What happens when “Some Like It Hot” meets “Twelfth Night”?
The resulting mashup is Ken Ludwig’s hilarious comedy, “Leading Ladies,” which opens at North Fork Community Theatre Friday night.
Set in 1958, “Leading Ladies” tells the story of two British Shakespearean actors, Leo and Jack, who are so down on their luck they find themselves performing “Scenes from Shakespeare” on the Moose Lodge circuit in Pennsylvania’s Amish country.
The pair read about a wealthy elderly woman in nearby York, who is dying and plans to leave her fortune to her sister’s two long-lost children from England whom she’s never met.
Desperate to improve their lot, Leo and Jack hatch a plan to dupe dear old Florence into believing that they are her nephews, Max and Steve, and make some fast cash. It sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime.
And then it gets complicated. Max and Steve, it turns out, are Maxine and Stephanie, Florence’s nieces, not nephews.
Leo (Alek Lewis) convinces Jack (Nicholas Auletti) that they should impersonate women and proceed with the plan. What could possibly go wrong?
Chaos ensues, of course, in Ludwig’s signature farcical style, on display in his Tony Award-winning “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Shakespeare in Hollywood.”
Like the classic film “Some Like It Hot,” (1959), starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” “Leading Ladies” blends themes of disguise, mistaken identity, romance and farcical humor. Leo falls head over awkwardly worn high heels for Meg, who is engaged to the local minister, a pompous, much older man. Jack meanwhile develops feelings for Audrey, who is also the object of affection of Butch Myers, son of the local doctor, who is skeptical about the motives of Florence’s two nieces. The tangled web makes for laugh-out-loud comedy to warm a cold winter night.
“Leading Ladies” is on stage at NFCT the next three weekends: Jan. 17, 18 and 19, Jan. 24, 25 and 26, and Jan. 31, Feb. 1 and 2. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $30. Purchase tickets online here.
North Fork Community Theatre is located at 12700 Old Sound Avenue, Mattituck. For more information, visit nfct.com.
NFCT’s production of “Leading Ladies” is directed by Robert Horn and produced by Julia Cappiello. It stars Daina Reynolds as Meg Snider, Alek Lewis as Leo Clark, Nicholas Auletti as Jack Gable, Kat Motlenski as Audrey, Lon Shomer as Rev. Duncan Wooley, Suzette Delia Reiss as Florence, Gene O’Brien as Doc Myers and Eric Koch as Butch Myers.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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