Naples Players revs '60s engines for high-altitude laughs in 'Boeing Boeing'

There are two directors for the upcoming Naples Players' production of "Boeing Boeing." But three people are in charge. 

The third is Associate Artistic Director Jessica Walck's first child, a boy who is due next week, fingers crossed. That is well after the play opened Wednesday. And no one was hoping more to keep the stork at bay this week than James Duggan, her codirector. 

Duggan, who also works as box office manager for the theater, has directed showcases and readers theater for the Players. But "Boeing Boeing" is his first full-length play.

He knows he hasn't started with a beginner's work. "Boeing Boeing" pulls the needle between zany and outright chaotic; for a clue, the 1965 film version starred a legendary master of mayhem, Jerry Lewis.

"It's definitely a door slammer in the second act," Duggan said at rehearsal Monday. And there are abundant doors to slam in the high-rise apartment of Bernard, a self-styled Don Juan who romances three international flight attendants with different schedules, each under the illusion she's his fiancée. The Naples Players production has six doors, plus a double set for grand entrances — or bigger pratfalls. 

Comedy isn't so funny to create

And as Duggan, Walck and baby know, timing is everything. Each of those doors is flanked with a cue light backstage that turns from red to green when the character is due to burst into a scene. But the actors are already listening for their precision cues. 

"They have to be just as present backstage as they are onstage," Duggan said.

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There are other challenges, he added. "They have to live in a real environment," he continued. "Farce is really like a science. Besides the timing, the energy always has to be there, the listening."

"That's the hardest thing," agreed Walck. "You're trying to create timing, and you're asking them to live in a real space and listen and answer and make it spontaneous in front of the audience. That's the hard thing, to get all of that.

"That's the beauty of farce. When you give that energy, there's a 'liveness' and a spontaneity so that the audience is on the edge of their seat with you. They really feel invested in what is going to go on, even though it's absolutely ludicrous. You're finding yourself saying 'What is going to happen?' "

Layer one more challenge on there, she said: "Here are four different accents in this show. There's French, German, Italian and Southern (U.S.)."

The Naples Players actually hired an accent coach to work with the flight attendants and Berthe. They must instill something of an accent without losing the intelligibility of their words for the playgoer. 

Duggan's education in this production has included letting the play develop during weeks of rehearsal. It's a slower pace that gave him and Walck time to try different approaches with moments in the play. 

"I had to tell myself this is normal. This is where we're supposed to be in the process," said Duggan, who is more familiar with limited rehearsal times. There's also more time to let the actors have input to the production, which Walck finds critical: "I feel like when they have that input into their character, they own it."

'Boeing Boeing' a proven hit

Moliere and the nobility in "Les Miz" can sob into their lace cuffs; this 1962 Marc Camoletti play claims to be the most performed French play in history. It ran for seven years in Great Britain and set fire to Asian stages as well. It quickly became successful films in America, Egypt and in five different dialects of India. Strangely, the play didn't impress Broadway until its 2009 revival, which scooped up armloads of Tony nominations and two statues. That's the one Walck saw. 

"I'd seen a couple of different productions of it and really loved it. And we did 'Don't Dress for Dinner,' which is by the same author, a couple of seasons ago and I really loved working on that," she said. (Coincidentally, Walck directed it — and Duggan played the central character, a philandering husband also named Bernard.) "I thought this would be a great choice — an uplifting, fun comedy."

It will not be so uplifting for Bernard, who is demonstrating his prowess with a universal airline timetable for choosing conquests to his visiting friend, Robert, when Boeing rolls out a new, faster jet. 

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It brings all three attendants to Orly International Airport the same day. ("Boeing Boeing" actually predates the opening of Charles de Gaulle Airport by 12 years.) There's a mad dash to change pictures in frames, cuisine for dinner and doors available for opening among Bernard, Robert and Berthe, Bernard's acerbic housekeeper.

That the play is so vintage, and set in an era when female roles were viewed differently, could be a challenge. But both Walck and Duggan felt people will see the period for what it is and enjoy laughing at it. 

"We really leaned into the '60s," Walck said. The flight attendants' Crayola jacket-sheath-pillbox hat uniforms, and the cringe-bait Hollywood strings music  — including a ghastly cha-cha rendition of "Moon River" — are strong reinforcements.

"It's just a fun evening of entertainment," she said. "And that's something we all need right now."

Harriet Howard Heithaus covers arts and entertainment for the Naples Daily News/naplesnews.com. Reach her at 239-213-6091.

What: Naples Players production of the French farce

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays now through Oct. 24

Where: Sugden Community Theatre, 701 Fifth Ave. S., Naples

Tickets: $42

To buy: naplesplayers.org or 239-263-7990

Covid-19 restrictions: Theater policies are on an online page under Plan Your Visit; these may change, so playgoers are encouraged to check them the day of their performance.