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Galley Gossip: Boeing Boeing grounded
January 4, 2009 was a very sad day on Broadway in New York City. While it is said that all good things must come to an end, does that really have to include the critically acclaimed Broadway show, Boeing Boeing? I mean this was one trip I didn't want to end. Ever! But when the doors finally closed and the lights went to black, I was there (along with a full house) to say Buh-bye to an era of glamour and excitement so many people love to recall.
In the comedy, which is based on the movie of the same name (staring Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis), an American architect living in Paris is juggling three flight attendants - I mean air hostesses - all of whom are his fiancee. How can one man juggle three different women? Easy. You make sure each woman is a stewardess from a different airline - Lufthansa, Alitalia, and TWA. Then you consult a timetable as if it were a bible, marking down each woman's scheduled layover. Of course to make it run smoothly you must employ an overworked and disgruntled housekeeper who acts more like an air traffic controller. But when an old school chum comes into town things are turned upside down. As most of you know, schedules change and flights get delayed, resulting in turbulent chaos. That's where the fun began.
While the simple set never changed, the talented cast took the audience on a fun filled ride. In fact, it was so much fun that I was barely conscious of the guy rustling a paper bag full of who knows what in my ear, or that my knees were practically under my chin, and that I could barely move my feet because the seating was so tight - much like a cramped middle seat in coach. Not to mention I purchased the cheap tickets that put me near the ceiling of the intimate, but ornate, Longacre theater, a beautiful theater that was built in 1913.
Gallery: Galley Gossip: Boeing Boeing
The talented cast gave an excellent performance. I wonder if they could imagine the impact they had on the audience that night, the night they took their very last bow. As I looked around at all the people standing and clapping enthusiastically, I couldn't help but wonder how many actually had a connection to a particular airline. Or were they aviation enthusiasts? Or were they just there to see a good show? Probably all of the above. And like that the show was over, the lights went to bright, and we all slowly filed out of the building, Playbill in hand, and onto the cold dark streets of New York.
"Boeing Boeing is done? Over? NOOOO! " wrote our own Gadling writer, and pilot, Kent Wien when I mentioned I had seen the very last show. "I didn't get a chance to see it! Is it going to pop up anywhere else?"
Pop up again, it will. Boeing Boeing will be back, touring in the fall of 2009.
Filed under: Galley Gossip
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tom Johansmeyer Jan 6th 2009 1:50PM
I saw it while it was in previews and absolutely loved it.
Greg Jan 6th 2009 2:45PM
Heather,
As a new flight attendant having started in April, I have taken my wife on 3 quickie day trips to New York. Our very first one was to see Boeing Boeing. We loved it. The cast, with Bradley Whitford, Christine Baranski, and Mary McCormack was incredible. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience this wonderful show and cast before the economy caused its demise. For those of you who didn't see it, you must catch it on tour. Greg
Jerry Jan 8th 2009 7:54AM
I was able to see Boeing Boeing three times here in NYC. The first two with the original cast, who had amazing chemistry on stage. Unfortunately, the replacement cast, while extremely talented, lacked the same spark. I'm very sad to see it go, but am glad it got the attention and credit it deserved while it was here.
If you're in the airline industry, you'll definitely want see this while it's on tour if you have the chance.
frank96 Jan 9th 2009 7:55PM
Off Broadway: The Secret Lives of Flight Attendants
Wickets
It seems as if flight attendants — or at least their much-mythologized ancestors, stewardesses — are enjoying a resurgence in the popular imagination.
A few months back, Scott wrote about the “golden age of air travel” vibe evident in the Broadway revival “Boeing Boeing,” suggesting the performance taps into “a feeling many travelers share these days — nostalgia for the good ol’ days when flying was an uncrowded, enjoyable, adventurous dress-up luxury.”
Today, the New York Times reviews a new piece of theater set in the dimly remembered past of air travel, albeit from another perspective. Entitled “Wickets,” the play is based on a 1977 piece by Maria Irene Fornes, and besides the fact that it’s staged aboard a 1970s-style airline, I can decipher very little about what it’s actually about from the Times’s writeup:
How many airline passengers have sought to pass the seemingly endless hours by imagining the secret lives of stewardesses? What do these women think about, cry about, dream about beneath their impenetrable makeup masks? Where do their minds travel while they smilingly dole out salted nuts? ..
“Wickets” is at its most effective when hovering deftly in this in-between state (insert flying metaphor here), simultaneously operating as madcap farce, probing emotional exploration and feminist critique. Brisk and loopy dialogue exchanges are shot through with swirling power plays and familiar but not-quite-identifiable tensions.
The play’s Web site explains it in English:
Set inside an airplane, the entire theater becomes the stage with high flying action that takes place all around the audience,–in the aisles, galleys and lavatories of a trans-Atlantic flight. Immersed in an identity crisis, eight 1970’s stewardesses find themselves split between the private self and the public persona in this radical adaptation of Fornes’ mystery play. Wicket Air Flight 1971 takes off just prior to the crest of the 2nd Wave of feminism and lands squarely in our present day struggles in the workplace.
Jane Jan 22nd 2009 2:33PM
I saw Boeing Boeing on December 3o and am so happy I got to see it before it closed! I loved it and would have seen it again had it been open longer. I wish they would bring it back to Broadway but at least I have the tour to look forward to.