Playing This Week: Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig, Dripping Springs High School, November 8 - 10

Dripping Springs High School Theatre Department presents

Leading Ladies

by Ken Ludwig

directed by Rachael Koske

November 8 - November 10

Performance Times:

November 8th 7:30pm

November 9th 7:30pm

November 10th 2:00pm and 7:30pm

Dripping Springs ISD Auditorium Theatre: 940 Hwy 290 W, Dripping Springs, TX, 78620

Tickets: Purchase at Box Office or online at www.seatyourself.biz/dsisd. Tickets at the door are $6 for students, $10 for adults. All online purchases are $8. Children under 3 are free.

The Dripping Springs High School Theatre Department proudly presents Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies, Thursday, November 8th – Saturday, November 10th. 

Set in York, Pennsylvania in 1960, this classic farce centers on two down-on-their luck Shakespearean actors, Leo Clark and Jack Gable, played by seniors Jacob Scott and Leo Freeborg. While on tour in Pennsylvania, Jack and Leo learn from a newspaper that Florence Snider, an ailing heiress played by senior Morgane Xenos, is trying to finalize her will and has been unable to find her long-estranged sister’s children Max and Steve. 

Leo and Jack decide to pose as Max and Steve in attempts to claim portions of her multi-million dollar inheritance. When they discover that long-lost “Max” and “Steve” are actually “Maxine” and “Stephanie”, the pair continue undaunted, in drag. The plot thickens as Leo falls for Florence’s actual niece Meg, played by senior Sarah Yoakley, while Jack swoons over Florence’s part-time aide Audrey, played by junior Amanda Cripe. Fans of the legendary film Some Like It Hot will recognize its influence in Ludwig’s over-the-top and hilarious play.

Leading Ladies had its first production at the renowned Alley Theatre in Houston in October 2004. We are proud to present its Dripping Springs premiere.

The local production team includes Rachael Koske as Director, Teresa Carson as Scenic Designer, and junior Cassandra Timm as Stage Manager.

Upcoming: Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig, Vive Les Arts Theatre, Killeen, November 5-6 and 12-14

Found on-line:

Vive les Arts Theatre, Killeen

presents

~ Leading Ladies~

by Ken Ludwig

Sponsored by Killeen's Leading Ladies
November 5-6 & 12-14

Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.

In this comedy by the author of "Lend Me A Tenor" and "Moon Over Buffalo," two English Shakespearean actors find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York, PA is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and get the cash. The trouble is, when they get to York, they find out that the relatives aren't nephews, but nieces!

Upcoming: Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig, Way Off Broadway Community Players, Leander, March 5 - 20

Found on-line:




present
Ken Ludwig's

Leading Ladies

directed by Suzan Show
March 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20 at 8:00 p.m.
Matinee: March 14 at 3:00 p.m.
Crystal Falls Playhouse, 10960 E. Crystal Falls Parkway, Leander
Admission: $15, $12 (seniors/students), $8 (children)
reservations at 259-5878 or on-line at www.wobcp.org

In this hilarious comedy by the author of Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo, two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they are performing "Scenes from Shakespeare" on the Moose Lodge circuit in the Amish country of Pennsylvania. When they hear that an old lady in York, Pennsylvania is about to die and leave her fortune to her two long-lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives and get the cash. The trouble is, when they get to York, they find out that the relatives aren't nephews, but nieces!

Romantic entanglements abound, specially when Leo falls head-over-petticoat in love with the old lady's vivacious niece Meg, who's engaged to the local minister. Meg knows that there's a wide world out there, but it's not until she meets "Maxine and Stephanie" that she finally gets a taste of it.

Cast: Kirsten Schulte, Ed Trujillo, Mark Butler, Matt Sigers, Tazz Kelly, Caitlin Sullivan, Keegan Kelly, Jo Rake

Leading Ladies, Wimberley Players, April 17 - May 10

Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig has all the big-footed clowning of a British pantomime, that venerable, wheezy holiday art form in which the British public hoots and chortles at manly men dressing up as women. Dame Edna is the royalty of that genre, but every middle- and lower-class family wants to attend the local "panto" in December, and British TV comedy sketches will inevitably get around to putting a male comedian into something frilly, and preferably topping him with a hat.

The show is set in 1958. I was surprised when a little research turned up the fact that Ludwig's piece premiered at the Alley Theatre in Houston only five years ago. It has fallen into the warm embrace of community theatres since then. I missed the recent staging in Leander by the Way Off Broadway Community Players, but made up for it this past weekend with the Wimberley Players, at their handsome, intimate playhouse on Old Kyle Road.

Leading Ladies is a goofy masquerade. Two down-on-their-luck British actors of mediocre talent, on a whistle-stop tour of small town Moose Lodges and Elks Clubs, discover in a newspaper left on a train that a $3 million inheritance will soon be available to a young lady and two long-lost cousins, absent for many years in England. Aha! What better scheme for our wayward Brit showmen than to imitate those inheritors? Problem: a closer reading reveals that the lost are women, not men!

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Upcoming: Leading Ladies, Wimberley Players, April 17 - May 10

UPDATE: Click to read ALT review, April 24



Located online:






Leading Ladies
Opens at Wimberley Playhouse April 17

"Leading Ladies," by Ken Ludwig, is a clever, zany and hilarious tale of two English actors, down on their luck and working in Pennsylvania. Posing as nephews of an old lady supposed to die and leave a fortune, they learn that the missing relatives are actually nieces.

David Bisett is the director and Jana White the producer of this “laugh-a-minute” comedy. The leading men who play the leading ladies in this show are Alex DeLeon (a newcomer to the WP stage) as Jack Gable and David McCullars (last seen as Anselmo in Man of La Mancha) as Leo Clark. They go back and forth as their alter egos, Stephanie and Maxine.

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . . .