Making of a Musical

Today: Cedar City, Utah. Tomorrow: The Great White Way?

Well, maybe not tomorrow.

But the world premiere of "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical" at this summer's Utah Shakespearean Festival has many predicting a boffo future for the musicalization of Ken Ludwig's madcap farce, which details the pandemonium surrounding a world-famous tenor's appearance with a Depression-era Cleveland opera company.

After all, it's only "the most successful (stage) comedy in the last 20 years -- in the world," notes lyricist and librettist Peter Sham.

Sham, a 10-year festival performer, wrote the musical with composer Brad Carroll, who's directed seven previous festival productions, including his 2006 collaboration with Sham, "A Christmas Carol: On the Air."

Artistically, the world premiere represents "an exciting thing" for the Tony-winning festival, according to founder Fred Adams, because it means the festival will make "some sort of contribution to American theater."

Granted, "it's not 'Hamlet,' it's not the great American tragedy," he acknowledges. "But we are adding to the reservoir artistically."

And "with the kind of buzz it's getting in theatrical circles," says festival director R. Scott Phillips, "all of a sudden, people are talking about Cedar City" as a place to develop new works.

Despite "Lend Me a Tenor's" title and music-related setting, Ludwig never considered the possibility of a musical version before Sham and Carroll came calling, he says.

Now that they've done just that, Ludwig's "received a number of requests to make it a musical," he notes. But he says he's glad he entrusted the adaptation to the Utah Shakespearean Festival team.

"In all honesty, it's one of the best decisions I've ever made," Ludwig comments.

Not that Sham and Carroll could have done it without Ludwig -- and his "extraordinary generosity," Sham admits.

At their first meeting with the playwright, Ludwig "told us to take it apart," Sham recalls. "We were shocked."

But, says Ludwig, "it's very important to make it your own."

Sham and Carroll's "taking apart" process included some key changes in some characters' actions -- changes that suited Ludwig just fine.

Being granted such artistic license by the original playwright "was an amazing feeling," Sham admits. "We were off the ground -- but we were petrified."

Sham and Carroll spent about 2 1/2 years adapting Ludwig's play and putting it to music that reflects the show's twin influences of opera and '30s popular music. (Think Verdi meets Gershwin.)

Before committing to the project, however, Utah Shakespearean Festival administrators had to decide whether to devote one of six summer-season slots to an untried and untested show -- albeit one based on an international stage smash. (Proving once again that slamming doors need no translation.)

After hearing five of the songs and reading a script outline, however, festival officials "gave them the green light," recalls Adams.

"It was a daring undertaking on our part," Phillips adds, citing the problems of promoting a new musical without a built-in recognition factor.

And it was indeed a risk, Ludwig insists.

"They've gone out on a limb," he says of festival officials who decided to produce the new musical. "This was a very difficult, risky, time-consuming project."

Not that the creators had all that much time, Carroll notes.

"Normally, a show previews for two to three weeks," he says, which allows the creative team time to rewrite, restage and rethink the piece in front of an audience.

For this production, however, "we had two previews," Carroll points out -- enough time to make "substantial changes."

For example, an entire musical number "was cut at the last minute -- before the first preview," Carroll says.

"It was a great number, but it just didn't move the plot along," says Jered Tanner, who play's "Tenor's" beleaguered other tenor, Max.

"Anytime Peter or Brad would pat you on the shoulder" during rehearsal, performers knew changes were in the air, according to Tanner.

At times, Tanner worried he "just wasn't singing it right, but it was about getting it right on their end."

At this point, the creative minds behind "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical" have gotten it right -- right enough to ponder the show's future, now that the Cedar City production has demonstrated it has one.

"It has legs," says Tanner, who's convinced the show "will have a successful life in regional theaters."

And, possibly, beyond.

Producers of such Broadway hits as "Wicked," "The Producers" and "The Drowsy Chaperone" have seen "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical" and told festival officials, " 'Don't sign a contract with anyone until you've heard from us,' " Adams reports. "I have such a strong feeling this is going to succeed. It stands a strong chance of a successful Broadway run."

Even if the show doesn't make it all the way to Broadway, any future productions will benefit the festival as a whole.

For the next seven years, anytime a theater produces "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical," the Utah Shakespearean Festival will receive a percentage of the royalties -- along with recognition as its first home, Phillips explains.

Those royalties would "significantly" impact the festival's bottom line, according to Adams. (New York's Public Theater, for example, is "in the black forever," Adams points out, because it was the launching pad for the legendary musical "A Chorus Line.")

Should that come to pass, "we'd probably put every bit into an endowment," Adams says, "so it would go on forever."

Despite all the speculation, Sham and Carroll are "staying in the present," watching what works -- and doesn't work -- during this summer's performances so they can make appropriate changes the next time "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical" hits the stage.

"It's nice to fantasize about, but there's no prescription for how this is done," Carroll says of the show's prospects. "It's got to be about the work. It can't be about some pipe dream."