Boeing-Boeing: A Farce in Two Acts

by Marc Camoletti, Beverley Cross (Translator)

p> 2008 Tony - Best Revival of a Play Marc Camoletti, Adapted by Beverley Cross Full Length, Farce 2 male, 4 female Interiro Set Revived on Broadway in 2008 in a Tony-winning production, this 1960's French farce adapted for the English-speaking stage features self-styled Parisian lothario Bernard, who has French, German and American fiancees, each beautiful airline hostesses with frequent "layovers". He keeps "one up, one down and one pending" until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris and Bernard's apartment at the same time.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Humor, Fiction, France, Comedy

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Carlo Hublet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encore des anciens souvenirs de lecture, retrouvés dans mes multiples et disparates notes! Camoletti, le boulevard à l'état pur, avec ses placards pleins d'amants ou de maîtresses, m'a permis de passer agréablement de fastidieux déplacements aériens. Facile à lire et en même temps fort plaisant et délassant. J'ai même été voir plusieurs de ses pièces jouées au théâtre.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm playing Gloria onstage at Bremerton Community Theatre every weekend in February! Love this show; it's super fast paced with lots of physical comedy.

[pauline ☾]

tekst zabawny, ale spektakl był nieziemski

[ashley g · Rating 3 out of 5]

a 3 act psa for monogamy !

[Sydney Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Farce-seems like it would be funny on stage but I hate reading farces.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this with my fellow members of a play reading group i belong to. i wasnt sure at first but once we got into it i really enjoyed the whole farce of it. Although maybe of its time, it could still be done today. As was explained to me, farce is very hard to pull off for an actor, and even reading the play i was trying to imagine an actor playing Bernard and his friend Robert in particular, and trying to visualise the way it would have been performed

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A script that won a Tony award for best revival of a play6 in 2008 does not need endorsement from me. Neither would it harmed if I didn't like it.

I didn't. It was a run-of-the-mill farce. I was asked to direct it locally, so I read it. I think I am going to turn it down.

And that's that.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serviceable farce; bit dated and incredibly sexist.

[Casey Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated, the translation leaves something to be desired sometimes but fun.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It all boils down to juggling timetables and a reliable maid who never forgets to change the photographs."

[Christelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

1ere pièce de théâtre que j’ai vu. J’étais à Paris avec ma grand-mère. Le présentateur de Motus avait le rôle principal dans mon souvenir. J’avais adoré.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated, from mid-60s, may be funnier on the stage than on the page.

[Miguel Ângelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun play to read. Wonder if Ray Cooney took it as inspiration for “Run for your wife”. Must be quite challenging to perform such chaos.

[Olivia Cornell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Javier Fernandez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This gets tiresome way before it's over.

[Mark Wenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable albeit somewhat dated farce with witty dialogue and amusing characters.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny play! I’m excited to perform as Gabriella in April!

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I played Gretchen. Pineapple Playhouse, Fort Pierce, FL

[Austin Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

80/100

Just a solid modernist farce. The French are so good at making bad people look even worse by forcing their story to be a comedy and not a drama.

[Grayce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good script, I just wish the ending was different. I do love how Robert and Judith got together at the end, they were so funny together. Hopefully one day they all find out the truth… Also Janet is a Girlboss love her🤣

[Duncan Maccoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Samuel French acting edition of Boeing Boeing is by Marc Camoletti (1923-2003) translated by Beverly (sic) Cross and Francis Evans.

Boeing Boeing was published by Camoletti in French in 1960 before being adapted and translated into English by Beverly (or Beverley) Cross and Francis Evans.

It was first produced in London in February 1962. Directed by Jack Minster with costumes by Joan Littlewood. Cast: JANET (Carole Shelley), BERNARD (Patrick Cargill), BERTHA (Carmel McSharry), ROBERT (David Tomlinson), JACQUELINE (Andree Melly) and JUDITH (Jane Downs).

It was produced in New York in February 1965. Again, directed by Jack Minster. Cast: JANET (Diana Millay), BERNARD (Gerald Harper), BERTHA (Maureen Pryer), ROBERT (Ian Carmichael), JACQUELINE (Susan Carr) and JUDITH (Joanna Morris).

Also, in 1965 Boeing Boeing was made into a film by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Edward Anhalt based on the original 1960 French play. It starred Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis as Bernard and Robert respectively. Thelma Ritter played Bertha. The three stewardesses were Dany Saval as Jaqueline Grieux of Air France; Christiane Schmidtmer as Lise Bruner of Lufthansa; and Suzanna Leigh as Vicky Hawkins of British United. Director John Rich said it was “satirically poking fun at American sexual proclivities in the jet age”.

