A tangled web weaves when two Shakespearean actors practice to deceive. The actors are all thumbs.
This is the real deal, Ken Ludwig’s “Leading Ladies.” It is one of those madcap comedies that veers out of control in the wrong hands. With Driftwood in charge, it’s pedal to the metal straight ahead, a laugh a minute at full throttle.
Clark and Gable are the down-on-their-luck actors who impersonate nephews. Their purpose: to dupe dying aunt Florence out of the inheritance she bequeathed to nephews she hasn’t seen or heard from for decades. Did I mention that’s Jack Clark and Leo Gable? Gives you some idea of what kind of characters we are talking out.
Anyway, two likeable losers have concocted a scheme to get rich, and disguise is involved. Also, chances of success are slim. Anything like Shakespearean comic devices come to mind? The seeds are sowing.
So it’s off to aunt Florence and company and “The biggest house in York, PA; Spring 1958.” Clark and Gable are walking on air to make their millions, ho-ho.
Pile kudos on leading duo Jay Irwin and Boyd Morrison, Clark and Gable. These guys butcher The Bard and slice and dice the society they walk in on. Plus, they pretty the whole thing up at one point, as male actors playing male actors disguised as English actresses. You’ve got see it to believe it; and believe it, you will. Ordinarily, men being women doesn’t go far for me. Here it works.
A sweet young thing hooked up with a stodgy old fogy is another tired cliché, usually. Here, Larisa Peters and Keith Remon dress it up a little. She’s the girl who lost her mother. He’s the reverend who saw her through it. She’s beholden to him. He wants the fortune she stands to gain when Florence dies. Together, Peters and Remon manage just enough seriousness to give their re friendship credibility. Romance is something else altogether.
Terrence Boyd speeds up the laugh tract wrestling with Boyd Morrison to get her clothes off. Morrison’s disguised as a woman. How’d that happen?
The dumb blonde is Amy Schumacher on roller skates, skirt to mid thigh and neckline not far from it. But don’t be fooled. Schumacher’s got more going than meets the eye.
Catherine Kettrick’s Florence may be at death’s door, but she is not knocking. Kettrick laces the stereotype like a stiff shot of bourbon. The production’s wake-up call comes from her.
El’Kahn Thompson is the stick-in-the-mud, Butch. Butch is the blockhead who gets to first base with women.
In his program notes, director J.D. Boyd mentions the good time Driftwood had putting “Leading Ladies” together. Amen, everyone involved let that good time roll on.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entfeatures@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.
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