'Lend Me a Tenor,' Lends Laughter at Timber Lake

By Sue Langenberg

Show number two, "Lend Me a Tenor," opens Thursday at Timber Lake Playhouse. It follows a rousing run of retro "Grease" that energized the mostly filled houses and promises a good summer stock season.

There are funny plays and then there are ever funnier plays. "Lend Me a Tenor," by playwright Ken Ludwig, has some built in genius that guarantees laughs after laughs throughout its two acts. It is a door-slamming, quip-sparring farce sure to be completely mood-elevating by the time the cast of eight whips itself into a frenzy.

Andrew Lloyd Weber produced it in the '80s as a farcical take on an eccentric Italian opera star who brings his personal drama to Cleveland, Ohio for a grand role in "Othello." The play is set in the '30s, but timeless in its enduring characters of jealousy, fainting fans, phony sophistication and everything else that swirls around goofy characters, famous and infamous.

Chicago's Goodman Theatre director Chuck Smith spends his eighth season at TLP and is thrilled with this cast of youth and energy. He loves the zany anxiety of the comedy that asks "Who's in the closet or behind the door?" or, "Who wrote that Dear John letter?" As with all comedies, he comments, "timing is key."

This cast seems to have a natural sense of timing with each other. Having been through the wilds of "Grease," they are falling into each other's rhythms with ease. Playing the eccentric and temperamental world famous tenor "Tito," or "Il Stupendo," is a most versatile David Herr who hails from Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University. His rubber facial expressions and instant body language lends a marvelous tenor to the role.

Tito's jealous and Dear John-writing wife Maria is dramatically played by Jamie Finkenthal, also from the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Area performer Eli Pauley plays Maggie as a starry-eyed fan of Tito and all things worldly. She faints, swoons and dreams at the drop of a hat. Pauley has been a frequent flyer at TLP and has been familiar to many community theatre stages. Her memorable and in-depth portrayal of the lead in "The Diary of Anne Frank" at Pec Playhouse as a mere 12- year-old some years back has brought her to grow into a lovely and versatile actress. There will always be a role for her face that can be charmingly sophisticated as in 'Tenor,' or cartoonishly heart-shaped as in "Grease."

Elsewhere in the cast are Maggie's less-than-sophisticated boyfriend Max, played by Phil Newman, her nervous father Henry played by Justin Verstraete and a flighty soprano Diana played by a chirpy and enthusiastic Sainty Reid. Actress Amanda Hendricks returns to TLP to play the opera company's ex-diva Julia, chairman of the opera guild. She pulls of some wonderful body language of a phony-baloney big shot-ess after her frumpy Miss Lynch in "Grease."

And as everyone wants to get into the act, Bellhop actor Rod Lawrence always enters hysterically in his wannabe ways to get close to the stars and the action.

"Lend Me a Tenor" is a must-see and must-laugh-at comedy that opens Thursday at Timber Lake Playhouse and runs 11 performances including two matinees through June 27 (no shows on Monday). Matinees Sunday and Wednesday are at 2 p.m., Friday and Saturday shows at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday shows at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday June 21 at 6:30 p.m. The Mt. Carroll boonies are a hop, skip and a jump to 8215 Black Oak Road. Call the box office at (815) 244-2035 or www.timberlakeplayouse.org for tickets, group rates and more information.

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