Leading Ladies = Lots of Laughs

If laughter is the best medicine, then no one was sick at the Cascades Theatrical Company performance I attended of Ken Ludwig‘s “Leading Ladies,” which recently inaugurated CTC‘s 30th season. I cannot remember the last time I heard that much laughter coming from a CTC audience. And why not? You had a well written comedy by award winning playwright Ludwig (“Lend Me A Tenor” & “Moon Over Buffalo”) and one of the most overall talented casts I have seen on the CTC stage, brought together by Lana Shane, the production's director. The storyline, inspired by such classics as Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” (which is a critical plot device of a show within this show), “Charley's Aunt", and "Some Like It Hot”, “Ladies” offers once in a lifetime roles for actors, and everyone appearing on the CTC stage pulled their parts off with comedic aplomb. None were better, however, than the show’s two leads, Joel Clements and Caleb Neet.