Up in the air with ‘Boeing Boeing’

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Photo By George Katsekes Jr.

Sunset Playhouse brings Marc Camoletti’s 1960 farce Boeing Boeing to the stage this month in a fun production featuring some enjoyable performances. Alec Lachman is suitably charming as Bernard, a Parisian bachelor who is engaged to three different stewardesses who are all unacquainted with each other. Josh Scheibe provides vibrantly textured contrast to Lachman as Bernard’s visiting friend from Wisconsin, Robert. Scheibe plays with exasperated sophistication as Bernard’s fiancées pop in one by one with increasingly unmanageable frequency. Lachman and Scheibe cleverly nail down the vital task of making a couple of dishonest guys seem nice enough to be pleasant in spite of their deception.

Bernard and Robert have three women to contend with. Natasha Mortazavi has a down-to-earth appeal as the American fiancée, Gloria; Rae Elizabeth Paré radiates aggressively steely sensuality as the Italian fiancée, Gabriella; Victoria Hudziak exudes comic brutality in the role of German fiancée, Gretchen. Director Michael Pocaro has done a respectable job of directing the flow of traffic and comic tension in the farce as Bernard and Robert deal with the bewildering flow of events. Mixed in and amid all of the crazy energy is Sharon Nieman-Koebert exhibiting her own comic gravity as Bernard’s gruff housekeeper, Berthe. Quite often, Nieman-Koebert is clever in her subtlety, allowing the visually comic impact of a scene to play out with just the right silent poise. There’s visually quite a bit going on onstage. Scenic designer Nick Korneski’s set has a smartly comic functionality about it that adds to the production. 

Boeing Boeing runs through June 19 at the Furlan Auditorium, 800 Elm Grove Road. For tickets, call 262-782-4430 or visit sunsetplayhouse.com