Stage Door News
Stage Door News
CAMBRIDGE – Ladies and gentlemen, this is your boarding call! It’s time to embark on a hilarious journey as the fast-paced farce Boeing Boeing takes off at the Dunfield Theatre Cambridge for three weeks only, now through August 30th.
Set in the swingin’ seventies, Boeing Boeing tells the story of Bernard, a successful architect who is even more successful with the ladies. He has not one, not two, but three glamorous fiancées jetting in and out of his life. Gloria, Gabriella, and Gretchen, also known as “America,” “Italy,” and “Germany,” are stewardesses on different airlines and their perfectly timed schedules ensure that they never meet. But when The Boeing Company introduces a speedier jet and Bernard’s old school friend Robert arrives unexpectedly, his chaotic love life reaches new comedic heights.
Director Marcia Kash has the farce genre down to a science. Her direction is timed to the second, making the most of every harebrained moment. Kash has directed numerous productions for Drayton Entertainment including the hit Run For Your Wife, which played earlier this season at the Dunfield Theatre Cambridge.
Kash's production is well stocked with top-notch performers. James Kall strikes the perfect balance of charming cad and blubbering fool as Parisian playboy Bernard. He functions as a kind of amorous air-traffic controller, juggling the timetables of the airlines to ensure that only one of the three lovely stewardesses he is engaged to will be in his apartment at any one time. Kall is a veteran actor having appeared on stages all over North America and in numerous national commercials. Audiences will recognize him as Mr. Banks from last season's hit production of Disney’s Mary Poppins.
Everyone’s favourite zany comedian, Keith Savage, scales new heights of hilarity as Bernard’s unsuspecting buddy, Robert. He is forced to devise ridiculous excuses for Bernard while getting increasingly excited by the proximity of his pal’s attractive fiancées. Savage is well known for his frenetic energy, and he uses every cockeyed trick in the book, displaying Jim Carrey-like physical comedy to great effect throughout the production. Savage and Kall are a terrific comic duo – their chemistry and collective timing make for many funny moments.
Valerie Boyle is perfectly petulant as Bernard’s wise-cracking housekeeper Bertha. She steals every scene she’s in as she stomps back and forth, bemoaning her obligation to keep changing the sheets and photographs in the bedroom to accommodate Bernard’s revolving door of women. Boyle is a seasoned comedienne whose terrifically timed one-liners create repeated ripples of laughter through the audience.
As a comic trio, the stewardesses of Boeing Boeing are as good as it gets. In their Drayton Entertainment debuts, Katie Lawson is fun and forthright as the spirited, health-obsessed all- American girl Gloria, while Sarah Mennell is wildly passionate and suspicious as the seductive Italian temptress Gabriella, who knows how to keep a man on his toes. Showing superb versatility, Jackie Mustakas delivers some of the best laughs of the show as the imperial, yet sensitive, German fräulein Gretchen, who inspires equal amounts of lust and fear in those around her. All three women are tempestuous with international variations, skilfully using every nationalist cliché to their advantage.
Set Designer Ivan Brozic has created an elaborate and elegant set reflective of the sixties in Paris. In true farcical fashion, the grand apartment has numerous ornate doors and an eclectic mix of stylish furniture befitting a swanky bachelor. Jessica Bray’s colourful period costumes pop against the modern Parisian apartment which is further augmented by Lyle Franklin’s incandescent lighting design.
Written by Marc Camoletti, Boeing Boeing is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most performed French play on the planet. It has been translated into 18 languages, produced in 55 countries and adapted for television or film 14 times including a major motion picture starring Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis in 1965. The recent Broadway revival won two Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Play and Best Leading Actor.
Boeing Boeing is proudly sponsored by JG Group of Companies. Media Sponsors are KX 94.7 FM and The Hamilton Spectator. The Design Sponsors are Shangri-La Hair Studio and Spa and Four Points Sheraton Cambridge. Visual technologies are powered by Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. The 2014 Media Season Sponsor is CTV.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.dunfieldtheatrecambridge.com in person at the Dunfield Theatre Cambridge Box Office, or by calling (519) 621-8000 or toll free 1-855-DRAYTON (372-9866).
Photo: Ethan Johnston, Nicholas Beardsley, Seth Nichol, Melanie Bishop, Rebecca Lowey and Jillian Bjelan. ©2014 Marcie McLean.
2014-08-17
Cambridge: "Boeing Boeing" plays at the Dunfield Theatre Cambridge August 15-30