Broadway Meets Holyoke Street

But hard work is necessary for the most professionally run undergraduate production in the country.

"It's the closest thing to Broadway you can do during college," Sobol says.

Students have the benefit of working with a professional set artist, costume designer, band conductor and lighting manager (who is rumored, Grandy says, to have managed lights for both Prince and Bryan Adams concerts), not to mention a director and choreographer who danced together on Broadway in "A Chorus Line" in 1979.

"It's the best theatrical experience on campus," Siemens says. "It's the only [show] in which you get to work with professionals."

A "sizable" budget, as Sobol describes it, also allows for the most elaborate (and some of the weirdest) costumes you will see in Harvard theater.

"It's nice having a lot of money spent on us," says Wilson. "Having a costume designed for you is pretty cool."

The Perks

As an added benefit, members get the chance to meet--and maybe even do a couple of shots with--world famous movie stars during the Man and Woman of the year festivities. This year, The Pudding will also host a charity event for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation featuring Jack Lemmon.

And cast members are frequently asked to showcase their talents on television.

Two weeks ago, for instance, four of the cast members were featured on a news segment of Channel 4 doing a three minute number from last year.

"We did a song and dance," says Siemens, who got his wish this time and dressed as a woman for the segment. "I was by far the sexiest--I was told by males that I was hot."

And just to make sure they have something to look forward to, each year the cast heads down to Bermuda for five performances over spring break.

"Bermuda is about having a good time," Grandy admits.

In Bermuda, cast members say, anything goes. One actor describes the experience of riding through the streets of Hamilton on mopeds, in costume, during intermission; others talk in hushed tones about a famed "package night" in which some members of the band disrobe for part of the show.