Farce for you
Ken Ludwig farces ” “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Moon Over Buffalo,” for instance ” may not be everyone’s cup of green tea. They’re broad, predictable and ultimately signify nothing. If such is Earl Gray to thee, be advised that a generally fine company of farceurs enact Ludwig’s 2004 “Leading Ladies,” at North Coast Repertory Theatre (NCRT) through Oct. 8.
As a bonus, Jeanne Reith’s costumes alone make the show worth the price of admission, for they adorn Phil Johnson and Matt Thompson, who portray Leo and Jack, two down-and-out Shakespearean actors. Desperate, the guys decide to impersonate the long-lost English relatives of heiress-to-be Meg (adorable Jeannine Marquie), who happens to be engaged to a pompous, money-grubbing priest, played by the excellent John Herzog in his NCRT debut.
Brenda Hogan portrays Meg’s empty-headed friend Audrey, and Sally Stockton appears as Florence, the rich aunt who refuses to die despite the ministrations of Marty Burnett’s Doc. Max Macke portrays Doc’s son, engaged to Audrey.
In an attempt to capture Bardophiles, Ludwig’s predictable, cross-gender action patterns itself on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” which makes it sporadically endurable; nonetheless, one sits in the dark wondering that a playwright makes a living producing such predictable stuff, like the landscape painter that keeps repeating himself because kitsch sells.

Ira Aldridge Repertory Players scores with “Ain’t You Heard”
San Diego’s Ira Aldridge Repertory Players (IARP) has a hit in “Ain’t You Heard,” a tribute to Harlem poet/writer Langston Hughes (1902-1967) created and directed by associate artistic director Charmen Jackson at the Express Stage at Acoustic Expressions (2852 University Ave.) through Oct. 7.
Jackson uses Hughes’ popular work about picaresque Harlem denizen Jesse B. Simple (Leonard Patton), a good-hearted man whose love life is complicated by an “ex”-wife from whom he is not divorced and a girlfriend who insists on marriage and rings and things before she’ll move in with him. Simple has two colorful bosom buddies, Sonny (Laurence Brown) and Darby (Patrick Kelly). Andrea Purnell and Ida Rhem play the women in their lives and Damon Edwards fills out the company as Dr. Davis Oldham Sr.
Well known for his singing, Patton is an excellent blues singer and wisely the show allows for that. But who would have known what a good actor he is as well? A fine actor, Brown is a known quantity on local stages. Making his Ira Aldridge debut, Kelly is in his final year of theatre at San Diego State University. The three are simply marvelous together, so much so that the evening flies by. The production is worthy of a much longer run.
For information, visit www.iarpplayers.org or call (619) 283-4574.