The audience is sent to 1930s Paris where the story unfolds around four tenors, two wives, and three girlfriends in one hotel room while there’s preparations for the concert of a lifetime in a packed soccer stadium. As long as producer Henry Saunders can keep his star tenor, Tito Merelli, and his wife, Maria, from causing chaos that could stop the show from happening. This sensuous farce will have the audience in an uproar of laughter with mistaken identities and romantic mischief.
(Left to Right) Ryan Frank, Dewayne Curry, Candice Fisher, Warren Ashburn, Joyce Miler, Colin Burns, and Elizabeth Glyptis.
Warren Ashburn, who played Tito Merelli, did an amazing job at performing with an Italian accent fluently and that was clear enough to understand. He was able to maintain the accent through the entirety of the show – even keeping it in a different tone of voice. Ashburn’s opera singing hit every note each time as he serenaded the audience with Italian opera music. Warren Ashburn’s mannerisms were hilarious as Tito, as he mocked his wife and would run around the stage proudly holding a cow tongue up in the air.
(L to R) Ryan Frank, Warren Ashburn, Colin Burns, and Dewayne Curry
The rest of the cast that had accents (Joyce Miller, who played Maria, and Candice Fisher, who played Tatiana Racon) also did great at maintaining the accent each time they spoke. Miller spoke clearly in her Italian accent along with Fisher with her Russian accent. Both actresses were amazing in their roles and added their own flair to the characters.
Also, Colin Burns, who played Carlo, and Ryan Frank, who played Max, sang beautifully with Warren Ashburn when they were all singing the Italian opera song. They all hit the notes perfectly and sounded harmonious singing all together.
The set-up for this production felt very pristine as if one was inside a grand, fancy Paris hotel. IThe crew’s addition of a variety of delicacy food that the actors used throughout the course of the show – especially the beloved cow tongue! The way everything was arranged had the audience feeling as if they were a star themselves!
All of the actors performing in this farce had great chemistry with each other. They seemed to get along wonderfully and appeared to be having fun on-stage with their roles and interacting with one another. Everyone got along and had fun with it!
You can see Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors at the Little Lake Theatre in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania from September 12-14 at 8pm, September 15 at 2pm, and September 19-21 at 8pm. Tickets are $19.00-$20.50 for adults and $12 for children and can be purchased online.
The Little Lake Theatre does recommend children attending to be thirteen years of age or older due to suggestive themes and language used throughout the play.
(As an addition their 71st season, Little Lake introduced a hearing loop. The hearing loop allows someone with telecoil (or T-Coil) equipped hearing aids or cochlear implants to listen to the performance through their devices via platforms with flat wires taped on that serve as the loop. Little Lake also offers external headsets on loan for free if anyone is unsure on how to use the hearing loop. Patrons can get an external headset and have questions answered about the hearing loop at the theatre’s box office before the show.)
Emily Koscinski is a recent graduate from Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School. Along with Pittsburgh in the Round her articles have been featured in Midland Today, Beaver County Times, Observer-Reporter, and on the Lincoln Park website. Emily also has her own photography business where her photos have been shown at Robert Morris University and on the Lincoln Park website.
Categories: Archived Reviews