Lend Me a Tenor is a comedy by Ken Ludwig. The play was produced on both the West End (1986) and Broadway (1989). It received nine Tony Award nominations and won for Best Actor and Best Director. A Broadway revival opened in 2010. Lend Me a Tenor has been translated into sixteen languages and produced in twenty-five countries.

Synopsis[link]

In 1934, the renowned tenor Tito Merelli, known to his fans as "Il Stupendo," is scheduled to sing the lead in Otello. The opera is being produced as a gala fundraiser for the Cleveland Opera Company. Unfortunately, even before the star leaves his hotel room, everything begins to unravel. Chaos ensues when Merelli's wife, who has mistaken an autograph-seeker hidden in his closet for a secret lover, leaves him a "Dear John" letter. The distraught Merelli accidentally is given a double dose of tranquilizers to calm him and passes out. Saunders, the company's General Manager, is determined that the show will go on (for his own financial sake), so he asks his assistant Max to impersonate the opera star. Max puts on the blackface makeup required for the role of Otello, and his disguise succeeds admirably – until Merelli, also in blackface, wakes up and heads for the stage. What follows is a chain-reaction of mistaken identity, farcical plot twists, double entendres, innuendoes, and constant entrances and exits through many doors.

Productions[link]

The play, originally titled Opera Buffa, had been produced at a summer theater, American Stage Festival, Milford, NH. The English director David Gilmore read it and asked to direct; Andrew Lloyd Webber was the producer.^[1]

The West End production opened on March 6, 1986 at the Globe Theatre, where it ran for ten months, closing on January 10, 1987. The cast featured Denis Lawson (Max), Jan Francis (Maggie), John Barron (Saunders), Ron Holgate (Tito), Anna Nicholas (Maria), Edward Hibbert (Bellhop), Gwendolyn Humble (Diana), and Josephine Blake (Julia).^[2][3]

After sixteen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Jerry Zaks, opened on March 2, 1989 at the Royale Theatre, where it ran for 476 performances. The cast included Philip Bosco, Victor Garber, Ron Holgate, Tovah Feldshuh, Caroline Lagerfelt, and Jane Connell.

A Broadway revival began performances at the Music Box Theatre on March 13, 2010 in preview and officially opened on April 4, 2010. Directed by Stanley Tucci, the cast stars Anthony LaPaglia (Tito Merelli), Justin Bartha (Max), Jan Maxwell (Maria), Mary Catherine Garrison (Maggie), Jennifer Laura Thompson (Diana), Jay Klaitz (Bellhop), and husband and wife couple Tony Shalhoub (Sanders) and Brooke Adams (Julia).^[4][5] The revival closed on August 15, 2010 due to the expiration of the contracts of Anthony LaPaglia, Justin Bartha, and Tony Shalhoub.

The musical version, with book and lyrics by Peter Sham and Music by Brad Carroll opened at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, on 24 September and ran until 6 October 2010, after which it transferred to London's West End transfer on 15 June 2011 and closed on 6 August 2011, following damning reviews and two months of poor ticket sales.

Adaptations[link]

A musical adaptation was presented in May 2006 as a staged reading as part of the Utah Shakespearean Festival's New American Playwright Project, in Cedar City, Utah, followed by rewrites and a production as part of USF's Summer 2007 repertory season, which received rave reviews.^[6] The musical opened in London's West End in June 2011.

Awards and nominations[link]

Laurence Olivier Award for Comedy of the Year (nominee)

Tony Award

• Best Play (nominee)
• Best Actor in Play

Philip Bosco (winner)

Victor Garber (nominee)

• Best Featured Actress in a Play – Tovah Feldshuh (nominee)
• Best Scenic Design – Tony Walton (nominee)
• Best Costume Design – William Ivey Long (nominee)
• Best Direction of a Play (winner)

