By The Daily Progress Staff

Published: May 8, 2008

Four County Players will present “Lend Me a Tenor’’ at 8 tonight and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Barboursville Community Center.

Kenneth H. Waller will direct. The cast includes Chuck Beretz as Max, Bob Davis as Tito Merelli, Sunshine Manderbach as Maggie, Linda Waller as Maria, Mary Beth Wiley as Julia, Doug Schneider as Saunders, Kate Lambert as Diana and Gary White as Bellhop.

The Tony Award-winning farce, set in 1934, is full of mistaken identities, plot twists, innuendo and double entendres.

It revolves around famous tenor Merelli, known to his fans as “Il Stupendo.’’

He is scheduled to sing the lead in “Otello’’ as a fundraiser for the Cleveland Opera Company, but then he gets a Dear John letter from his wife, who mistakes an autograph seeker hidden in his closet for a secret paramour. The frazzled tenor takes tranquilizers to calm down and accidentally gets a double dose. He soon passes out.

Saunders, the general manager, is determined to see the show go on, so he gets his assistant, Max, to impersonate Merelli.

Looks like everything’s going just fine — until, in true farce fashion, the real tenor wakes up.

Waller has been seen on Four County’s stage in the shows “Miracle on 34th Street’’ and “1776.’’

Ken Ludwig’s farce opened in 1986 in the Globe Theatre on the West End, and it came to Broadway in 1989.

Fans will want to remember Four County Players while they’re making their dinner plans.

On May 22, the Lafayette Inn in Stanardsville will be having a “Cause Thursday’’ dinner to help the community theater.

Twenty percent of the evening’s proceeds will be donated to 4CP. Find out more by e-mailing . The restaurant is at 146 E. Main St. Reservations are encouraged at (540) 985-6345.