Michael Criscuolo

The thunderous ovation that occurs at the conclusion of the new Broadway revival of Ken Ludwig's now-classic farce, Lend Me a Tenor, is the kind usually reserved for an opera virtuoso or a showstopping bit of stagecraft, like a falling chandelier or an onstage helicopter. But the crackerjack cast of this latest Tenor earns their rapturous applause by using perhaps the most old-fashioned bit of showstopping stagecraft there is: superlative acting. Theirs is comic playing of the highest order, and their inspired, go-for-broke performances propel the audience to the heights of comic ecstasy.