RALEIGH, N.C. -- When Idol: The Musical hits the stage in New York next month, Clay Aiken won't be there.

But there will be a bust of Raleigh's hometown American Idol star onstage, and someone singing Burnin' Hunk o' Clay to it.

Idol: The Musical is billed as a musical farce about a "delusional group of Idol fans in search of fame." It will begin previews Thursday at New York's off-Broadway 45th Street Theatre.

Aiken isn't involved with the project.

The cast of Idol: The Musical consists of eight high-school seniors in Steubenville, Ohio, where they've built a shrine to Aiken in a barn and meet every day to worship. There's a basketball player who would rather be a male stripper with Chippendales, a goth girl, a cowboy with poor fashion sense, a guy who plays accordion while reciting Shakespeare -- and Emily, the leader, whose fantasy is to marry Aiken.

"That just sounds over-the-top from beginning to end," says Paul Baragona, an Aiken fan from Raleigh. Still, early reactions on the Aiken message boards have been surprisingly upbeat.

"It does not attack anyone or anything in any way," says Idol producer Todd Ellis, who calls himself an Aiken fan. "It does look at the fan base of American Idol and Clay, but also anything out there that people glom onto. It's a farce that looks at how America deifies the idols in our society."

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• Clay Aiken will appear in person July 21 for a Picnic With the Pops concert with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra on the lawn of Chemical Abstracts Service, 2540 Olentangy River Rd. Call 614-228-8600.