Review: BOEING, BOEING Flies it Home for Circle Bar B

There's a lot I'll miss about Circle Bar B's Dinner Theatre. I'll miss the stiff margaritas from a decanter that looks like an Arrowhead water-cooler jug, and the stuffed bear in the saloon. I'll miss seeing the horses, despite my fear that if I get too close, one might bite my hand off. I'll miss driving thirty minutes up the freeway and arriving somewhere that seems completely remote from Santa Barbara. An undeniably beautiful piece of land, the ranch is a place where the real and the fabricated blend on the fringes, kitschy and bizarre. It looks like a ranch and smells like a ranch, but still seems like a property designed with a western-style ambiance created for effect. The theatre was a lovely addition to that theme-park artificiality; Circle Bar B produced entertaining, unpretentious theatre that didn't fear the charge into frivolity and absurdity.

Boeing Boeing, the last show at the Circle Bar B Ranch, stays true to the theatre's tradition of farce and over-the-top physical comedy. The result is what I'd expect from a French farce about a man (Bernard) who maintains relationships with three flight attendant fiancées on different flight schedules: well-timed door-slamming and a lot of frantic gesticulations behind the backs of the oblivious girlfriends. All three women (Jenna Scanlon, Tiffany Story, and Gerry Hansen, who also directed the show) are vivacious and unaware, but when their schedules converge and all three are in Bernard's apartment at once, they aren't without inkling that something is amiss. Bernard and his hapless, in-on-the-secret buddy, Robert (Dillon Yuhasz), manage to keep the women separated through a series of deceptions that range from clever to ill fated and desperate.

An entertaining though predictable farce, the best moments of the show are those that highlight the performers' comedic skills: the fast-paced arguments; the pouty ire of the confused women; the men's inability to play it cool for even one second. The always-funny Dillon Yuhasz, as bumbling Robert, controlled the stage with his acute flare for physical comedy. Joe Beck performed the role of Bernard as a stand-in for Ray Wallinthin, which wasn't disappointing-the camaraderie between Beck and Yuhasz mimicked a Laurel and Hardy dynamic that emphasized Bernard and Robert's almost constant state of panic.

Producer Susie Couch made the joke that Boeing Boeing could be called "Boeing Boring" due to its length, and it's true that the writing could be tightened to move the first act along more efficiently-the door-slamming escapades of hiding three fiancées from each other is the main course of the show, and I wanted to get there faster. Most of the opening exposition doesn't explain anything the audience isn't already anticipating. However, fast dialogue brings the play up to speed in the second act, and it runs at a fair clip to the finish line. Boeing Boeing is fluffy, but the actors are committed and the comedy is genuine. The play's root in emotional realism is tenuous and barely necessary: an appropriate play for Circle Bar B, a spread of hacienda somewhere between a working ranch and Disney's Frontierland. The production is an example of the fun that can be had when the aim is entertainment rather than artistic revolution, and Boeing Boeing does not make the mistake of taking itself too seriously. There're two weeks left, so I recommend heading out of town, wandering around the ranch, petting the horses (if you're brave enough), having a few margaritas from the jug in the saloon, and enjoying the campy outlandishness of Boeing, Boeing, the last in the Couches' enduring legacy of door-slamming farces.

Boeing, Boeing by Marc Camoletti
Directed by Gerry Hansen
At the Circle Bar B Ranch
Runs through October 26th

http://www.circlebarbtheatre.com/2014_Season.html