Chamber’s ‘Boeing’ takes f light
1960s sex farce is smart, funny with outstanding cast
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Since there’s no way to describe the plot of Marc Camoletti’s “Boeing Boeing” without making it sound stupid, I’m skipping preflight taxiing and going straight to takeoff:
As presented by Michael Cotey’s outstanding Milwaukee Chamber Theatre cast, this 1960s sex farce soars in ways that the flat 1965 movie, featuring a seemingly bored Jerry Lewis, rarely does. This “Boeing” is not only jumbo smart, but also among the funniest plays I’ve seen anywhere this year.
The plot, such as it is: Bernard (Brian J. Gill, channeling Don Draper) is a French bachelor who is simultaneously engaged to three air hostesses (yes, that’s what female flight attendants were called 50 years ago).
Each has a key to Bernard’s Parisian apartment, which sports the obligatory phalanx of farce-inducing doors and the sleekly handsome but slightly impersonal look of an airport waiting area (scenic design by Brandon Kirkham).
Gloria — Anne Walaszek, remade as a brash, Brooklyn-born American — is dressed in red and works for TWA. Gabriella — Amber Smith, appearing as an emotional Italian — is done up in blue and works for Alitalia. Gretchen — Samantha Sostarich, as a mercurial and overbearing German — wears yellow and works for Lufthansa.
It’s no accident that Bernard’s women — like his apartment — don primary colors, befitting the simplicity of an infantile male mind that’s not exactly given to nuance (the set’s huge, Calder-like mobile turns the entire stage into a crib). For Bernard, women seem fundamentally indistinguishable and one-dimensional; he’s less interested in them than himself.
Until, that is, he discovers they have minds and thoughts of their own — as he will when his fantasy of control falls apart, done in by a killer storm playing havoc with his trio’s flight schedules.
Things nevertheless stay aloft for as long as they do because Bernard gets a little help from his friends.
As Robert — Bernard’s visiting friend from Wisconsin — Ryan Schabach is part guileless Midwestern hick and part master of improv, allowing him to continually save Robert’s bacon. The most open of the six characters, he also increasingly has fun of his own as he learns to bend the rules.
As Berthe — Bernard’s dumpy and put-upon Gallic maid — Marcella Kearns mothers Bernard like a wayward son. But this Berthe also serves hilarious, passive-aggressive notice that much like Bernard’s beauties, she has needs and feelings she’s tired of seeing ignored.
Cotey has increased this flight’s airtime through added routines, gags and physical humor — none of it in the sparse stage directions one finds in Camoletti’s flight plan. As a result, nearly three hours pass before this “Boeing” touches down.
Not to worry: On this trip, time flies.
For more about “Boeing Boeing,” visit tapmilwaukee.com.