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.

The festival commissioned "Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical." If it goes on to Broadway, London or elsewhere, the festival will receive 5 percent of the royalties for the next seven years. (Samples and snippets of some of the music are available online at www.bard.org/news/audio.html.)

Phillips and Adams hope to have a cast recording available sometime during the summer.

Here's a glimpse at the other five mainstage USF productions this summer:

• CORIOLANUS is directed by Henry Woronicz, who has been associated with the festival as both director and actor over the past several years, in addition to 11 years as resident actor and director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Previously in Cedar City, Woronicz directed "As You Like It" in 2002 and "The Taming of the Shrew" in 2004, when he also played the title role in "Macbeth" and was Dr. Bradman in "Blithe Spirit."

"You're going to be surprised and find yourself enjoying 'Coriolanus' and not expecting to," said Adams. "The fellow playing the title role is Jamie Newcomb, who is new to the festival but not a newcomer to the stage. He spent nine seasons in Oregon and has worked with the Denver Center Theatre and South Coast Rep in California. He's a really gifted actor with language and text. He's a relatively small guy but very strong vocally. He will chew up the scenery."

Woronicz is shifting the time period from ancient Rome to the Renaissance, which he hopes will make it more stimulating.

Leslie Brott, who has performed at the festival over the past 12 seasons, will play Coriolanus' headstrong, domineering mother, Volumnia, who. like her son, is a force to be reckoned with.

• THE MATCHMAKER, Thornton Wilder's 1955 comedy about a scheming matchmaker who is hired to find a new wife for widowed businessman Horace Vandergelder, is directed by Roger DeLaurier. Younger theatergoers probably know the plot best from its 1964 musical version, "Hello, Dolly!"

Wilder's nephew, Tappan, will be coming to Cedar City for the opening, according to Adams. "He sent us a copy of Wilder's original script, where the final line had been changed. Tappan Wilder's daughter loves the outdoors and comes to Utah every summer to hike."

Adams and Phillips hope to have a display at the theater showing the page from the script with the revised final line.

Leslie Brott will play Dolly Levi, with Dan Kremer as Vandergelder. (Kremer will also be seen in the title role of "King Lear.")