The lighthearted comedy Boeing Boeing, Pennsylvania Playhouses opening show of the 2013 season, comes at a time of year when we could all use a few good laughs.
While not the belly laughs this reviewer was looking for, there were just enough to keep you buckled into your seats.
At the outset of the farce " Boeing Boeing", , we are advised of the flight time---"Two hours and zero minutes exactly"--- and informed of the location of concessions and exits, executed with that two-fingered pointing precision you must learn at air-hostess school, the audience is pulled into a flat in Paris where deception and lies reign supreme.
Perhaps it was opening night jitters; Boeing Boeing, written by Marc Camoletti and directed by Mark Breiner, is slow to take off and seemed to circle the runway a long time before touching down (and it was actually two hours and eighteen minutes long).
This play has so much potential! I liked the building of the situation just prior to intermission. I knew that disaster loomed, and I couldnt wait for the second act to see it all unfold on the fabulous stage right before my eyes. It isnt a complicated plot, and there are only a few ways it can end; but how it is played out is the essence of the theatre experience.
Alas, it did not play out with the intensity I was looking for. My friend commented that the play was "comfortable", and that you could almost feel it reaching to be more. It just didnt quite make it.
I found myself cheering for Gretchen, played beautifully by Annie Locke. When she threw herself on the ground out of her love for Bernard, I laughed out loud.
I knew there was something a little cold about Gloria, played by Joanne Rooney, but I just couldnt put my finger on it.
Gabriella, played by Kelly-Anne Rohrbach, kept me laughing with her over-the top Italian hand gestures and her feisty quest to get married. Although she played an Italian air-hostess, she made a few detours through Spanish Harlem and rivaled Rosie Perez with her finger pointing, head weaving (I held my breathe her wig didnt come flying off) and staccato delivery of "NO".
I kept waiting for that chemistry between Bernard and Robert, you know the chemistry, the one you see/feel with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin or Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. They just never found the right formula. Bernard, played a bit hesitantly by Seth Rohrbach, has it all figured out. He very calmly manipulates all three of his fiancées, because he follows the airline time-tables and he has Berthe, played believably by Beth Linzer, his very efficient, but highly stressed housekeeper. He believes so much in how he runs his life that he attempts to suck his old friend from school, Robert, played by a very comical Mark A. Saylor, into the action.
The result is charmingly funny with moments of true hilarity and hijinks.
The theatre is a wonderful venue and there isnt a bad seat in the house, and the set is simple, yet effective. With the right wind, this play could really fly.
The physical comedy feels forced, but could become more relaxed throughout the run if the cast just goes with it. The cast has to find the right pace. I kept looking for that rapid fire line delivery that is so common in a good farce.
The audience loved the play; I liked it. I liked it, but know that there is much, much more that can be brought to this experience. Great comedy is hard to find, are there are only a limited number of theatre companies in the Valley who can successfully pull it off.
'Boeing Boeing' will make you laugh and youll enjoy a lighthearted evenings escape from the woes of the real world. If you attend expecting that experience, you will accomplish what you set out to do, and for many that is enough.
'Boeing Boeing' runs through February 3.
For more information and tickets, please call 610-865-6665, or visit their website, www.paplayhouse.org.