Since it was pay-what-you-can day at The Studio Theatre today, Maria and I decided to take a chance on Legends!, Studio's latest production. We weren't sure what to expect, given that the website promises "Epic catfights," "Unparalleled style," but not much plot summary. Contextualization was not a problem. The play opens with an agent making a call to "Brad Pitt." Through their brief conversation, we glean that the producer is trying to get two divas who hate each other on the same stage for a show called Legends! In this production, the two legends are Leatrice Monsee (John Epperson, aka Lypsinka) and Sylvia Glenn (James Lecesne), each played by a man in drag.After the producer calls Sylvia pretending to be Brad Pitt, she comes around and arranges a meeting with Leatrice. Of course, Sylvia--as befits her has been status--doesn't actually have a nice apartment, so she borrows her friend's. The apartment comes with a maid, Aretha (the first reference of many), who gets compelled to participate in Sylvia's scheme.
This set-up pretty much says it all about the play's farcical approach. The next 75 minutes or so are filled with campy moments and catty banter between Leatrice and Sylvia. Over the top fanfare and spotlights mark each lady's entrance. Once on stage, they accuse one another of devilish conniving. Leatrice jabs at Sylvia's seven husbands, and Sylvia fights back by threatening to reveal Leatrice's food stamp status. The source of their grudge is their jealousy of each other's roles. Sylvia is consistently typecast as the bitch, while Leatrice is consistently typecast as the heroine who endures and endures. Naturally, the two women have more in common than they'd like to admit. We learn that both women are near-destitute because of former boyfriends/husbands. They are both Oscar winners who refuse to do less glamorous work.
But whether or not Leatrice and Sylvia can come together over these similarities is besides the point of this production. Legends! is pure entertainment. Halfway through the show, a male stripper named Boom-Boom shows up. Originally hired to do a bachelorette party in the apartment for Aretha's niece, he didn't get the message that the party was off. The audience is then treated to a full strip number where Boom-Boom takes everything off, leaving only a top hat to save the audience from male frontal nudity. Lypsinka treats us to a lip-syncing number towards the end as well. The finale, featuring a fun song and dance duet with the two divas, appropriately closes the lighthearted romp.