The Plastic Bag May Not Inflate

BOEING BOEING opens tonight! We've had a few nights of previews (meaning, figure out how to deal with the shrieking laughter emanating from the audience), and thus far, it's been a lot of fun. I thought it'd be interesting to take a moment and catalog the similarities and differences I've noticed in doing this show for a second time in less than a year:



THE SAME:
Farce is incredibly, painstakingly, ridiculously technical. Amazingly fun once you get it down, and hopefully nothing the audience notices, but there is virtually NO wiggle room to "try something new." All of that is in the relationships.

DIFFERENT:
The audience here is more reluctant to laugh at certain things than they were in Olean. Not most things, but a couple of jokes here and there. Comedy is endlessly fascinating.

THE SAME:
This remains, along with doing Shakespeare outside, one of the most vocally challenging shows I've ever done. I might put ROCKY HORROR up there, too. In BOEING, I am basically full-belting all of my lines. The entire show.

DIFFERENT:
The stage at Seven Angels is MUCH bigger than at Twin Tiers - I would venture to say it's twice as large. If that is an exaggeration, it certainly isn't by much. This means we can REALLY run after each other (it feels like I am always chasing or being chased by someone else), and also that we're all losing weight just from doing the show so much. Not much, but wow.

THE SAME:
Kissing men who get progressively sweatier as the show goes on.

DIFFERENT:
Having doors you can slam the crap out of on your entrances and exits. The set was amazing on my last production, but the doors didn't slam in that satisfying way. FARCE!

THE SAME:
Huge false eyelashes, red nails (ugh), and red lips. Also, we all have to use the kind of lipstick that is INCREDIBLY difficult to remove, since everybody kisses everybody in a highly frantic and ridiculous fashion.

DIFFERENT:
I love how different the relationship between Bertha and Robert has become in this production from the one I did this summer(from what I can see on stage and hear from the monitors in the dressing room). They're not even that different, but it's noticeable to me. Both are fully supported by the text, and both hilarious...It's one of those things I love about acting - that the chemistry between different people can yield such different results, and still to absolutely hilarious effect.

THE SAME:
Getting anywhere from at least a titter to full-on entrance laughter. Never has it worked quite so strongly to my advantage to be so obscenely tall.


Hooray for an opening night!