The 2014 Fall Shakespeare Festival: My Review Of Boeing, Boeing

On September 26, 2014, I made my THIRD trek to the Utah Shakespeare Festival for this season, this time to see the autumn plays on their line up. 
To read my review of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, click here.
My review of Twelfth Night was posted in June.  However, I saw the play again in August, and it was still AWESOME.  I would gladly have paid to see it yet again, but time constraints for me made this impossible.  Click here to read my review.  In fact, if you can only see one play at the fall festival, it should be Twelfth Night.  It's the best.

Also, all photos, as well as ticket info and prices, can be found at bard.org.

Boeing, Boeing (named for the jets) is reportedly the most popular, most translated French play ever.
The basic plot (pilfered by Love, American Style numerous times) is a farce in which Bernard, an American architect living in Paris, has three fiancees: a New Yorker, an Italian, and a German.  Each woman is a flight attendant, and with their different schedules for different airlines, no one woman knows about either of the others.  When Bernard's old friend from Wisconsin arrives for a visit, Bernard explains that three is best for polygamy, as two would be monotonous and more than three would be too complicated.  (Note: yes, there is a great deal of irony in the fact that a French play celebrating polygamy is being performed in Utah.)  Bernard has no intent to marry any of the women; he's happy as he is, and his whole carefully-arranged schedule is workable because of his French housekeeper, Berthe.  Naturally, all the flight attendants' schedules get switched at the same time, and they all arrive at the apartment on the same weekend that Robert is there.  Chaos and hilarity follow.  

Maryann Towne plays Berthe.  While I wasn't impressed by her as Maria in Twelfth Night, her sarcastic tone and eye-rolling disgust work extremely well in this play.  She is one of the best parts of the whole thing and clearly the best of the women.

Grant Goodman is Bernard.  While he has been stiff and dull in both Twelfth Night and Sense and Sensibility, he's very fun in this role.  He is still totally unconvincing as a lover, however.  But at least we can believe he's a very worried man.
Quinn Mattfeld is in another supremely funny role as Robert.  Quinn is possibly the single funniest actor I've ever seen, and he does not disappoint in this play.
The set is also superb, with sixties weirdness abounding.  (I have a vintage sofa with matching chairs in that exact shade of blue!) And the gigantic tennis ball as furniture.... well, the actors certainly get to have fun with that prop!

Boeing, Boeing is a laugh-out-loud farce done with superb comic timing.  You will laugh.  Guaranteed.
Don't miss this gem!