Lend Me a Tenor
Lend Me a Tenor is a comedy by Ken Ludwig. The play was produced on both the West End (1986) and Broadway (1989). It received nine Tony Award nominations and won for Best Actor (Philip Bosco) and Best Director (Jerry Zaks). A Broadway revival opened in 2010. Lend Me a Tenor has been translated into sixteen languages and produced in twenty-five countries. The title is a pun on "Lend me a tenner" (i.e., a ten-dollar bill).
This article is about the play. For the musical adaption, see Lend Me a Tenor (musical).Lend Me a Tenor
Nightcap for Merelli
Singing lesson with the maestro
Max singing for Maggie
Productions[edit]
The play, originally titled Opera Buffa, had been produced at a summer theater, American Stage Festival, Milford, NH, in 1985. The first review, in the NH Derry News, called it "one of the most brilliant and inspired new comedies this year."[1] The English director David Gilmore read it and asked to direct; Andrew Lloyd Webber was the producer.[2]
The West End production opened on March 6, 1986 at the Globe Theatre, where it ran for ten months, closing on January 10, 1987. The cast featured Ron Holgate (Tito), Anna Nicholas (Maria), Edward Hibbert (Bellhop), Denis Lawson (Max), Jan Francis (Maggie), John Barron (Saunders), Gwendolyn Humble (Diana), and Josephine Blake (Julia).[3][4]
After sixteen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Jerry Zaks, opened on March 2, 1989 at the Royale Theatre, and closed on April 22, 1990 after 476 performances. The cast included Philip Bosco (Saunders), Victor Garber (Max), Ron Holgate (Tito), Tovah Feldshuh (Maria), Caroline Lagerfelt (Diana), Jane Connell (Julia), J. Smith-Cameron (Maggie) and Jeff Brooks (Bellhop).[5][6]
A Broadway revival began performances at the Music Box Theatre on March 13, 2010 in preview and officially opened on April 4, 2010. Directed by Stanley Tucci, the cast starred Anthony LaPaglia (Tito Merelli), Jay Klaitz (Frank the Bellhop), Justin Bartha (Max), Jan Maxwell (Maria), Mary Catherine Garrison (Maggie), Jennifer Laura Thompson (Diana), and husband and wife couple Tony Shalhoub (Saunders) and Brooke Adams (Julia).[7][8] The revival closed its limited run on August 15, 2010.
The musical version, with book and lyrics by Peter Sham and Music by Brad Carroll opened at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, on September 24 and ran until October 6, 2010, after which it transferred to London's West End on June 15, 2011 and closed on August 6, 2011, despite mostly good reviews but two months of poor ticket sales.
Adaptations[edit]
A musical adaptation was presented in May 2006 as a staged reading as part of the Utah Shakespearean Festival's New American Playwright Project, in Cedar City, Utah, followed by rewrites and a production as part of USF's Summer 2007 repertory season, which received rave reviews.[9] The musical opened in London's West End in June 2011, directed by Ian Talbot and choreographed by Randy Skinner.
A sequel titled Comedy of Tenors was written by Ludwig.[10]
In 2022, Ludwig adapted a gender-swapped version of the play entitled Lend Me a Soprano which will run at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas from September 16 until October 9.[11]