Fundraiser for the Vista/PAAC/Iron Arts on March 15 at Strega Nonna in Negaunee.

LEADING LADY: Stories from the Stage…and Life is a theatrical journey that blends storytelling, musical theater, and razor-sharp humor to explore ambition, identity, love, loss, and the courage it takes to keep showing up when life goes off book.

Through iconic Broadway songs and deeply personal anecdotes, Leading Lady traces one performer’s path from an unapologetically loud, spotlight-hungry child to a woman shaped by Tourette’s, heartbreak, motherhood, divorce, and reinvention. With warmth and wit, she pulls back the curtain on the realities behind the applause-missed cues, failed relationships, bodies that don’t always cooperate, and dreams that refuse to die quietly.

This is not a nostalgia act or a greatest-hits revue. It’s a raw, funny, and fiercely honest meditation on what it means to lose the roles you thought defined you-and to discover that the most powerful part you’ll ever play is the one where you choose yourself.

By the final bow, Leading Lady reminds us that the ingénue may fade, but the woman who survives, leads, and stands center stage anyway?

She’s the real star.

Accompanied by Marcia Hicks, Allyse Belanger, and Claire Decker.

Thank you for supporting community theatre and local businesses,

Best,

Leslie Parkkonen