Josh Hogan mentioned he’ll do nearly anything for a laugh in his standup comedy routine.
But, in a different role as an actor in the local Mill Race Theatre Company’s latest comedy of “Leading Ladies” running Thursday through Saturday, he goes a step beyond. His character of Jack Gable dresses in drag.
“I’ll do just about anything for a laugh,” he said. “Besides, comedy is my element.”
In the show from writer Ken Ludwig, 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, according to online promotional materials for the show.
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.
Which makes the cross-dressing understandable.
The production unfolds at Central Middle School’s 180-seat Gray Box Theater at 725 Seventh St. in downtown Columbus. Director Nick Hogan, who is Josh Hogan’s brother, played a small part in the show eight years ago at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. He suggested the presentation for the local troupe.
“And this is shaping up to be really funny (again),” the director said.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
