Married people get a knowing gleam in their eye when they hear a newly minted husband say “She’s different now that we’re married,” but in the case of Craig Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss,” there’s something to it.

When an old man shows up at a wedding reception and asks to kiss the bride, something metaphysical happens: He inhabits her body and she inhabits his.

For Maddie Corman, who’ll play the bride, Rita, in a staged reading at Irvington Town Hall Theater on Saturday — it’s a benefit for the theater’s Clocktower Players — it’ll be a homecoming of sorts. The professional actress started her acting career on the Town Hall Theater stage — in the children’s theater that was founded by her mother.

Back then, there was no heat, no elevator and no air-conditioning, Corman says, three situations that have been remedied with annual fund-raisers.

And children’s theater is thriving in Irvington: Corman’s kids take part in Clocktower Players productions and tread the same boards their mom did, although it has been 13 years since Corman took to that particular stage.

When she was doing children’s theater, her first teacher was the legendary Maryanne McNaughton, a longtime Westchester director who ran all things theatrical at the Hackley School for more than a dozen years.

Now retired and living in Tennessee, it just so happens that McNaughton will be back in Westchester visiting her grandkids in Yonkers this week and is available for Saturday’s benefit. She’ll play Corman’s aunt at that eventful stage wedding.

“It’s poetic and appropriate that she’ll be on the stage,” Corman says.

Not that Corman could possibly feel lonely: Her “Prelude” husband is played by her real-life husband, Jace Alexander, a respected and successful television director. And the reading — which will include sets, lights and costumed actors carrying scripts — is directed by Edwin Sherin, who happens to be married to Alexander’s mother, the actress Jane Alexander.

The old man — with whom Corman’s character will trade bodies — is played by Richard Seff, who was seen on Broadway in “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940.”

For Corman, switching souls doesn’t mean hunching over and playing old.

“I have to be in my body with an old man’s brain,” she says. “It’s a challenge, acting-wise, because I can’t physically indicate that I’m old, because I’m not. The brain is weary, not the body.

“It’s someone who’s quite thrilled to be in this young body, someone who’s appreciative of the body they’re in, which most of us are not. Most of us appreciate our bodies the way they were 10 years ago, not the way they are today.”

Saturday’s gala benefit isn’t just about the performance. The reading will be followed by an after-party at a swank Irvington home, with transportation provided from the theater and back. Tickets are $250 for the show and after-party; $75 or $100 for the show alone.

“It’s a sweet fable and, considering all that’s going on in our world, it’ll be nice to laugh,” Corman says. “It’s got a really happy, positive ending a lovely message.”

‘Prelude to a Kiss’
Where: Irvington Town Hall Theater, 85 Main St., Irvington.
When: 7 p.m. Saturday with an after-party at an Irvington home.
Tickets: $225; $100 or $75 for the performance alone.
Call: 914-591-6602.
Web: www.irvingtontheater.com
Note: A benefit for the Clocktower Players programs and Irvington’s landmark theater.