SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
On TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Writing for Us
A CurtainUp New Jersey
Review
Lend Me A Tenor
| "Max, just remember from
here on out its clear sailing…nothing can go wrong." —
Saunders
|
Photo Left to right: David Josefsberg,
Michael Kostroff, John Treacy Egan
(Photo: Jerry Dalia) |
Ludwig, who was in attendance on opening night and took a bow with the company, must have felt good hearing how enthusiastically the capacity audience reacted to his most successful comedy. The near-to-sublime farceurs, under the direction of Don Stephenson, helped to make this irresistibly inane romp a welcome response to the depressing news and nasty weather that has lately been thrust upon us.
Stephenson has staged this production with the kind of full-throttle ferocity the action calls for, as well as injecting into it the tiny traces of credibility that would otherwise belie this play’s inherent absurdities. To complement his apparent affection for the play, each member of the company has poured into his or her character an exactingly calculated element of lunacy.
A bespectacled David Josefsberg affixes an endearing nebbish-ness to his role as Max, the aspiring, but insecure, singer working as a gofer for a provincial (Cleveland) opera company. If John Treacy Egan has the bigger and broader countenance of a world-class Italian tenor, it is the many small but devilishly disarming expressions that make his performance a knockout…and not because his character succumbs to sedatives and liquor.
There is no confusion better than mass confusion and Michael Kostroff creates the prescribed surplus of raw-unnerved hysteria as Saunders, the opera company’s tyrannical but panic-stricken impresario who is forced to deal not only with Maria (a temper-tantrum fueled Judy Blazer) the tenor’s jealous wife, but with own willful daughter Maggie's (an adorable Jill Paice) reckless trysts.
Mark Price gets his share of laughs as well as a few well-rounded notes, as the obnoxious autograph-seeking bellhop. Nancy Johnston is delightfully daft as Julia, the awe-struck chairman of the opera guild. As the ambitious and lusty opera diva Diana, Donna English amuses in and out of her stylish wardrobe.
The action occurs on the evening of a gala Opera Guild benefit. The setting: a first-class hotel suite is designed by John Lee Beatty. It is similar if not identical to the one he created for the Broadway revival.
It says a lot for a comedy when you find yourself laughing heartily and so soon at the same lines and situations. More importantly, it says a lot for a company that can lend to it, besides a tenor, something fresh and new.
| Lend Me A Tenor By Ken Ludwig Directed by Don Stephenson Cast: Jill Paice (Maggie), David Josefsberg (Max), Michael Kostroff (Saunders), John Treacy Egan (Tito Merelli), Judy Blazer (Maria), Mark Price (Bellhop), Donna English (Diana), Nancy Johnston (Julia) Scenic Design: John Lee Beatty Costume Design: Wade Laboissonniere Lighting Design: Stephen Terry Sound Design Matt Kraus Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission The Paper Mill Playhouse, 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, N.J. (973) 376 – 4343 Tickets: $26 - $97 Performances: Wednesday at 7:30 pm, Thursday at 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm, Friday at 8 pm, Saturday at 1:30 pm and 8 pm and Sunday at 1:30 pm and 7 pm. From 02/13/13 Opened 02/17/13 Ends 03/1013 Review by Simon Saltzman based on performance 02/17/13 |
|
Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note
from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with
main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous
locations. To subscribe, E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. Visit Curtainup's Blog Annex For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter |
| REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): >Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email and state if you'd like your comments published in our letters section. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. You can also contact us at Curtainup at Facebook or Curtainup at Twitter and Curtainup's Blog Annex |
Book of Mormon -CDOur review of the show
Slings & Arrows-the complete set
You don't have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to love all 21 episodes of this hilarious and moving Canadian TV series about a fictional Shakespeare Company
