If you go
› What: “Lend Me a Tenor.”› When: Through Thursday, Sept. 22 (show times vary).› Where: Cumberland County Playhouse, 221 Tennessee Ave., Crossville, Tenn.› Admission: $25 adults, $23 seniors, $20 groups and military, $12 students.› Phone: 931-484-5000.› Website: www.ccplayhouse.com.
Take one womanizing opera singer, knock him out in a hotel room, add a jealous wife, a scheming impersonator, an ambitious bellhop, mix generously with people running around and slamming doors, and you have the recipe for “Lend Me a Tenor.”
This rollicking comedy by Ken Ludwig is in the midst of a seven-week run through Thursday, Sept. 22, at Cumberland County Playhouse in Crossville, Tenn.
Directing the production is Donald Fann, who also helmed last year’s sold-out smash hit “The Fox on the Fairway,” also by Ludwig.
Fann describes “Lend Me a Tenor” as “one of the greatest farces ever written” and Ludwig as “certainly one of the most talented writers of comedy in the country today.”
Produced in London and New York in the 1980s, the comedy was nominated for nine Tony Awards, won three Drama Desk Awards and nabbed the Olivier Award for Best Comedy of the Year. It was revived on Broadway in 2010.
The plot revolves around the renowned tenor Tito Merelli (better known as “Il Stupendo”), who is scheduled to sing the lead in the opera “Otello.” But when his wife mistakenly leaves him a “Dear John” letter and the distraught singer is accidentally given a double dose of tranquilizers, things unravel before he even has the chance to leave his hotel suite. What follows is a hilarious chain reaction of mistaken identity, farcical plot twists, double entendres and mayhem.
The playhouse production stars Britt Hancock as Tito Merelli, the world-famous tenor, and Ross Griffin as Max, the harried assistant who has a secret hankering to sing opera. Jason Ross plays Henry Saunders, the anxiety-ridden general manager of the opera company who has tasked Max with getting Merelli to the opera house on time. Lindsey Mapes is Maggie, Henry’s bubbly daughter and Max’s girlfriend. Rounding out the cast are Weslie Webster as Maria, Tito’s loquacious wife; Jaclyn Juola as Diana, a soprano on the prowl; Patty Payne as Julia, the chairman of the opera guild; and Daniel Black as a singing bellhop.
“Lend Me a Tenor” is rated PG-13. Also on the bill are “Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” rated G, through Sunday, Aug. 28; and “Mamma Mia!,” a PG-13 musical based on the songs of ABBA, through Friday, Sept. 9.