By George Basler
The Chenango River Theatre in Greene is starting its 2024 season with a play that has earned a niche in Guinness World Records, the official site of record-breaking facts and achievements.
In 1991, Guinness listed the play, Boeing Boeing, as the most performed French play in the world. Penned by prolific playwright Marc Camoletti, it is an out-and-out farce filled with ludicrously improbable situations, absurd developments and buffoonery.
“It’s a really funny piece and a great way to open the season,” said Zach Curtis, CRT’s producing artistic director.
The production opens Friday (May 24) for a three-weekend run. The director is Drew Kahl, a professor at SUNY Oneonta, who has directed seven previous CRT productions and acted in others, Curtis said. The six-person cast is made up of three actors new to CRT, and three who are returning.
Boeing Boeing is very much a period piece, Curtis said. Set in the 1960s, it revolves around the amorous adventures of Bernard, an American businessman living in Paris. The urbane playboy is juggling three girlfriends who are stewardesses from three different airlines with three different schedules.
The juggling act works only while the three remain blissfully unaware of each other. That changes, however, when a new, speedier Boeing jet alters their schedules, and the trio shows up in Paris at the same time.
Boeing Boeing is a frothy comedy of errors, Curtis said, noting, “It’s fun watching people trying to keep something desperately afloat.”
The play is Camoletti’s biggest hit. The English language version ran for seven years in London and has been revived several times since. A Broadway revival in 2008 won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
The show is “one of the surefire hits” and “a real showcase for funny actors,” Curtis said. While the premise is undoubtedly sexist by today’s standards, it’s hard to be offended. “It plays so silly that you laugh at it and don’t think how inappropriate it is,” Curtis said.
The coming season
The four-show CRT season leans heavily on comedy. The second show, opening July 5 for a four-weekend run, is the musical Ruthless!, which spoofs Broadway musicals. Curtis described it as an over-the-top parody of Gypsy and The Bad Seed with a little bit of All About Eve thrown in.
The all-female musical with music by Marvin Laird and book and lyrics by Joel Paley focuses on an eight-year-old girl who will do anything — and we do mean anything — to play the lead in her school play. It was an Off-Boadway hit and won the 1993 New York Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway musical.
“It’s a crazy, funny show,” Curtis said. Helming the CRT production is Kory Yamada who has directed, and music directed, dozens of productions across the country including I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change at CRT in 2022.
The third show of the season is Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which will run Aug. 23-Sept. 8. The absurdist comedy is based on the premise that Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein walk into the same Parisian café in 1904 — before they are famous, Curtis said.
While in the bar, they interact with other patrons as they discuss subjects such as art, science, love and the nature of genius. But, in typical Steve Martin fashion, the play takes on the tone of infectious dizziness. “A joke about quantum physics ends with a fart joke,” Curtis said. The action becomes even more surreal when a mysterious stranger with a penchant for blue suede shoes wanders into the action.
Curtis is directing the nine-person cast himself. It’s the fifth time he’s directed the play. “I love it so much that the chance to do it again is a real thrill,” he said.
The final production of the season is decidedly not a comedy. Macbeth, Shakespeare’s classic play of ambition and madness, will run Oct. 4-20.
Craig Johnson, a Minneapolis-based director, will guide this adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play. While the language remains unchanged, the adaptation is wildly different from a traditional production, Curtis said. It features only five actors. One plays Macbeth, one plays Lady Macbeth and the remaining three play all the other characters.
The stripped-down approach focuses on the madness of Macbeth and his ambitious wife, said Curtis, who will play Macbeth.
CRT is planning a new initiative when it presents the famous tragedy. In addition to regular performances, the company is working to receive grants and donations to support free student matinees for high school students, Curtis said. It’s part of outreach to the community, he noted.
Besides the four main productions, CRT has scheduled three one-night stands during the season:
- The Great Divide on July 9: The one-woman play by Amy Crossman is a comedy-drama about a woman dealing with the loss of her partner.
- Everybody Knows Someone on Sept. 3: Four local female actors will perform stories from people who have had abortions.
- Gilgamesh on Oct.8: John Heimbuck, who performed Beowulf last year, returns to the ancient Sumerian epic of the tyrant king Gilgamesh.
IF YOU GO: Chenango River Theatre will open its 2024 season with the farce Boeing Boeing from May 24 to June 8 at its theater at 991 State Highway 12, Greene. Performances will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets at $30 can be purchased at www.chenagorivertre.org or by calling the 24-hour box office line at 607-656-8499.
Free tickets for high school and college students are available at all evening performances. Email tickets@chenangorivertheatre.org for reservations. A post-show talkback with director and cast members will take place on Friday, May 31.
Season tickets for all four shows are $99. For information, go to CRT’s website.
