Comic Opera Guild will open its 40th season with Karl Hoschna’s 1910 Broadway hit "Madame Sherry" at the Vitosha Concert Hall Oct. 20 and 21, in concert format. The series has been responsible for more than 50 recordings of American musicals and operettas since 2003.

The Guild has assembled a cast of 18 singers for this revival. It will join the Guild’s impressive list of recordings, which also includes Hoschna’s "Three Twins," performed in 2006.

The original "Madame Sherry" opened in London, but when it opened again on Broadway it became a much bigger success, with a brand new score and script. The show ran for 231 performances in its initial run. It includes the hit songs “Any Little Movement” and “Put Your Arms Around Me Honey.”

Hoschna (1876-1911) was a Tin Pan Alley-era composer most noted for his songs “Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine,” “Every Little Movement” and “Yama Yama Man,” as well as for a string of successful Broadway musicals. Hoschna was a fine melodist, and his work was characterized by great charm. His death at 34 left unanswered how he would have developed.

Lyricist Otto Harbach’s story is a situation comedy set in Paris. Edward Sherry runs a dancing academy, funded primarily by his uncle Theophilus, a wealthy man who dabbles in Greek architecture. To keep the money coming, Edward has sent letters to his uncle describing his wife Eusabia and his brilliant children Scholastica and Spaminondas (they had to be Greek names, of course). In reality, he is still single, and doesn’t manage money all that well.

When Uncle Theo makes a surprise visit, Edward enlists the aid of his cleaning lady Catherine to play his wife, and his dancing instructor Lulu and her boyfriend Leonardo to play his children. Complicated by Leonardo’s hotheaded ex-fiancee Pepita and Catherine’s jealous husband Phillippe, things do not go as planned. In the end, all these characters brought together on Theo’s yacht find a way to make things end relatively happily.

Performances of "Madame Sherry" are scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 20 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. at the Vitosha Haus Concert Hall, at 1917 Washtenaw in Ann Arbor. Tickets, which will be available at the door, are $15 ($12 for students and seniors); to order tickets with a credit card, call 734-763-TKTS (8587); online, visit mutotix.com.