The Statler’s Waldorf: Review of Lend Me a Tenor

By David Norman for TAGsgf.com

Comedy is the hardest of all the theatrics. It takes poise, timing, and tact, a sense of the audience; it is life and death when you perform comedy, you can die out there. So, when a group of actors is able to breathe life and laughter into a quiet room, they are successful. If they continue to make us laugh, through the entirety of their performance, they are noteworthy.

I had the privilege of attending a noteworthy production this past weekend performed by the Springfield Contemporary Theatre titled Lend Me a Tenor. This performance reminded me how much talent this city is hiding from us, how community theatre can surprise you, and how important it is to those on stage.

Lend Me a Tenor is about a small-time Cleveland opera producer (Patrick Schuster) and his assistant, Max (David Schmittou), who has scheduled a world renowned tenor to sing lead in a performance of the opera Otello. Hilarity ensues when the tenor, Tito Merelli (Todd Smith), arrives with his crazy Italian accent and protective wife, Maria, phenomenally played by Heather Ludwig, who is in a mood that is less than pleasant. However, it is nothing a little drink can’t cure.

More hilarity ensues, and women (yes, plural, more than one woman) playfully run around the set half-dressed as Tito ends up—wait.

Dear readers, I would love to tell you about this play in its entirety. Like, I could quite literally summarize the whole thing because I really, really want to talk about how good it was with somebody and I more or less have your attention right now, but you have to go see it. It’s like I’m waiting for one of my friends to see a hilarious version of The Sixth Sense, and specifically meeting them out afterwards just so I can chat about how cool it is.

I think the thing that really makes this play work is director Richard Dines’ amazing stage direction. The cast, it seemed, was in constant movement, every action intentional and each step marked to evoke a response from his audience. Where Dines grabbed my attention through the movement of his players, Todd Smith caught me with his stage presence. The character of Tito Merelli portrayed as divine, slick, and yet, still, a bumbling oaf is wonderful and impressive. Smith exquisitely balances both his dramatic and comedic talents to add an extraordinary amount of depth to a character that could have easily gone flat without his style.

I also appreciated the relationship that the cast had with each other, David Schmittou, as Max, and Smith really had a moment when they weren’t David or Todd but absolutely channeling Max and Tito. You could tell that their characters were alive through them, and their interaction with each other was impeccable and very believable. Schmittou surprises you with a wonderful singing voice, something that you initially wouldn’t expect from his character, but I suppose that’s the point, granted, the pseudo duet that Schmittou sings with Smith catches you off guard and is incredibly entertaining with its jaw flaps and full body shimmies (you have to see it to believe it) all while maintaining an endearing mentor/student feel.

Prior to seeing Lend Me a Tenor my research on the performance kept referencing it as being very Marx Brothers-esque, a “Who’s On First?” sort-of comedy romp. I would rather bring this idea into the new millennium and say that, more than anything, it reminded me of a television sitcom, simply because it was easy to watch with memorable characters working through an exaggerated situation and dealing with it in an unexpected manner. The cast that supports Schmittou and Smith are equally as entertaining and in some respects steals part of the show. Maria is one of those characters. Heather Ludwig NAILS her role as Tito’s wife and as with Schmittou and Smith, the Ludwig-Smith combination has some of the funnier moments in the play. Whitney Ice (coolest last name ever, by the way) who plays Max’s love interest holds all your attention with the batting of her eyes and her impeccably timed sweet-sexy smile.

As I may have mentioned, the play goes from zero to sixty in no time at all, which is good because the first act is rather lengthy, however, also necessary in order to develop the characters in their entirety. As it is, during the first part of Lend me a Tenor you feel like you’ve been in your seat forever; the second half, you feel like you weren’t there long enough. This dilemma is no fault of the actors or director, just a challenge presented by the script and, in turn, handled very well by Dines and his cast. Not to mention, the Vandivort has very comfortable seating, which is always important.

Lend Me a Tenor continues in the Vandivort Center on February 24-26 at 7:30 p.m., February 27 at 2:00 p.m., and March 3-5 at 7:30 p.m.

Enjoy.