The Placer Performance Calendar

 

Great Local Shows - Theatrical Reviews

Title Lend Me a Tenor
Organization Roseville Theatre Arts Academy
Date(s) of show April 10-25, 2015
Reviewer Letha Dawson
Review There’s a hilarious show in downtown Roseville. If you’re ready for a couple of hours of real stomach-crunching laughter, go see Lend Me A Tenor, at the Roseville Theatre, running until April 25th. Tickets are $15 in advance and $17 at the door for a barrel of entertainment. This is not a musical. It’s about musical performance, and there are some Pavarotti-like moments, but Ken Ludwig’s script is a straight-forward, poke-in-the-side laugh at amateur ambition, out-of-control passion, and romantic imagination. All the actors are larger than life and a few large in life.

They are on cue, on their feet, and on each other a lot of the show. I was exhausted from laughing by intermission, listening and watching them beg, wheedle, fall down, accuse and threaten each other as they tried to get what they wanted.

The second half was just as funny as the first. Hats off first and foremost for director Jon Jackson. What a show he’s put together. Ken Ludwig’s dialogue is very clever, but to bring it to uproarious life takes a real pro and cooperative, trusting, talented actors. Brava! to Michelle Raskey who plays the angry Italian wife. When she storms into the room, the show starts. Her wild Italian tenor husband, Tito, (Mike Mechanic) is the foil in the show, and he takes a beating. I’ve never seen a man suffer the delicious abuse he does on the couch and on the bed. Jake Romero, as the insistent, young Bellhop, who wants his chance to audition for the Italian tenor, could have stepped right out of Grand Budapest Hotel. Finally and with stand-up admiration, Anthony Raddigan was exhaustingly funny at transforming himself from insecure boyfriend of sex-kitten Janey Pintar to stage-frightened tenor extraordinaire. That’s not to mention his hilarious romps on the bed with the real tenor. Be warned, your cheeks will be stuck in a smile for quite some time after seeing this show.

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