By Mary Carter
EAGLE TIMES CORRESPONDENT
CLAREMONT, N.H. — When the audience at the Shrewsbury, Pa., Moose Lodge prefers a humdrum buffet over “Scenes From Shakespeare,” the traveling actors know it’s time to exit stage left.
In Ken Ludwig’s 2004 comedy supreme, English actors Leo Clark and Jack Gable find themselves at the train station with nothing more than a dollar in their pocket and a newspaper in their hands. Providence flares when an article reveals that a wealthy woman in York, Pa., is searching for her sister’s long lost children, Max and Steve. The dying Aunt Florence intends to make them her heirs. Leo forms the brilliant idea to pose as the old woman’s nephews. After all, he and Jack are actors. When it’s discovered that the missing heirs are actually nieces named Maxine and Stephanie, Leo and Jack forge on. They’re Shakespearean actors, and “in the day” Shakespearean actors played female roles. What could be easier?
What ensues is a fast-paced three-ring circus of mistaken identities, love at first sight, comic suspicions, laugh-a-minute lines, and split-second costume changes.
Performances of “Leading Ladies” are at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 4 and 5, at the Claremont Opera House, 58 Opera House Square in Claremont. Admission is $10 and tickets can be reserved online at cohnh.org or at the door on the night of performance.
Students under 18 can see the show for free thanks to a grant from the Couch Family Foundation.
“Leading Ladies” is PG in nature.
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