After President John F. Kennedy made a pledge in 1962 to have the United States put a man on the moon and bring him safely back to earth by the end of the decade, I wonder how many of us actually thought about what it would take to achieve that bold goal.
In a play that mixes reality and fantasy, Deborah Brevoort does just that in her imaginative and sometimes over-the-top “The Blue Sky Boys,” now running at Florida Studio Theatre. She employs humorous but apparently truthful twists to explore the thinking process that allowed mere mortals to figure out, essentially from scratch, the materials and designs to create the rockets and capsules needed to succeed.
From left, Danny Bernardy, Johnny Shea, Kraig Swartz, and Patrick Noonan in “The Blue Sky Boys” at Florida Studio Theatre. Photo by Sorcha Augustine.
In a recent interview with WUSF, Brevoort said that everything in the play is true, but it’s not documentary theater.
There’s certainly nothing dry or technical about the rambunctious production directed by Richard Hopkins (with assistance from Kate Alexander) and an impressive stage design by Isabel & Moriah Curley-Clay. Their set is filled with TV and computer monitors, flashing lights, knobs and other bells and whistles, and it’s backed by projections by Dylan Uremovich that seem to whoosh through space and reveal details of the moon’s surface.
Danny Bernardy, returning to FST after several seasons, plays Jed Berman, the leader of a three-man band of brilliant but misfit engineers who have their own way of thinking and projecting ideas. He is joined by Johnny Shea as the math-averse design wizard CJ Caldwell, and Kraig Swartz as the German math specialist Vencel von Volp.
They seem an unlikely trio, until they turn to their “blue sky” moments and let their minds open to the possibilities offered by a diverse group of real, mythological and science fiction characters from Galileo and Apollo, to Buck Rogers (from the 25th century) Icarus and the Red Baron.
Howard Kaye plays the Italian physicist, astronomer and engineer Galileo, among other characters in Deborah Brevoort’s “The Blue Sky Boys” at Florida Studio Theatre. Photo by Sorcha Augustine.
Galileo (played by Howard Kaye) brings his own history of scientific discovery, while Greg Balla’s Buck Rogers flashes across the stage to offer insights from missions he’s led across the galaxy. They are inspired by Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, and Apollo, the Roman and Greek god who is played by Gil Brady as a kind of mythological surfer dude. “Yeah, bro!”
These characters provoke thought and laughs, at least until Patrick Noonan as the no-nonsense government drone Howard Haggerty imposes strict rules on how his team moves through each step. He won’t allow himself to be tricked by fantasy, even though you can tell he really wants to.
The characters are fun to watch, though there were times I would have preferred a more grounded feeling. Brevoort likes to play with time and reality, as she did in the 2021 FST production of “My Lord, What a Night,” about the relationship between Albert Einstein and singer Marian Anderson.
Even in their chaos and bedlam, it seems unbelievable that our engineers would have no clue about events happening outside their lab, like how the Soviets were progressing with their own moon mission during that heated Cold War rivalry.
Howard Kaye as Galileo, left, Gil Brady as Apollo and Greg Balla as Icarus look on with concern as an engineer played by Danny Bernardy collapses in an NASA lab in the Florida Studio Theatre production of “The Blue Sky Boys.” Photo by Sorcha Augustine.
Still, “Blue Sky Boys” does provoke a great sense of wonder and an appreciation for the achievements of those NASA workers, who continue to explore space and broaden our appreciation for what’s out there.
“The Blue Sky Boys” by Deborah Brevoort. Directed by Richard Hopkins. Through March 8, Florida Studio Theatre Gompertz Theatre, 1265 First St., Sarasota. Reviewed Jan. 30. $25-$46. floridastudiotheatre.org; 941-366-9000