Drama Desk Award

• Outstanding Actor in a Play – Philip Bosco (winner)
• Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play – Tovah Feldshuh (winner)
• Outstanding Director of a Play (winner)
• Outstanding Costume Design (winner)
• Outstanding Lighting Design – Paul Gallo (nominee)
• Outstanding Set Design (nominee)

2010 Revival

Tony Award

• Best Revival of a Play (nominee)
• Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play - Jan Maxwell (nominee)
• Best Costume Design of a Play - Martin Pakledinaz (nominee)

Outer Critics Circle Award

• Outstanding Revival of a Play
• Outstanding Director of a Play - Stanley Tucci (nominee)
• Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play - Jan Maxwell (nominee)
• Outstanding Costume Design - Martin Pakledinaz (nominee)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Internet Broadway Database listing
• New York Times review
• New York Times reader reviews
• Associated Press review
• Lend Me a Tenor The Musical website

Stanley Tucci
Tucci in October 2010
Born	(1960-11-11) November 11, 1960 (age 51) Peekskill, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, writer, producer, director
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Kate Tucci (1995–2009; her death)
Children	3
Relatives	Christine Tucci (sister)

Stanley Tucci (born November 11, 1960) is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his critically acclaimed performance in The Lovely Bones (2009). He also has won an Emmy for his performance in Winchell, and has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children – "The One And Only Shrek".

Early life[link]

Tucci, an Italian American,^[1][2][3] was born in Peekskill, New York, the son of Joan (née Tropiano), a secretary and writer, and Stanley Tucci, Sr., an art teacher at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York.^[4][5] His sister is actress Christine Tucci, and his cousin is the screenwriter and retired history teacher Joseph Tropiano.^[6] He grew up in Katonah, New York, and attended John Jay High School. Tucci played on the John Jay soccer team and baseball teams; his main interest lay in the school's drama club, where he and fellow actor and high school buddy, Campbell Scott, son of actor George C. Scott, gave well-received performances at many of John Jay's drama club productions. Tucci attended SUNY Purchase, and completed his B.F.A. degree after four years in the school's Conservatory of Theatre Arts.

Career[link]

Tucci made his Broadway debut in The Queen and the Rebels on September 30, 1982. His film debut was in Prizzi's Honor (1985). Tucci is known for his work in films such as The Pelican Brief, Kiss of Death, Road to Perdition and Big Night, and in the television series Murder One as the mysterious Richard Cross. Big Night (1996), which he co-wrote with his cousin Joseph Tropiano, starred in, and co-directed with Campbell Scott, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film also featured his sister Christine and mother, who wrote a cookbook for the film. It won him and Tropiano the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. He's typically cast in supporting roles such as the sidekick or the villain, but has had the lead in two films, both romantic comedies: A Modern Affair (1995) and The Whole Shebang (2001).

He has been nominated three times for Golden Globes, and won twice – for his title role in Winchell (1998), and for his supporting role as Adolph Eichmann in Conspiracy (2001), both for HBO films. He also received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Winchell. He was nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor in a Play for his role as Johnny in the 2002 revival of Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

In July 2006, Tucci made an appearance on the USA Network TV series Monk, in a performance that earned him a 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor – Comedy Series. Tucci's TV series, the medical drama 3 lbs., debuted on CBS in the 10:00 pm EDT time slot on November 14, 2006. It was canceled on November 30, 2006 due to low ratings. He can be heard as the voice over in the AT&T Wireless "Raising the Bar" marketing campaign. Tucci also played Nigel in the screen adaption of The Devil Wears Prada alongside Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway. In 2007, Tucci had a recurring role in medical drama ER. In 2009, Tucci again starred opposite Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia playing husband Paul Child to her Julia Child.

That same year, Tucci portrayed George Harvey, a pedophile and serial killer of young girls, in The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson's adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel, for which he received high critical praise and Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. To prepare for the role, he consulted with retired FBI profiler John Douglas.^[7]

In 2010, Tucci directed a revival of the Ken Ludwig play Lend Me a Tenor on Broadway, starring Tony Shalhoub.^[8] Tucci played Dr. Abraham Erskine in Captain America: The First Avenger.^[9]

In July 2010, it was announced that Tucci will direct an upcoming comedy entitled Mommy & Me starring Meryl Streep and Tina Fey as mother and daughter.^[10]

In the 2011 movie Margin Call, Stanley Tucci portrayed Eric Dale, one of the fired employees who works in risk management.

