Hello! My Baby received a developmental staging at the Village Theatre's 11th annual Festival of New Musicals in August. It incorporates songs by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, George M. Cohan and more. The show had a developmental world premiere at Goodspeed Musicals Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, CT, in fall 2011.

Brian McDonald stages the production that will officially open March 24 and continue through April 15 at the Rubicon in Ventura, CA. It will then transfer to the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, May 4-6.

The cast includes George Wendt ("Cheers," Hairspray) and Kristine Zbornik (A Catered Affair, 9 to 5) in featured roles as song publishers Bert and Ethel Coots. The cast is led by Ciaran McCarthy as Mickey McKee and Evie Hutton as Nellie Gold.

Completing the cast are Jordan Kai Burnett, McKenna Kylie Tedrick, George Ball, Will Sevedge, Lilli Babb, Harley Jay, Zach Johnson, Erick Paul, Ixchel Lopez, Tad Murroughs, Rich Hoag, Jeremy Lucas, Allison Paraiso, Teya Patt, Neil Starkenberg, Lauryn Tillery and Carly Wielstein.

Here's how the musical is billed: "Set in the early part of the last century on the sidewalks of New York, the story follows Mickey McKee, King of the Song-Pluggers, who dreams of writing the next Tin Pan Alley million-selling hit song. Only problem is Mickey can't write a note — until he meets Nelly Gold, a factory worker with a talent for tunes and moxie to spare. Mickey and Nelly make beautiful music together until she puts on the trousers she once sewed, calls herself Ned, and becomes the new King of the Pluggers and Mickey's arch-rival. These mismatched young lovers and their unlikely friends sing, dance, bicker, and coo from Debutante Balls to Delancey Street, confronting class struggles, social reform, gender-swapping, street-thugs, and a whole lot of ukuleles, as they sell the songs we're still humming a hundred years later." Lloyd Cooper is musical director, with Lee Martino as choreographer. The creative team includes Craig Safan (arranger orchestrator), William Keeler (dramaturg), Thomas S. Giamario (set designer), Jeremy Pivnick (lighting designer), Marcy Froehlich (costume designer) and Jonathan Burke (sound designer).

For tickets visit RubiconTheatre.org.