MANSFIELD — If at first you don’t succeed, maybe it’s time to pretend to be long-lost relatives of a dying woman and steal her fortune.
At least that is the idea in Leading Ladies, a hilarious farce opening Friday at the Mansfield Playhouse.
The play was written by Ken Ludwig, author of Lend Me a Tenor and Crazy For You.
Protagonists Jack and Leo (played by Ryan Kiley and Steve Russell) are two down-on-their-luck English actors trying to scrape a living in 1950s Pennsylvania by performing their “Scenes from Shakespeare” wherever they can gather an audience.
But their dreams of fame and fortune are still far away, so the chance to con an old lady (Florence Snyder, played by Carla Eighinger) out of her money by posing as her long-lost English nephews is too good to turn down.
“It is very silly, when you get down to it,” said Doug Wertz, artistic director at the playhouse and director of this show. “Laughter is the best medicine. We believe this is a great way to to deal with life stresses by coming and enjoying the show.”
Adding to the complexity of the situation, the two male actors realize they have to pretend to be Florence’s nieces. Things start to get complicated as the scam involves wigs and dresses, Russell said.
Then Leo falls in love with another niece, Meg (played by Hannah Oberlin) who is engaged to a local minister (Reverend Wooley, played by John Moser). The performances will also feature Josie Schave as Audrey, Karl Schuster as Doc Myers and Josh Carpenter as Butch.
“The cast are all wonderful and this has been a delight to work on from beginning to end,” Russell said. “We can’t wait to have an audience out in front of us. It makes me laugh just thinking about it and I’ve been rehearsing it for weeks. As soon as I found out I got to have a sword fight and dress up as woman, I was sold.”
Shows are at 8 p.m. on Feb. 28-29 and March 6-7 with a 2:30 p.m. matinee on March 8.
For tickets, call 419-522-2883 or go to www.mansfieldplayhouse.com.
