A Comedy of Tenors

By Joseph Cervelli

A feeling of deja vu comes as quickly as being reminded of the film “Groundhog Day” as you watch Ken Ludwig’s labored sequel “A Comedy of Tenors” to his very funny “Lend Me a Tenor” at Paper Mill Playhouse.  Haven’t we seen all this before in his previous show?  He has basically capitalized on the success of the original rollicking farce and created a facsimile of it. What makes this production even worse than the repetitive comic situations are  both the hyperventilating performances and the wildly exaggerated direction by Don Stephenson. While Stephenson kept things within the realm of farce when he directed “Tenor” at Paper Mill last season, he has gone over the top with his hyperbolic characterizations. Perhaps, he is compensating for Ludwig’s book,  but a farce calls for broad comedy not something falling into slapstick every given moment in this production. 

You could say that the gang’s all here (for the most part) as the characters are basically the same as in the original show. Only now we are in Paris, not  in 1934 Cleveland, in which the stupendously anxious Saunders (a painfully annoying Michael Kostroff) is now the manager of the grandiloquent tenor Tito (John Treacy Egan’s).  The boisterous Tito is giving a concert with two other tenors (one Swedish and the other the much younger Carlo Nucci whom Tito is jealous of although has never seen.) Egan is one of the few performers who keeps the role on more of a steady keel despite some typical  physical antics like falling over a ottoman, etc. Unfortunately, he is still playing the same character with very little room for  any changes. 

Judy Blazer is back as his wife the tempesterous  Maria with her overly demonstrative mannerisms, While her tantrums were funny in the original now they have becomes excessively irritating. Jill Paice now plays Mimi the daughter of the couple, and while I admired her in such productions as “Death Takes a Holiday”  here she has a tendency to not only shout but screech. I realize actors are told that they should project but the loudness of almost all the actors could be heard within a five mile radius. While Tito does not want his twenty five year old daughter to marry, it is Maria who encourages it. When Mimi and her hunky beau Carlo Nucci (Ryan Silverman) first appear (she in undergarments and he in white briefs) it is amusing when Maria comes across them but tries to keep this from her husband. Silverman who was wonderful in the recent revival of “Finian’s Rainbow” is one of the best in the cast because his performance is more grounded without going for overkill and his tenor voice excels.  

David Josefsberg is back as Max, (Saunder’s assistant and wannabe opera singer.) As good as he was in “Tenor” he also has decided to raise he level of speaking to heightened decibels. 

Donna English is good as Racon the sexual temptress who was Tito’s ex lover.

Egan does well portraying two characters--the other being a bellhop who happens to sing opera--and he does get quite a workout coming out of rooms on both sides of the stage. The show is filled with the de rigeur door slamming, mistaken identifies, etc. which is fine with a better book. 

There are a few ludicrous scenes in which characters either speak to the cold tongue on the hotel room’s (luxuriously designed by Michael Schweikardt)  food platter tongue or remove it to use for personal pleasures. I kept thinking of the granddaddy of all farces “Noises Off” in which a dotty character has a simply riotous time with phone cord. Here the gratuitous inclusion of a tongue resembling something more sexual is bawdy humor that feels stale. 

To make matters worse the last twenty or so minutes feel more like a filler than anything else to add extra time to the show. It is disheartening that such a truly classic farce as “Tenor” has been turned into an overblown and undernourished sequel.

Tickets are available at the Paper Mill Playhouse 22 Brookside Drive, Millburn, NJ or by calling 973.376.4343. The limited engagement ends February 26. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Jerry Dalia

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