Lend Me a Tenor

Lend Me a Tenor is a farce by Ken Ludwig. The play was produced on both the West End (1986) and Broadway (1989). Although it received seven Tony Award nominations, it won only one, for Best Actor.

In 1934, the renowned tenor Tito Merelli, known to his fans as "Il Stupendo," is scheduled to sing the lead in Otello. The opera is being produced as a gala fundraiser for the Cleveland Opera Company. Unfortunately, even before the star leaves his hotel room, everything begins to unravel. Chaos ensues when Merelli's wife, who has mistaken an autograph-seeker hidden in his closet for a secret lover, leaves him a "Dear John" letter. The distraught Merelli accidentally is given a double dose of tranquilizers to calm him and passes out. Saunders, the company's General Manager, is determined that the show will go on (for his own financial sake), so he asks his assistant Max to impersonate the opera star. Max puts on the blackface makeup required for the role of Othello, and his disguise succeeds admirably – until Merelli, also in blackface, wakes up and heads for the stage. What follows is a chain-reaction of mistaken identity, farcical plot twists, double entendres, innuendoes, and constant entrances and exits through many doors. ---

Tropes features include:

• At the Opera Tonight - we never actually see the opera, but we see people dressed up for the opera before and after
• Blackface - played for comedy, as part of the Mistaken Identity
• Dirty Old Woman -
• Dogged Nice Guy - Max
• Farce
• Genteel Interbellum Setting - takes place in the 30's in Cleveland, but everyone's well off, there's no allusion to the Great Depression, and sets often incorporate a lot of Art Deco
• Gratuitous Italian
• Dirty Old Woman - Julia has shades of this
• Latin Lover - the Italian Tito Merreli
• Opera Gloves - expect someone to be wearing these
• Mistaken Identity
• Really Gets Around - Diana
• Slap Slap Kiss - the Merelli's relationship is like this