“Leading Ladies” is the perfect closing for the season with its Shakespearean themes and great acting. The Arkansas State theatre department’s last show of the 2025-2026 school year opened the curtain last weekend. 

A show based on one of Shakespeare’s plays and gender-bending tropes, “Leading Ladies” was one of the most comically unserious shows I’ve seen in my lifetime. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the trope and how much it’s used in modern media, 2000s romcom “She’s the Man” and musical “All Shook Up” use the gender-bending, falling for each other plot while playing a person they’re not. 

Zane Brewer as Leo and Donovan Walters as Jack were hilarious throughout. Their comedic timing and physical comedy made the audience laugh with each scene. Both Brewer and Walters played their alternative female roles extremely well. Brewer as Maxine and Walters as “deaf and dumb” Stephenie play their respective alter egos very well.

It wasn’t just the two leading ladies who stole the show, however, as all of the actors were fun to watch as they each brought something fun to the show.

The show incorporates the audience as well, specifically with the use of Connor Ernes at the beginning, using call-and-response with the audience in the scene where Leo and Jack are first introduced. It’s a fun scene and a great way to get the audience involved and set the tone for the rest of the show. 

Skylar Hilderbrand played Florence, the old and supposedly dead grandmother to Maxine and Stephenie. They absolutely killed the old and crickety grandma vibe. 

Hilderbrand’s comedic timing towards the end, where everyone thought she died, only to get on to Ernes’ primary character, Doc, for calling her dead early, was hilarious. Hilderbrand perfectly delivered the scene and made it a great way to end the show. 

Audrey, played by Maggie Martin, is the ditzy and bubbly friend of Meg, played by Zoey Newcomb. Audrey was absolutely oblivious to everything and Martin played her brilliantly. Her character’s introduction of coming in on roller skates seemed to be a genuine hazard to everyone around her. Either she actually couldn’t skate or she did an incredible job at acting like she couldn’t. 

Garret Veal played a great villain for the show. He expertly played the part of a normal preacher who actually distrusts and dislikes his in-laws’ side of the family, including his own fiancée. His character felt like someone I’d run into on the street or in my small town. 

Newcomb’s Meg was the perfect fangirl towards Leo and looked up to Maxine, often leaving her fiance, Duncan, played by Veal, behind. Newcomb’s expressions throughout the show were fun to pay attention to. While it’s her A-State theatre debut, she’ll be one to keep an eye out for over the next few theatre seasons. 

In case you couldn’t catch “Leading Ladies” this past weekend, the show goes on this weekend at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, with a 2:30 performance on Sunday in the Fowler Center’s Drama Theatre.

If you’ve already seen it, stay tuned for the 2026-2027 A-State Theatre season. Upcoming shows are listed below:

• “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised][Revised Again]”
  • A show combining all of Shakespeare’s works into one continuous story, continuing the Shakespearian genre from “Leading Ladies” to the start of next season. 
• “Little Shop of Horrors”
  • The musical of the season, a popular one at that, follows a down-on-his-luck florist who accidentally creates a sentient plant who wants to eat human flesh and blood.
• “An Evening of New Works”
  • A concert-style presentation of short plays by A-State Playwrights.
• “Men on Boats”
  • A comedy story following determined explorers as they travel down the Colorado River. 

Students get in for free by presenting their student I.D. at the door.

Categories: Arts & Entertainment