Bluffton University will celebrate 100 years of May Day theatrical performances with five mini-shows in one from April 30-May 2.

Tickets are on sale for the May Day-weekend production of “The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!” an affectionate parody of musical theatre greats by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart.

Dr. Melissa Friesen, a professor and chair of communication and theatre at Bluffton, will direct the show, to be staged at 7:30 p.m. each evening in Founders Hall. Dr. Crystal Sellers Battle, an assistant professor of music, is musical director. Tickets, $15 for reserved seats and $5 for general-admission bleacher seats, are available online at http://tickets.bluffton.edu; for assistance with tickets, call the box office at 419-358-3239.

The show, which opened off-Broadway in 2003, incorporates five takes on the same basic plot—the young ingénue can’t pay the rent and is threatened by her landlord; will the handsome leading man come to her aid? Vignettes include “Corn,” in the style of Rodgers and Hammerstein; “A Little Complex,” Stephen Sondheim; “Dear Abby,” Jerry Herman (composer of “Hello, Dolly!” and “Mame”); “Aspects of Junita,” Andrew Lloyd Webber; and “Speakeasy,” Kander and Ebb (composers of “Cabaret” and “Chicago”).

Playing leading roles are Amanda Bartel, a junior from Iowa City, Iowa; Justina Fuqua, a first-year student from Ada, Ohio; Nathaniel Haas, a senior from Norton, Ohio; Aaron Johnson, a junior from Goshen, Ind.; Alicia Loch, a first-year student from Quakertown, Pa.; Kimberly Meyer, a sophomore from Defiance, Ohio; and Ashley Smith, a junior from Findlay, Ohio. Joining them are local residents Dan Basinger, a 1996 Bluffton graduate and vocal music teacher at Arlington Local Schools, and Dan Stanowick, a former university staff member and veteran of many campus and other area shows.

Chorus members are current sophomores Megan Croyle, from Wadsworth, Ohio; Miriam Fike, from Lima, Ohio; and Amanda Hunt, from Navarre, Ohio; plus Emma Eickholt, a first-year student from Ottoville, Ohio.

Shannon Thiebeau, a senior from St. Marys, Ohio, is the stage manager, while Chad Stearns ‘00, a Lima resident who has been with national touring shows as musical director, is pianist and rehearsal accompanist. Mervin Schrock and Joan Bauer, both from Findlay, are technical director and costume designer, respectively.