Diva-stating new musical comedy Lend Me A Tenor is to open at London’s Gielgud theatre this June.
A tale of operatic calamity, the show, which received strong reviews when it was staged at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2010, is set in Ohio in 1934, where the failing Grand Opera Company is about to be saved by the arrival of the world’s greatest tenor Tito Merelli. When he is unexpectedly incapacitated, it falls to the director’s meek assistant to find a replacement, a task made more difficult by a scheming soprano, a tenor-struck ingénue, a jealous wife and the Cleveland Police department.
The musical comedy, which would give Berlioz a belly-laugh and delight Donizetti, will star Matthew Kelly, making a swift West End return following the closure of Sign Of The Times, alongside Damian Humbley, Michael Matus and Sophie-Louise Dann, who all appeared in the Plymouth production. Further casting is yet to be announced.
Lend Me A Tenor, which features a book and lyrics by Peter Sham and music by Brad Carroll, is directed by former Open Air Theatre Artistic Director Ian Talbot and features choreography by the Tony Award-nominated Randy Skinner.
Lend Me A Tenor’s arrival at the Gielgud theatre follows the departure of Kneehigh Theatre’s The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg. The inventively staged musical adaptation of an Oscar-nominated Catherine Deneuve film closes on 21 May.
MA