The Old Globe News

-The Old Globe will host the 2014 Globe Gala on Saturday, July 26 in support of the theatre's education and artistic programs. The annual event will feature a one-night-only performance by Broadway veteran and Tony Award winner Laura Benanti (Gypsy, Into the Woods, NBC's The Sound of Music Live!, 'The Good Wife,' 'Go On'), based on her smash hit New York cabaret (and new CD) In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention. Nina Doede, Deni Jacobs, and Sheryl White serve as Co-Chairs of the 2014 Globe Gala.

Perseverance Theatre opens Pulitzer Prize winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tenessee Williams. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is showing in the Sydney Laurence Theatre at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts today, April 11 - 27, 2014. Tickets are now available through Centertix online at centertix.net or by calling 263-ARTS. There is a Pay-As-You-Can Previews on Thursday, April 10th at 7:30p.m.

SIS Productions presents the full West Coast Premiere of Impenetrable by Mia McCullough, running today, April 11 - May 3, 2014.

-2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful is an exciting new play from Quiara Alegria Hudes, the playwright behind the Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights. Elliot Ortiz is back in the States after serving in Iraq, reconnecting with family and starting a new life. At the same time, four strangers in an internet chat room seek support to face demons of their own, and soon the real world and the virtual one start to intersect in unexpected ways.

City Theatre closes its 39th season with the world premiere of Hope and Gravity, a new play by Michael Hollinger featuring dynamic, interconnected stories. Directed by Tracy Brigden, Hope and Gravity runs on City Theatre's Mainstage from May 3-25, 2014, with an Opening Night performance on Friday, May 9 at 8pm.

Tonight, April 10, TheatreSquared will launch its first mainstage Shakespeare production with the playwright's signature drama, Hamlet, starring Grant Goodman. The production is helmed by director Sean Patrick Reilly and features a professional cast including T2 associate artistic director Amy Herzberg.

The Old Globe today announced that two-time Golden Globe Award nominee Blair Underwood-who most recently made his acclaimed Broadway debut in the iconic role of Stanley in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and garnered rave reviews opposite Cicely Tyson in Lifetime's The Trip to Bountiful-will make his Globe debut in the title role of Shakespeare's classic tragedy Othello, the first show of the Globe's 2014 Summer Shakespeare Festival. Underwood's films include Something New, Deep Impact, Gattaca, and Rules of Engagement, and his television credits include 'Ironside,' 'In Treatment,' 'The New Adventures of Old Christine,' and 'Sex and the City.' Joining him and also making their Globe debuts are the previously announced Emmy Award winner Richard Thomas ('The Americans,' 'The Waltons') as Iago and Kristen Connolly ('House of Cards,' The Cabin in the Woods) as Desdemona.

Can a jealous actor fool his cheating wife? Lillian Groag (artistic associate at the Old Globe) directs a new adaptation of The Guardsman, the comic tour de force about love, fidelity and illusion by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar, opening May 17 at the NoHo Arts Center.

The Peoples Improv Theater announced today that WOMEN, the record- breaking hit from #Serials @ The Flea Theater, will be running for a limited engagement from April 15 to May 6. This fast paced comedy introduces Louisa May Alcott's classic, Little Women, to HBO's critically acclaimed 'Girls', delivering a smartly crafted and hilarious 50 minute show.

The 2013-2014 season at Cleveland Play House (CPH) continues with the compelling world premiere production of Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent. Co-produced with Geva Theatre Center, this incredibly thought-provoking production is inspired by the real life court case between the Havasupai Indian tribe and Arizona State University, and sparks an intriguing debate on both ethicality and morality. Directed by Sean Daniels and Sponsored by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth, Informed Consent will serve as the centerpiece to CPH's 2014 New Ground Theatre Festival and will run from April 23 - May 18 in the Second Stage.

With Broadway's 2014 season now in full swing, there's a solid group of performers making their Broadway debuts this Spring. Meet all of the Great White Way's newest stars below, and be sure to let us know who you're most looking forward to seeing onstage!

The newest THEATER TALK features first, three artists closely involved with the success of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - actors Jefferson Mays, Bryce Pinkham and director Darko Tresnjak - followed by Woodie King, Jr. Founder, Artistic Director and guiding spirit of off-Broadway's New Federal Theatre, now celebrating 44 years as a home to minority and women writers, directors and actors.

Musical Theatre West presents the third production of their 61st season, the West Coast Premiere of S'WONDERFUL: The New Gershwin Musical, created and directed by Ray Roderick, musicaldirection by Bret Simmons with choreography by Charlie Williams. S'WONDERFUL will preview today, April 4, open on Saturday, April 5 and perform for three weeks only through Sunday, April 20 at The Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, located at 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach on the campus of California State University, Long Beach.

Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd announces the cast and creative team for Alan Ayckbourn's science fiction comedy Communicating Doors. Eleven plays penned by Alan Ayckbourn have been produced by the Alley, including the American premiere of Henceforward, directed by Ayckbourn, in 1987 and House & Garden in 2002. Alan Ayckbourn has been inducted into the American Theatre's Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics' Circle Award for Services to the Arts, became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.

Yale Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, presents the world premiere of The House that will not Stand by Marcus Gardley, directed by Patricia McGregor. The House that will not Stand will be performed at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) April 18-May 10. Opening Night is Thursday, April 24.

49TH Parallel in association the multi-award-winning NoHo Arts Center Ensemble (NoHo ACE), are thrilled to present the Los Angeles premiere of a new play, BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW, written by Bekah Brunstetter (OOHRAH!) and directed by Sara Botsford. BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW will preview on Thursday, April 17 at 8pm and will open on Friday, April 18 at 8pm and run for six weeks through Sunday, May 25, 2014 at the NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd. (at Lankershim) in North Hollywood.

Rubicon Theatre continues the company's 16th Not Your Typical Season with a special run of Love, Loss, and What I Wore -- a witty and wise celebration of womanhood adapted by Nora and Delia Ephron, creators of such hits as 'When Harry Met Sally,' 'Sleepless in Seattle,' 'You've Got Mail,' 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' and 'Silkwood.'

The Old Globe presents a revival of J.B. Priestley's period classic Time and the Conways. Directed by Rebecca Taichman, Time and the Conways runs now through May 4, 2014 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run through tonight, April 2. Opening night is tomorrow, April 3, 2014. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Matthew Lopez's Somewhere, the captivating, dance-filled saga of a Puerto Rican family in 1959 New York City, springs to life today, April 3 to May 4 in its East Coast Premiere at Hartford Stage. By the author of the critically-acclaimed The Whipping Man, which garnered rave reviews at Hartford Stage in 2012, Somewhere will feature Priscilla Lopez (Morales in the original cast of A Chorus Line) and will be directed by Giovanna Sardelli, with original music by Tony Award winner Bill Sherman and choreography by Greg Graham.

The newest THEATER TALK features first, three artists closely involved with the success of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - actors Jefferson Mays, Bryce Pinkham and director Darko Tresnjak - followed by Woodie King, Jr. Founder, Artistic Director and guiding spirit of off-Broadway's New Federal Theatre, now celebrating 44 years as a home to minority and women writers, directors and actors.