Some plays just lodge themselves in your system early and never really leave. Boeing! Boeing! is one of mine. I first fell for it as a kid watching the film version with Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis on TV.
Now Art for Charity is bringing it back to Vienna, and on stage it’s even funnier. Director Lisa Gray has adapted and tightened Marc Camoletti’s original into a fast, fizzing ride of razor-sharp timing and rapid-fire comedy. It’s a farce that runs on precision: doors, timing, lies, near-misses, and the kind of escalating chaos that only works when everyone commits with absolute seriousness to something completely ridiculous.
Marc Camoletti’s classic is set in 1960s Paris, where Bernard has built a system he’s very proud of: three fiancées, all airline hostesses, carefully coordinated so their schedules never overlap. It’s not subtle, and it doesn’t try to be. The pleasure is in the execution, the accelerating rhythm, the near misses, the escalating lies, and that very human delusion that you can control everything if you just plan hard enough. Then reality arrives: faster aircraft, unexpected changes, a house guest, and suddenly the apartment becomes a kind of air-traffic nightmare.
This production leans into the speed and physicality that farce demands. In the Art for Charity production, Jeannette Meinl plays the long-suffering housekeeper, Berthe, who sees the whole ridiculous structure for what it is. Pete Steele is Bernard, self-assured and smooth until the cracks start appearing. Robert G. Neumayr plays his incidental namesake Robert, Bernard’s old friend, and delivers a steady stream of slapstick hilarity.
The three fiancées are played by Lisa Gray, who adds a laugh-out-loud German accent to her sauerkraut-loving Gretchen; Helena Steele as the temperamental Italian Gabriella; and Caroline Krug as the gold-digging American Gloria. Lisa Gray also inserts two musical scenes featuring young performers from the Bilingual Acting Academy BSA. In matching blue dresses, they add a bright, playful lift. This is a comedy with real momentum: light on its feet, tightly timed, and increasingly chaotic in the most satisfying way.
Farce is often underestimated because it looks effortless when it works. But it’s a discipline: a choreography of entrances, exits, missed connections, and split-second decisions. What makes this staging feel so satisfying is how cleanly it’s driven. The pace never drifts, the comedy never gets muddy, and the moments of sheer silliness stay anchored in character.
Photographing a dress rehearsal has that special kind of buzz, there were moments I caught myself laughing while shooting, which is always a minor professional hazard in theatre photography. It’s also exactly why I love photographing theatre: gesture, expressive mimicry, and stage light working together in a way you can’t manufacture anywhere else. Comedy, especially physical comedy, gives you images that are alive.
And it’s even better knowing it’s being done in the spirit Art for Charity is known for: putting on a great show, but always with a purpose. They’ve been doing this for years in Vienna, bringing English-language theatre to the city and directing net proceeds toward selected charitable projects.
This year, the production supports the MALTESER Sommercamp 2027 in Vienna, a week designed around inclusion, friendship, and international community for young adults with and without disabilities. That context doesn’t sit on top of the production like a slogan. It’s simply part of what the evenings are: theatre as an event, and theatre as a contribution.
You´d better be fast about getting tickets! The show only flies for three nights and premieres tonight, so grab tickets before they go supersonic. I was lucky to get to photograph the dress rehearsal this morning, grinning like an idiot the whole time.
Boeing! Boeing! plays in Vienna on 11, 12, and 13 March 2026, with the Vienna premiere on 11 March at 7:30 pm, at Studio Molière (Le Studio), Liechtensteinstraße 37a, 1090 Vienna. Tickets can be reserved via office.art.for.charity@gmail.com, and if you go, you’re not just buying an evening of very enjoyable chaos. You’re also supporting Art for Charity’s 2026 beneficiary, the MALTESER Sommercamp 2027 in Vienna, dedicated to inclusion and community for young adults with and without disabilities. The show is produced by Jeannette Meinl, with Joanna Godwin-Seidl as associate and Nicola Segur as assistant director.
All rehearsal photos on Viennacultgram.com are my own.
See more of my theatre photography here.
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