| . | 04/09/2010
Lend Me A Tenor
By: Stewart Schulman
Brooke Adams, Mary Catherine Garrison, Tony Shalhoub and Jay Klaitz in Lend Me a Tenor.
photo by Joan Marcus
The time is 1934 and world-famous Italian tenor Tito Merelli, known to his fans as “Il Stupendo” is scheduled to perform for one night only as Othello in a gala benefit at the Cleveland Grand Opera. In only a matter of hours a thousand of Cleveland’s black-tie-clad cognoscenti, a thirty-piece orchestra, twenty-four chorus members, fifteen stagehands and eight principals will be anxiously awaiting his grand entrance. The big question in this hilarious Broadway revival of Ken Ludwig’s classic farce “Lend Me A Tenor” which opened recently at the Music Box Theater is: Will he actually make it onto that stage? Or... if he just happens to be too dead to do so... who could possibly go on and sing in his place?
Like any good farce, and this certainly is one, the play is a complicated web of mistaken identity, crazy plot twists, double entendres, slamming doors and everybody desperately wanting something from poor Tito the tenor, (deliciously underplayed to great comic effect by Anthony LaPaglia). Foremost in demands on Tito is his sex-starved Italian wife Maria, (the brilliantly versatile Jan Maxwell—whose performance here conjures an image of the love child of Anna Magnani and Carol Burnett.) It is her fiery jealousy over Tito’s flirtations with other women that sets the wheels of farce in motion as she desperately bids him goodbye... thus causing him to wallow himself into a Chianti and Phenobarbital imposed stupor. This in turn causes Saunders, General Manager of the Opera Company (an ingeniously funny Tony Shalhoub—in a comic turn that resembles a volcano containing itself...sort of), to believe ‘Il Stupendo” to be dead... and to then desperately beg his loveably insecure assistant Max, an aspiring tenor himself, (a triumphant Justin Bartha—in a performance conjuring images of the love child of Woody Allen and Charlie Chaplin) to don the Moor’s costume and black-face and sing the four-hour-long opera as “Il Stupendo”... in Tito’s place. And so it goes.
Lend Me a Tenor stars Anthony LaPaglia and Justin Bartha with Tony Shalhoub
photo by Joan Marcus
The rest of the talented cast adds equal zest to the evening. Saunder’s daughter Maggie, Max’s ‘fiance’, (a delectably love-struck Mary Catherine Garrison) is an ingénue smitten with notions of great adventure... and Tito Merelli. As is the ambitious Diana, Tito’s Desdemona, (a seductively amusing Jennifer Laura Thompson). Rounding out the fine production are a singing Bellhop (a very funny Jay Klaitz—with the best singing voice on stage), and Julia, Chairman of the Opera Guild, (a statuesque Brooke Adams—in a silver sequin evening gown whose design virtually makes it a character unto itself).
And speaking of design... all of the fun is beautifully aided and abetted by the period costumes of Martin Pakledinaz, lighting by Kenneth Posner, sound by Peter Hylenski (you even hear the crazed barking of telephone voices), and yet another of John Lee Beatty’s stunning “wish I could live on it” sets. The corresponding cream and beige-brown color palate of his hotel suite is the perfect backdrop for the occasional shock of emerald green, cobalt blue, or black and gold in Pakledinaz’s costumes. And all of this in turn enhances the zany vision of the solid captain steering the ship.
Now a farce, generally relying more for its success upon the ‘timing’ of its madcap shenanigans than the ‘significance’ of its content, is traditionally played fast and furious. And true to form, the pacing of this frothy and delicious production keeps the balloon ever afloat. Yet somehow, under Stanley Tucci’s sure hand and precise direction, the pacing here feels like an accelerating gallop without ever feeling ‘rushed’. It even allows the stellar cast to mine moments of comic genius that rival such classic clowns as Donald O’Connor and The Marx Brothers. A few moments to look for (and there are a ton more) are Shalhoub’s bits with a chair, a pillow and a hassock. Bartha and LaPaglia’s vocal relaxation lesson. Maxwell’s pillow fight with Tito. And LaPaglia’s odalisque-positioned alleviation of gas. You have not lived until you’ve seen LaPaglia playing a world famous tenor in distress delicately trying to fart. Okay, so maybe the pace isn’t so ultra fast in this revival of “Lend Me A Tenor”... but it is still pretty darn swift... and it is oh so funny! And once the doors start slamming in Act 2 the fun totally kicks into hyper-drive. This is a Tenor not to be missed—one that hits a high note and sings!
Music Box Theatre, 239 W. 45th St., NYC. Open run - Tue., 7 p.m.; Wed.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250, or www.telecharge.com . Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes
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