Welcome onboard Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts’ spring production of “Boeing Boeing!” This 190-minute flight includes a 15-minute layover, so please fasten your seatbelts, turn off all devices and let director Justin Smith and his talented cast guide you through a turbulent ride of chaos and hilarity.
Friends and family of the cast packed into the intimate studio theater in the Burbank Auditorium for the bargain show March 4. A preflight safety announcement asked the audience to “put their phones on airplane mode” and “place their trays in the upright position” before embarking on the Paris-bound adventure. The pilot thanked the crowd for flying with “Oak Leaf Airlines” — a sweet nod that made the reporters in the mix giggle — before the show went wheels-up.
Overall, the flight was smooth and the skies clear, save for a couple of misspoken words here and there. It was never clear if the next line was going to be a joke or some big reveal that would send the plane crashing, which made for an exciting and tumultuous ride.
Marc Camoletti’s 1960 French farce is a two-act, one-setting comedy of near errors that centers on Bernard and his blissfully unaware fiancées — all three of them. Bernard, played by Jay Soto, is living his best bachelor life with his airline stewardesses to keep him company and a rigid timetable to keep them in the dark — until his childhood friend Robert comes to visit, triggering a figurative plane crash.
Beverley Cross and Francis Evans translated the Tony-Award-winning comedy from French to English, resulting in a 106-page script that the six student actors and two understudies memorized in just 20 rehearsals, according to Smith.
The play’s off-note, awkward humor was evident from the first scene. It was difficult to tell if the sometimes stilted delivery was intentional, translational or accidental. Robert, played by Jake McFadden, and Gretchen, played by Ally Liberty, embodied the tension-filled script with purposeful pausing, physical comedy and repetition of phrases.
Robert walked onto the stage a timid, bumbling bachelor and walked off with a wife. The character embodied a 1960s-esque Michael Scott, whose one-off quips to the audience had them wrapped around his gold-banded finger. The small theater lent well to the continuous fourth-wall breaks that gave the entire show a casual, almost chummy feel.
Liberty perfected physical comedy from the moment she stepped on stage with a perfectly-timed “ding” sound effect to cement her silliness. Throughout her stellar performance, she served passion and professionalism on a platter — and the audience ate it up.
Berthe, Bernard’s maid and unintentional conductor of the infidelity orchestra, was the shining star of the show. Hannah Fain captured the audience’s attention with enthralling energy that emanated from every line, clearly commanding control of the aircraft and piloting the performance.
Soto began the night with a hesitant disposition that contrasted the apparent cockiness of his character, though by the second act he seemed more comfortable in his crisply-lined suit. This gradual confidence allowed him to embrace the good kind of awkward that a play so full of tension demands. The forever-bachelor shot finger guns at Gretchen and rivaled a Boeing aircraft with a scream so loud it put plane engines to shame before stumbling off stage in a silly move that had the audience cackling.
The script, though decades old, brought something for everyone — no one left the theater without letting out a little laughter. Even with the occasional stiffness, the play was still a wild ride; the journey was just as fun as the destination.
“It was a sold-out run. People were fighting to get in there,” makeup crew member Gabe Adelman said.
The Theatre Arts program will return to Burbank Auditorium for the second leg of its spring journey with “Hello, Dolly!” April 17-26.
