Written by Ken Ludwig
Directed by Cate Clelland
Free-Rain Theatre Presentation
ACT Hub Theatre, Kingston to 27 September
Reviewed by Len Power 17 September 2025
Guaranteed to put a smile on your face, American playwright Ken Ludwig’s farce is a crazy story of mistaken identity, misconception, mistakes and mis-everything. First performed in London’s West End and on Broadway in the 1980s, the play has been an international success.
Although the Cleveland Grand Opera company are delighted to have secured world-famous tenor, Tito Merelli, to sing Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci for one evening in 1934, his late arrival sets off a chain reaction in which everything possible goes wrong.
On a substantial hotel two room set cleverly squeezed into the ACT Hub Theatre, set designer and director, Cate Clelland, has delivered a high-energy farce with fine performances.
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| Left to right: Michael Sparks (Saunders), Justice-Noah Malfitano (Bell-hop), one of the Pagliaccis (I lost track of who was who about here), Sally Cahill (Julia), Christina Falsone (Maria), Megan Stewart (Diana) and Maxine Beaumont (Maggie) |
Michael Sparks is Saunders, the opera company’s general manager and a nervous wreck with an explosive temper. Maxine Beaumont as Maggie, his daughter, is not as innocent as she seems. John Whinfield, Max, her intended, is also the long-suffering assistant to Saunders. Sally Cahill is Julia, very much the grande dame chairwoman of the opera company. Meaghan Stewart is the glamorous, man-eating soprano, Diana, and Justice-Noah Malfitano is an opera-mad bell-hop. William ‘Wally’ Allington is the temperamental Italian opera star, Tito Merelli, and Christina Falsone is Maria, his formidable and fiery Italian wife.
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| John Whinfield (Max) and William 'Wally' Allington (Tito Merelli) - no wonder I was confused! |
Everybody in the cast is at the top of their game, performing with extraordinary energy and finely-honed comic timing. Both Whinfield and Allington display fine singing voices with their opera duet from Don Carlos.
Fiona Leach has designed excellent and eye-catching period costumes. The most outstanding is Sally Cahill’s sparkling gown which fails to impress the general manager, resulting in one of the funniest lines in the play, delivered to perfection by Michael Sparks.
There’s nothing like a classic stage farce done well and Free Rain Theatre’s new production of Lend Me Tenor is as close to perfection as you can get.
Photos by Janelle McMenamin
Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs
