Baranski and McCormack to Join Rylance and Whitford for Broadway's Boeing-Boeing
By Andrew Gans
18 Jan 2008
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Christine Baranski
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As previously reported, Mark Rylance is expected to repeat his star turn as Robert in the Broadway run of Boeing-Boeing, the 1960s London smash that has been a recent hit all over again on the West End.
Rylance told Playbill's Harry Haun that he and Bradley Whitford (TV's "The West Wing," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Broadway's A Few Good Men, Off-Broadway's Three Days of Rain) — as Robert's would-be polygamist pal, Bernard — will appear in the Broadway revival this spring.
The New York Post reports Jan. 18 that the two men will be joined onstage by Christine Baranski and Mary McCormack. The New York daily also says that "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker — whose Broadway credits include Annie, Once Upon a Mattress and How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying — has also been offered a role in the upcoming production, but has yet to accept.
Marc Camoletti and Beverley Cross' play concerns a swingin' bachelor and his three stewardess fiancées (Gloria, Gabriella and Gretchen). Matthew Warchus (The Lord of the Rings, Broadway's recent Life x 3, Follies and True West) will again direct.
Casting and creative choices have not been officially announced by the producers.
The new hit London production of the British sex farce — a title known as a staple in American stock, amateur and dinner theatres over the past 35 years — will be produced on Broadway by Sonia Friedman Productions, ACT Productions, Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert Bartner and Bob Boyett, according to an earlier casting notice.
The romp (whose punny title refers to the aircraft manufacturer Boeing and evokes the bouncy onomatopoeic word "boing") evokes the good old/bad old days when "air hostesses" and "stewardesses" were playthings rather than "flight attendants."
March rehearsals will lead to a spring 2008 Broadway opening. Tony Award nominee Warchus gave the durable comedy fresh life in London's West End in 2007, at the Comedy Theatre. It closed in the West End Jan. 5, 2008.
In the play, Bernard, a fortyish architect living in Paris (originated by Roger Allam in the 2007 revival), juggles three "air hostess" fiancées — one Italian, one American, one German — with the help of his housekeeper (Frances de la Tour in 2007). Things don't go smoothly when he tries to show off his situation to Robert (Rylance), his old college pal.
Boeing Boeing originally opened in London in the early '60s and held the world record for the longest-running comedy in the West End, playing over 2,000 performances. It transferred to Broadway for a brief 23-performance run in 1965, but later took off as a licensable property in theatres around the U.S.
John Rich directed the film version starring Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis.
Olivier Award winner Rylance is currently starring in the Guthrie Theater's Peer Gynt in Minnesota. Boeing Boeing will mark the actor's Broadway debut.
Christine Baranski won Tonys for her work in Rumors and The Real Thing and has also been seen on the New York stage in Regrets Only, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Obie Award), The House of Blue Leaves and Lips Together, Teeth Apart as well as the Encores! production of Promises, Promises. Baranski has also achieved much success on TV, winning an Emmy Award for her performance as the boozy best friend on "Cybill." Her film credits include "Legal Eagles," "Addams Family Values," "Jeffrey" and "The Birdcage." Baranski was also seen in the Kennedy Center productions of Mame and Sweeney Todd.
Mary McCormack made her Broadway debut as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Her other theatrical credits include My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine and A Fair Country. Her numerous screen credits include "Private Parts," "Deep Impact," "The Alarmist," "Father's Day," "Colins Fitz," "Miracle on 34th Street," "Backfire," "Other Voices," "Mystery, Alaska," "True Crime," "The Big Tease," "Gun Shy," "Getting to Know You" and television's "Murder One."
The Tony-winning actress of The History Boys, Frances de la Tour (as a harassed housekeeper), and Rylance were up for 2007 Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Boeing Boeing.
Rhea Perlman (TV's "Cheers") was one of the 2007 replacements in de la Tour's role of Bertha the housekeeper.
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