Act I

As the play opens, Henry Saunders, general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, is anxiously awaiting the arrival of Tito Merelli, a world-famous Italian opera tenor, known as "Il Stupendo" to his many fans. Merelli is coming to Cleveland to sing the lead role in a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Otello. It's the biggest event in the Cleveland Opera's history. A sellout crowd and the members of the Cleveland Opera Guild will be at the opera house that evening to see the great Merelli.

Saunders' harried assistant, Max, has been charged with seeing to Merelli's needs, and with getting Merelli to the opera house in time for the performance. Maggie Saunders, Henry's daughter and Max's sometime-girlfriend. is also on hand and is a fan of Tito Merelli, and hopes to meet him

When Tito finally arrives he is accompanied by his hot-tempered Italian wife, Maria, who is jealous because Tito flirts with other women. When she finds Maggie hiding in the bedroom closet, trying to get Tito's autograph, Maria angrily assumes she is Tito's secret lover and leaves the hotel, leaving Tito a goodbye note.

Trying to calm him down before the performance, Max gives Tito a tranquilizer-laced drink not realizing that he has already taken a tranquilizer.

When Tito returns to the bedroom, he finds Maria's note. Horrified that his wife has left him, Tito goes into a fit of passion and tries to "kill himself" with various non-lethal objects. Max manages to calm Tito down, and has him lie down on the bed for a rest.

Later, Max is unable to wake Tito from his nap. Max finds an empty medicine bottle and Maria's "Dear John" letter, "By the time you read this, I will be gone.". Max mistakenly thinks Tito has committed suicide. When Saunders arrives, Max tearfully tells him that Tito is dead.

Saunders is furious. The opera performance will have to be cancelled, and the audience will demand their money back. It will be a disaster for the Cleveland opera, and for Saunders himself.

Desperate, Saunders comes up with a plan. Since no one else knows that Tito is dead, Max will step into the Othello role and pretend to be Tito. Wearing Tito's costume and makeup, Max will star in the opera performance. The audience will never know that it is not Tito Merelli, and they can announce Tito's death tomorrow morning. Max reluctantly agrees to the plan and heads to the theatre dressed as Othello, in a costume, wig, and makeup. As the curtain falls on Act One, Tito wakes up in the bedroom.

Act II

As the second act opens, Max's performance as Othello was a huge success, and no one suspected that he was not Tito. on theirreturn to the hotel suite Saunders gets a phone call, telling him that the police are looking for "a lunatic dressed as Othello, who thinks he's Tito Merelli and tried to force his way into the opera house, hitting a policeman and running away.

As Saunders goes downstairs to handle the police. Max returns to the bedroom, but is shocked to find Tito is missing from the bed. Still wearing his Othello costume, Max leaves the hotel suite and runs to find Saunders.

A few seconds later, Tito Merelli returns to the hotel suite, also dressed as Othello, in a costume, wig, and makeup. Frantic and on the run from the police, Tito is even more confused when other characters in the play show up to congratulate him on his "magnificent performance" as Othello.

For the rest of the play, Max and Tito -- who are identical in their Othello costumes and makeup -- are repeatedly mistaken for each other, as they alternately run in and out of the hotel suite. Max is mistaken for Tito, and Tito is mistaken for Max by Saunders. Also, Tito and Max both find themselves being romantically pursued by Maggie Saunders, and by Diana, the Cleveland Opera's sexy and ambitious soprano. Eventually, Diana seduces Tito in the bedroom, while Maggie simultaneously seduces Max (whom she thinks is Tito) in the living room.

At the end of the play, things are sorted out. Maria returns to the hotel and makes up with the bewildered Tito, while Max manages to step into the bathroom long enough to change out of his Othello costume and wig, and emerge as himself. Tito and Maria leave together, Saunders accompanies Diana to a downstairs reception. Maggie realizes that not only was Max the "Tito" that she made love to, he was also the "Tito" who sang so passionately in tonight's opera performance. As the play closes, Max and Maggie share a kiss.