It’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s three angry stewardesses and one dude who’s in big trouble.
The play “Boeing Boeing” by Marc Camoletti comes to the Metropolis Performing Arts Center in Arlington Heights Feb. 1-March 17.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 1-3, 8-10, 11, 17, 22-24; March 1-3, 8-10, 15-17. Other performances are at 3 p.m. Feb. 3, 10-11, 17-18, 24-25; March 3-4, 10-11 and 17. Finally, there is a 2 p.m. show Feb. 4 and a 1 p.m. show Feb. 14.
Joe Lehman directs this play at the Metropolis.
“It is the most-produced French play in the modern era,” he said. “If you get past Moliere, it has probably the single most productions of any French piece, which was its original language in 1965 when it was first published.”
It’s your basic bedroom farce, he said, and was made into a movie starring Jerry Lewis. There have been many versions of the play, but theirs is based on a 2012 Broadway revival, he said.
“Essentially, Bernard is an American living in Paris,” he said. “He’s an architect and he has three fiancees, thanks to his ingenious idea of having them all be air hostesses and on different routes and on difference schedules. He juggles that by one being with him, one being in transit and one being somewhere else.
“He has about two days with each during the course of the week. Things are going swimmingly for him until a new, faster jet is introduced and that messes up all those schedules and his somewhat hapless, neurotic friend from Wisconsin comes to visit and has to help him keep all his fiancees in the air. It’s a typical bedroom farce with lots of slamming doors and just-missed entrances and exits. It’s very funny.”
His cast includes Rian Jairell as Bernard, Matt Gall as Robert, Lauren Goode as Berthe, Maeghan Looney as Gloria, Sophie Foldvari as Gretchen and Sarah Kmiecik as Gabriella.
This isn’t Lehman’s first time with this play. He previously acted in it as Robert, the hapless friend.
“To my biased point of view, that’s often the most fun role in any farce, being the friend that has to help the straight man, the protagonist. (He’s) a little wackier, a little goofier, (there’s) a little more change in his journey over the course of the show.”
And while he’s acted in it, directing is a different beast.
“I’m very well-acquainted with the internal feelings and workings of the show,” he said. “I’m delighted in my cast. We’ve got some top-notch people who are always bringing new things in ways that surprise me.”
This Americanized production will be more comfortable to Chicago-area audiences, he said.
“While some of the given circumstances of the play are going to be the exact same ones from production to production … some of the names and nationalities were changed and they made it more American for the Broadway revival,” he said. “It’s definitely different. There are maybe a couple bits and a couple thoughts I found successful from the time, but otherwise it’s all new and fitted to what my actors bring to the table and the journey that this production is taking.”
He has a unique analogy when describing the play.
“I say it’s kind of like the visual aesthetic of ‘Mad Men’ meets more the heart and humor of a two-part episode of ‘Fraiser,'” he said. “With Bernard being the Fraiser character and Robert being more the Niles. And then you have Berthe, the maid living in Bernard’s apartment, being the Daphne character in many ways.”
Audiences will enjoy it because not only is it a funny show, it’s a good Valentine’s Day show, he said.
“It’s an extremely funny show and it’s a period piece, so we’re setting it in 1968, so 50 years is enough of a retrospective to look back and say this is not how we’re living today,” he said. “But what saves Bernard’s character from being just a skeezy guy is the women in this play have all the power. Everything happens only as long as he manages to keep them happy. I think we see he’s not as good as he thinks he is, and he gets a comeuppance at the end.
“They’re just likable characters. You can root for every single one of them and they all wind up with a good ending and what they really want,” he said. “It’s about love and dating and finding the right one. It’s a great, fun, no pressure, couples’ kind of date. Everybody will find something different to laugh at, no matter what stage your relationship is.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
‘Boeing Boeing’
When: Feb. 1-March 17
Where: Metropolis Performing Arts Center, 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights
Tickets: $35-$40
Information: 847-577-2121; www.metropolisarts.com
