Given the strangely coincidental ties that Eastern Michigan University theater professor Ken Stevens has to the musical “Little Me” — with a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh — it’s a little surprising to learn that EMU’s current production is his first crack at the show.

For in 1962, when Stevens was graduating from high school, and “Little Me” was slated for its Broadway premiere, he accompanied a friend who wished to audition for the show. (“It was a disaster,” said Stevens. “He didn’t get it.”) But Stevens enjoyed the show immensely when it opened, with Sid Caesar doing a landmark star turn in seven different roles.

Later, Stevens worked at a Traverse City theater with Bill Hooten, who’d previously driven ambulances in North Africa with Patrick Dennis (author of the original novel “Little Me,” as well as the huge hit, “Auntie Mame”); Hooten and Dennis lived with Hooten’s wife in New York City before all three decided to open an ill-fated dude ranch in New Mexico, and Barbara Hooten and Dennis wrote the book “Guestward, Ho!”

“(Dennis) had an interesting life,” said Stevens. “As a writer, he became well-known, but he didn’t like the fame. So at one point in his life, he gave up writing and became a butler.”

If that sounds a little like a “Seinfeld” episode, you’re not too far off regarding Dennis’ sensibilities. Indeed, “Little Me” parodies the author’s own fictional work, telling the story of Belle Poitrine (French for “pretty bosom”), a poor girl from Illinois who travels the globe to acquire the wealth, culture and social position — by way of several accident-prone husbands — that’s necessary to win the heart of her high-class beau.

And because Simon adapted the novel for the stage, the show, according to Stevens, often has the feel of a classic television comedy.

“It’s a very old-fashioned show in terms of the way it’s written,” said Stevens. “The book is essentially a group comic sketches, and the numbers are inserted at the appropriate places. But when you look at the history of the show, the numbers are put in here, taken out there, and moved around, so you can do a lot with the show to tailor it to what you want to do with it. It’s very loosely structured, and it’s deliberately written to be that way.”

EMU’s production will feature Andy Orscheln in the same seven roles that Caesar famously played in the original production.

“(The show)’s been cast multiple ways,” said Stevens, who noted that later revivals featured stars who took on fewer (James Coco) or more (Martin Short) roles. “The cast originally was 14 actors, plus a chorus. It was a typical 1962 big musical, so they brought in a really big chorus. We are taking a more liberal approach, with everybody playing multiple roles, except for the character of Belle.”

Other changes to the show are necessary because of the way the institution of theater, as well as theater patrons, have changed in the intervening decades since “Little Me”’s premiere. This includes issues related to stage design, scene changes, and the now-standard omission of overtures (“People aren’t used to sitting and listening to music for 10 minutes in a theater without having something to watch,” said Stevens. “You can’t do it”).

But that’s not all. “The show was originally written a three-hour show — another thing you can’t do today,” said Stevens. “So you have to fix that. But that’s easy to do with show like this. For example, there’s one number in the second act that’s a 12 minute number, and its main function is to show off all these different types of performance. … It’s like a 12-minute ‘Ed Sullivan Show.’ … So in a way, I’ve learned to appreciate the show’s writing, and everything that makes it all so flexible.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.

"Boom Boom" from a production last year of "Little Me":