Easter came a few weeks early for Chanhassen Dinner Theatres this year.

The company has struck a deal to develop and produce the world premiere of "Easter Parade," a stage version of the classic 1948 movie with music by Irving Berlin.

It's a feather in Chanhassen's bonnet: Though new musicals frequently begin life outside New York, it's unusual for a theater -- particularly a dinner theater in the suburbs -- to earn the right to develop a high-profile title on its own.

The Chanhassen production, scheduled to open in February, will be the template for amateur and professional productions. It could have a life on the road and has an outside shot at advancing to Broadway.

"There's no one way to do a new musical these days," said Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, which oversees productions of Berlin's work. Chanhassen, he said, is "hungry for this, and they're very capable. Their work is of a sufficient quality that we feel what they can do when they're hungry will be really good."

Chanhassen artistic director Michael Brindisi will head the show's creative team. He will have broad latitude in revising the script and including other songs from the Berlin songbook.

The theater doesn't have the physical size or financial resources to mount a multimillion-dollar extravaganza, but Brindisi said his production will sparkle in other ways.

"While we may not have the great facility some other theaters have," Brindisi said, "we've proven that we can get the heart out of some of these shows that bigger productions can't get at."

"Easter Parade" tells the story of a hoofer (originally played by Fred Astaire) who's dumped by his partner (Ann Miller). He plucks a girl (Judy Garland) out of the crowd, reasoning that he can teach anyone to dance.

Along with the well-known title song, the movie includes the tunes "I Love a Piano,""Steppin' Out With My Baby" and "A Couple of Swells."

Rodgers & Hammerstein hired Tom Briggs -- who adapted the movie musical "State Fair" for Broadway -- to retool "Easter Parade's" gossamer script. Chanhassen was the first to stage "State Fair" after its abbreviated Broadway run in 1997.

It was that highly successful local production that started conversations between the theater and the licensing agency. Negotiations for "Easter Parade" took about a year.

Chanhassen's comparatively long runs -- "Easter Parade" is tentatively scheduled for four months of performances -- will allow time for the script and production to be tweaked and polished.

Though there's no guarantee the production will move beyond Minnesota, Chanhassen gets the imprimatur of a world premiere. And Rodgers & Hammerstein, which commissioned the new script, gets to try out a new show inexpensively and far from the glare of Broadway.

"Traditional musicals are sometimes better loved and admired outside of New York," Chapin said. "If it's really, really good, they'll want it to come here. But it can be really good without doing that."

A longer rehearsal period and the expenses of creating new orchestrations likely will cause production costs to surpass the roughly $250,000 it takes to stage a standard Chanhassen mainstage musical. Rodgers & Hammerstein is not augmenting the Chanhassen budget, but it is giving the theater a break on the weekly royalties Chanhassen collects on behalf of a show's creators.

The songs of Irving Berlin, one of America's most prolific composers, have never gone out of style, but they are enjoying a particular popular renaissance these days. In 2004, erstwhile Ordway Center for the Performing Arts chief Kevin McCollum produced a stage version of the 1954 movie musical "White Christmas." That production has prospered in various cities over the last two holidays, and will be staged at the Ordway next winter.

If "Easter Parade" works locally, it too could become the same kind of lucrative seasonal offering.

"It will certainly be a catalog property, available to theaters around the country," Chapin said.

"Others have expressed interest in the show," he added, referring to Goodspeed Opera House of Connecticut, which launched "Annie" and other Broadway musicals, and the Nederlanders, one of Broadway's biggest landlords.

"I told them, 'We're doing it in Chanhassen. Come and see it and we can all talk there.' "