Tailspin
The hit TV show "Mad Men" recalls sexual politics in the early Sixties as a battle of wits between the suave and the glamourous. In Boeing-Boeing, a sex farce written back then by French playwright Marc Camoletti, the women have glamour but the men haven't a clue. The comedy is currently receiving an enjoyable revival under Jeff Maynard's direction at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts (through February 10).
In 1960, when the play premiered in Paris, international airlines were growing stronger thanks to the increasing power of the jet engine. Growing with them was Boeing , then as now one of the most successful aircraft manufacturers in the world. But spreading with the airlines' expanding network of air routes were males' groundless fantasies about female flight attendants. Airborne service professionals, unlike the train porters who had served the previous century of passengers, were now predominantly women. For a long time, the women could only be young, shapely, and unmarried. Their males passengers naturally assumed that the flipside of their globe-trotting days was bed-hopping nights.
[Read how it was for flight attendants in the 1960s in an Old Globe program note for Boeing-Boeing.]
Half a century later, Camoletti's three flight attendants are far from cliches. They have been deceived by caddish Bernard (Carter Roy), an American living in Paris, that each is his fiancé and that the bedroom they share with him is their private love nest. To ensure that the women pass like airships in the night, Bernard constantly studies the book of airline timetables. Making sure any telltale belongings of one are not seen by another is Bernard's overworked maid, Berthe (Michelle Azar). She is also the cook, keeping the menus cuisine-appropriate for American Gloria (Melanie Lora), a TWA stewardess, Italian Gabriella (Kalie Quinones), with Alitalia, and German Gretchen (Amy Rutberg), with Lufthansa.
On the day that his friend Robert (Marc Valera) arrives from Wisconsin, Bernard is just sending off Gloria and preparing for the return of Gretchen. Robert is envious. But this adolescent wet-dream come true is about to be doused by an Atlantic storm, and the revving up of a new generation of Boeing jets. No sooner is Gloria aloft, and Gretchen on her way, that Gabriella calls with news that her airline's new Boeing Superjet will get her to Bernard a day early. Then Gloria phones with the good news that she's back on the continent after bad weather caused her flight to turn around.
Fasten your seatbelts. As Berthe says in her best Margo Channing, "It's going to be a bumpy night."
The cast is appealing. Robert is at the center of the action, left by Bernard to explain why Gloria can't sleep in her own bedroom, why German Sauerkraut is on Gabriella's dinner plate, and why Bernard has suddenly disappeared.
Farce succeeds by a combination of precision timing, tension, and surprise. As often is the case, increasing the tension is done by increasing the volume. Fortunately, the women are unaware of Bernard's imminent nosedive, and not required to force the playing. Valera does what he can to keep it funny and real. Roy is quite good in his opening scenes, as he explains his greedy lifestyle to the impressionable Robert. He has the cool understatement of a Craig Kilborn working a proven monologue. Consequently, it's one of the most enjoyable sections in the production.
The women are all endearing. They manage to be beautiful objects of desire as they play to the best in Camoletti's portraits: independent despite being smitten. Most contemporary is Lora's Gloria, who is single-minded, liberated, and well ahead of her time. Even forced to play Gretchen as a slightly overbearing Hun cliche, Rutberg shows a great knack for the essentials of comedy – timing and innocence. Quinones Gabriella is also appealing.
As the traffic cop maid, Michelle Azar's Berthe manages to get her share of the laughs.
Boeing-Boeing has rebounded in popularity since a Broadway production starring Mark Rylance, Bradley Whitford and Christine Baranski became a Tony-winning smash. A recent production in San Diego brought the piece West. The La Mirada staging offers a chance to see what the laughing is about. Unfortunately, La Mirada has gone the course of mic-ing every actor, and that tends to homogenize the audio with a slight tinge, along with making the shouting even louder. How did theater producers survive when they had to rely on the acoustics of their halls?
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