"It's never too late to fall in love."

The lyric comes from a song in the Penn State School of Theatre's musical The Boy Friend.

There is a preview of the show at 8 tonight in the Playhouse Theatre.

Tickets for the preview are $10.

The regular performances run at 8 p.m. tomorrow through Feb. 25, and tickets are $14.

The show is a 1920s satire that centers on a young English heiress who falls in love with a delivery boy on the French Riviera.

The show incorporates themes of romance and humor performed through song and dance.

The tone of The Boy Friend will brighten up a season of darker performances in the School of Theatre, Dan Carter, director of the School of Theatre, said.

"We picked the Boy Friend because of the period style involved and to balance the season," Carter said. "We're doing a very dark play in the Pavilion [Theatre] right now, and The Boy Friend is very light, so they're sort of the 'yin and the yang.' It's a good opportunity for lots of students to use nice, bright, wonderful costumes and scenery and have lots of dancing and tuneful songs."

Richard Sabellico, the musical's guest director and choreographer, traveled from New York to be involved in this production and has directed productions of The Boy Friend four times before.

Sabellico also directed the play Anything Goes at Penn State in 2002.

"The whole theatre program is vastly superior in 2006 than it was in 2002," Sabellico said. "This is an extremely gifted group of students. It's easier, since most of them are playing [people] their own age."

The cast consists of 18 members, who are all majoring in theatre.

There are three men and three women in the ensemble, and the rest are primary characters.

"I actually have never done a large musical before, so this is extremely new and different for me," said Erin Roberts (graduate-theatre arts), a member of the cast. "It's a very heavy dance show and required a lot of choreography and a lot of time with that, so I've been really impressed with the work the undergrads have done."

The Boy Friend is cast member Morgan Faulkner's (sophomore-theatre arts) first show at Penn State, since she recently transferred here.

"We have an amazingly talented cast, and it was a very good experience working with directors from the professional world," Faulkner said. "Everything's run very smoothly, and I think we are going to produce a fantastic show."

With nightly four-hour rehearsals, the cast has had the chance to develop close bonds with each other, Lisa Rohinsky (junior-musical theatre) said.

"It helps with our characterization," Rohinsky said. "It makes out connection with the other actors on stage genuine because we do really like each other."

Sabellico said The Boy Friend as "a loving homage to the era, played with the distinctive style of the period." The play is not like other musicals because it actually parodies the musical genre of theater.

"It kind of just captures the essence of 1920s musicals and also kind of laughs at what 1920s musicals were," Faulkner said. "It's definitely the opposite end of the spectrum from a serious show."

A parody poses challenges when trying to stay true to the acting, Roberts said.

"I think that it's kind of hard that way because the acting has to be real and grounded, but because it's such a parody, you have to go over the top with it," she said. "I think it's been a good lesson for all of us to sort of keep one foot in the real and the other sort of above and beyond."