‘Emperor of the Moon’
ACTORS’ THEATRE OF COLUMBUS, SCHILLER PARK AMPHITHEATRE, GERMAN VILLAGE
614-444-6888, www.theactorstheatre.org
Aphra Behn’s 1687 comedy, adapted by Jennifer Feather Youngblood, blends commedia dell’arte, music and science fiction.
8 p.m. Thursdays to Sundays through Aug. 6
“pay what you will,” or $20 for reserved seating
In “A Comedy of Tenors,” four tenors and their spirited women spark confusion and chaos just hours before a major opera concert.
Weathervane Playhouse is presenting the area premiere of Ken Ludwig’s farce, which continues through Saturday in Newark.
“There are mistaken identities, sexual romps and doors slamming,” said director Kevin Connell, Weathervane’s new artistic director.
“A Comedy of Tenors,” whose punny title plays off Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors,” premiered in 2015 at the Cleveland Playhouse.
“It's a farce, like ‘Noises Off,’ where the pace of life speeds up as the world of the play flips upside down,” Connell said.
The two-act, which spans more than two hours, is a sequel to “Lend Me a Tenor,” Ludwig’s Broadway hit set in 1934 before an opera performance in Cleveland.
“A Comedy of Tenors,” set two years later in a Paris hotel suite, centers on the chaos that interrupts a plan for a three-tenors concert to mark the last hurrah of retiring Cleveland Opera manager Henry Saunders (Mark Mann).
Although four characters — including Saunders and opera singer Tito Merelli — figure in both plays, Ludwig wrote the sequel as an independent work.
“It helps if you’ve seen ‘Lend Me a Tenor,’ but it’s OK if you haven’t seen it,” Connell said.
“Tito disappears in the midst of jealousy and rage, just as he did before.”
Ian Short plays 40ish Tito, a notorious lady’s man, and the bellhop Beppo, a Tito lookalike with unsung talents.
“Tito is very passionate, very dramatic, larger than life because half his life is onstage,” said Short, 46.
“His opera life has blended into his everyday life, so he has a tendency to overreact to everything.”
For years, Tito was acclaimed as the top tenor of his era.