A temperamental Italian opera singer and his voluble but long suffering wife, a scheming female, a romantically stalled couple and the manager of the fictional Cleveland Grand Opera combine (and collide) in Ken Ludwig’s high-energy, goofball farce Lend Me a Tenor, playing through Saturday, June 6, at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. Bob Christiansen directs.

It’s opening night of Verdi’s Otello with superstar tenor Tito Merelli (“Il Stupendo”), and though the ladies are all a-twitter, manager Henry Saunders (Jeff Laurence) is just this side of hysterical. It’s the name that sold the tickets, and Tito hasn’t arrived. This could be a disaster.

Meanwhile, Saunders’ factotum Max (Brian P. Evans) is having trouble getting Saunders’ pretty daughter Maggie (Robin Boyington) to say “yes”; she insists she wants to have “a fling” before settling down.

Everybody wants a piece of Tito, including Maggie, starry-eyed at the prospect of seeing again the star she’d met a few years back. Sexy soprano Diana (Angie Doren) hopes to use Tito’s influence as a springboard to the Met; even aging opera board member Julia Leverett (renee levine) has designs on a little of Tito’s time.

But when the man finally does show up, all he wants is a nap.

An hour, an ambiguous note from wife Maria (Teri Brown) and an accidental sleeping pill overdose later, Il Stupendo is splayed out on the bed – possibly even dead – and amateur tenor Max (Brian P. Evans) will don the Moor’s costume (and blackface) and sing the role.

Lend Me a Tenor combines elements of satire, romantic comedy, farce and musical and had at last count been translated into 16 languages and played in 25 countries. That’s no surprise, given these eight identifiable and very likable characters. The 1989 Broadway show received seven Tony nominations and won two, for director Jerry Zaks and actor Philip Bosco.

Christiansen gets the most out of his very capable cast. Even the bellhop (Matt Warburton) creates a featured role out of a near walk-on, with some entertaining pre-show schtick involving a feather duster.

But goofy situations, quick-change relationships and interesting wordplay (puns, double entendres, alliteration) are only part of the fun. This is about opera, after all, so at least some of these actors must also sing well. Evans and Rivas do a creditable bit from the famous Don Carlo duet; the bellhop breaks into the famous Figaro aria after flicking the feather duster – to great audience approval.

Rivas plays Tito with both relish and skill. The program notes indicate this is his favorite role (he played it at Coronado Playhouse a few years back with Christiansen directing) and he owns it.

Film actress Boyington does well in her first stage role as Maggie; Teri Brown is terrific as Tito’s annoyed wife Maria; Doren is a suitable siren of a soprano; Evans convinces as singer and actor, and Laurence’s growing exasperation amuses. Levine does what she can with the relatively thankless role of Julia.

Playwright Ludwig comes by his knowledge of the craziness of theater honestly: He’s also an entertainment lawyer who knows how to generate laughs. And right now those are in short supply.

Lend Me a Tenor plays through June 6, 2009 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 619-422-7787 or visit www.onstageplayhouse.org.

Arthur Miller searches the souls of his four characters in his mid-career play The Price. Less dramatic than his earlier classics Death of a Salesman and All My Sons, The Price is second-tier Miller; still, the version playing through June 14 under Old Globe auspices at the Copley Auditorium through offers enough to recommend it. Richard Seer directs.

Duty and ambition, family responsibility and the desire to follow one’s heart are embodied in the persons of two brothers, Victor (Andy Prosky) and Walter Franz (James Sutorius). Victor, a cop approaching retirement, gave up his dreams of college and a career in science to take care of their father, one of many broken in spirit by the Great Depression. Walter elected to leave home and continue his education, becoming a successful, even wealthy surgeon.

Resentment and guilt have estranged the brothers since that time. Now, 16 years after their father’s death, Victor feels it is time to sell his effects, jammed into the attic of a once-grand Manhattan brownstone. He has called aged furniture dealer Gregory Solomon (Dominic Chianese) out of retirement to look at the stuff. He has also tried unsuccessfully to call his brother. But Walter shows up unexpectedly, just as Victor and Solomon are about to seal the deal.

Victor’s wife Esther (Leisa Mather) is as resentful as Victor about the small scale of their lives (“It’s like we never were anything; we were always about to be”), and sees the sale of the furniture as a possibility for Victor to retire and change his life.

Miller wants us to consider price in both senses – cost and value (what you’re willing to give up). To help with the former, he gives us a gem of a character in the none-too-subtly named Solomon, an 89-year-old charmer and Russian refugee who was both vaudeville acrobat and British sailor before becoming a dealer in used furniture. Solomon provides both the wisdom implied in his name and the comic relief needed here, as he takes his time shuffling around, looking t each piece and driving Victor crazy by offering banter but not a price.

There are reveals on both sides, and Victor’s admission that “there are days when I can’t even remember what I got against you” offers hope that they can bridge the gap and put aside the resentment that separates them.

The Price is not vintage Miller; though these are compelling characters, the first act is slow and the second overwritten, almost repetitive. But good acting and high production values make it absorbing.

Robin Roberts’ cluttered set design is a wonder, resembling a messy showroom with furniture mobiles dangling from the ceiling. Chris Rynne uses lights to good effect, and Charlotte Devaux Shields has designed costumes appropriate to time (the 1960s) and place.

Chianesi’s Solomon never falls into caricature, speaking as much with his hands and gait as with words. Prosky and Sutorius are excellent, especially in their scenes together, and Mather is poignant as Esther, whose disappointment at her lot in life has turned her into a bit of a nag.

Walter wants absolution, Victor an apology, but Miller ultimately leaves us with the knowledge that regardless of circumstance, we must take responsibility for our own destiny.

The Old Globe’s production of The Price plays through Sunday, June 14, at the James S. Copley Auditorium, San Diego Museum of Art. Shows Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinées Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 619-12-GLOBE or visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.