Mark Rylance (Photo: Joan Marcus)

While the initial London staging of Boeing, Boeing made the Guinness Book of Records with a 7-year, 2000 performance run, it failed to gain altitude with American audiences in 1965 (it closed after 23 performances). A movie version with Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis didn't do much better. Add to this that sexy air hostesses are now flight attendants of either sex and Boeing, Boeing has all the earmarks of a dated and perhaps too British show to warrant a transfer of its latest London incarnation to New York.

My concerns that the Olivier award winning London revival would not be as much fun for New Yorkers has now been put to rest. I will therefore limit my comments to the current cast and refer you to Lizzie Loveridge's thumbs up review of the London production for full details about the farcical doings.

The Broadway production now has an American actors playing the time-table savvy Bernard, his sexy international trio of high flying fianceés and the grumpy French maid enlisted as his air traffic controller. Boeing, Boeing is nevertheless exactly the bowl of delicious frothy ice cream we need to lift our spirits at a time when the daily headlines give us little to laugh about. Its arrival on our shores is as well timed, as the entrances and exits through its seven doors. The Americans move into Rob Howell's elegant Paris apartment with zestful overacting and flawless timing.

Of course, the crucial contributor to the successful second coming of Boeing, Boeing, is Mark Rylance as the rube from Wisconsin who arrives on scene just as his friend Bernard perfectly juggled schedule of dining and bedding his fianceés goes awry. Fortunately, Rylance, best known as a Shakespearian, has agreed to reprise his award-winning role and, even if you're not a fan of this theatrical genre, his performance truly lives up to that over-used adjective "amazing." His dishevelled charm and physicality is a marvel to behold. Seasoned thespian that he is, he has developed a fine rapport with the American cast which undoubtedly contributes to overall vivaciousness and excellence.

Bradley Whitford makes a welcome return to the stage (he's in recent years been best known for his gig on West Wing) as the lustful architect for whom geometry is the key to his living every man's fantasy of having a harem of beautiful women. Though Whitford is mostly the Hardy to Rylance's Laurel, in the second act he too explodes into inspired lunacy.

The ladies of the flight play their caricaturish stereotypes with sexy over-the-top snap, crackle and pop — Kathryn Hahn as the American Gloria, Gina Gershon as the Sophia Loren-ish Italian Gabriella, and Mary McCormack as the über German Gretchen. While Christine Baranski has enough comic savvy to do well by the maid-cum-flight controller Berthe, dialect coach Deborah Hecht has failed to help her master a thick French accent and still be heard, an unlikely problem for her London counterpart Frances de la Tour. (Several people sitting near me in good orchestra seats, complained that they had difficulty understanding her).

Though not a musical, this has a terrific Mamma Mia-like curtain call. It's choreographed for the Broadway production by Kathleen Marshall, but as Lizzie Loveridge points out at the end of her review, the idea of a dancing curtain call was often and enjoyably employed by Rylance during his tenure as the Globe's artistic director. What fun. Don't even think about rushing out!

Broadway Production Notes
BOEING-BOEING
By Marc Camoletti, translated from the French by Beverley Cross and Francis Evans
Directed by Matthew Warchus
Cast: Christine Baranski (Berthe), Mark Rylance (Robert), Bradley Whitford (Bernard), Gina Gershon (Gabriella), Kathryn Hahn (Gloria) and Mary McCormack (Gretchen).Set and costumes by Rob Howell
Lighting by Hugh Vanstone
Music by Claire Van Kampen
Sound by Simon Baker
Curtain Call Choreography: Kathleen Marshall
Dialect Coach: Deborah Hecht
Stage manager: William Joseph Barnes.Longacre Theater, 220 West 48th Street, Manhattan; (212) 239-6200.
From 4/19/08; opening 5/14/08.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes, plus intermission.
Tickets (selling through 9/07/08): $99.50 to $26.50
Tuesday @ 7pm, Wednesday ti Saturday @ 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday @ 2pm, Sunday @ 3pm
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer on May 8th.
Closing 1/04/09