Lend Me a Tenor is an award-winning comedy play, written by esteemed playwright Ken Ludwig. The narrative of the performance is centered around the tenor Tito Merelli, whose scheduled performance in Cleveland takes an unexpected turn due to a series of chaotic events, culminating in his accidental overdose from a drink laced with an excessive amount of tranquilizer, causing him to black out.
One thing about this performance that Wheeling Park took on that can not be overlooked is the set design. The set played a pivotal role in immersing the audience in the narrative and its historical context. Every element in the set was thoughtfully and extremely well executed. The set not only complemented the storyline but also transported the audience into the era, making them feel as though they were part of the unfolding and deranged events that ultimately led to the scene where it was believed that Tito Merelli had died.
Bri Zoeckler was the stage manager for this performance, and she explained how the backstage crew was very minimal due to the set staying the same throughout the show. She touched further on how one of the key parts was the people who helped build these sets.
“A big help was the all of the people who worked on with building the sets because it was really big and took a lot of work,” said Zoeckler.
Another pivotal part of this play was the actors. The actors did a phenomenal job navigating their roles, fully using the set to enhance the performance even more, and producing an admirable synergy between their portrayals and the environment they inhabited. The actors had a remarkable cohesion throughout the performance, through their somewhat seamless interactions.
However, on the topic of the actors, I felt that the play that was selected did have a very diminutive amount of cast. This leads to not as much student engagement. Though the actors that were selected did deserve the part, as they showed through their performance, I believe more engagement in a play with more cast members could be a good idea for the next play that is chosen.
In the performance, I noticed that the show seemed to give off more of a college-type of feeling, due to really just the language and the jokes being used.
Alex Fabrizio, who played the bellhop, also expressed how he felt about the atmosphere of the play.
“It definitely had a more of a collegey vibe, which I liked having the chance of being in a more mature show,” said Fabrizio.
Because this was a comedy show, a big part heavily relied on jokes that highlighted a yearning for Tito Merelli.The jokes were funny, I honestly just didn’t understand going into the play that these types of jokes would be the basis of the entire show. But the actors did a really great job in delivering the lines and the emotion that went into the acting.
Overall, the production, casting, and technicality that went into this performance paid off. The performance was entertaining, captivating, and of course, funny.
