Lend Me A Tenor

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

It’s a comedy, a very funny comedy written by Ken Ludwig. It’s a hysterical comedy, that is, if the cast lives with steamroller energy, high-powered talent, and exquisite timing. If not, it can be a total disaster.

Michael E. Romero, Chris Whyde and Suzanne Connors Nepi in Lend Me a Tenor by Ken Ludwig at the Aurora Fox.

Not to worry with the Aurora Fox’s current production. It is a truth that it is everything it promises to be and then some.

Directed by Nicholas Sugar, artistic director of Theatre Group, and one of Denver’s top director/choreographers, with an astonishing, pointed talented cast, Lend Me A Tenor provides a roller coaster ride of laughs until the ribs hurt, muffled giggles to keep from missing brilliantly timed lines, and hysterical character confused situations where the audience gets the joke before the characters can blow the cobwebs from their brains.

Winner of seven Broadway Tony nominations, including: Best Play, Best Actor and Best Director, this honest comedy ran for over a year to sell-out houses. As part of the Aurora Fox’s 20th Anniversary Platinum Season, this production could certainly stand to run longer than December 19.

Tito Merelli, a world-renowned tenor — with an ego as big as his voice — agrees to make a special appearance at the Cleveland Grand Opera Company for their production of Otello. Michael E. Romero wraps himself snugly in Tito’s psyche with a magnificent voice as big as all outdoors. What doesn’t break through Tito’s awareness is this struggling company cannot in any way shape or form allow anything to stand in its way of success. When he doesn’t arrive in time for rehearsal, the company moves to stroke-land.

Max, a company VIP, paces nervously in the hotel room he has registered for Tito. Chris Whyde, already a Denver favorite actor gives the performance of his life with this role. Maggie, Max’s girlfriend, deliciously played by Rebecca Gibel, has to defend her reason for being there to her father, Harry Saunders (T. David Rutherford). Gibel easily slides back and forth between her doting Father as Daddy’s Little Girl, little good girl, to flirtatious but not yet ready to be Max’s fiancé, to letting it all hang out for Tito, who after all isn’t really Tito.

Tito arrives, gobbles some food, lays down to rest, and then the real fun begins. Max can’t wake him. In panic he concludes Tito is dead. Saunders, in a panic, convinces Max he has to go on in Tito’s place. They have to fool the audience into believing they really are seeing the world-renowned tenor. From there mass chaos takes over with misidentification, door slamming, characters hiding in the bathroom and closets, running in and out, missing each other with Max and Tito being misidentified, adds to everyone’s confusion.

The fight between Tito and his wife, Maria (Suzanne Connors Nepi) is sheer total unadulterated choreography that in their minds is simply Italian conversation.

Steven J. Burge as the “Gee, I want to be in show business” Bellhop aggressively arrives at inopportune moments to prove his voice to Tito. He won’t take no for an answer, becoming a naive pain to everyone. Burge plays him to the hilt. A pain to the other characters, maybe, but hilarity to those who watch.

Diana, Otello’s leading lady, a self-appointed Prima Donna rattled over having to sing the duets by herself during rehearsal decides she must meet Tito before the performance. She sees Tito as her ticket to get to the Metropolitan Opera. She doesn’t meet Tito. It is Max in Tito’s costume. Her enormous ambition blinds her to reality. Played by Suzanna Wellens, Diana oozes with “I’m the star and you’re not” quality.

Julia, President of the Opera Association, encounters Saunders. Dressed in sparklers with a high tiara, Saunders tells her she looks like the Chrysler Building.

With a divided set designed by John Sullivan, the two rooms of the hotel suite with many doors for characters to enter, hide behind, run out of, the hell bent for leather cast keeps the momentum, confusion, and panic running at full speed.

Call early for reservations, and wear comfortable clothes. You may find yourself rolling in the aisles with this brilliantly executed production.