Congratulations to Paul Reubens and the entire Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway (on HBO) company for getting a 2011 Emmy Nomination.

Straight from someone’s iPhone (ok, the quality isn’t that good…it’s probably a blackberry) is a photo from the Tug A War match between LEND ME A TENOR THE MUSICAL and LES MIZ.  Both shows met behind the Gielgud and Queen’s theatre for what was a wonderful match.  That’s because TENOR beat those revolutionary bastards… THREE TIMES!  GO TEAM TENOR!

Via Playbill: Pull up a Chairry, and turn on your Magic Screen. The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway, which was taped live at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in New York in January and debuted March 19 on HBO, will be released on DVD this fall.

Image Entertainment, Inc. will release The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway on Blu-ray and DVD in the fall in honor of the 25th Anniversary of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” A release date will be announced shortly.

HBO filmed the 90-minute intermissionless production following its final Broadway performance Jan. 2.

Marty Callner directed the new HBO special and also directed the first 1981 HBO special “The Pee-wee Herman Show.” The stage production was directed by Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson).

Today Elaine Paige, a highly acclaimed British musical theater actress (& the original Evita!), played our song “Be Yourself” on her BBC-2 radio program.  Her show has 3 million listeners, and Elaine said glowing things about our show, and encouraged her audience to go see it. Click the below link to listen:

Presenting the lovely new post-opening LEND ME A TENOR THE MUSICAL artwork to be featured in subways, advertisements, and ad-rails in London.

Lend Me A Tenor: The Musical at the Gielgud Theatre

By Edward Lukes | July 1, 2010

Edward Lukes gives credit where it is due. A musical farce is a tricky thing to pull off, but Lend Me A Tenor shows us how it’s done. The book is the important thing. Based on the play by Ken Ludwig, Peter Sham’s adaptation of a star tenor’s guest performance is as simple as a farce is able to be. Confused love affairs, disguises, behind-the-scenes dramas and onstage shenanigans at a Midwestern opera house are combined with ease and plenty of laughs.

Matthew Kelly takes the role of Henry Saunders, harassed opera impresario, in his stride. Michael Matus is the star singer with a believably great voice and the kind of Italian accent you only get on stage. This team knows there is only one thing funnier than an outrageous accent… another character faking an outrageous accent. Stepping into the tenor’s shoes is Damian Humbley as mild-mannered Max, who gets the show’s big tune, ‘Be Yourself’, just as he is going onstage to masquerade as the divo.

With its female leads, Lend Me A Tenor, also excels. Maggie (Cassidy Janson) is our ingénue, and the opera’s resident diva Diana DiVane (Sophie-Louise Dann) is the “not so ingen-new”. Both are infatuated with Tito the tenor for romantic and professional reasons: Maggie wants to borrow him for a fling before she settles down, leading to the show’s romantic title tune, DiVane sees him as a kind of bridging loan to the Met and has a show-stopping ‘audition’ number. The superb Joanna Riding plays Tito’s long-suffering wife with delightful comic timing.

This cast is so strong that the performers might seem somewhat wasted; it’s an enviable position for any production to be in. But a musical needs more – that special something that critics are loath to describe as ‘heart’, and Lend Me A Tenor is such an enchanting piece that it’s clearly in credit.

Opera Pastiche

By Warwick Thompson | June 30, 2011

There’s a different kind of summery fun to be had in the new light-as-froth musical “Lend Me a Tenor” by Peter Sham and Brad Carroll at the Gielgud Theatre.

Based on a 1986 comedy by U.S. farceur Ken Ludwig, it tells the story of a 1930s opera company in Cleveland whose imported Italian tenor goes AWOL just before a prestigious production of Verdi’s “Otello.” It’s a cue for a roster of toe-tapping Cole Porter-type numbers, a series of mistaken identities, some delicious operatic pastiches, and for a nerdy stage manager to grab the spotlight and win the girl.

Under Ian Talbot’s quickfire direction the performers give the impression that they’re making it all up on the spot, just as they should. The 1930s costumes and tap routines are a delight, and Paul Farnsworth’s set whips us from a plush hotel room to the opera stage in the blink of an eye.

Damian Humbley (Max Garber) and Michael Matus (tenor Tito Merelli) have terrific larynxes, and Sophie-Louise Dann shows off her operatic chops as an ambitious diva from hell.

