Boeing-Boeing

Boeing-Boeing

Longacre Theatre, New York

(212) 239-6200

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This revival of a romping 1960s sex comedy “has no earthly right to be as funny as it is,” said Ben Brantley in The New York Times. Marc Camoletti’s farcical tale about a playboy architect who juggles relationships with three stewardesses closed within a month of its Broadway debut in 1965. You wouldn’t think it had anything to offer contemporary audiences outside of swinging, high-camp high jinks. But something happens under the direction of Matthew Warchus that makes Boeing-Boeing “soar right out of its time zone and into some unpolluted stratosphere of classic physical comedy.” Aided by a gifted cast, Warchus channels “the same gutsy spirit that animates commedia dell’arte and the silent films of Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd,” to astounding affect.

“At certain points, the comedy becomes very broad, almost ridiculous,” said Joe Dziemianowicz in the New York Daily News. “But it’s such a blast, you don’t care.” The inspiringly funny performances include Bradley Whitford as Bernard, the exasperated American bachelor in Paris. As Berthe, Bernard’s no-nonsense Gallic housemaid, Christine Baranski lays down a sidesplitting accent that’s “thicker than a sauce béarnaise.” And each of the three air hostesses—Gina Gershon, Kathryn Hahn, and Mary McCormack—are delightfully sexy. But the star of the show is roaringly funny British actor Mark Rylance, making his Broadway debut as the Bernard’s bedazzled friend from the Midwest.

“I hate to be a buzz kill,” said Linda Winer in Newsday, but the play itself just isn’t that funny. Take away the slick production value and the big-name actors and the whole thing recalls “the heyday of sex farces at dinner theaters,” when “the sound of an offstage toilet flushing was considered a source of hilarity.” That audiences are responding to Boeing-Boeing with hysterical laughter is beyond comprehension. The physical comedy’s as broad as a 747, and the jokes about the three bimbo stewardesses, who are all of different nationalities, are tired and totally out of date. It seems that “big strides for the theater, perhaps, are for another day.”