Forum takes flight with ‘Boeing Boeing’

Fifty years ago, the skies were friendlier.

When they flew, men wore suits and hats, women their finest dresses. There was plenty of legroom and space for carry-ons in planes. Nobody was charged to check their luggage. Flight hassles didn’t make the news every day.

And stewardesses – as flight attendants were called then – were the epitome of femininity.

Forum Theatre Company’s newest comedy, “Boeing Boeing,” harkens back to the 1960s as bachelor Bernard (played by Michael Karraker) has three different fiancees of that profession at the same time, with none of them entering the flight pattern of the other.

“Here’s a guy who’s juggling three girlfriends, and he thinks it’s perfect. And obviously it’s not perfect,” said Ray Wills, who plays Bernard’s friend and co-conspirator and who also co-directed of the comedy with Forum producing artistic director Kathryn Page Hauptman.

“His perfect plan unravels,” Wills added.

The Forum’s version of “Boeing,” which opens Thursday and continues through May 7, is the second time in the role for Karraker, after playing Bernard at Crown Uptown in 2010.

That version, Karraker said, was based off an older script whose characters had British accents.

“It’s more of a challenge, because we, as Americans, are sluggish. The American dialects are slow, so keeping it going … is difficult,” he said. “You’ve got to pick the pace up, otherwise you’ll lose the audience real fast.”

The pace is key in the door-slamming farce, full of mistaken identities and chaotic situations.

“All of us have to keep it ping-ponging around, because if you let up, it gives the audience time to rationalize the situation and go ‘Wait a minute,’ ” Karraker said. “Just keeping it be-bopping between everybody is very, very important.”

Bernard’s chain of flight attendants are played by Rhonda Larue as the Italian Gabriella; Krystin Skidmore as Gretchen, the German; and Kelly Copeland Maynard as Gloria, the American.

The newer version of the script has them as more than eye candy, Hauptman said.

“You see very quickly that the women have the upper hand,” she said.

Trying to keep order is Bernard’s maid, Bertha, played by Ann-Marie Rogers.

“Boeing Boeing” made its debut in Paris in 1960 and opened a seven-year run in London in 1962. A 1965 movie version starred Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis. A London revival in 2007 led the way for a 2008 Broadway run, which won Tony Awards for best revival and for Mark Rylance as best leading actor.

The Forum’s Hauptman is playing up the ’60s aspect of the show, adding foreign-language versions of pop hits of the time to play before the performance and in between scenes.

But Wills said the time period when the play is set isn’t essential to the production.

“Funny is funny no matter what time it is,” he said. “It’s a comedy about sex, and that’s always good. The time setting is less important than the fun.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 7:08 PM with the headline "Forum takes flight with ‘Boeing Boeing’."