Hilarity Runs Rampant in Golden West’s ‘Tenor’

TOM TITUS

Timing, they say, is everything. Especially when it comes to farce.

And timing is what elevates Golden West College’s latest production,

Ken Ludwig’s wild comedy “Lend Me a Tenor,” into the stratosphere of

hilarity.

Grand opera is the background for this raucous piece of theater,

specifically as practiced in Cleveland, circa 1934.

Why Ludwig, who also wrote the equally farcical “Moon Over

Buffalo,” went this far back for his chronicle of craziness is

anybody’s guess, but it certainly works in the production.

Director Tom Amen has chosen a cast well versed in the art of

broadly presented entertainment, and his actors deliver in madcap

style in the time-honored tradition of one wacky bit of business

following closely on the heels of another. All are adept at chewing

scenery, and Ludwig’s “Tenor” is a smorgasbord of comedic

opportunities.

The central character of Max (Golden West favorite Mark Bedard) is

an assistant and general flunky to the Cleveland Opera’s high-strung

general manager (Bruce Alexander), but what he’d really rather be

doing is singing the arias of “Otello,” the one-performance

production scheduled for that evening. Little does he know that soon

that’s exactly what he’ll be doing.

The world-famous tenor Tito Merelli (Christian Navarro) arrives

late and in a huff, precipitated by some harsh words from his jealous

wife (Stephanie Schulz), a virago with a stereotypical Italian

temper.

Adding to the turmoil are all the people dying to meet “Il

Stupendo,” including Maggie (Christa Mathis), Max’s girlfriend and

his boss’ daughter; Julia (Judy Gish), the Opera Guild chairwoman;

Diana (Kalinda Younger Gray), an ambitious soprano cast as Tito’s

Desdemona, and a rather pushy bellhop (Tony Torrico), all of whom are

adept at showing up at precisely the wrong time.

Bedard’s talent is well known from his many past appearances on

the Golden West stage, but regular playgoers still will be impressed

by the power of his vocal cords, a reservoir heretofore untapped even

in his recent turn as Sky Masterson in “Guys and Dolls.” Bedard

excels at the exhausting pace of farce and controlling (or trying to)

the play’s series of crises, each more outrageous than the last.

Mathis, also a Golden West veteran, blends sweetness and

determination into her star-struck character. As her harried father,

Alexander simmers and boils alternately with his sugary appeals to

Bedard to save the day when the overindulging Tito appears to have

breathed his last.

As the Domingo-like opera star, Navarro throws himself into the

farcical nature of the show with gusto, his puzzled facial

expressions when mistaken for his “other self” priceless. Shulz

consumes the stage with her fiery portrayal of the great tenor’s

equally incendiary wife.

Gray, as the bosomy soprano willing to sleep her way to opera’s

upper echelon, is seductively appealing, while Gish turns her

less-flashy guild chairwoman character into a showy role with her

choreographed exits. Torrico’s bellhop continually presents a thorn

in many sides.

The Golden West setting, a masterpiece by veteran scenic artist

Wally Huntoon, tucks the main suite acting area between exterior

windows above and below for ultimate realism.

Susan Thomas Babb’s 1930s costumes are a visual delight, while

Robert Mumm (lighting) and Scott Steidinger (sound) make valuable

contributions to this superior production.

As if the show itself weren’t funny enough, Amen has added the

wildest curtain call you’ll see on a stage this year, fast-forwarding

the play’s earlier moments into an exhausting mobile tableau. This

“Tenor” hits all the right comic notes.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.