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LEADING OFF THE SEASON |
Leading Ladies |
Leading off the season for Mesa Encore Theatre is a fabulous new play by the irrepressible Ken Ludwig entitled LEADING LADIES. It is a classic farcical romp with the requisite number of doors, misalliances, and comical situations. And MET under the superb direction of Katharine Stewart does a terrific job of bringing this comedy to life. Set in the naïve 1950’s in the small town of York PA, this is the story of two down on their luck Shakespearian actors (Clark and Gable) who take advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity to cash in on what they think will be easy money. They disguise themselves as the two nieces of Florence, a wealthy matron supposedly on her deathbed, and appear to claim their inheritance. (Incidentally, Florence as played by Joy Bingham Strimple, nearly steals the whole show; she is an inveterate actress who mines every inch of her part for laughs, including using her bio photo as Florence rather than as herself). Meg, the other niece who will inherit a fortune, is engaged to stuffy cheapskate Reverend Wooley, but is immediately taken with Clark (disguised as Maxine) and eventually falls in love with him. Gable (disguised as the deaf and dumb Stephanie) is attracted to Audrey, a wistfully typical dumb blonde and she to him (even though she is engaged to someone else). As you can probably tell by now the twists and turns are everywhere and the situational mayhem increases bit by bit until by the end of the second act, it is incredible. Ludwig is at his very best in this arena and he does not let us down. Nor do the talented actors in this show. Both Michael Cortez as Clark and Carson Saline as Gable, the two actors in women’s clothing, are right on in their characterizations and in their ability to squeeze every drop of comedy from a scene. Katharine Stewart, the director, had to step in at the last moment and take the lead role of Meg, but I can not imagine how anyone else could have done it better. She was magnificent! The other actors were equally well cast; kudos to Gary Helmbold as a properly goofy Dr. Myers, to David Edmunds as the stuffy Rev. Duncan Wooley, to Mallory Adams as a ditzy Audrey and to Kellen Garner as the love struck Butch. Artistically, this was a fine show – a good script (although I could guess the ending the moment the two couples were introduced, but who cares?) and a rip roaring cast, who never let down their energy. Producer Diane Senffner did a wonderful job of guiding the production to its success and topped off her contribution with a very clever introductory monologue disguised as a proper English lady, thus setting the scene for the play. As I said, Katharine Stewart’s excellent direction was evident throughout including some great sword fighting by the swashbucklers and a fabulous tango (choreographed by Stefan Linder) which was the height of camp in the show. And costumes by Lee Ann Jensen were excellent, both in period verity and style. It was a beautifully costumed show in every sense. Technically, unfortunately, in the performance I saw, there were a few glitches, none the fault of MET. Lighting was a bit botched due to problems at the MAC that day, but I am sure they are now corrected. The scene changes left a little to be desired. It would have helped if the furniture used in one scene could have been moved back behind a screen and hidden during subsequent scenes, but in the small Studio theater which MET uses at the MAC, this is difficult. And there were a few times when I could not understand what the actors were saying because the music being played in the background was too loud. But all these things are very minor and in no way dimmed the success of the show as a whole. You only have one more weekend to see this show and I urge you to do so. It’s a real winner!
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