‘Start spreading the news …’

“Start spreading the news. I’m leaving today. I want to be a part of it. New York, New York …”

Surely everyone has heard that famous number from the song-writing duo John Kander and Fred Ebb.

And, if you hear someone sing, “What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play” you might be unable to resist humming the next lines: “Life is a cabaret, old chum. Come to the cabaret.”

And even if you know very little about how flappers tried to look more fashionable in the 1920s, the lines “Why don’t we paint the town? And all that jazz” could well make the sentence “I’m gonna rouge my knees and roll my stockings down” pop into your head.

You’ll hear all those Kander & Ebb songs, and many others, if you come to the musical revue “And the World Goes ‘Round,” to be presented by Wilkes University at 8 p.m. Nov. 14, 15, 16 and at 2 p.m. Nov. 16 and 17 in the Dorothy Dickson Darte Center.

Kander & Ebb collaborated on more than the musical scores for “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “New York, New York.” One of their lesser known songs, reportedly inspired by a dieting friend, is about “Sara Lee,” as in dessert cakes.

“I think of myself as a kind of clerk,” Wilkes student Caleb Flannery said before a recent rehearsal, explaining he’ll be singing and dancing with three fellow cast members who portray grocery customers.

“These three women come in,” he said, “and I show them the way to the Sara Lee goods.”

“We’re like housewives from the 1950s,” Kasey Karroll said. “We have our little shopping baskets.”

“It’s very ‘June Cleaver’,” director Jon Liebetrau agreed.

The song “Mr. Cellophane” comes from the musical “Chicago,” where the number tells the plaintive story of Roxy Hart’s long-suffering husband, Amos.

“He’s ubercharming, very kind, sort of timid. Everybody looks right through him,” Flannery said, describing the backstory for the character, who he believes would very much like to be noticed and appreciated by “his wife, people at work, and his friends.”

Another number in the revue, “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup,” depicts harried business people, under the effects of caffein. The character she portrays starts out as the only person not drinking coffee, Cally Williams said, but eventually she joins the crowd.

Kander & Ebb wrote that song for “70, Girls, 70,” a musical about elderly people who arrange heists, eventually trying to prevent the hotel where they live from being sold to a developer.

Another less famous Kander & Ebb musical, “The Rink,” tells a story about the owner of a dilapidated skating rink in a seaside town.

“We’re simulating roller skates” in a number from that show, Kasey Karroll said, adding with a smile: “I won’t tell you what we’re using. It’s a rolling device. It’s unusual.”

So the students might be rolling around on heaven-knows-what in this show. They might be throwing fake dollars around in the “Money” number from “Cabaret.” And all three of the young men in the show — Caleb Flannery, Rocco Pugliese and Alby Lupuhovsky — will share the task of portraying “Arthur,” a man who, um, entertains his clients in the afternoons.

“It’s just going to be a night of good fun,” cast member Maddie Meier said. “A night of going to the theater to have a good time.”

“A lot of people won’t know some of these songs,” cast member Charley Cain said. But she predicts you’ll like them once you hear them.

And a lot of people might find the theme of the show comforting,” director Liebetrau said as the cast began a rehearsal on the night of the presidential election.

“No matter what happens,” he said, “the world goes ‘round and ‘round.”

Tickets are available at wilkes.edu/theatre.