Baranski, Rylance and Whitford to Star in Boeing-Boeing on Broadway

Christine Baranski, Mark Rylance and Bradley Whitford will star in the forthcoming Broadway production of Marc Camoletti's 1960s comedy Boeing-Boeing. A hit last year at London's Comedy Theatre, Boeing-Boeing will begin previews at the Longacre Theatre on April 19 and open on May 4, directed by Matthew Warchus.

In Boeing-Boeing, an architect living in Paris Whitford has been successfully juggling three flight attendant fiancées, with his housekeeper Baranski reluctantly playing romantic air-traffic controller as they fly in and out of his swank bachelor pad. But when an old school pal Rylance visits, things get rather turbulent. Schedules change, flights are delayed and chaos ensues in this whirl of mayhem and matchmaking. The casting of the three flight attendants will be announced shortly.

Warchus' London revival received 2008 Olivier Award nominations for Best Revival and for Rylance's leading performance and was hailed as wholly reinventing the play. The original London production ran for seven years and was adapted into a feature film starring Jerry Lewis, Tony Curtis and Thelma Ritter. The play had less luck on Broadway, where it ran for only 23 performances in 1965.

Baranski most recently starred off-Broadway in Paul Rudnick's Regrets Only and in the Encores! production of Follies. She played Mrs. Lovett in the Kennedy Center's production of Sweeney Todd and recently appeared there in Mame. The winner of two Tony Awards for Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing and Neil Simon's Rumors, she will be making her first Broadway appearance in 17 years in Boeing-Boeing. Known to TV audiences for her role in Cybill, she stars opposite Meryl Streep in the forthcoming film version of Mamma Mia!

Rylance, who will make his Broadway debut in Boeing-Boeing, served as Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for 10 years where he appeared in the title roles of Henry V and Hamlet as well as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra and Olivia in Twelfth Night. In the West End he won an Olivier Award as Best Actor for Benedict in Warchus' production of Much Ado about Nothing and received a BAFTA Award for the TV production of The Government Inspector.

Whitford is best known for his leading roles in the TV dramas The West Wing for which he won an Emmy Award and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He appeared on Broadway in A Few Good Men and in the off-Broadway productions of Curse of the Starving Class, Three Days of Rain and Measure for Measure. At the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., he played the title role in Coriolanus.

Boeing-Boeing features a design by Rob Howell, lighting by Hugh Vanstone, original music by Claire Van Kampen, sound by Simon Baker and curtain call choreographed by Bruno Tonioli Dancing with the Stars, Dance Wars: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann. The play is being produced on Broadway by Sonia Friedman Productions/Bob Boyett, Act Productions/Matthew Byam Shaw, Robert G. Bartner and The Weinstein Company.