In February 2007, Boeing Boeing was revived in London’s Comedy Theatre, now the Harold Pinter Theatre; the characters had been renamed for reasons unknown. Cast: GLORIA (Tamzin Outhwaite), BERNARD (Roger Allam), BERTHA (Frances de la Tour), ROBERT (Mark Rylance), GABRIELLA (Daisy Beaumont) and GRETCHEN (Michelle Gomez).

In May 2008 it was revived on Broadway in New York. Cast: GLORIA (Kathryn Hahn), BERNARD (Bradley Whitford), BERTHA (Christine Baranski), ROBERT (Mark Rylance), GABRIELLA (Gena Gershon) and GRETCHEN (Mary McCormack).

Alan Beverley Cross (1931-1998) second wife Maggie Smith; translated Boeing Boeing in 1962.

[Harri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stars for the actual writing, five for the bunch of actors at the read through who made this genuinely hilarious, so to balance it out it can have 4.

[Martin Denton · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of Boeing Boeing is that Bernard is engaged to three beautiful flight attendants at the same time. Their divergent schedules--which he tracks dutifully (and presumably hilariously) via a copy of the Flight Schedules of all major airlines that sits on his desk--enable him to see his fiancees without any of them suspecting his duplicity. Helping him keep track of the girls is his sour French maid Berthe (Bernard, an American architect, lives in Paris). All has gone well until today, when his old friend from Wisconsin, Robert, turns up unexpectedly. Soon thereafter, the fiancees' schedules go haywire, and by the time the first act curtain falls, all three of them are at or approaching Bernard's apartment. Complications, as they say, ensue.

Maybe it was really funny in 1962 (when this was written) to contemplate a man-about-town juggling three women (whom he identifies by their country of origin; whom he meets through a friend/procurer at the airport) like so many pets. It isn't funny now.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

2M, 4F
7-door farce: front door, kitchen, dining room, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom.

Bernard is a Parisian boulevardier-roué-flaneur type who juggles three air hostess girlfriends, one American, one Italian and one German. He organizes his romantic life round their schedules. But as his friend, Robert, points out, what happens when the schedules are disrupted? Nah! – won’t happen.

Well, of course it does and that’s what creates the farce, complicated by both Robert’s falling for a couple of Bernard’s belles, and the housekeeper’s frustration and resignation.

Good fun. Accents vital to enhance that fun, and sturdy doors with scenery that won’t shake when they open and close. Challenge for the actors.

[Gregory Andis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text is quickly becoming an oft-produced staple of community theatres across the country, even though it is set in France back in the 1960's. If your local community theatre has not chosen to perform it yet, they will soon. It's definitely funny, both in premise and in writing but it's NOT Neil Simon funny, but then what is?

Sadly, though my local community playhouse will be producing this script in the autumn, I am too old to be cast as the playboy or his "old college buddy" who find themselves juggling the attention and affection of multiple flight attendants (f/k/a stewardesses).

All the roles in it are "meaty" but I believe the maid steals the show.

[Shawn Pudsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most-produced play out of France in the history of stage. A Paris playboy juggles his three amours, each of them convinced that they are his fiancee, each of them a "sky hostess", and each of them oblivious of the existence of the others. As a classic farce, there is a "surprise" ending. It's a fun story, and recently was off-Broadway with Christine Baransky and Bradley Whitford (The West Wing). I'm conflicted about how to rate this - I'm not a huge fan of farce, but as a farce, it is excellent.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get the appeal of this play; it's an entertaining concept and has all the tropes of a good farce: lots of doors, misunderstandings, and frantic pacing. Unfortunately, I just don't think it holds up that well. The three fiancees are all fairly absurd caricatures with very over-the-top mannerisms. Robert has some genuinely funny moments and lines and his building panic does provide some good laughs but it's not enough to overcome the outdated gender dynamics and consequent humour. Also, Bernard is a pretty big dingus and he never gets any comeuppance. So that's a bit unsatisfying.

[Elise Gibney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one over Zoom with a group of friends and we had a fantastic time. There are definitely elements that have not aged well, ranging from the forgivably outdated to “this is just sexual harassment”, and the three fiancées are largely just stereotypes of their nationalities, but in spite of all of this, reading the play aloud made for a very fun afternoon and for that I will give it three stars.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tad dated and tries too hard with swapping of lovers. Sure costuming and set would be great but … the story bored me fast / quite predictable too. I found I liked the maid Bertha best of all and she’s intermittently in scenes.

I recommend picking up Shakespeare one like MUCH ADO or AS YOU LIKE IT instead or
find a different comedy script from say This century with mistake in identities or such to produce..

[Tiffany Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this when I was a kid in the '80s and thought it was really funny... but couldn't remember much of it. I don't know if it's because I'm older or it didn't age well or if it doesn't read well, but it just didn't do it for me this time. I see some moments and the show definitely needs a strong cast with great timing. I'm not sure how to rate it, so I'll settle with 3 stars