Former Lawyer’s Hit Play, ‘Tenor,’ Makes S.D. Debut

“Lend Me a Tenor,” the story of a young assistant to the general manager of an opera company who dreams of becoming an opera star, was, in a way, the story of playwright Ken Ludwig’s own life.

Ludwig, a graduate of Harvard Law School, did not begin his career as an aspiring opera star, but rather as a practicing attorney who dreamed of becoming a playwright. He woke every morning at 4 a.m. to write, then donned his business suit at 8:30 and went to Steptoe & Johnson to work on entertainment contracts.

His fifth play, “Lend Me a Tenor,” succeeded beyond his wildest expectations. It went to the West End in 1986, where it was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and to Broadway in 1989 where it won two Tonys. He quit his law job and is now writing full time. For Hollywood, he penned the screenplay of “Lend Me a Tenor” for Columbia Pictures, and for Broadway he is now working on “Crazy for You,” a $7.5-million musical. The latter was inspired by “Girl Crazy,” and is built around published and unpublished George and Ira Gershwin songs. “Crazy For You” is set to open on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre Feb. 19.

The San Diego premiere of “Lend Me a Tenor,” produced by San Diego Actors Theatre, opened Wednesday at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse. It is also running at the La Mirada Theatre in Los Angeles through Nov. 24.

“I wanted to be in theater ever since I was 6 years old,” Ludwig, 41, said on the phone from his home in Washington. His mother had been a chorus girl in her 20s, but she left New York to marry Ludwig’s father and resettle in York, Pa.

When the Ludwigs went to New York to visit his mother’s parents, they went to the theater. Ludwig was hooked from the start, but his parents urged him to go to law school.

“My parents said, ‘How are you going to make a living as a playwright--at least this way you’ll have something to fall back on,’ ” he said.

His first two plays, “Abelard & Eloise,” and a comic murder-mystery, “Post Mortem,” received small productions by small companies. His next, “Joy in Mudville” is still in a drawer. “Sullivan & Gilbert,” a play about the relationship between the famous light opera comedy team, brought him his first brush with the big time when it was done first Off Broadway and then at the Kennedy Center.

But “Lend Me a Tenor” changed his life.

“It meant that people were coming to me with offers. It’s been heaven.”

And he’s even been able to put his legal training to good use. He’s one of the few playwrights who can double-check his own contracts after his agent gets through with them, he said.

The play, which has been described as farce, is set in an opera company in Cleveland in 1934, where the greatest tenor of his generation, called Il Stupendo, has been signed to open the 19th-anniversary season. The tenor, who arrives late, is a crazed, womanizing, heavy drinker with a hysterical wife who drives everybody crazy. Meanwhile, the assistant to the general manager dreams of filling in for the star.

Patricia Elmore, artistic director of the 6-year-old San Diego Actors Theatre, fulfilled a small dream of her own when she got the rights to the production in the only way that small, non-Equity, homeless companies can--through tenacity. She applied in January--before the rights were available. A month after they were released in June, she had them.

Elmore will star as the jealous Italian wife of Il Stupendo, who is being played by local actor Brian Salmon. The show runs through Jan. 12 at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse. For ticket information, call 268-4494.

“Elmer Gantry” will meet “Forever Plaid” at the Mandell Weiss Theatre Dec. 2 at 8 p.m.

This is no duel by competing shows, even though the two are running simultaneously: the La Jolla Playhouse’s “Elmer Gantry” has just been extended through Dec. 8, and the Old Globe’s “Forever Plaid” plays through Jan. 5.

It’s a cooperative venture, part of “Reverend Show Biz’s Travelling Salvation Society & Speakeasy Revue,” an AIDS benefit organized by the cast and band of “Elmer Gantry.” Michael Jeter, who won a Tony for “Grand Hotel” and is now a regular on the television series “Evening Shade,” will serve as master of ceremonies. The “Forever Plaid” foursome will sing a few numbers. The cast of “Elmer Gantry” will perform “On The Road,” and individual “Elmer Gantry” band and cast members, such as rock-and-roll singer Darlene Love, will perform solo.

Money raised will benefit Equity Fights AIDS and the San Diego AIDS Foundation. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased through the La Jolla Playhouse box office at 534-6760.

Blackfriars Theatre (formerly the Bowery) also will participate in the Equity Fights AIDS effort by designating half of its box office revenues from its Dec. 12 performance of “More of Laughing Buddha Wholistik Radio Theatre” to AIDS organizations. The theater will also donate all proceeds from a “fake” auction--including panties never worn by Madonna--to the cause.

The show will be at the theater’s Bristol Court Playhouse, formerly known as the Kingston Playhouse. Tickets, which cost $16, can be purchased through the Blackfriars box office at 232-4088.

PROGRAM NOTES: Michael Crawford, the actor who achieved fame with his portrayal of the phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera,” will perform in “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber” March 17-22, and Tommy Tune will star in “Bye Bye Birdie” April 20-25 both at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Both are part of a three-play San Diego Playgoers subscription package that kicks off with “M. Butterfly” at Copley Symphony Hall Jan. 1-5. . . .

The Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company has put together a high-powered cast of local favorites for its upcoming San Diego premiere of “The Heidi Chronicles,” opening Jan. 16, 1992. Old Globe veteran Lynn Griffin, who most recently appeared in “The Show-Off” will play Heidi, with a supporting cast of William Anton, Steve Gunderson, Judy Milstein, Shana Wride and Jeanne Stawiarski. Will Roberson directs.