Even the sad clown from “Pagliacci” might get a kick out of the last show of the season from Good Theater. “A Comedy of Tenors” takes on the serious world of opera singers but is all about delivering big laughs.
Author Ken Ludwig reintroduces some of the characters from his award-winning “Lend Me a Tenor,” which is still making the rounds of regional theater (see a production at Berwick’s Hackmatack Playhouse in June). Taking off from the author’s renewed inspiration and in the spirit of, well, good theater, director Brian P. Allen, cast and staff, have made this sequel a delight. And you don’t have to have seen the original to enjoy it.
Set in an upscale Paris hotel room in 1936, this full-on farce concerns the hilarious last-minute hitches that cause an all-star concert by three tenors to teeter on the brink of cancellation as the grand and delicate egos of the singers and their supporters are taken through a madcap round of misunderstandings and seemingly endless comedic complications.
John Lanham as Carlo and Hannah Daly as Mimi in Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors at Good Theater March 28-April 29.
The action gets going when the temperamental Tito, an aging tenor who fears he may be losing both his high vocal range and his sex appeal, mistakenly believes his earthy wife, Maria, is having an affair with his daughter’s lover, Carlo, an up-and-coming tenor.
Daughter Mimi becomes ensnared in Tito’s suspicions, as do his ex-lover Racon, a noted soprano herself, and a singing bellman named Beppo, who happens upon the scene and adds even more confusion.
Trying to unravel the whole mess and get the performers, whoever they may shake out to be, onstage are opera impresario Henry and his assistant, Max, who is his son-in-law and an aspiring tenor.
Steve Underwood (Tito) and Grace Bauer (Maria) are hilarious as the long-married couple who bicker endlessly in exaggerated Italian accents, alternately threatening divorce and heading for the bedroom to reconcile. Underwood has many quick emotional turnarounds to handle, and Allen has made sure the actor’s considerable comedic talents are kept up to side-splitting speed in a production that has all its considerable linguistic and physical moves down well.
Jared Mongeau as Max, Steve Underwood as Tito and John Lanham as Carlo in Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors at Good Theater March 28-April 29.
Paul Haley expertly delivers some very funny sarcasm as Henry, a pro who tries to cut through all the fussing and fretting of the artists as showtime approaches. Jared Mongeau’s Max is a broad comic blur as he frantically follows Henry’s bidding while also pursuing his own ends.
Hannah Daly and John Lanham, as Mimi and Carlo, ably share a good portion of the physical comedy while suggesting that the younger generation of performers may indeed follow in the often-melodramatic footsteps of their elders.
Kathleen Kimball rounds out the cast as the vivacious Racon, who tries to win Tito back but ends up with his lookalike Beppo (Underwood in his second, again very funny role).
Snippets of recorded music and some opera in-jokes add more levels to the fun. And the impressively detailed set by Underwood, costumes by Justin Cote and lighting by Iain Odlin further the sense that this final show of the company’s 16th season is one of Good Theater’s best.
Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
