Cleveland, 1934: The excitable – yet fiercely determined – manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company has gambled on the publicity coup of all publicity coups; luring an internationally celebrated Italian opera star to the city for a prestigious one-night-only gala production.
What has not been factored into the equation is the inherently volatile nature of the star performer, whose metaphoric baggage includes a complex love life, and whose foibles trigger an ever-escalating series of complications – setbacks that threaten to derail the entire venture and leave the company’s (and its manager’s) reputation in tatters.
If this summary of Ken Ludwig’s door-slammer farce Lend Me A Soprano (White Rock Players Club/Oceana PARC Playhouse, June 12- June 29) sounds familiar, it should.
The same basic plot was the core of his earlier classic, Lend Me A Tenor (1986), which has also been presented in recent seasons by the Players Club, along with its sequel, A Comedy of Tenors.
As Players Club patrons will discover, the current offering, rather than another sequel, is Ludwig’s 2022 gender-switched version of the original.
In this iteration, desperately scheming opera manager Henry Saunders has become the aptly named Lucille Wiley (Julia Chayko) while explosive tenor Tito Morelli has been transformed into temperamental soprano Elena Firenzi (Vanessa Klein), set to star in the Cleveland company’s ambitious production of Bizet’s Carmen (instead of Verdi’s Otello).
Familiarity, in this case, doesn’t breed contempt, according to director Miles Lavkulich, who most recently directed Play On for the Vagabond Players in New Westminster and also designed the lighting for the WRPC productions of The Woman in Black and Dracula: The Bloody Truth for the WRPC.
“I’m in the rare position of also having directed the original 10 years ago for Vagabond Players, and two members of that cast are in the current production, but now in female versions of male roles,” he said.
“I’ve been lucky – it’s never something I’ve sought to do, directing the same show twice. Now I feel it’s like coming back to a familiar place, but coming back with fresh energy and a new perspective.”
It’s not simply about the gender switch, he explained.
“To my mind, Ludwig’s latest adaptation has put a new breath of life into the piece,” he added.
“He’s rewritten some sections entirely so it works better, and it’s now even more of a screwball comedy, tending more to farce.”
There’s no shortage of that, he said, as events go rapidly sideways in Lend Me A Soprano.
Seeking to head off potential problems, Lucille has given her assistant Jo (Skye Carter) the important task of keeping the impulsive Elena away from men and liquor until curtain time.
But no-one could anticipate the kind of trouble a world-class diva can cause.
Elena sweeps through Cleveland like a tornado; arriving late, quarrelling with her husband Pasquale (Liam Coughlan), dallying with Jo’s fiancé Jerry (Austin Linder), and even giving star tenor Leo (Elliot Figueira) ideas about deserting the company for opportunities anew.
As if all that were not bad enough, Lucille also has to contend with the hyper-critical president of the opera board, socialite Julia (Nancy Ebert); while a star-struck bellhop (longtime Players Club properties mistress Rosemary Schuster, in a rare on-stage foray) only succeeds in making matters even more complicated.
It’s a great vehicle for strong comedic actresses, Lavkulich said, adding that he feels fortunate to be working with Klein for the first time.
“I know she has grown up through White Rock Players Club productions, and I’ve been around the Players Club for a while, but we wonder that our paths have never crossed before this.
“She’s just fantastic to work with.”
Lavkulich says he also feels honoured to work with a uniformly strong ensemble, including Chayko, who was in the Vagabond’s original Lend Me A Tenor in an ingenue role, but now steps ably into the shoes of would-be impresario Lucille for all the frenetic twists and turns of the current piece.
“The only problem I had in casting this, was that I had too many good people come out to audition. For me it means I could get to sit back and relax and watch some really great actors at work,” he said.
Lavkulich, who enjoys moving around the regional community theatre circuit, including recent shows in New Westminster, North Vancouver and Coquitlam, said he is glad to to be doing another WRPC show, this time for producers Rebekah McEwen and Janine Guy.
“They have a fantastic team here, and I love the audiences,” he said.
Also aiding the production is the fact that – as is well known in White Rock – Klein is an excellent singer.
That’s also true of Carter, who, as Jo, is also called on to sing soprano in one of the show’s many twists.
“When she and Vanessa get up to sing, it’s just amazing,” Lavkulich said, noting it’s customary for productions of Lend Me A Tenor/Lend Me A Soprano to resort to a degree of sound enhancement to suggest operatic talent among comedy actors not generally known for their singing ability.
“All of the singing in this version will be live,” he marvelled.
“There are no backing tracks and no lip-synching.”
Shows include a $20 preview night on June 12 at 7: 30 p.m., regular evening performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $29 for adults; $25 for seniors (60 plus) and youth (under 18); available from whiterockplayers.ca, by emailing boxoffice@whiterockplayers.ca or by calling the box office at 604-536-7535
