THEATER REVIEWS : Three Strong Notes Don’t Lend Success to ‘Tenor’

WESTMINSTER —  Although it was written in the 1980s, Ken Ludwig’s “Lend Me a Tenor” takes place in 1934 and is the sort of comedy they wrote back then: light, frothy, with some tongue-in-cheek covert sexual innuendo and a number of mistaken identities to add spice.

And, like its illustrious forebears (the plays of Kaufman and Hart and their comedic contemporaries), it is not an easy play to make work. This production at Westminster Community Theatre makes the difficulty painfully apparent.

The story is simple. Famed Italian tenor Tito Mierelli is making a guest appearance in “Otello” with the Cleveland Opera. Through comic misadventure he passes out and is presumed dead. To save the day, Cleveland Opera factotum Max, an aspiring tenor himself, goes on. During the performance, Tito wakes up and, in costume, tries to get into the opera house but. . . .

“Tenor” can be a very funny play but director Kent Johnson has let its qualities slip through his fingers. His timing is turgid; one could sail a gondola through the spaces between some cues. It also seems that Johnson didn’t have a firm hold on the attention of most of his cast during rehearsal.

The two best performances sometimes rise above the debris.

Kyle Myers has just the right blank-eyed simplicity and puppy-dog candor as Max, and Scott Ruiz properly underplays the volatile Tito. Both are controlled performances, and when Myers and Ruiz are alone on stage, Ludwig’s sense of humor shines through.

Carolyn Bjerke is very good as Max’s love Maggie, attractive and warm, obviously Max’s girlfriend, even when she’s lost in adoration of Tito.

But Manny Siegall as Maggie’s father and director of the opera company and Vivienne Maloy as the chairman of the opera board both stumble over lines. And Siegall hasn’t found much of a characterization; Maloy at least conveys a sense of her role.

Amanda Blake’s local soprano is mistaken by Tito for a hooker, but the director’s decision to have her play the role as a hooker is silly and ludicrous. David Cramer’s opera-loving bellboy careens about the stage in a frenzy of camp that destroys the humor in the writing.

Tito’s violent and angry wife Maria invariably is overplayed in productions of “Tenor” but never so unabashedly, in this reviewer’s experience, as by Caitlin Berry here. Her vaudeville Italian accent grates and she has an annoying habit, when she’s not screeching, of keeping her lips moving, silently mouthing angry nothings.

Rose Ratner’s ‘30s hotel-suite scenic design is effective and very workable and Jeff Crumley’s lighting is right for a comedy. But the costumes by Sandi Newcomb, Elizabeth Hart and June Steneck are anachronistic, particularly Blake’s thigh-length red sheath and Berry’s Italian peasant dress; Tito would dress his wife in higher fashion, certainly during a period when haute couture often came from Italy.

* “Lend Me a Tenor,” Westminster Community Theatre, 7272 Maple St., Westminster. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 1. $10. (714) 527-8463. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes. Kyle Myers: Max Scott Ruiz: Tito Mierelli Carolyn Bjerke: Maggie Manny Siegall: Saunders Amanda Blake: Diana Vivienne Maloy: Julia David Cramer: Bellhop Caitlin Berry: Maria

A Westminster Community Theatre production of Ken Ludwig’s comedy, produced by Brooks-Anne Crumley and Lee Dorman, directed by Kent Johnson. Technical direction/lighting design: Jeff Crumley. Scenic design: Rose Ratner. Costume design: Sandi Newcomb, Elizabeth Hart and June Steneck. Stage manager: Ami Crumley.