About the Play:

Lend Me a Tenor has become a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes.

Lend Me a Tenor is a full-length comedy by Ken Ludwig. On a historic night at the Cleveland Opera Company, world-famous tenor Tito Morelli is to perform in Otello. Through a series of mishaps, Tito receives a double dose of tranquilizers, causing the house manager to believe he is dead and setting off a chain reaction of slapstick and mistaken identity. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

Lend Me A Tenor is set in September 1934. Saunders, the general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, is primed to welcome world famous, Tito Morelli, Il Stupendo, the greatest tenor of his generation, to appear for one night only as Otello. The star arrives late and, through a hilarious series of mishaps, is given a double dose of tranquilizers and passes out. His pulse is so low that Saunders and his assistant Max believe he’s dead. In a frantic attempt to salvage the evening, Saunders persuades Max to get into Morelli's Otello costume and fool the audience into thinking he's Il Stupendo. Max succeeds admirably, but Morelli comes to and gets into his other costume ready to perform. Now two Otellos are running around in costume and two women are running around in lingerie, each thinking she is with Il Stupendo. A sensation on Broadway and in London's West End, this madcap, screwball comedy is guaranteed to leave audiences teary-eyed with laughter.

Lend Me a Tenor premiered on Broadway in 1989 and received seven Tony Award nominations, winning two. It was also honoured with four Drama Desk Awards. Prior to Broadway, Lend Me a Tenor played London's West End, where it received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Comedy. A Broadway revival was seen in 2010. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 4 female, 4 male

What people say:

"A remarkable piece of theatre… a masterpiece… Author Ken Ludwig has verve, a sound grasp of plot mechanics and a rare ability to couple high art with low comedy." — The Times (London)

"One of two great farces by a living writer." — The New York Times

"Fills the theatre with the sound of laughter." — The Sunday Express (London)

"Free flowing honest-to-goodness unforced farce." — New York Magazine

About the Playwright:

Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed American playwright whose work is performed throughout the world in more than thirty countries in over twenty languages. He has written twenty-five plays and musicals, with six Broadway productions and seven in London's West End. He has also won two Laurence Olivier Awards and the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.