Synopsis 

The year is 1934. Franklin D. Roosevelt is in the White House. And the American Grand Opera Company is prepared for a sold out, one night only performance of Pagliacci. Their star is the world-famous Italian tenor, Tito Merelli, also known as Il Stupendo by his adoring fans across the globe. Saunders, the opera’s general manager and Julia, president of the Opera Guild are anxiously waiting for their star to arrive. Tito and his wife Maria arrive late, and through a hilarious set of crazy circumstances, Tito is given a huge dose of tranquilizers taken with a little too much wine. When Senor Merelli is found passed out, with a pulse too low to notice, everyone assumes the very worst. Believing the star is dead a frantic plan immerges to salvage the evening at all costs. Saunders persuades Max, his dutiful assistant, to get into Merelli’s costume and makeup in a desperate attempt to fool the audience into thinking that he is in fact Il Stupendo. The performance concludes with Max, as aspiring singer himself, succeeding admirably as the title character of Pagliacci. Even his enthusiastic girlfriend Maggie, Saunder’s daughter, believes she has just witnessed Tito Merelli’s most breathtaking performance. When Tito comes to and gets into a second costume ready to perform, a brilliant “who’s who” comes to life with two opera stars running around in identical makeup and costumes. The battle begins between the tenor’s jealous wife Maria, the ambitious star soprano Diana, a flirtatious Julia, and the starstruck Maggie as they climb over each other for the star tenor’s attention, each thinking that she is with the real divo of the opera world. Toss in an overzealous, excitable hotel bellhop and playwright Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor becomes a sidesplitting evening of madcap, screwball comedy guaranteed to leave audiences teary-eyed with nonstop laughter. 

Audition Scripts (PDFs)