RUSSELL – Russell Community Theatre’s first musical in 12 years will be presented as the summer production. “Lucky Stiff” is by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (presented with special permission by Music Theatre International). Performances will be Aug. 1-5, with curtain at 8 p.m. Casting has been completed and rehearsals are underway. 

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, Anthony Hendon, played by Alan Templeton, in a wheelchair.

The story revolves around an unassuming English shoe salesman, Harry Witherspoon (Dalton Mauro), 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 million. If not, the money goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn, represented by Annabel Glick (Sydney Kraus), or to his uncle’s gun-toting ex, Rita La Porta (Erica Schultz). The cast is rounded out with Rita’s brother, Vinnie Diruzzio (Chris Venters), who unwillingly gets dragged into her mess; Luigi Gaudi (Todd Chance); and various additional roles filled by Brandon Fitzgerald, Teressa Roe, Deb Kreutzer, John Dumler and Deon Farmer.