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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).
The play takes place in 1934, in a hotel suite in Cleveland, Ohio. The two-room set has a sitting room with a sofa and chairs at right and a bedroom at left. A center "stage wall" divides the two rooms, with a door leading from one room to the other. (Throughout the play, the audience can see what's happening in both rooms at the same time.)
As Scene I of the play opens, Henry Saunders, general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tito Merelli, a world-famous Italian opera tenor, known as "Il Stupendo" to his many fans. Merelli is coming to Cleveland to sing the lead role in a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello. It's the biggest event in the Cleveland Opera's history. A sellout crowd and the members of the Cleveland Opera Guild will be at the opera house that evening to see the great Merelli.
Saunders' harried assistant, Max, is also in the hotel suite. Saunders has charged Max with seeing to Merelli's needs, and with getting Merelli to the opera house in time for the performance. Also there is Maggie Saunders, Henry's daughter and Max's sometime girlfriend. Maggie is a fan of Tito Merelli, and hopes to meet him.
Tito finally arrives at the hotel suite, accompanied by his hot-tempered Italian wife, Maria, who is jealous because Tito flirts with other women. When she finds Maggie hiding in the bedroom closet, trying to get Tito's autograph, Maria angrily assumes that Maggie is Tito's secret lover. Maria writes Tito a "Dear John" letter, and leaves the hotel.
In the sitting room, Max gives Tito a tranquilizer-laced drink, trying to calm him down before the performance. (Unbeknownst to either of them, Tito accidentally takes a double-dose of tranquilizers.) When he learns that Max is an aspiring opera singer, Tito kindly gives Max a singing lesson, teaching him to "loosen up" and sing with more confidence. Tito and Max sing a duet together ("Dio, che nell'alma infondere" from Verdi's Don Carlos).
When Tito returns to the bedroom, he finds Maria's note. Horrified that his wife has left him, Tito goes into a fit of passion and tries to "kill himself" with various non-lethal objects (e.g. trying to stab himself with a wine bottle). Max manages to calm Tito down, and takes the singer into the bedroom, where Tito lies down on the bed for a rest.
Much later (Scene II), Max is unable to wake Tito from his nap. Max finds an empty medicine bottle and Maria's "Dear John" letter, which is written in such a way ("By the time you read this, I will be gone.") that Max mistakenly thinks Tito has committed suicide. When Saunders arrives, Max tearfully tells him that Tito is dead.
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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).
The play takes place in 1934, in a hotel suite in Cleveland, Ohio. The two-room set has a sitting room with a sofa and chairs at right and a bedroom at left. A center "stage wall" divides the two rooms, with a door leading from one room to the other. (Throughout the play, the audience can see what's happening in both rooms at the same time.)
As Scene I of the play opens, Henry Saunders, general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tito Merelli, a world-famous Italian opera tenor, known as "Il Stupendo" to his many fans. Merelli is coming to Cleveland to sing the lead role in a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello. It's the biggest event in the Cleveland Opera's history. A sellout crowd and the members of the Cleveland Opera Guild will be at the opera house that evening to see the great Merelli.
Saunders' harried assistant, Max, is also in the hotel suite. Saunders has charged Max with seeing to Merelli's needs, and with getting Merelli to the opera house in time for the performance. Also there is Maggie Saunders, Henry's daughter and Max's sometime girlfriend. Maggie is a fan of Tito Merelli, and hopes to meet him.
Tito finally arrives at the hotel suite, accompanied by his hot-tempered Italian wife, Maria, who is jealous because Tito flirts with other women. When she finds Maggie hiding in the bedroom closet, trying to get Tito's autograph, Maria angrily assumes that Maggie is Tito's secret lover. Maria writes Tito a "Dear John" letter, and leaves the hotel.
In the sitting room, Max gives Tito a tranquilizer-laced drink, trying to calm him down before the performance. (Unbeknownst to either of them, Tito accidentally takes a double-dose of tranquilizers.) When he learns that Max is an aspiring opera singer, Tito kindly gives Max a singing lesson, teaching him to "loosen up" and sing with more confidence. Tito and Max sing a duet together ("Dio, che nell'alma infondere" from Verdi's Don Carlos).
When Tito returns to the bedroom, he finds Maria's note. Horrified that his wife has left him, Tito goes into a fit of passion and tries to "kill himself" with various non-lethal objects (e.g. trying to stab himself with a wine bottle). Max manages to calm Tito down, and takes the singer into the bedroom, where Tito lies down on the bed for a rest.
Much later (Scene II), Max is unable to wake Tito from his nap. Max finds an empty medicine bottle and Maria's "Dear John" letter, which is written in such a way ("By the time you read this, I will be gone.") that Max mistakenly thinks Tito has committed suicide. When Saunders arrives, Max tearfully tells him that Tito is dead.