A hilarious night at the theater! It is amazing how our Fountain Hills Theater keeps producing exceptional theater art. The Arizona Premier of Lend Me a Tenor, The Musical is the latest example.

And what a production it is. The opening night audience was laughing from start to end.

The Cleveland Opera has planned for a year to feature famous Italian tenor, Tito Merelli, as Pagliaccio, the clown. But Tito is a no show. The understudy is a disaster. The producer will go bankrupt if Tito does not perform. Desperate, he casts the production manager to fill in, even though he has never performed on stage before.

Tito finally shows up with his wife, played superbly by Alex Gonzalez and Amy Powers. They fight and make up, reminiscing over their former love in a very clever scene in which they sing with their younger selves, played by Griffin Siroky and Allyson Igielski, in Italian, complete with supertitles. Their four voices blend superbly.

Through a series of hilarious misadventures, Tito dies, or so they think. Dressed in Pagliaccio’s traditional clown suit, the production manager, played wonderfully by Michael Stewart, transforms into a star. The rest of the play involves three clowns, plus the whole cast entering and leaving through five doors as the whole mess is sorted out.

At one point, the diva does an impromptu audition for Tito. What a voice! Janine Smith jumps from one opera to another without missing a beat. Her performance is both classic comedy and outstanding opera.

The whole cast is dynamite, but Jenny Harrington as Maggie, and Roy Hunt as the producer, deserve special mention. Lend Me a Tenor is on stage Thursday through Sunday until July 10.