Review of: Leading Ladies from the
Schenectady Gazette
Curtain Call
show strikes funny bone By
Paul Lamar
There
should be a doctor on staff at Curtain Call
for "Leading Ladies" because you
could die laughing.
Once again Ken Ludwig, author of "Lend
Me a Tenor" and "Moon Over Buffalo,"
has fashioned a dazzlingly funny script
about show-biz folk, and if there's been
a better production of it than the one in
Latham, I'd need notarized proof.
Director Phil Rice has impeccably cast six
CC regulars and two newcomers to pull off
this wacky story of a couple of Brits touring
the colonies in 1958 with Shakespeare soundbites
from this play and that. Currently, they're
playing a Moose Lodge in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania,
much to everyone's regret.
Leo (Aaron Holbritter) and Jack (Ian LaChance)
are down to their last buck when they get
wind of a sick old wealthy woman, Florence
(Joanne Westervelt), who wants to leave
her estate to two nieces from England whom
she hasn't been able to locate.
With a trunk full of costumes, Leo convinces
Jack to dress up as newly discovered Maxine
and Stephanie so they can score Florence's
$2,000,000.
The set-up
As the story unfolds, however, Leo finds
himself falling in love with another niece,
starstruck Meg (Joanna Palladino), and Jack
becomes smitten with sweetly daffy Audrey
(Jennifer Bullington). How can the scalawags
have their cake and eat it, too? Throw in
a greedy minister, Duncan (Kris Anderson);
a wry, small-town doctor (John Noble) and
his gee-whiz son (Patrick Rooney); and three
well-oiled doors, and you've got the makings
of another delicious Ludwig farce.
And Shakespeare lovers will also appreciate
Ludwig's meshing of the cross-dressing "Twelfth
Night" story into this contemporary
study of sartorial shenanigans.
William E. Fritz's set aptly serves a number
of different environments; Lori Barringer's
music amusingly underscores the action;
and the costumes by Palladino, Roberta Rice,
& Denise Fitzgerald punctuate each character.
Stellar performances
The performances simply pop. Westervelt's
Florence could give Linda Blair a run for
her money. Rooney's Butch is a charmingly
dim hale-fellow-well-met. Anderson's Duncan
is hysterically apoplectic. Noble's lip-smacking
Doc is up for anything, so seemingly bored
is he with life in York, PA. Bullington's
wide-eyed Audrey is up for anything, too,
and will probably never be bored.
LaChance, always solid, makes the most of
Jack's fuming in a dress and grinning boyishly
in slacks. In a couple of touching scenes
reminiscent of Hoffman and Lange in "Tootsie,"
Palladino and Holbritter make their characters
three-dimensional. Elsewhere, Palladino's
spot-on line readings remind you how deep
are this actress's skills. And Holbritter,
working at top speed throughout, has such
an unerring sense of himself physically
that he knows how to hold a mug or frame
a pose for maximum comic effect.
The only way to create such chaos is through
discipline, and that's what director Phil
Rice has provided this gifted and merry
troupe. Do see "Leading Ladies."
