Flighty farce touches down again

The revival of Boeing-Boeing stars Michelle Gomez, Tamzin Outhwaite and Daisy Beaumont

Classic Sixties airport farce Boeing-Boeing, whose admirers included the Queen, is back in the West End.

A trio of TV stars will play the flight attendants conducting affairs with the same Parisian playboy.

Former EastEnders actress Tamzin Outhwaite, Michelle Gomez of Channel 4 comedy show Green Wing and Daisy Beaumont of spoof TV show Star Stories are all appearing at the Comedy Theatre in the French farce by Marc Camoletti.

All three actresses make their West End debuts in leading roles. Olivier award-winning actor Roger Allam plays playboy Bernard and the cast also includes Frances de la Tour and Mark Rylance, former artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

West End producers Sonia Friedman and Matthew Byam Shaw, whose recent hit revivals include See How They Run and Donkey's Years, collaborate in this new bid to challenge the theatreland dominance of blockbuster musicals such as Spamalot, Wicked and Dirty Dancing.

The cast and producers hope Boeing-Boeing will stay aloft longer than recent casualties such as Bent and Summer And Smoke. The 1962 version, with Nicholas Parsons and Leslie Phillips, lasted five years.

Beaumont said: "It's the perfect antidote to the February blues. It's nice for the audience to enjoy a bit of nonsense that is not politicised." Outhwaite said: "It's very nice to do something that's entertainment for entertainment's sake."

Gomez added: "French farces are very different from English ones because we all get to keep our knickers on!"

Boeing-Boeing is directed by Matthew Warchus, whose Lord Of The Rings musical opens in the West End in May.

Boeing-Boeing opens at the Comedy Theatre on 15 February.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in