when the peccadilloes of the rich might still be considered
funny. Now we know that fooling around with three different women
is probably the least offensive practice of international businessmen.
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