LONDON -- Who would waste a precious London play slot on a dated farce like "Boeing Boeing," which played just 23 performances on Broadway in 1965 and suffered the indignity of being made that same year into a Tony Curtis-Jerry Lewis movie?

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But who could resist a farce of any vintage that starred fine classical actors Mark Rylance, Roger Allam and Frances de la Tour, with six Olivier Awards among them?

And who could deny that the result, directed with pace and wit by Matthew Warchus and with zesty supporting turns by Daisy Beaumont, Michelle Gomez and Tamzin Outhwaite as three randy airline stewardesses, is a festival of laughter?

In truth, "Boeing Boeing" was originally a big hit in France, where it ran for 19 years, and in London, where it ran for seven. And America has been perfectly hospitable to other Camoletti farces, most notably "Don't Dress for Dinner," which shows up around Pittsburgh just about every summer.

As the presence of stewardesses (and seven doors) suggests, this is a sex farce of the regressive kind. Bernard (Allam) has become engaged to a German, Italian and American, which is to say Lufthansa, Alitalia and TWA, and he enjoys their favors as they fly through Paris on perfectly alternating schedules, while his housekeeper (de la Tour) arches her eyebrows and shakes her jowls as she adapts the evening menu and changes the bed linen.

Enter Bernard's hapless rural friend, Robert (Rylance), astonished by and envious of such sexual plenty. When the air schedules begin to implode, he strives mightily to help Bernard keep his dream castle afloat, somehow ending up with his share of the goodies.

The casting is perfection. Allam (memorable in many commanding roles at the National Theatre) is all smug charm, just begging for his comeuppance. De la Tour, recently featured in "History Boys," is a basset hound of Gallic disapproval, whose every baleful glance is perfectly timed.

And Rylance, wielding a Welsh accent as an equivalence to provincial French, creates a bewildered comic diffidence that has reminded critics of Stan Laurel or Charlie Chaplin and that he says he borrowed from Art Carney on "The Honeymooners."

The three love objects earn their keep, too, especially Gomez as the outrageously domineering German. The least charming is the American, but blame the French Camoletti and his English translator, Beverly Cross.

There's talk of a Broadway transfer. If it comes to pass, they might soften the American, making her ditsier and less scheming. And Broadway might enjoy this throw-back delight that it scorned the first time around.

"Boeing Boeing" is at the Comedy Theatre (011-44-870-060-6637) through October, maybe longer; but the cast will change.