In February 2011 it was reported that Tucci had been cast as the villain in Jack the Giant Killer.^[11]

On May 9, 2011, it was announced that Tucci would play Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games film (released 2012). On May 15, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Tucci also has joined the cast of Gambit, a remake of a 1966 film, which stars Colin Firth. He is also expected to star in David Yates' psychological drama film Your Voice In My Head.^[12][13]

Personal life[link]

Tucci married social worker Kate Tucci in 1995. They had three children: twins Isabel Concetta and Nicolo Robert (born in 2000) and Camilla (born in 2002). Kate Tucci also had two children from a previous marriage whom the actor raised.^[14] He and his wife were separated between 2003 and 2004, during which time he dated Edie Falco. Kate Tucci died of breast cancer in April 2009.^[15] Tucci told the New York Post, "My wife was an extraordinary person who showed us all what great strength is."^[16]

In October 2011, Tucci became engaged to English literary agent Felicity Blunt, the sister of Tucci's The Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt, who introduced the couple.^[17] They are set to be married in London in September 2012. ^[18]

Tucci was co-owner of the Finch Tavern restaurant in Croton Falls, New York.^[19]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stanley Tucci

• Stanley Tucci at the Internet Movie Database
• Stanley Tucci at the Internet Broadway Database
• Stanley Tucci quotes

Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub (December 2008)
Born	Anthony Marcus Shalhoub (1953-10-09) October 9, 1953 (age 58) Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Education	University of Southern Maine
Alma mater	Yale School of Drama
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Home town	Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.
Television	Monk, Wings
Spouse	Brooke Adams (m. 1992) «start: (1992)»"Marriage: Brooke Adams to Tony Shalhoub" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Tony_Shalhoub)
Children	2
Awards	Emmy Award, Golden Globe
Signature

Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub (born October 9, 1953) is an American actor. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci in Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk in the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk. He has also had a successful career as a character actor, with roles in films like Spy Kids, Men in Black, Men in Black II, Thirteen Ghosts, Galaxy Quest, 1408, Barton Fink, Big Night, The Siege, Cars (film) and The Man Who Wasn't There.

Early life[link]

Shalhoub was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His father, Joe Shalhoub, a Catholic Maronite from Lebanon, immigrated to the United States as an orphan at the age of 10. He married Shalhoub’s mother, Helen, a second-generation Lebanese-American, and founded a family grocery chain, starting with a store in downtown Green Bay.

Being the second youngest of the couple's 10 children, Shalhoub was introduced to the theater by an older sister, who put his name forward to be an extra in a high school production of The King and I. Despite finding himself standing on the wrong side of the curtain during the final dress rehearsal, he became enamored with the theater. Shalhoub graduated from Green Bay East High School, where his senior peers named him the best dressed and most likely to succeed.^{[citation needed]} In his senior year he suffered a setback, breaking his leg in a fall off the stage into the pit during a rehearsal. Recovering quickly, he was able to perform in the school's final play of the year. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in drama from the University of Southern Maine in Portland, going on to earn a master's from the Yale School of Drama in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Stage[link]

Shortly thereafter, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent four seasons with the American Repertory Theater before heading to New York City, where he found work waiting tables while honing his craft and auditioning. He made his Broadway debut in the 1985 Rita Moreno/Sally Struthers production of The Odd Couple and was nominated for a 1992 Tony Award for his featured role in Conversations with My Father. Shalhoub met his wife, actress Brooke Adams, when they co-starred on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles. His off-Broadway credits include Waiting for Godot, For Dear Life, Rameau's Nephew, Zero Positive, and two productions of Shakespeare in the Park: Henry IV, Part 1 and Richard II.^{[citation needed]}

