STAGE WEST: "Lend Me a Soprano" at Scripps Ranch Theatre

Britania Cortez (left) and Leigh Akin in "Lend Me a Soprano."                                   Photo by Ken Jacques

            Nobody does doors better than Ken Ludwig. He writes them to be flung open, slammed closed and flown through as fast and frantically as the actors in the casts of his plays can open, slam and fly.
            These feats of physicality were a major portion of the fun of the playwright’s ‘80s comedy “Lend Me a Tenor,” about a Cleveland opera company and the chaos that ensues when welcoming the world-famous “Il Stupendo” to its stage. It all takes place in a many-doored hotel suite.
            Here we are 40 years later with Scripps Ranch Theatre’s production of Ludwig’s 2022 “Lend Me a Soprano,” about a Cleveland opera company and the chaos that ensues when welcoming the world-famous Elena Firenzi to its stage. It all takes place in a many-doored hotel suite.
           Deja vu? Understandably. Sequel? Not technically. Ludwig may be repurposing his premise and the madcap goings-on, but there’s one big change from “Tenor” to “Soprano”: The principals are women. Besides the sexy and temperamental Elena (Britania Cortez at Scripps Ranch), at the forefront are the Cleveland Grand Opera Company’s blustering manager Mrs.Wylie (Wendy Waddell); the fussy Opera Guild chair Julia (Bobbi Randall); an over-eager bellhop (Hayden St. Clair); and “Lend Me a Soprano’s” sweet, sympathetic and quite-funny-in- her-own-right protagonist Jo (Leigh Akin). She’s tasked with assisting Mrs. Wylie (that alone deserves a big honkin’ raise) and in the story with making sure the wild and unpredictable Elena shows up for the sold-out evening’s performance.
             Scripps Ranch’s “Lend Me a Soprano” is directed by Kate Rose Reynolds who’s ensured that the production’s antics are frantic but never completely careen off the tracks. Most of the laughs in the show stem from physical comedy, double-takes and wide-eyed stares of incredulity. Oh, and those doors that somehow the awkward stage accommodates. (Nice going, set designer Dixon Fish.)
 As things go awry on opening night, Jo must fill in for Elena (that’s as much as I’ll give away) both during the performance and, offstage, interacting with all the others in the story, including three amorous men. The mistaken identity ruse strains believability. But if you want to quibble about that you could make a case that Shakespeare himself didn’t expect total suspension of disbelief the many times he employed it.
            I’ll bestow upon “Lend Me a Soprano” no end of credit for this: As someone who neither appreciates nor particularly enjoys opera, I was engaged and even lulled by the bits of it that are sung in this show. I’m not qualified in any way to judge, but both Akin and especially Cortez more than acquit themselves. Each has experience in the idiom, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
           Cortez is a magnetic presence onstage, both singing and performing the comic shtick required of “Lend Me a Soprano.” The Act One scene in which she’s demonstrating to Akin how to put your whole body and soul into opera singing is the production’s money moment.
          It’s Akin who anchors “Lend Me a Soprano” in its particular arena of reality with her comic timing and a restraint that not everyone in the cast exercises. She’s also the yin to Cortez’s yang, which makes the whole shebang work.
         I should reiterate that there are men in the story – Elena’s exasperated husband Pasquale (Durwood Murray), Jo’s boyfriend Jerry (Dennis Peters), who’s more starry eyed for the Elena he idolizes than for Jo, and Leo (Marcel Andre Ferrin), the Cleveland company’s tenor who has hot pants for Elena – and probably would for any woman. Ferrin’s part is the plum of the three; so’s his performance.
           If ever there was a forget-your-troubles show, “Lend Me a Soprano” is it. You might even forget that you’re not wild about opera.
            “Lend Me a Soprano” runs through May 17 at Scripps Ranch Theatre, located on the campus of Alliant International University.