Boeing Boeing (boing boing)

It was Chris's birthday today so after taking him for a slap-up, no-expense spared meal of chips, beans and sausages at my supper-club of choice in Soho we meandered round the streets and tourists of the West End, wending our slow (and increasingly nervous on Chris's part) way to the Comedy Theatre for his birthday surprise - Boeing Boeing! It's a revival of a '60s farce that he's mentioned a few times but I'd never risen to the bait.

Once you get over the 'swinging '60s' setting in which a playboy juggles three fiances who are all air hostesses with the obvious problem of them all having a stop-over at the same time, then you can just sit back and relax into the play. It's laugh-out-loud funny and even had me chuckling away to it. The cast were excellent and were obviously having a good time up there on the stage, the staging was well thought out, even down to the discreet lighting reflecting the three colours of the lasses uniforms.

The star of the night was Frances De La Tour as the playboy's maid, not because she's the main name on the titles but because she was excellent. She was a perfect example of how a play isn't just about reading someone's words out loud, it's the actor interpretting it, voice inflections and pauses, moving the body in certain ways to emphasise words or situations - she made me squirm in my seat a couple of times when she deliberately exercised power over the timid and hapless friend of the playboy, embarrassing him and he's too polite to tell her to go away. It was a masterclass. And the howls of laughter from the audience only encouraged her. A mistress of the one-liner.

The other star for me was Michelle Gomez who played Gretchen, the Lufthansa hostess, who out-German's even the most stereotypical German. She was magnificent in a Wagnerian Valkyrie way, aloof and cold but smouldering with passion and fervour, changing moment to moment with an indomitable will. A fantastic performance.

Tamzin Outhwaite was good as the cheeky American hostess with a passion for practicing her kissing technique as was Daisy Beaumont as the smouldering Italian who pouted and sneered with such grace and style. All three hostesses were very good, maintaining their distinct accents throughout and looking good in the skimpy colourful uniforms. The men were ok too, but I saw them more as foils for the women than anything else.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and, luckily, so did Chris!