“It Shoulda Been You” shoulda been Millennial Theatre Company’s first show.

Director Joe Asente saw the musical during its four-month stint on Broadway in 2015 on a whim. The group he was with noticed the show featured Akron native Lisa Howard, so they decided to buy tickets, and they sent a note to her backstage.

“We went solely because we wanted to meet Lisa Howard,” Asente said. “I had no idea what it was about.”

He loved the show, and when the new theater company was getting its start in Akron the following year, organizers made contact with the authors and tried to make arrangements to get licensing to do the show a couple of months ahead of its official release. The deal fell through and “Shoulda” was replaced by “Heathers the Musical” instead.

Nearly eight years later, MTC will get its chance to present the Barbara Anselmi-Brian Hargrove musical for a two-weekend run starting Friday at Hopewell Theatre.

“This is one of those shows that’s been hanging over our heads,” he said. “For one reason or another, it never panned out.”

The show is described as a wedding-gone-wrong between a Jewish bride and a Catholic groom, their clashing families and an uninvited ex-boyfriend who crashes the party.

In some ways, the delay might have been a good thing. Millennial Theatre Company has established a reputation locally for quality work, which Asente is hoping will make theatergoers more willing to take a chance on a show they don’t know. And the director doesn’t want to give away the surprises that are in store.

“That’s the hardest part,” he said. “It’s hilariously funny on its own, but the twist in the middle that you never see coming is by far the best part of the show, and telling anyone about that will ruin the show for them.”

MTC also is better equipped to stage the musical than it was eight years ago.

“It’s definitely gotten grander,” Asente said. “The budgetary, time and venue constraints we had back in the day we no longer have. We get to do the show in the manner in which it deserves to be done … And we’ve been able to assemble a cast of not necessarily MTC regulars who serve the show exactly as it’s intended to do.”

That perfect cast also provides a full-circle moment for Asente. Playing the mother of the bride is Maureen Collins, co-founder of Easy Street Productions and one of Asente’s first theater teachers.

“Maureen is my guiding light in theater,” Asente said. “My earliest memories of theater involve Maureen and Todd (Hancock) and Easy Street and ‘Annie.’ I took voice lessons from her back in the day and she gave me a VHS copy of their production of ‘Annie,’ and I watched that production of ‘Annie’ religiously … Getting to work with her in this capacity is a dream come true. I didn’t want to do this unless I could get Maureen to play the part.”

The rest of the cast includes Colleen Chance, Natalina Kazimir, Edward Bazzell, Nate Beagle, Terry Shears, Roz Blystone, Andy Scott, Sierra Ellis, Ty Hanes, Ben Doss, PK Lankford, Hannah Sinclair and Adam Dominick.

Tyler Stouffer is the musical director, and Danielle Mentzer is the choreographer.

Asente admitted it was intimidating at first directing one of his mentors.

“I’ve learned so much from her and Todd and watching them work. Hopefully I’m transferring some of those skills I learned from them. It’s been a collaborative, fantastic process. All of the actors have a hand in what we’re doing to bring these characters to life. It’s been a wonderful process.”