Raleigh Little Theatre Preview
Robert W. McDowell
April 9, 2008
In Ken Ludwig's superb modern farce “Lend Me A Tenor,”
A world-famous opera star nearly meets his Waterloo
Raleigh Little Theatre will stage American dramatist and director Ken Ludwig's frantic and very, very backstage farce, Lend Me A Tenor, whose Broadway premiere won two 1989 Tony Awards®, on April 10-12, 16-19, and 23-26 in its Cantey V. Sutton Theatre. Actors Comedy Lab co-founder Rod Rich will direct this side-splitting comedy, which is set in 1934 in the posh hotel suite of world-famous Italian tenor Tito Merelli, a.k.a. “Il Stupendo” (played for RLT by Michael Jones), who is scheduled to appear -- for one night only -- in the title role in the Cleveland Grand Opera Company's production of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello (1887).
“The first time I saw Lend Me A Tenor was the Raleigh Little Theatre production in, I think, 1993, featuring Jack Hall,” recalls RLT guest director Rod Rich. “Great show! Since then I've seen it about three or four more times -- it's like watching Shakespeare: you know exactly where it's going, but everybody has a slightly different approach to getting there, and it's always funny.”
Rich adds, “Lend Me A Tenor is a superb modern farce -- and there aren't many of those. At the same time, while I've seen the show a few times, I still felt there might be something a little different I could offer in a production of the show; and I thought the challenge might be exciting. I was right.”
Lend Me A Tenor premiered in London's West End on March 6, 1986 at the Globe Theatre; and it made its Broadway debut, directed by Jerry Zaks, on March 2, 1989 at the Royale Theatre, where it closed on April 22, 1990, after 476 performances. Zaks won the 1989 Tony for Best Direction of a Play and the 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play; and Philip Bosco, who played the increasingly frazzled general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, won the 1989 Tony for Best Actor in Play and the 1989 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play.
When the curtain rises, says RLT guest director Rod Rich, “... [T]he renowned [Italian tenor] Tito Merelli (Michael Jones) [is] scheduled to sing the lead in Verdi's Otello for the Cleveland Opera Company. The General Manager's harried assistant, Max (Loren Armitage), is assigned to watch over Tito and make sure nothing goes wrong. However, Merelli's hot-blooded wife (Tracey Phillips) mistakes an autograph-seeker hiding in his closet (who also happens to be Max's would-be girlfriend, Maggie [Adrienne Morton]) for a secret lover, and leaves him a ‘Dear John' letter.
“To calm the upset singer down,” Rich says, “Max accidentally double-doses him with tranquilizers, knocking the star out cold. But the show must go on, so Max is forced by his boss Saunders (Tony Hefner) to don the heavily made-up disguise of Otello and go on instead. Max turns out to be an exceptional and talented singer, and everything is working out brilliantly -- until Merelli wakes up, puts on identical makeup and costume, and heads for the stage.
“Along the way, there's an encounter with an ambitious sexy soprano (Staci Sabarsky), a fanboy bellhop (Bobby Rathbone), and the eccentric chairman of the Opera Guild (Alison Lawrence),” says Rod Rich. “Doors are slammed, identities are mistaken, entendres are doubled, and the plot is twisted until the unlikely happy ending is finally reached in this outrageously funny, Tony Award-winning comedy!”
In addition to director Rod Rich, who doubles as sound designer for the show, the Lend Me A Tenor creative team includes technical director and set designer Jim Zervas, lighting designer Rick Young, costume designer Jenny Butler, and stage manager: Lucinda Gainey.
“[Lend Me A Tenor has] a unit set, done in Art Deco style, with the sitting room stage right, and the bedroom stage left,” says Rod Rich. He adds, “Six -- count ‘em -- six doors are available, all firmly anchored and ready for business.”
According to Rich, the show's lighting scheme employs “Big, gray metal boxes, with glass on the front and scary electrical stuff inside. They get hot,” he quips.
Rich says, “The costumes are vintage 1930s, in many cases created especially for this production by [costume designer] Jenny [Butler] and her staff. Each character dresses in a distinctive way, from rumpled Max to the provocative Diana to the architectural Julia. [It's] Lots of fun to play with for the actors!”
Director Rod Rich claims, “Farce is difficult for modern actors -- there's very little of it done, and there are very, very few expert farceurs left. The closest modern equivalent is the sitcom, but even that has doesn't encapsulate the high-pressure acting style of a stage farce.
“Since Ludwig wrote the show in the 1930s (as he writes almost all his shows), we looked back to some of the outrageous screwball comedies of the day: Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, and Arsenic And Old Lace -- all [movies] shot consciously to recreate a theatrical style,” notes Rod Rich. “We also spent some time with the famous ‘Who's on First' routine and the sublime Gracie Allen as touchstones for some of the moments in Tenor. We did lots of research to try to capture a bygone approach to comedy and, perhaps, find our own way to ‘The Funny.'
“We also had to hang all those slamming doors. Finicky things, doors,” claims Rich.
Raleigh Little Theatre presents Lend Me A Tenor Friday-Saturday, April 10-11, at 8 p.m.; Sunday, April 12, at 3 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, April 16-18 and 23-25, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, April 19 and 26 in RLT's Cantey V. Sutton Theatre, 301 Pogue St., Raleigh, North Carolina 27607. $18 ($15 students through college and seniors 62+), except all seats $10 on April 12th. 919/821-3111 or visit http://www.etix.com/. NOTE: Arts Access, Inc. of Raleigh, NC (http://www.artsaccessinc.org/) will audio-describe the 3 p.m. April 12th performance. RALEIGH LITTLE THEATRE: http://www.raleighlittletheatre.org/. THE PLAY: http://www.kenludwig.com/ (Ken Ludwig's web site) and http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?ID=5331 (Internet Broadway Database). KEN LUDWIG: http://www.kenludwig.com/ (official web site), http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=7069 (Internet Broadway Database), and http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0525024/ (Internet Movie Database).
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