‘Lend Me a Tenor’: stage’s ‘second-funniest’ farce

Wichita’s Forum Theatre founder Kathryn Page Hauptmann says that Ken Ludwig’s 1989 witty romp “Lend Me a Tenor” is considered “the second-funniest farce ever written,” so she’s producing a new revival of it – her third – for the next two weekends in the Forum’s home in the Scottish Rite Center.

Here are eight things you should know about the show.

1. What does Hauptman, who is directing, like about the show?

“Farce is like a cleverly choreographed dance with no room for a misstep. I love this piece because it never fails to make an audience laugh,” says Hauptman, who performed in it once as well as producing it twice before, the most recent 10 years ago. It was time to bring it back, she says. This is her first time to direct it.

“I saw the original on Broadway and could not stop myself laughing. But even better was hearing the entire Broadway theater alive with uproarious laughter. When you have that many people laughing that hard, it’s just deafening. The cast we’ve put together is more than capable of creating magic.”

2. Hauptman isn’t alone in her praise of the material.

The Broadway original, which was Pennsylvania playwright Ludwig’s first show, won three Tony Awards out of nine nominations and four Drama Desk Awards out of six nominations. A 2010 revival snagged three more Tony nominations and four Outer Circle Critics Award nominations. It’s so popular it has been translated into 16 languages and performed in more than 25 countries.

3. What’s the story about?

When the world’s greatest Italian opera tenor and notorious ladies’ man gets a “Dear John” letter from his jealous, angry and long-suffering wife on the eve of his starring as “Otello” in Cleveland in 1934, he accidentally takes so many tranquilizers to calm down that he is rendered unfit to perform. The desperate manager of the opera company pressures his hapless assistant to stand in for the famous singer, hoping no one will notice. But the switch results in a riot of mistaken identities, miscommunication, double entendres and door-slamming chases.

4. Who’s starring in it?

Hugo Castillo, a real-life operatic tenor and frequent performer with Wichita Grand Opera, plays Tito Morelli, the overindulgent, Pavarotti-like world-class singer, and Cynthia Atchison, a regular at Mosley Street Melodrama, is his hot-tempered, Sophia Loren-type wife, Maria. Mark Mannette, head of theater at Newman University, is Saunders, the neurotic, controlling head of the opera company, and John Keckiesen, a Wichita State University theater grad now on the regional circuit, is back to play Max, the lovably nerdish assistant (think a young Woody Allen) forced to step in for the singer.

Shanna Berry, a Chicago actress who recently moved to Wichita, is Maggie, the daughter of the company manager and lovable Max’s girlfriend who also harbors a secret crush on the famed singer. Chelsey Moore plays sexy diva Diana, a soprano who uses more than her voice to get what she wants, while Ryan Ehresman is The Bellhop, a comically obnoxious opera fan trying to get the famous singer’s autograph by any means necessary. And Charlene Ayers, a longtime leading lady for Music Theatre Wichita, is imperious society matron and opera patron Julia.

5. Who are the behind-the-scenes people helping make the actors look good?

Beki Keraly is co-costume designer with director Hauptman. “We love the period 1930s look, but our biggest challenge has been constructing the gown for our society matron, because there’s a line where someone says that it looks like the Chrysler Building,” Hauptman says with a laugh.

Ben Juhnke designed the art deco sets and Sean Robertson designed lighting to create a 1930s atmosphere with furniture and props by Aaron Profit. Adam Akers is the sound guy.

6. What’s the hardest part about directing a farce?

“Even though the comedy is broad, you still have to approach it like any other play or drama, with sincerity and honesty as you explore the emotions. It needs to be rooted in reality. Then you can achieve farce by making it 10 times bigger. Every movement is more like choreography than just directing,” Hauptman says. “Once we got the basics down, then the fun part was speeding it up and seeing it work. We have our Abbott & Costello section, our Marx Brothers moments, our Three Stooges – all classic comedy elements that the audience will recognize.”

7. What’s the biggest fear?

“Doorknobs,” says Hauptman. “When you’re dealing with a door-slamming farce, you cross your fingers that none of the doorknobs fall off during a performance. There are plenty of bloopers on YouTube from other theater companies where they did. We don’t want to join them.”

8. So if “Lend Me a Tenor” is the second-funniest farce ever written, what’s the funniest?

“(Most critics) cede first place to the British comedy-farce ‘Noises Off,’” Hauptman says of an intricately constructed 1982 play-within-a-play by Michael Frayne about a second-rate touring theatrical troupe’s professional and personal misadventures both onstage and backstage. But she’s OK doing the second-funniest farce now, says Hauptman, because her troupe already tickled Wichita audiences with “Noises Off” three years ago.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 11:14 AM with the headline "‘Lend Me a Tenor’: stage’s ‘second-funniest’ farce."