The Centenary University NextStage Repertory is looking to get lucky stiff.

The troupe is presenting Lucky Stiff April 27 through May 6 in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center. The Tony Award-winning writing team, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s, first produced show, Lucky Stiff, premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons.

Based on the novel, The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth, Lucky Stiff is an offbeat, hilarious murder mystery farce, complete with mistaken identities, six million bucks in diamonds and a corpse in a wheelchair. The story revolves around an unassuming English shoe salesman who is forced to take the embalmed body of his recently murdered uncle on a vacation to Monte Carlo. Should he succeed in passing his uncle off as alive, Harry Witherspoon stands to inherit $6,000,000. If not, the money goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn… or else his uncle’s gun-toting ex!

The production is directed by CSC Artistic Director & Centenary University Chairman of the Fine Arts Department, Carl Wallnau with choreography by Assistant Professor of Theater/Dance and director of CSC’s Young Audience Series, Lea Antolini-Lid.  Wallnau has directed numerous productions including the world premieres of Inventing Montana, The Tillie Project and The Poetry of Pizza, as well as, the American premiere of A Laughing Matter and the New Jersey premieres of Below the Belt, Square One, Rounding Third, and Marvin’s Room.  Antolini-Lid’s performance credits include most recently, The Learned Ladies, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins & A Christmas Carol all at Centenary Stage Company.  Other performance credits include, Floyd Collins and States of Independence at American Musical Theatre Works, The Importance of being Ernest at the New Repertory Theatre in Mass, and many recent productions at The Growing Stage Theatre Co, where she also choreographs and teaches.

Performances will be held on Friday, April 27 at 3:30 pm & 8 p.m. and Friday, May 4 at 8; Saturdays, April 28 and May 5 at 8; and Sundays, April 29 and May 6 at 2 p.m., as well as Thursday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children under 12.

Lucky Stiff  is being performed by NEXTstage Repertory, Centenary University Theater Department’s student based Performance Company under the auspices of the Centenary Stage Company.  NEXTstage Repertory provides students with the opportunity to perform along-side the production standard of a fully operational professional regional theater.  The Centenary University Theater Department has been in existence for 17 years and has continued to grow and expand, now boasting a musical theater concentration.  Students are able to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre with concentrations in Costume Design, Dance, Performance Studies, Production Management, Technical Theater and Musical Theater.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit centenarystageco.org or call the CSC box office at (908) 979 – 0900.  The box office is located in the Lackland Center; 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ.  Box office is open Monday through Friday from 1 – 5 pm and two hours prior to each performance.