Photo Flash: A COMEDY OF TENORS Comes to Hampton Theatre Company

"A Comedy of Tenors"-Ken Ludwig's uproarious follow-up to his Tony Award-winning smash hit sendup of the opera world, "Lend Me a Tenor"-will be the first play of the Hampton Theatre Company's 2018-2019 season, opening on October 25 at the Quogue Community Hall and running through November 11.

Featuring several characters from "Lend Me a Tenor" and set in a hotel suite in 1930s Paris, "A Comedy of Tenors" follows the fortunes of four tenors, two wives, and three girlfriends as they struggle hilariously with outsize egos, mistaken identities, bedroom hijinks and madcap antics in preparation for a concert at a soccer stadium filled with impatient screaming fans.

"From conception to execution, everything about 'A Comedy of Tenors' hits on all comedic cylinders and, as advertised, is laugh-out-loud funny," a critic for The News-Herald wrote in a review of the world premiere production at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ in October 2015.

Other rave reviews for the fast-paced comedy include: ""Ken Ludwig is a comedic genius ... A Comedy of Tenors is full of non-stop hilarity"; and "Sometimes, whether through divine intervention or the heights of human inspiration, art is elevated to a higher level and becomes transcendent. Evidence of this can be found in the masterworks of Monet, Mozart, Michelangelo and, now, Ludwig."

Playwright Ken Ludwig's first Broadway play, "Lend Me a Tenor" (1989; HTC 1993)-called "one of the two great farces by a living writer" by Frank Rich in the New York Times-won three Tony Awards and was nominated for nine. His second Broadway and West End production, "Crazy for You" (1992), ran for over five years and won the Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, LA Drama Critics Circle, Helen Hayes Award, and Laurence Olivier Awards as Best Musical.

Other Broadway and regional credits include "Moon Over Buffalo" (1995; HTC 2008); a new adaptation of the classic Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play, "Twentieth Century" (2004); "Shakespeare in Hollywood" (2003); and "Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery" (2015), among many others.

The cast of "A Comedy of Tenors" features six actors who have appeared in previous HTC productions and one newcomer to the Quogue stage. HTC veterans include: Edward Brennan in the role of Tito; Matthew Conlon as Max; Terrance Fiore as Saunders; Amanda Griemsmann as Mimi; Catherine Maloney as Maria; and Cesa Pledger as Racon. Making his debut in Quogue is Connor Antico, in the role of the young tenor, Carlo.

Diana Marbury directs. Set design is by Sean Marbury; lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski; and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.

"A Comedy of Tenors" runs at the Quogue Community Hall from October 25 to November 11 with shows on Thursdays and Fridays at 7, Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 2:30. An additional matinee performance will be offered on Saturday, November 10, prior to the 8 p.m. performance that evening.

The Hampton Theatre Company will again be offering special dinner and theater packages in collaboration with the Westhampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays and Quogue libraries. Offered in association with the Quogue Club at the Hallock House, a special lunch and theater package is available for the Saturday matinee on November 10. For information about all packages and available discounts, visit www.hamptontheatre.org or email info@hamptontheatre.org. Additional information about library dinner and theater packages is also available through the libraries.

To reserve tickets, visit www.hamptontheatre.org, or call OvationTix at 1-866-811-4111.

Photo Credit: Tom Kochie

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