'Lend me a Tenor' to give theatergoers a playful earful

What: Lend me a Tenor

Where: Backdoor Theatre Dinner Stage, 501 Indiana

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Mar 23 and Saturday, Mar 24; and Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through April 14. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m.

Admission: $37 Adults; $31 Senior, Student and Military; and $28 child. Without dinner, subtract $16.

Information: www.Backdoortheatre.org or (940) 322-5000.

Director Gare Brundidge loves the farcical nature of fast-paced plays “with all the mistaken identities and confusion that ensues.”

Backdoor Theatre’s upcoming production of “Lend me a Tenor,” he said, will not be confusing for the audience, if it’s done properly. “It’s great fun to watch characters wade through their own confused predicaments.”

“Lend Me a Tenor” opens 7:30 p.m. Friday Mar 23 and Saturday Mar 24 on the Backdoor Theatre Dinner Stage and runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through April 14. Optional dinner is served at 6:30 p.m.

Ken Ludwig’s play “Lend Me a Tenor” is set in Cleveland in 1934 and brings in elements of Verdi’s opera “Otello” with a similar mistaken identity element of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”

Despite the reference to the famous opera, Brundidge said, there’s only incidental singing in the play, and that is by one of the tenors, one who is world famous and other a veritable house gopher.

It all begins when the Cleveland Grand Opera Company signs the world famous tenor, Tito Merelli (Chip Kouri), to sing Otello. But after a door slamming argument with his wife Maria (Erin Sherry), the distraught man is no longer in the mood to sing.

That is when the general manager of Opera, Henry Saunders (Jon Krueger), decides to pass off the company’s factotum Max (Corey Rauscher) to dress up as Otello and sing the role.

“They figure as long as he is in blackface makeup and a wig, no one will know the difference. It turns out that Max really can sing and he is a smash hit, though everyone thinks he is Merelli,” the director said.  

Of course, the play is not that simple, as there is Max’s off and on again fiancée, Maggie (Alex Lewis), and there’s the company’s soprano, Diana (Heather Phillips), who plays Desdemona and tries to seduce Merelli, not realizing that it’s Max.

Even worse for poor Merelli is that he dresses up and races to the opera house at the last minute to perform and they turn him away calling him an imposter, the director said.

Everyone ends up at a hotel after the performance, for a reception and Max is forced to hide behind his costume, and there are two tenors running around.

“It’s a total mix-up comedy of mistaken identities, slamming doors and people are in the wrong place at the wrong time. It ends up well, it always does.”

While these is no bad language to speak of, he said, there are some people running around in lingerie, so he recommended the play for ages 17 and up.

“It could help if you know Shakespeare,” he said, “which was eventually made by Verdi into opera, but anyone can get it. Shakespeare and Verdi is the pot the play is stewed in, but you don’t need to know either of them to follow the play.”

“Lend Me a Tenor” (1986) was on Broadway for years with a recent revival in 2010. It was produced at Backdoor in February 1992 with James Downs directing.