Theater review: Utah Shakespeare Festival demonstrates comic chops with 'Boeing Boeing'

Written by Bruce Bennett

Utah Shakespeare Festival – “Boeing Boeing”

Grade: A

Regular attendees of the Utah Shakespeare Festival understand one seemingly counterintuitive but undeniable fact about the festival’s performers: Their acting skill while producing the Bard’s incredibly complex and difficult works is equaled only by their acumen in the contemporary comedy realm. Since the festival began producing non-Shakespearean works, it has become increasingly obvious that the company has the talent to handle material from sources both centuries-old and contemporary.

More evidence of the festival’s uncanny versatility is on display in its production of the comedy “Boeing Boeing,” a nonstop voyage through a side-splitting farce that is a marvel of nonsense and nuance. Originally written in French by playwright Marc Camoletti, the play is set in the time period in which it was first produced in English, the 1960s. (A film version with Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis was released in 1965.) 

Bernard (Grant Goodman) is a Paris-based architect who seems to have found the perfect formula to court three beautiful women – all stewardesses for different airlines – simultaneously. He carefully schedules his time with them based on flight schedules, ensuring that American Gloria (Sara J. Griffin), Italian Gabriella (Tracie Thomason), and German Gretchen (Nell Geisslinger) are never in the same country, much less his swinging bachelor pad, at the same time. 

Despite the assistance of his long-suffering housekeeper, Berthe (Maryann Towne), in maintaining the charade, a visit from his friend, Robert (Quinn Mattfeld), kickstarts a series of schedule changes that put all three ladies in Paris at the same time. Of course, each passionately awaits alone time with Bernard.

“Boeing Boeing” is the kind of compounding-crisis comedy that is designed to spin out of control, but that could easily slip into mere slapstick silliness if not handled properly. The beauty of USF’s version rests in the incredibly capable hands of an ensemble whose comic timing is as marvelously infectious as their bursting energy. Mattfeld is quickly becoming a festival favorite for his goofy comedic gifts. Be they obvious (constantly tripping on the same step) or subtle (making the most of an oversized tennis ball-shaped furniture piece), his talents are on full display, and the show would be excellent if he alone were the primary jokester. 

But director Christopher Liam Moore’s guidance and a phenomenally energetic cast keep the laughs coming in waves. The three airline “hostesses” (as they were called) are frenetic firecrackers who bring conviction to the stereotypical material that, on the surface, would seem passé. Goodman is perfect as the carefree swinger who goes off the rails into panic-attack mode once his plans go awry. Grounding the chaos is Towne, whose perfectly timed sarcastic French-ness steals plenty of scenes.

“Boeing Boeing” is a relentlessly fun, saucy romp with take-no-prisoners humor that, like Bernard’s time-management strategies, is “so precise as to be almost poetic.”