tue 03/12/2024

Lend Me a Tenor - The Musical, Gielgud Theatre | reviews, news & interviews

Lend Me a Tenor - The Musical, Gielgud Theatre

Lend Me a Tenor - The Musical, Gielgud Theatre

Far from a flop, this frothy 1930s pastiche is strongly cast and staged

Yes he can: Damian Humbley's Max Garber finds the tenor within while Michael Matus's Tito Merelli leaps for joyAll production photographs by Roy Tan

Acid prophecies of this show’s swift demise, as with that of the great Italian tenor whose supposed transformation from il stupendo to il stifferino results in the debut of a surpise new Otello at the "Cleveland Grand Opera", turn out to be greatly exaggerated. Allora, the tunes and the lyrics aren’t prime cut, but it’s slickly done, strongly cast and contains enough frothy set pieces to earn its salt. And any musical which has stylish fun with both the most electrifying opening of any opera (Verdi's, of course) and the noblest curtain deserves to run and run, in my book at least.

Acid prophecies of this show’s swift demise, as with that of the great Italian tenor whose supposed transformation from il stupendo to il stifferino results in the debut of a surpise new Otello at the "Cleveland Grand Opera", turn out to be greatly exaggerated. Allora, the tunes and the lyrics aren’t prime cut, but it’s slickly done, strongly cast and contains enough frothy set pieces to earn its salt. And any musical which has stylish fun with both the most electrifying opening of any opera (Verdi's, of course) and the noblest curtain deserves to run and run, in my book at least.

Sophie-Louise Dann, as the cruelly dubbed inge-not-so-nue, comes close to stealing the show

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Comments

David, succinctly sums up the appeal of this show. It brought to mind: Kiss Me Kate meets The Producers with a dash of A Night At The Opera. Act 2 needs a little tweak and as with all fast-moving farces it needs time to settle. Could be a big hit with family audiences and the teen and pre-teen market that 'Wicked' has cornered could find it very appealing. Just need to persuade Delfont Mackintosh to replace the in-house ice cream line with "Cornettos" and they're home.

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