Shalhoub returned in December 2006 to the Second Stage Theatre in New York, off-Broadway, opposite Patricia Heaton for a run of The Scene by Theresa Rebeck.^[1] In 2010, he went to Broadway to act as Saunders in a revival version of Lend Me a Tenor in New York at the Music Box Theatre.^{[2][dated info]}

Screen roles[link]

One of his first television roles was in 1991 as the Italian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci in the sitcom Wings. Shalhoub was pleasantly surprised to land the role after having a recurring role in the second season. Shalhoub affected an Italian accent for the role. In the same time period, Shalhoub played physicist Dr. Chester Ray Banton in The X-Files second-season episode "Soft Light".

Shalhoub's film roles following his Wings breakout included an excitable producer in Barton Fink and a fast-talking lawyer in The Man Who Wasn't There (both directed by the Coen brothers), a linguistically unidentified cabby in Quick Change, a Cuban-American businessman in Primary Colors, a sleazy alien pawn shop owner in the Men in Black films, a sympathetic attorney in A Civil Action, a widowed father in Thir13en Ghosts, a cameo role in the film Gattaca, and a has-been television star in Galaxy Quest.

He had a co-starring role in the film Big Night, where he plays an Italian-speaking chef complete with accent. In 1995 he had a role in the hit NBC sitcom Frasier in the episode "The Focus Group" as an Arab newsstand owner named Manu Habbib. He did voice acting for the 1997 computer game Fallout.

Shalhoub demonstrated his dramatic range in the 1998 big-budget thriller The Siege, where he co-starred alongside Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis. His character, FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad, was of Middle Eastern descent and suffered discrimination after terrorist attacks in New York City.^[3] He returned to series television in 1999, this time in a lead role on Stark Raving Mad, opposite Neil Patrick Harris. However, the show didn't attract much of an audience, and NBC canceled the series in July 2000.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Monk

After a two-year absence from the small screen, Shalhoub starred in another TV series, Monk, in which he portrays Adrian Monk, a brilliant Sherlock Holmes-type detective with many compulsions and phobias, for USA Network. Shalhoub was nominated for an Emmy Award^[4] for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in eight consecutive years from 2003 to 2010, winning in 2003, 2005, and 2006. He also took the Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, in 2003.^[5]

[edit] During Monk

In addition to his acting work, Shalhoub, along with the Network of Arab-American Professionals and Zoom-in-Focus productions, established The Arab-American Filmmaker Award Competition in 2005. Arab-American filmmakers submitted screenplays, with the chosen winner flown to Hollywood to have their screenplay produced. Two runners-up were also invited to participate in the production.^{[citation needed]}

He appeared with Alec Baldwin in the 2004 Hollywood satire The Last Shot as a gruff small-time mobster with a love for movies, and as the voice of Luigi in the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars. The same year he appeared in Danny Leiner's drama "The Great New Wonderful" as a psychologist in post-9/11 New York City. The following year, 2007, he appeared in the 2007 horror film 1408 as well on stage off-Broadway as Charlie in The Scene.

He received a 2008 Grammy nomination in the category "Best Spoken Word Album for Children" for his narration of The Cricket in Times Square.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Shalhoub married actress Brooke Adams in 1992. The two have worked together in several films, and Adams has made several guest appearances on Monk, portraying several different side characters, including a flight attendant, the mother of a kidnapped violinist, a county sheriff, and a crazy cat lady. Shalhoub and Adams appeared on Broadway together in the 2010 revival of Lend Me a Tenor. At the time of their wedding, Adams had an adopted daughter, Josie Lynn (born 1989), whom Shalhoub adopted. In 1994, they adopted another daughter, Sophie (born 1993). The family resides in Los Angeles and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In 2006, Shalhoub's brother Dan appeared on the reality show American Inventor, pitching the Sha-Poopie, a catch-in-action pooper scooper.^[6] Judges rejected it. It later appeared in the 2009 Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Dog". Shalhoub is the cousin of Chicago radio personality Jonathon Brandmeier. He is also the brother-in-law of former Guiding Light actress Lynne Adams.^[7] His brother Michael Shalhoub is also an actor and made three guest appearances on Monk.