There’s a decent laugh every 30 seconds. It’s just the sort of show that got America through the Depression, and do we ever need it now. Rating: ****

Reviewed by Michael Coveney | Independent
Tuesday, 21 June 2011

I loved Ken Ludwig’s operatic backstage farce when it was produced on this same stage (then the Globe) 25 years ago; and I love this new musical comedy adaptation – by unknown Americans Peter Sham (book and lyrics) and Brad Carroll (music) – even more.

Ian Talbot’s beautifully drilled production is a genuine surprise: a so-called summer filler that more than earns its keep and boasts three of the season’s outstanding West End performances.

These come from Matthew Kelly as Henry Saunders, the distraught manager of the Grand Opera House in Cleveland, Ohio; Damian Humbley as the modest understudy Max, who goes on as Otello when the Italian star, Tito Merelli (Michael Matus), takes an overdose; and Sophie-Louise Dann as Diana DiVane, a formidable diva nailing her man (she thinks) and stopping the show with a glorious operatic revue ragbag of Puccini, Bizet, Verdi and Wagner.

You get a fair dollop of Otello itself in the opening chorus before Tito’s delayed arrival, cunningly reworked with new lyrics. The rest is period pastiche – the year is 1934 – with foxtrot and waltz numbers for leaping bellboys and housemaids, and even a chase when three “Otellos” in black face are on the loose, pursued by lady members of the Opera Guild, all ex-wives of Henry.

It’s the 50th anniversary of the opera house, the Roosevelts are coming, but the shrimp buffet is turning green, and the heat is rising.

Max’s fiancée, Maggie, Henry’s daughter, sweetly done by Cassidy Janson, wants one last fling with Merelli, and Max in make-up, whose idea of fun is a round of crazy golf, has an unexpected chance to short-circuit her naughtiness as doors slam, Otellos proliferate and copulation thrives in the penthouse suite.

Sure, the whole shebang’s a bit of a throwback, but it’s fun and finished to a very high standard, with a purple and gold-leaf design by Paul Farnsworth, clever lighting by Tim Mitchell, joyously old-fashioned choreography by Randy Skinner, and a great little band under Colin Billing.

The score veers towards Lloyd Webber in one number but knows its modest place on the whole, probably policed by Joanna Riding’s strict and stylish occupation of bosom-fancying Merelli’s (“che meloni!”) betrayed and vengeful traveling spouse.

Lend Me A Tenor – The Musical

By Paul Vale | Thursday 16 June 2011

It was never going to be easy to turn a farce into a fully fledged musical. The breakneck rhythm of a farce does not sit easily with the required steady pace of a musical, but it has to be said that writer Peter Sham and composer Brad Carroll have come up trumps.

Carroll’s rich score references the giddy, gay and shamelessly sentimental Broadway of the thirties, complimented by Sham’s witty lyrics. A huge debt is owed to Ken Ludwig’s much-lauded 1986 original play, which aside from being a wonderful example of modern farce also brings with it a legion of devoted fans, who will no doubt spur on box office sales.

It is not, however, an evening without problems. The exposition scenes leading up to the arrival of the great operatic tenor, Tito Merelli, seem to drag rather than build anticipation, and Matthew Kelly, cast as Henry Saunders, hits the opening at a manic level, leaving nowhere for his character to go.

Upon Merelli’s arrival at the Cleveland Hotel the fun really begins with the hilarious, tongue-in-cheek ensemble For The Love Of Opera, exquisitely paced, choreographed and dressed by a creative team working as one.

Fears that Joanna Riding might be somewhat under-used are quite groundless. Riding has already proved herself an accomplished actress elsewhere, and here simply adds to her repertoire as a comedy-character actress playing the terse Maria Merelli.

Some of the more sublime musical highlights include the glorious tenor duet Be Yourself, in which Michael Matus as Merelli coaches the insecure Max to leading man status, a role Damian Humbley steps into with aplomb. While there is much door-slamming and mistaken identity in Act Two, there’s still plenty of room for Sophie-Louise Dann’s May I Have A Moment? – an opera audition par excellence – to bring the house down.

Lend Me A Tenor’s thirties pastiche might appear a little too stodgy for modern audiences, but this is by far and away the most accomplished musical comedy opening in the West End this season.