Players bring levity to rather leaden Leading Ladies
16th October 2008
By Ken Ludwig. Directed by Johnna Wright. A Gateway Theatre production. At the Gateway Theatre on Friday, October 10. Continues until October 25
Leading Ladies is supposed to be funny, but the first time I laughed out loud was just after intermission when Allan Zinyk, wearing a dress, walked into a wall. Zinyk is an extraordinary physical comedian. He and the rest of the company bring more to Ken Ludwig's script than it deserves.
The play's setup is excruciatingly slow. All you really need to know is that Leo Clark and Jack Gable, two down-at-heel English actors, arrive in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1952. They decide to impersonate Maxine and Stephanie, the nieces of a dying multimillionaire, in order to inherit her wealth. It's obvious from the first scene that Leo will fall in love with Meg, the rich lady's granddaughter.
Ludwig wrote Lend Me a Tenor, which is an exemplary farce. Leading Ladies has considerably less going for it. Some of its jokes stink and many of its comic devices are achingly deliberate. Remembering a magician named Mr. Presto, the town doctor recalls how he “manipulated his eggs and made his sausage appear from nowhere.” In the second act, the actors and townspeople decide to stage Twelfth Night, and the play's forced comic finale consists of a frenzied run-through of that script. Speeding up Shakespeare is an old gag, and director Johnna Wright allows it to go on too long here.
Mostly, Leading Ladies is boring. It has its moments, though. When Leo, who is dressed as Maxine, plays Olivia opposite Meg's Viola in a scene from Twelfth Night, the exchange vibrates with layers of longing. And Leading Ladies is bold enough to play openly with queer content-as opposed to simply using cross-dressing to ridicule gender variation-so it gets points for that.
Playing Meg, Luisa Jojic is as innocent and hilariously anxious as a well-meaning Chihuahua. Meg's nervous comic business when she meets Leo is a highlight of the evening. On opening night, Peter Jorgensen started off too showily as Leo, but he settled into an ably timed and subtler groove. Playing a local girl named Audrey, Tara Travis displays an admirable calm that allows her comic impulses to flow effortlessly. And Zinyk is not only a master of physicality; he has also learned to underplay his characterizations. Here, the vulnerability of his portraits of both Jack and Stephanie commands attention.
Jennifer Darbellay's costume designs all work, but I'm especially fond of the frothy fifties evening gowns she has created. I'm sure I could fit into Audrey's strapless aquamarine number. Next time I cross-dress, that's what I want to wear.
Source: Straight