“Lend Me A Tenor"

Celebrating it's 10th year of theater, Maurer Productions OnStage brings Ken Ludwig's Award Winning Comedy Farce "Lend Me a Tenor"to Kelsey Theatre February 20, 2015

West Windsor, NJ (January 9, 2015) – Maurer Productions OnStage is bringing Ken Ludwig's comedy Farce "Lend Me A Tenor" to the stage. This hilarious salute to the 1930's comedies will run at Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre in West Windsor, NJ February 20 - March 1, 2015. A public reception, with an opportunity to meet the cast and crew, will be held on opening night.

Produced by Maurer Productions OnStage (MPO), the company who brought Carol Burnett’s Hollywood Arms and Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor to Kelsey Theatre, Lend Me A Tenor is set in the 1930's. Saunders, the general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, is primed to welcome the world famous Tito Merelli, Il Stupendo, the greatest tenor of his generation, to appear for one night only as Otello. The star arrives late and, through a hilarious series of mishaps, is given a double dose of tranquilizers and passes out. His pulse is so low that Saunders and his assistant Max believe he’s dead. In a frantic attempt to salvage the evening, Saunders persuades Max to get into Merelli's Otello costume and fool the audience into thinking he's Il Stupendo. Max succeeds admirably, but Merelli comes to and gets into his other costume ready to perform. Now two Otellos are running around in costume and two women are running around in lingerie, each thinking she is with Il Stupendo. A sensation on Broadway and in London's West End, this madcap, screwball comedy is guaranteed to leave you teary-eyed with laughter.

MPO’s Artistic director, John Maurer, is helming this production. A versatile theatre producer and director whose credits include large scale musicals like Singin’ in the Rain, Man of La Mancha, Avenue Q and Monty Python's Spamalot, Maurer's first love is comedy.

“I am always comfortable doing comedy, helping people laugh is always a great joy. Give me a good script and some talented performers and we can make a wonderful evening's entertainment” says Maurer. After founding Maurer Productions OnStage with his wife, Diana, 10 years ago and one of the first major productions Maurer directed for the fledgling company was a small comedy call The Foreigner. The company now returns to it's Comedy roots with Ken Ludwig's "Lend Me A Tenor,"

The show’s cast features Andrew Timmes of Lawrenceville, NJ as Max, Alysia Toscano of Mercerville as Maggie, Peter Bisgaier of Princeton Jct as Saunders, Roman Sohor of Manalapan as Tito, Stephanie Zimmerman of Hamilton as Maria, Matthew Cassidy of Morrisville, PA as The Bellhop, Maria Aromando of Bridgewater as Diana and Laurie Hardy of Hamilton as Julia.

Maurer Productions OnStage will present Lend Me A Tenor. Fridays, February 20th and February 27th at 8pm, Saturdays, February 21st and February 28th at 8pm, and Sundays, February 22nd and March 1st, at 2pm in the Kelsey Theatre on the West Windsor Campus of Mercer County Community College. The college is located at 1200 Old Trenton Road. Free parking is available next to the theatre. To order tickets, go online at www.kelseytheatre.net, call 609-570-3333, or stop by the Kelsey Theatre Box Office. Tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors and $14 for students and children plus a $1 service fee. The Kelsey Theatre is wheelchair accessible. More information about this production of Ken Ludwig's Lend Me A Tenor can be found online at www.mponstage.com.