It Ain't Over?

I wouldn't call Ken Ludwig's Lend Me A Tenor a modern classic, but it's a good-enough farce when performed properly. It was a success in the West End and then Broadway back in the 1980s, and has been playing around the world ever since.

I didn't think there was a big call for a revival, so I was surprised to see a new Broadway production, which opened last Sunday. Directed by Stanley Tucci, the cast features Tony Shalhoub and Anthony LaPaglia. I figured I'd check out The New York Times' take to see how well it might do (though actually Frank Rich didn't find the original Jerry Zaks' production that funny).

The news isn't good: "...the heady ether of prime farce never materializes in this labor-intensive but laugh-deficient evening." Critis Charles Isherwood's main problem seems to be with the play itself:

...a certain amount of inanity is an accepted ingredient in farce, but you could handily herd the entire cast of “Aida,” elephants and all, through the holes in Mr. Ludwig’s labored plot. Nor is there much authentic wit in the dialogue, with most of the jokes centering on the usual lusts and bodily functions.

So what's the problem, the play, the production (a poor production can make any play look bad) or Isherwood? With a notice like this, I suppose the show will close before many people can find out.

PS Here's a curious paragraph from Isherwood:

Even the central comic device — the two Otellos — strikes a sour note in the age of Obama. Is it really so amusing that Max and Merelli, of wildly different body types and voices, would suddenly be perceived as interchangeable simply by putting on blackface and a fright wig?

Isherwood is the one who's off here. How would the "age of Obama" change anything? What exactly was okay the New York audiences in 1989 that isn't acceptable now? In any case, this is farce, where disguises are common, and either the makeup and wig bit works or it doesn't, regardless of who's President.