April 14, 1865. That's the night Abraham Lincoln had the rude nerve to be gunned down during Laura Keene's much-anticipated staging of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre. So rather than triumphantly basking in the accolades of the nation's capital, Keene instead got her hoop skirt saturated with the President's blood as she cradled his mortally wounded skull. Now, most of us have selfishly thought only about the assassination of the Great Emancipator and its lasting repercussions on our country. So leave it to playwright Charles Busch to find an inspired way to give props to Keene, one of the most powerful women in 19th century American theater rendered a mere postscript to history by some wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time luck.

"Our Leading Lady" drops in on Keene, deliciously played by Patricia Lewis, just as she's about to cross paths with the fatal fate of the newly re-elected Lincoln. Keene is mother hen to a comically dysfunctional troupe of actors, most of whom have enjoyed long albeit thorny relationships with the titular diva. We meet tippling leading man Harry Hawk (Dave Andreatta), dotty stage veteran Maude Bentley (Paula Marchese), and jaded ingenue Clementine Smith (Rebecca Herber), as well as spiteful Southern belle Verbena De Chamblay (Vicki Casarett) and her chivalrous, duplicitous husband, Gavin (Adam Petzold). On the periphery are Keene's enthusiastic stage manager W.J. Ferguson (Paul Dingman) and her capable assistant Madame Wu Chan (April Randolph), from whom "Our Leading Lady" gets many goofy laughs out of the fact that no one notices that this Asian woman is clearly African-American under her white face paint and made-up Mandarin.

Unfolding amidst cozy backstage charm and plush period brocades, "Our Leading Lady" watches as Keene attempts to mount her production despite the destructive efforts of her cast. Verbena barely hides her catty resentment at being relegated to supporting parts, while the company unsuccessfully tries to avoid saying anything that will send Maude into the soliloquy-inducing reverie of her one big role from long ago. The booze is perpetually flowing, as are the secrets, contrary to what the regal Keene believes, having gone to great lengths to protect the truths of her lower-class past as well as her future professional plans. Lincoln's imminent appearance at "Our American Cousin" is designed to ensure Keene's success, but late in the first act of "Our Leading Lady" comes a slapsticky free-for-all that questions whether the players can actually pull it together for the following evening's Presidential performance.

The second half takes an unsurprising but nonetheless jarring dramatic turn following the death of the President, the variation in tone slightly off-putting when juxtaposed against the unsubtle comedy that came before. And though it's no fault of longtime director John Haldoupis or his capable cast, that abrupt shift is the prime problem with "Our Leading Lady," with the broad, often politically incorrect humor initially missing from the comparatively heavy pathos of the final act. That's when the script decides to affix a simple, pretty ribbon to the seething issues of racism, classism, and feminism, just before another tonal mutation to the wacky closing melee, which finds our players being interrogated by an army major (the assassin was a fellow actor, after all) who is far out of his depth.

But as Laura Keene, Lewis - a former pillar of the much-missed Shipping Dock Theater - handles the extremes of both acts flawlessly. Lewis portrays Keene with a self-absorbed elegance, wrapping her posh, deliberate clip around words designed to manipulate both her friends and her less-than-friends. And despite having a secret love interest, Keene's most important relationship seems to be with Wu Chan, played by Randolph in the play's juiciest role. Randolph does the same emotional careening, delivering the funnier lines along with some of the most poignant, as the hilariously ignorant troupe finally comes to realize that Wu Chan isn't who she barely appears to be.

Charles Busch was actually in Rochester a few years back as an ImageOut honoree; he's probably best known outside live-theater circles for the film adaptations of his camp-tastic plays "Psycho Beach Party" and "Die, Mommie, Die." (A renowned drag artist, Busch starred in both movies as well.) Originally produced on Broadway in 2007, "Our Leading Lady" is certainly not intended to be a biography of Laura Keene, but instead serves as a bipolar love letter to both strong, driven women as well as the business we call show.

Our Leading Lady

Through March 21

Blackfriars Theatre, 28 Lawn St.

$25 | 454-1260, blackfriars.org