Theatre Macon kicks off season with comedic hit

Comedy and opera come together in an award-winning mix to kick off Theatre Macon’s 31st season.

“Lend Me A Tenor” is set in a deluxe hotel in 1934 Cleveland, Ohio, where the local opera guild has landed a world-famous tenor to appear for one night.

“The play takes place all in one evening and it centers around mistaken identities,” said Jim Crisp, artistic director for the theater. “It’s such an audience pleaser and I like to open the season with a bang — something that is really fun and light and entertaining.”

The show was written by Ken Ludwig — a lawyer who loved theater — and premiered on Broadway 31 years ago.

“This was his first attempt at writing a play and it was a huge international success,” Crisp said. “It was an immediate hit, a huge hit and immediately after it finished its run in New York, every community theater and college across the country grabbed it up and did it because good, new comedies are so rare.”

Theatre Macon did the show 14 years ago and Crisp has been waiting for a good time to bring it back.

“In recent years, I’ve wanted to go back to it because we had so much fun and again because finding good, new comedies is difficult,” Crisp said. “I looked at our talent pool and I thought, ‘Gee, we’ve got the people to do this show again.’ ”

He said the cast is a good mix of veterans, including two actors who are stepping up from smaller roles into major roles for this production.

“It’s a great cast for a great show,” Crisp said.

The theater is trying a couple of new things this season. They cut the Wednesday night performances and added a second matinee for the closing weekend.

The Thursday night performances will have microphones on all of the actors — something the theater already did for musicals but not regular productions. The theater also added more hearing assisting devices, which are available in the inner lobby.

“We’ve not been good about letting people know we have it,” Crisp said. “Patrons who have used them have really liked them.”

One thing that will not change is the complimentary white wine and coffee at intermission.

“We’re doing everything we can do to entice our audience and to encourage our audience and to serve our audience and do things we think they will appreciate and make coming to the theater more convenient and more appealing,” Crisp said.

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Theatre Macon kicks off season with comedic hit."