If you mixed "A Night at the Opera" and "Noises Off" (with a touch of "Room Service" on the side) - the result might very well be "Lend Me a Tenor," the zany, Tony Award-winning comedy by Washington, D.C., entertainment attorney/playwright Kenneth Ludwig.
Beginning Wednesday, Salt Lakers will have an opportunity to see the regional premiere of Ludwig's comedy, which ran for two years on Broadway.The Pioneer Theatre Company production, directed by PTC Artistic Director Charles Morey, will run from March 17 through April 3 on the Lees Main Stage of Pioneer Memorial Theatre.
Ludwig's made-in-America farce seems to have been influenced by the screwball Kaufman-Hart capers from the 1930s. In fact, the setting for "Lend Me a Tenor" is 1934, when an opening night gala for the Cleveland Grand Opera (is this some kind of artistic oxymoron?) is suddenly threatened when the visiting guest tenor, Tito Merelli (known as as Il Stupendo by his fans) is taken ill from too much food and women.
When "Tenor" first opened on Broadway in March of 1989, the New York press kept comparing it to Michael Frayn's outrageous farce "Noises Off."
Is it really that hilarious?
"I don't think anything is as funny as `Noises Off,' " said Morey during a recent interview. "I mean, `Noises Off' is very simply the best farce ever written. But this is certainly the best one written since `Noises Off' and, as you know, was very successful in its Broadway run.
"It is a very, very funny play. But is it as funny as `Noises Off'? Well, I don't know . . . that's like asking if `Macbeth' is as good as `Hamlet,' " he said.
Much of the physical humor in "Noises Off" came from the intricately timed door-slamming.
"Lend Me a Tenor" takes place in a Cleveland hotel suite - where there are six doors, all of which lend themselves to some more comedic slamming.
Morey said this show "gives us
an engine with all the right motivators: lust, greed, jealousy, fear of public humiliation - plus six doors and a bed. We're going to have fun with this one."And, I suspect, the audience will, too.
PTC's mostly New York cast includes Warren Kelley, last seen locally two seasons ago in "The Miser" and "A Penny for a Song," who will portray Max, the opera company impresario's self-conscious gofer/flunky who secretly aspires to appear on stage - and who gets his chance in a Clark Kent-turned-supertenor scenario - and Bernie Sheredy, in his PTC debut as Tito, the extravagant Italian tenor who throws the company into a turmoil.
Bonnie Black (as Maria, Tito's jealous Italian wife) and Judith Tillman (as Julia, chairwoman of the opera guild) are also making return visits Salt Lake City and PTC. Both appeared in PTC productions of "Noises Off" and Black also appeared in "Peer Gynt."
Another New York performer making her PTC debut is Kathleen McCall in the role of Maggie, Max's experience-seeking girlfriend. She's appeared on Broadway in "M Butterfly."
Local cast members include PTC resident actor Robert Peterson as George Saunders, the harassed and somewhat unscrupulous impresario; Richard Mathews as a resourceful and polished bellhop, and Anne Stewart Mark as Diana, a soprano trying to seduce her way to the top.
Assisting behind the scenes are two guest designers from New York: Rob Odorisio, scenery, and Mary Louise Geiger, lighting. Bill Brewer, costume director for Ballet West, is tackling his first PTC assignment, and hair/makeup design is by PTC's Kevin Phillips. James Prigmore is handling the show's musical direction.
Director Morey first saw "Lend Me a Tenor" when it premiered at the American Stage Festival in New Hampshire, which is directed by one of Morey's good friends, Larry Carpenter (who has directed "The Pirates of Penzance" and "Kiss Me, Kate" for PTC). The later Broadway version was directed by Jerry Zaks, a former roommate of Morey's. Zaks received a Tony Award as "best director" for "Lend Me a Tenor."
The show won two Tonys and four Drama Desk awards for Broadway's 1989-90 season.
- "LEND ME A TENOR" opens Wednesday, March 17, at Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1340 East (Broadway at University), on the University of Utah campus. Following the opening, it will continue Mondays-Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. through April 3. For reservations or further information, call the PMT box office at 581-6961.