A world premiere of what could be a Broadway-bound musical is one of the out-of-the-ordinary aspects of the 2007 Utah Shakespearean Festival season in Cedar City.

Others include opening-week guest appearances by playwright Ken Ludwig and the late Thornton Wilder's nephew, Tappan Wilder.

Festival director R. Scott Phillips and founder Fred C. Adams stopped by the Deseret Morning News recently to report on this season's highlights, and they're excited about the world premiere of "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical" and how things are shaping up for the other five productions.

This year's slate includes Thornton Wilder's classic "The Matchmaker" (the basis for "Hello, Dolly"), Shakespeare's rarely produced "Coriolanus" and George Bernard Shaw's witty romance, "Candida."

Also on the calendar this summer are two Shakespearean classics: "King Lear" and "Twelfth Night." (The latter will have additional matinee performances on Wednesdays and Saturdays in Southern Utah University's Auditorium Theatre.)

Two thespians with longtime connections to the festival — Peter Sham and Brad Carroll — have been collaborating on "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical," an adaptation of Ludwig's farce, for the past three years.

Sham has written the book and lyrics, and Carroll, who now lives in Cedar City, has composed the music. And another former festival colleague, Roger Bean, is directing the production.

"Peter had worked with Roger before and really wanted him to direct the show," said Adams. "The thing that's exciting about this is that it's a very, very clever and funny farce, and the musical improves on the original script."

Set in the mid-1930s, "Lend Me a Tenor" revolves around one chaotic night at the Cleveland Grand Opera House, where an Italian singer, Tito Merelli — "the world's greatest operatic tenor" — shows up just at curtain time but is unable to perform.

The comedy kicks into high gear with a stage-struck bellhop, the tenor's jealous wife, a scheming diva and a host of other characters.

Adams said that in the original comedy Tito ends up in an adulterous situation with the opera's leading soprano, but that has been deleted from this version. "Peter Sham had played the role previously, and he didn't feel right about it. Tito professes his love for his wife but still goes to bed with this floozy. It doesn't develop the plot and it's not part of the musical."

He also said he was impressed as he watched a run-through. "The opening number is taken directly from Verdi's 'Otello.' The voices in the chorus were ... well, I was taken aback."

Adams described the score as "brilliant." "If you can walk out of a musical and hum the melodies, then it's working." He added that there will be supertitles for the music sung in Italian.