Lend Me A Tenor

The Pied Pipers certainly set themselves a challenge with Lend Me A Tenor - which is a musical farce - a sort of One Servant, Two Guvnors with music - except in this case the guvnors are swapped for costumes.  

In the first act the pace was fairly steady while the basis of the plot panned out and various characterisations and relationships were established. Then, in act two the action moved headlong into farce at a cracking pace. In fact we knew what we were in for very early on when we found that Saunders, the company’s general manager, had been married three times and all his wives were named Anna.  Anna 1, Anna 2, Anna 3 - think about it!

The plot centres around the Cleveland Grand Opera Company’s upcoming production of Verdi's Otello which for one night only is due to star world-famous tenor, Tito Merelli in the leading role. Of course the pampered singer (and his wife) arrives very late and through a series of mishaps is given a double dose of tranquillisers, passes out and is taken for dead.  In an attempt to salvage the evening  Saunders hatches a plan whereby his assistant Max, goes on dressed as Merelli. Needless to say Merelli isn’t really dead and the show ends up with lots of slamming of hotel doors, climaxing with no less than three people dressed as the internationally renowned tenor (including the great man himself) – but like all farces, everything works itself out in the end.  In amongst all the mayhem there is quite a bit of singing!

Steve Nicholson did an admirable job as Max, displaying plenty of energy, but at the same time showing the naivety and innocence of his character. He has a first-class voice. The Tito and Max duet Be You’self was excellent.  Steve Waring (Tito Merelli) also possesses a fine voice (as was pretty much the case throughout this talented cast) plus enviable comic timing but he didn’t have as much of the ‘diva’ about him as I expected – although Anna Murgatroyd as his wife Maria made up for it.  The fiery duet Facciamo L'Amor between husband and wife with English sub titles flashed up was hilarious.

Gallant work from James Dowson as the conniving General Manager: he dashed about creating more and more unbelievable situations which pushed the farcical situation to greater heights all the time being harassed by the three Annas.

Rosie Wells as Max’s lady-love Maggie was the beautiful still voice of calm as she swooned over Tito whilst rejecting Max, but that didn’t last because she ultimately ended up joining in the mayhem dressed only in her underwear.

At first it didn’t appear the charismatic Kayleigh Orrock had much to get her teeth into as the opera company’s sexy (and predatory) leading lady  – until she really got her moment in the second half. Her brilliantly sung operatic medley May I Have a Moment was, for me, the musical high spot of the evening.

The three Annas and the enthusiastic chorus of maids and bell boys gave full support to the talented principals. The opening number from Verdi’s “Othello” was impressive. The orchestra too did a fine job with some pretty intricate music.

The set design by Sarah Phelps and Jonathan Spriggs was imposing.  On two levels with a sitting room and bedroom and five ‘slammable' doors it took up a deal of space so that when the corridor/lift, the “Othello” or backstage cloths were flown in there wasn’t much room for manoeuvre but the chorus managed not to trip over each other most of the time. 

Costumes, hair and make-up were all extremely well done and suited the 1930s period in which the show is set. There were one or two first night blips technically including the seemingly inevitable radio mic problems, but nothing to really spoil one’s enjoyment.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this show.  Congratulations to the production team of Sarah Phelps (Director), Joe Griffiths (Musical Director) and Danielle Padley (Choreographer and Anna 2’s stand-in on opening night) and the whole cast who can and should feel justly proud of creating a show worth remembering. 

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