Laughter
reverberated and echoed inside Onstage at Greenbelt
1 as Repertory Philippines ’
presented the sexy comedy Boeing Boeing
as the company’s initial offering for their 76th Theater Season. Boeing Boeing tells the mishaps of a
Parisian playboy in the 60’s as his well devised plan of keeping three fiancées
(all flight stewardesses) at the same time goes from bad to worse as new technology
in the form of the Boeing aircraft catches up with him and his schemes.
 |
| Baby Barredo, Jennifer Blair-Bianco and Topper Fabregas |
The
play, directed by Miguel Faustmann, did bring plenty of laughs as it managed to
keep the pace and the timing spot on which is crucial in a comedy such as this.
A slight miss of even just a beat could result in a joke falling flat as a
pancake. Thankfully, none of this occurred during the press preview which I was
able to see.
 |
| Topper Fabregas, Giannina Ocampo and David Bianco |
Solid
performances were given by the small and tight cast led by David Bianco
portraying Bernard Whitford, the playboy juggling three fiancées and Topper
Fabregas as his childhood friend Robert who got dragged into his friend’s
schemes. But it was the ladies who stole the limelight from the men. The three fiancées
were played by Giannina Ocampo as the sultry Gabriela, the Italian Alitalia
stewardess, Carla Dunareanu as the Gretchen, the German working in Lufthansa
and Jennifer Blair-Bianco as Gloria, the American flying with TWA. And last but
not the least, the returning Baby Barredo portrayed Bertha, the long suffering
housekeeper who had to deal with Bernard’s ploys for the longest time.
 |
| Baby Barredo and Carla Dunareanu |
I
have to say that Carla Dunareanu was the revelation in here with her Gretchen
character the most unpredictable and most interesting of the three fiancées.
Jennifer as Gloria was as sweet as apple pie but with an unusual lip fetish.
Giannina as Gabriela was charming and devoted but to a fault in my opinion.
David as Bernard looked dashing and every inch a playboy until his fiancées end
up in his apartment at the same time and he unraveled faster as his plans and
his sanity was torn into pieces. Topper as Robert had his funny moments as well especially when he got more than what he bargained for when he agreed to play along with Bernard and Bertha. I don’t
know if the times when Topper forgot his character’s name was intentional or
not, but it added to the hilarity of the scenes. And as I predicted, Baby
Barredo’s Bertha had her share of entertaining and memorable one liners
throughout the play. Joy Virata plays Bertha in certain performances.
 |
| David Bianco, Topper Fabregas, Baby Barredo, Carla Dunareanu, Jennifer Blair-Bianco, Giannina Ocampo, Joy Virata and Miguel Faustmann |
Boeing Boeing made me realize that
while technology has improved our daily lives considerably, it has wreaked
havoc on the play’s characters instead. It was amusing to see how primitive
forms of communications were at the time as characters relied on landline
phones, voice telegrams and snail mail back then. I also have to commend Raven
Ong and his costumes since everyone in the cast (with the obvious exception of
Bertha) looked so stylish. It increased the amusement of seeing these well dressed people ending up in chaotic situations.
 |
| Jennifer Blair-Bianco and Carla Dunareanu |
Repertory Philippines' Boeing Boeing, written by Marc Camoletti and translated by Beverly Cross and Francis
Evans runs up to February 17, 2013
at Onstage at Greenbelt 1. Here is
the schedule of the rest of performances for Boeing Boeing. Tickets are
available at TicketWorld outlets.
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