‘A Comedy Of Tenors’ Opens Hampton Theatre Company’s 2018-19 Seaon

The year, 1936. The place, a hotel suite in Paris. The plot, a madcap mash-up of mistaken identity, multiple mistresses and massive musical egos.Welcome to Hampton Theatre Company’s 2018-19 season, which opens this weekend with “A Comedy of Tenors,” Ken Ludwig’s 2015 spirited and operatic-inspired farce.

The play tells the story of amorous Italian opera superstar Tito Merelli (Edward Brennan), his hot-blooded and hot-tempered wife, Maria (Catherine Maloney), and producer Henry Saunders (Terrance Fiore), who has the unenviable task of keeping everything running smoothly with help from his assistant, Max (Matthew Conlon).

The action takes place just hours before Tito is scheduled to sing for thousands of adoring fans at a massive outdoor soccer stadium. But he won’t be doing it alone. Scheduled to sing alongside Tito onstage are two other famous tenors with similarly outsized egos, and before the night is over, also making their presence known will be a couple of spouses, a few lovers and perhaps even a baby.

You’ve been warned: This is likely to be a hilariously complicated evening, indeed.

Hampton Theatre Company artistic director Diana Marbury helms “A Comedy of Tenors.” If the title, and the plot, sound somewhat familiar, it’s because this play is a sequel to Mr. Ludwig’s 1989 Tony Award-winning farce “Lend Me a Tenor,” and most of the characters in that play make an encore appearance here.

While “Lend Me a Tenor” was set in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1934 on the night of the biggest event in the local opera company’s history, “A Comedy of Tenors” takes place two years later, on the night of an even bigger concert in Europe.

Ms. Marbury explained that the play is loosely inspired by a real-life event: In July 1990, the world’s three most famous tenors—Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti—performed together at Rome’s ancient Baths of Caracalla on the eve of the World Cup soccer final.

“It was the classical concert of the century with Domingo, Pavarotti and Carreras all together,” Ms. Marbury said in a recent phone interview. “This play takes place in Paris, but is set 50 years before the real concert.”

“I believe Ken Ludwig really liked the characters of ‘Lend Me a Tenor,’ but I don’t think this idea came to him until years later,” she added. “It’s this wild ride and an over-the-top farce, and everything goes wrong.”

Which is how everything should go in any good farce.

“It deals with a lot of egos. We certainly deal with a lot of egos daily in the theater. Everyone involved has their strengths and weaknesses,” Ms. Marbury noted. “The funnier the play, the more drama there is behind the stage.”

Ms. Marbury knows of what she speaks—she starred in Hampton Theatre Company’s production of “Lend Me a Tenor” during the company’s 1992-93 season. Having portrayed Tito’s wife, Maria, in the play, Ms. Marbury recalls well the complications—not only the ones embedded in the script but those that happened in real life as well.

“In our production, the actor playing our tenor, Tito, broke his leg on dress rehearsal night during the curtain call,” she said. “Everybody lost a lot of sleep that night trying to figure out how to open.

“When I looked at ‘A Comedy of Tenors’ with our artistic committee, I thought, Wouldn’t it be nice to do the tenors thing without all the tragedy of the first production?’” Ms. Marbury added. “Knock on wood … We’re not to dress rehearsal yet.”

Now that she’s on the other side of the curtain, so to speak, when asked about the challenges a director faces with a play like “A Comedy of Tenors,” Ms. Marbury admitted that choreography and timing are everything.

“You have to keep people from bumping into each other. It’s the typical farce of entry and exit, outlandish misunderstandings and trying to tie it all up so everybody’s happy at the end.”

She adds that once the actors have their lines down cold, that’s when the real fun begins with the physical comedy.

“Everybody’s discovering a lot of things … developing tons of wonderful characters,” she said of the cast. “They’re all going with it at 100 percent and are all good people behaving questionably.”

Ultimately, however, she credits Mr. Ludwig for writing a play that hits all the high notes—both literally and figuratively.

“The playwright has such a way with words. In truth, the action and the words totally create the play,” she said. “Then you just add the spice of individual actors bringing what they will to their characters.”

This production opens the theater company’s 34th season and comes on the heels of Marc Camoletti’s nutty farce “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” which the company presented in the spring as the final show of last season. Escape, it seems, is definitely on the docket with Hampton Theatre Company’s line-up these days, and Ms. Marbury agrees that plays like this are a conscious choice to help audiences escape reality, if only for a couple hours at a time.

“We’ve learned a lot about our audience and they’re very vocal when they don’t like something,” Ms. Marbury said. “I think we’ve balanced it pretty well with thought provoking work and plays that are a lot of fun. There are times you have to challenge people a bit, but we also like to give them something that’s a little relief.”

“A Comedy of Tenors,” obviously, is all about relief.

“In this day of people dealing with their news-absorbing brains, I think everybody’s in the market for a little distraction,” Ms. Marbury said. “I also believe as producers of theater there’s a limit to how much pressure we can put on people in terms of thinking.

“I tend to like the laughter. I think it’s healthy and healing and I think people need that in their lives,” she added. “It’s a difficult time right now—like a pressure cooker, you have to let the steam off.

“This is a mindless romp. You don’t have to think so hard, just have a nice pleasant ride with all our rompers.”

And don’t forget to fasten those seatbelts.

Hampton Theatre Company’s production of “A Comedy of Tenors” runs at Quogue Community Hall, 125 Jessup Avenue, Quogue, from October 25 to November 11 with shows on Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. An additional matinée performance will be offered on Saturday, November 10. In addition to the actors mentioned above, the cast also features Cesa Pledger as Racon and, making his debut with Hampton Theatre Company, Connor Antico in the role of the young tenor Carlo. Tickets are $30 ($25 for seniors, $20 for under 35 and $10 for students) at hamptontheatre.org or by calling 1-866-811-4111.

Hampton Theatre Company is offering special dinner and theater packages in collaboration with the libraries in Westhampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays and Quogue. Information is available through the libraries themselves. Also offered in association with the Quogue Club at the Hallock House will be a lunch and theater package for the Saturday matinée on November 10. For information about all packages, visit hamptontheatre.org.