LEND ME A TENOR

LEND ME A TENOR

Cut To the Chase at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch

06.10.14

Mary Redman joined the Press Bench for the red-carpet gala opening ...

Ken Ludwig, the writer with “Showbiz in the Blood”, created this popular spoof that premièred on Broadway in 1989. It's a thoroughbred farce with plenty of extracts from grand opera as Tito Merelli, an over-pampered Italian tenor, tries to avoid an unwanted singing engagement in a luxury hotel, his fiery wife and three enthusiastic female fans.

The first star on stage is Mark Walters' colourful and gilded to within an inch of its life French Baroque hotel suite set, against which the women's mouthwateringly delicate, embroidered glitzy frocks (all made in house), emphasise their every movement.

And there's plenty of movement on stage since Director Matt Devitt has gone for oodles of energy and pace, all punctuated by satisfyingly noisy slamming of the many doors. As all good farces should have.

Fred Broom is a chunky, self-absorbed Pavarotti-style tenor with sharp comedy skills and a fabulous singing voice. Greg Last as the trainee hotel manager is equally gifted with a superb voice, even picking up a perfect a cappella cue. His love interest is the attractive daughter of the opera manager played by the beautiful and very human Sarah Scowen but they don't get together until much later as she's busy chasing Tito.

As Tito's luscious Italian wife Sarah Mahoney makes the most of this showy role while Georgina Field's ripe Julia would welcome Tito to her bed and Christine Holman's Diana is a zany platinum blonde.

Two more masters of physical, verbal, dancing and singing comedy masters are Sean Needham's Saunders whose temper is tested by all the things that go wrong around him and the rapturously silly Steve Simmonds as the Bellhop providing comic relief for the comedy all around him.

Such fun, and thoroughly entertaining, the show runs until October 25. Beg, borrow or steal a ticket!

and I penned this for The Public Reviews

Cut to the Chase on cracking form in this riotously funny revival of Ken Ludwig's back stage farce.

But as the stunning set by Mark Walters and the Queen's workshop reveals, we're not in the wings, or the green room, but a shamelessly tasteless suite – blue and pink, dripping with gilt moulding – of a hotel in 1930s Cleveland, Ohio.

Not much of a view from the big window, but lots of identical, stoutly built doors for the manic comings and goings which give the show its energy and its panache.

The suite is reserved for Il Stupendo, Italian opera star Tito Merelli, slated to give his Otello at the opera house next door.

But he is late, tired, briefly dead and then locked out and on the loose. The intrigue involves jealousy, unrequited love and mistaken identity, as doormat factotum Max blacks up for an unexpected début on the lyric stage. Fortunately, or un-, Tito always travels with two costumes in his baggage …

Think Comedy of Errors with Moors for Dromios, Noises Off with two tenors for three burglars.

Joining a fantastic company of Cut to the Chase regulars is Fred Broom, who makes a wickedly comic Tito, relishing every moment as lover, luvvie and hen-pecked husband. Signora Merelli is played by Sarah Mahony, perfectly pitching the accent and the outrage.

Seasoned farceur Sean Needham is the harassed General Manager Henry Saunders – some marvellous physical moments, and he “loses it” with some style when his gala seems doomed; there follows a beautifully played duologue in which he persuades young Max to step in …

Max – frustrated opera singer and fan of Merelli – is Greg Last, following his impressive lounge singer with an equally brilliant opera star, saving the day for Saunders, stealing the show and getting his girl with a final phrase – Vien Venere Splende – from Otello's big love duet. The singing is superb too – the showpiece Verdi duet is wonderfully done by Broom and Last, and even the bellhop – a cheeky camp cameo from Steve Simmonds – gives us a snatch of his Barber.

Georgina Field – elegant in her thirties gown, as are all the ladies – is the birdlike grande dame Chair of the Guild, who can't wait to meet Tito, an infatuation shared with Sarah Scowen's Maggie and Christine Holman's seductive soprano Diana. Satisfaction all round, we hope, as the action climaxes with ingenuous double entendre, Max pops his cork and there's a beautifully choreographed double coupling.

Typical of Matt Devitt's impeccably paced production, crammed with delicious moments: the bath bubbles, the photos, and the chase music rustled up by room service...

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

production photograph: Mark Sepple

THINGS TO COME - LEND ME A TENOR

Lend Me a Tenor
Ken Ludwig’s multi-award-winning farce

The Queen’s Theatre’s resident company cut to the chase… presents Ken Ludwig’s multi-award-winning slam-door comedy Lend Me a Tenor from 3 – 25 October.

This furiously-paced frivolous frenzy will entertain everyone for as long as they can keep up!

We’re in a hotel in Ohio in 1934 and Il Stupendo has come to save the day! It’s the biggest night in the history of the Grand Opera Company as they anxiously await the arrival of the world’s greatest tenor Signor Tito Merelli – or Il Stupendo – and his performance of Otello that will save the struggling company.

But then… doors start slamming when womanising Tito is incapacitated and his wife’s goodbye letter is mistaken for a suicide note! Max, the Opera Director’s meek assistant, is given the daunting task of finding a last-minute replacement. Chaos ensues – featuring a scheming soprano, a jealous wife and the Cleveland Police!

Lend Me a Tenor was Ludwig’s first commercially-produced play, which went on to enjoy enormous success in the West End and on Broadway. It has received numerous Tony and Drama Desk awards, been nominated for Laurence Olivier and Outer Critics Circle awards and been translated into 16 languages and produced in 25 countries!

The cast includes cut to the chase… company members Fred Broom, Georgina Field, Christine Holman, Greg Last, Sarah Mahony, Sean Needham, Sarah Scowen and Steve Simmonds.

This production is directed by the Queen’s Associate Director Matt Devitt, with set and costume design by Mark Walters and lighting by Daniel Crews.

Lend Me a Tenor runs from 3 – 25 October at the Queen’s Theatre, Billet Lane, Hornchurch. Tickets are from £12.50 - £26.50. For more details and to book, call the Box Office on
01708 443333 or book online at queens-theatre.co.uk

LEND ME A TENOR

Gielgud Theatre

Wednesday matinee : 22^nd June 2011

John Richardson, lucky man, had a seat in the stalls ...

A bijou musical that is fun, funny and fast moving, “Lend Me A Tenor” is set in 1934 and tells of the trials and tribulations of the Cleveland Opera Company just hours before a performance of Verdi’s “Otello”. It has witty, fun lyrics, equally witty orchestrations and is a delight on the eye and ear. Sumptuous settings, scenery that magically, seamlessly and inventively moves from one location to another, doors that SLAM without the slightest wobble. And I am reminded of a northern friend whose opinion of a show invariably depended on the number of “wunnnnnderful frocks” – here he would not have been disappointed, for they were exquisite. If you enjoy musicals, good singing and don’t mind an opera or two being sent up, with the occasional tap routine (FAB !) as a bonus, then this is the show for you !

As ever I was too mean to buy a programme so I had no real idea who played who, but, as H.E.Bates' Pop Larkin character would put it, everyone was ‘perfick’. My out and out highlight was the opera company diva’s ‘audition’ in front of the world-famous tenor who should have been singing the lead role in “Otello”. When she began the show I thought she had a ‘modern-day musical’ voice, but was I wrong – she hit each an every note of her pastiche of operatic roles – wonderful ! Her post-number applause took some time to die down, peppered with a more than a few ‘bravo’ shouts (including from me – noisy so and so !). My ‘subsequently done’ homework reveals that she was played by Sophie-Louise Dann. ‘Others’ in the cast (sounds a bit disparaging but it’s not meant that way) included Matthew Kelly and Joanna Riding.