LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- The spotlight will shine on the second production of the Rider University Theatre season next month when the University's top student thespians offer their version of Ken Ludwig's farcical comedy Lend Me A Tenor.

The show will be staged on two successive Friday and Saturday evenings -- February 19, 20, 26, and 27 -- in the Fine Arts Theatre on Rider's Lawrenceville campus. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. for each show.

Lend Me A Tenor first hit the big stage when it was presented by Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Globe Theatre in London in 1986. Three years later, it debuted on Broadway. Entirely set in a 1930s hotel room, the play begins as world-renowned Italian tenor Tito Morelli arrives in the United States for a fund-raising performance of Othello with the Cleveland Opera Company. Abounding in mirth and merriment, what follows is a "rollicking display of gimmicks and twists in this fast-paced farce, including an apparent suicide, a heroic impersonation, mistaken identities, secret connivings, double-entendres, amorous interludes, and other surprises," according to John Beaufort of the Christian Science Monitor.

Dr. Richard Homan, chairperson of Rider's department of fine arts, will direct a cast of eight and numerous backstage contributors in Rider's production.

"All the craziness of the plot develops because everybody involved -- from the opera company president, his daughter, Morelli's wife, and various people associated with the production -- wants something different from Morelli," said Dr. Homan, who has previously directed such Rider productions as Crazy for You, And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Threepenny Opera.

"The show has a cast of four men and four women and has a brilliant dialogue, so it offers a good opportunity for our students," he added. "No one person can be a star. It's all about teamwork, and there's never a moment where one person holds the stage by himself. It's constant give-and-take, passing it off to another person, keeping it moving, and developing a rhythm, which is typical of a farce."

Admission is $10 to the general public and $5 for faculty, staff, and students. A special preview performance is scheduled for Thursday, February 18, at 7 p.m., with tickets only available at the door for $4. Advance ticket information for all regular showings can be obtained by calling (609) 896-5303.

Rider University is located five miles south of Princeton and three miles north of Trenton on Route 206 in Lawrence Township, NJ. The campus is one-half mile south of exit 7A of Interstate 95.