Filmography[link]

Motion pictures[link]

Television[link]

Video games[link]

Produced[link]

Directed[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tony Shalhoub

• Tony Shalhoub at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Shalhoub at the Internet Broadway Database
• 1st Annual Arab-American Film Maker Award 2005
• Star File: Tony Shalhoub at Broadway.com
• Interview with Tony Shalhoub in Venice Magazine
• Tony Shalhoub at Emmys.com

Ken Ludwig is an American playwright and theatre director.

Maimonides school Lend Me a Tenor

Born in York, Pennsylvania, Ludwig was educated at the York Suburban Senior High School, York PA Haverford College (Class of 1972), Harvard Law School, and Trinity College at Cambridge University. His first Broadway play, Lend Me a Tenor (1989), garnered him his first Tony Award nomination; his second was for Best Book of a Musical for Crazy for You (1992), which won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, LA Drama Critics Circle, Helen Hayes, and Laurence Olivier Awards as Best Musical. Other Broadway credits include Moon Over Buffalo (1995) with Carol Burnett and Lynn Redgrave (on Broadway) and Frank Langella and Joan Collins at the Old Vic in London, the book for a musical adaptation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2001), and a new adaptation of the classic Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play, Twentieth Century (2004) starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche.

Among Ludwig’s other works are Shakespeare in Hollywood, which was presented at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in 2003 and won the Helen Hayes’ Award for Best Play of the Year; Leading Ladies, premiered at The Cleveland Play House in 2004; Be My Baby, at the Alley Theatre in 2005, with Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter; and the completion of Thornton Wilder's adaptation of George Farquhar's Restoration comedy The Beaux’ Stratagem, staged at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 2006. Ludwig’s adaptation of The Three Musketeers opened at Bristol Old Vic in England in December 2006.

Ludwig's latest projects are an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, which premiered at the Alley Theatre in April 2007 and played at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket on London's West End in 2008, which won the AATE Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation of the Year. Another stage adaptation of the George and Ira Gershwin film An American in Paris, premiered at the Alley Theatre in Houston as "The Gershwins' An American in Paris" in May 2008.

Ludwig’s other plays include Sullivan and Gilbert, premiered by the National Art Center of Canada and the Kennedy Center, and Postmortem, which appeared off-Broadway.

Over the years, Ludwig has earned an Olivier Award, two Tony Award nominations, two Helen Hayes Awards, the Edwin Forest Award, and an honorary doctorate from York University.

In 2006, The Times called Ludwig “the purveyor of light comedy to Middle America. ...There is hardly a regional theatre in America that hasn’t a work of his scheduled.” His work has been performed in over 25 countries throughout the world, with translations into at least 16 languages.

Ludwig practiced law for several years with the Washington, D.C., firm of Steptoe & Johnson. He has lectured on drama at universities throughout the United States.

Ludwig, his wife, Adrienne George, and their children Olivia and Jack reside in Washington, D.C. His brother, Eugene Ludwig, was U.S. Comptroller of the Currency.

Plays by Ken Ludwig[link]

• Be My Baby
• Leading Ladies
• Lend Me a Tenor
• Moon Over Buffalo
• Postmortem (play)
• Shakespeare In Hollywood
• Sullivan and Gilbert
• The Fox on the Fairway
• Midsummer/Jersey
• The Game's Afoot

External links[link]

• Official website
• Internet Broadway Database listing
• Ken Ludwig at the Internet Movie Database

Michael Matus is a Czechoslovak sprint canoer who competed in the early 1990s. He won a bronze medal in the K-4 1000 m event at the 1991 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Paris.

References[link]

• ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 1: flatwater (now sprint): 1936-2007.
• ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936-2007.

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