Take a skit or two from "Laugh-In," throw in a generous pinch from "The Apartment," and wrap them both around the heart and soul of "Love, American Style" and you might wind up with something resembling "Boeing-Boeing," the current production at Hartford Stage.
That’s both its charm and its weakness: there’s plenty to enjoy and keep us laughing, but it doesn’t really have much of an identity all its own. As a result, 30 years from now, unlike those other shows, we may not remember all that much about it.
"Boeing-Boeing," which runs through February 12, is more of an audience pleaser in Hartford than it was on Broadway, where it originally ran for only 23 performances. On Church Street, a recent Sunday matinee audience gave the six-character, two-act sex farce plenty of high praise. Then again, Hartford’s choices for professional theater (for any theater, really) are limited at best, and most of us are only too eager to laugh at just about anything this winter before the electricity goes off again for another nine days.
Speaking of electricity, that’s what really is missing from this earnest and affable production. Or more appropriately, "Boeing-Boeing" lacks a certain spark that may have given it the flight plan it needs to land among Hartford Stage’s most memorable shows.
Playwright Marc Camoletti, who passed away in 2003, was a French writer who enjoyed his greatest success with "Boeing-Boeing." In fact, it is recognized as the most performed French play in the world.
Translated into English by Beverly Cross and Francis Evans, the play ran for 2,000 performances in London, beginning in 1962, but fizzled in America in 1965. That same year, a film version came out starring Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis.
The plot involves a swinging American playboy named Bernard who, as he explains it, mathematically concocts a way to safely enjoy the pleasures of three flight attendants in his Paris pad without any of them knowing about it.
The three winsome lasses, Gloria (the American), Gabriella (the Italian) and Gretchen (the German), provide plenty of titillating fun, one by one, until Robert, Bernard’s friend from the states, stops by and inadvertently causes one by one to turn into two by two and then three by three. Well, it’s not entirely his fault; flight delays and inclement weather also have a lot to do with it.
For a while, only Bernard and his prickly housekeeper Berthe know about the playboy’s polished ploy, but you can imagine what happens when the plan starts to lose altitude. Of course, that’s part of the play’s inherent problem: it isn’t the most original of plots. But it is timeless enough to be entertaining, if sparklessly so.
Unfortunately, the script doesn’t really trust its audience. There are far too many lines that attempt to set up what we already know is going to happen, instead of just letting it happen, and too many lines that simply confirm for us what we already know.
Maybe it’s the translation. Perhaps the translators didn’t think we’d appreciate French farce. (In the original play, Bernard was a Parisian, not an American.) It’s almost as if the script tries too hard to be understood.
The scenic design by David M. Barber and costume design by Thomas Charles Legalley are entirely serviceable, if somewhat soft in their summoning up of the 1960s. Although sex farces need not be relegated to a specific time period to work, there is much about this story that’s central to '60s moods and sensibilities, and a little more visualization of the decade might have made the play even more fun than it is. (There are several nice audible and visual touches here and there, but just touches.)
Kelly D. Felthous as Gloria, Kathleen McElfresh as Gabriella and Claire Brownell as Gretchen are extremely likable, sexy and, within the confines of farce, believable. As Berthe, Denny Dillon, a "Saturday Night Live" alumnus who also starred in one of the earliest cable series, "Dream On," is a French howl, a Parisian wisecracker who may actually be the sanest character in the story. (In the mix of all the accents on stage, hers seemed to slip into German every once in a while.)
Vince Nappo as Bernard holds his own in the mix very well, although it isn’t entirely clear why these three beautiful babes are so smitten with someone who is not exactly suave and sophisticated. Then again, not everyone can be a Tony Curtis.
Nappo’s delivery style is a little too much like Robert Preston in "The Music Man," making it seem as if he’ll break into song and dance at any moment. In fact, "Boeing-Boeing" often seems like a musical-comedy that somewhere along the line lost its music.
Ryan Farley as Robert is an able and endearing comic foil. He might come off even better than he does if he weren’t so reminiscent of George McFly in "Back to the Future." Then again, even George McFly comes out ahead in the end.
Director Maxwell Williams, resident director at Hartford Stage and a professional with quite an impressive portfolio, keeps all the craziness (albeit with a little too much yelling) moving at a fine, easy-to-follow pace.
The arrival of "Boeing-Boeing" comes at a good time. Chances are it’s the best kind of entertainment for these anxious winter days at the beginning of another annoying presidential election season.
What’s more, this play is not one of the more common revivals, and that’s a feather in the company’s cap, as well. Hartford audiences deserve the courage and conviction of courageous and sincere theater groups (of which hopefully, one day, there will be more). A production doesn’t have to be sterling to be entirely worthwhile.
In Hartford, audiences are buying into this farcical effort hook, line and sinker, and giving the company the credit it deserves. Imagine how much more enjoyable it would be if the play itself reciprocated and gave audiences the credit they deserve.
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