The Old Globe News

The Pasadena Playhouse announced the final presentation of its 2012 - 2013 HOTHOUSE at The Playhouse series, THE FUTURE PERFECT. Book by Jonathan Caren, music & lyrics by Emmy Award-winning composer and songwriter Ben Decter, directed by Tony Award nominated (for Rock of Ages) Kristin Hanggi with musical direction by Kyle Puccia. The staged reading will take place Tuesday, June 25, and Wednesday, June 26, 2013, at 8:00 p.m. in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre at The Pasadena Playhouse.

Thirty years after directing and choreographing the Odyssey Theatre's award-winning West Coast premiere, and following a wildly successful off-Broadway revival at the York Theatre last season, Bill Castellino reunites with musical director Gerald Sternbach to charm audiences with a revitalized, updated version of Ionescopade at the Odyssey Theatre, beginning May 31. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!

WaterTower Theatre presents Black Tie, running tonight, May 31 - June 23, 2013 at the Addison Theatre Centre on the Main Stage. The cast includes Stan Graner as Curtis, John S. Davies as Curtis' Father, Marcia Carroll as Mimi, Katherine Bourne as Elsie, Jordon Brodess as Teddy and Jake Buchanan understudying the role of Teddy.

Dallas Theater Center announced the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of Fly, a new musical based on J.M. Barrie's novel, Peter Pan. Three-time Tony Award-winning producer Jeffrey Seller (Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights) makes his directorial debut with this production.

Cygnet Theatre closes its 10th Anniversary Season by presenting the San Diego premiere of Joe Calarco's Shakespeare's R&J. Part Dead Poets Society, part Lord of the Flies, Calarco's work takes audiences to an all-male Catholic boarding school where four schoolboys secretly discover Shakespeare's most famous love story. The show is being presented by Cygnet Theatre now through June 16, 2013. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Cygnet's production below!

The winners of the 2013 Globe Honors and The Road to the Jimmy Awards, the annual competition recognizing excellence in high school theater throughout San Diego County, were announced on Monday, May 20 after the final round of competition was held on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. BroadwayWorld has a first look of the event below.

#theaternow is proud to present the world premiere of Peter and the Neverbird, a new one-man play inspired by J. M. Barrie's beloved classic,Peter and Wendy. This exciting new piece combines imagination-powered magic and theatricality to tell a new story of our cherished Peter Pan and the Neverbird, a lesser, benevolent figure from the book, who here gets a deeper exploration. Written and performed by Chris Bresky, it is directed by Sally Ollove and will have two performances only-June 8th at 8pm and June 9th at 3pm.

Hartford Stage's presentation of TWELFTH NIGHT, directed by Darko Tresnjak, is so sumptuous, so pleasing to look at and so cleverly staged that it's possible our appetite for any other setting for William Shakespeare's classic might be slaked.

Artists Rep is thrilled to present the West Coast premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher's play Ten Chimneys from April 23 through May 26, 2013. This revealing comedy peers into the backstage lives of Broadway power-duo Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne and summers spent at their legendary Wisconsin estate, Ten Chimneys.

Soho Rep has announced casting and an official opening date for the world premiere of Lucas Hnath's play A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney.

The Old Globe presents the West Coast Premiere of Bekah Brunstetter's quirky and tender comedy Be a Good Little Widow. Directed by Hal Brooks, Be a Good Little Widow is currently running through June 9, 2013 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Check out the production photos below!

An overwhelming lust for power, a manipulative wife, and witches' prophecies spur a Scottish general onto a tragic path of betrayal, murder and madness. Long Beach Opera (LBO) closes its 2013 season with Macbeth, Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch's re-discovered powerhouse, sung in English. Performances at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro, CA. begin on June 15, 2013 and continue on June 22 and 23.

The Old Globe today announced Thinking Shakespeare Live!, a 90-minute presentation exploring the language of Shakespeare, on Saturday, June 15 at 11 a.m. Led by Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and assisted by three professional classical actors, this special program based on Edelstein's book, Thinking Shakespeare: A How-To Guide for Student Actors, Directors, and Anyone Else Who Wants to Feel More Comfortable with the Bard, will reveal a performer's approach to Shakespearean language so audiences may easily understand the poetry of the Bard. An ideal introduction to Shakespeare for families and young audiences, Thinking Shakespeare Live! will take place on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets are $10 for subscribers and full-time students and $15 for general audiences andcan be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel will welcome back Tony Award-Winner Lea Salonga to the Cafe Carlyle for her highly anticipated three-week engagement. Her new program, 'Back to Before,' is a nostalgic repertoire in which she revisits her life as a New Yorker and pays tribute to her favorite ladies-most notably Ella Fitzgerald and her idol, Barbra Streisand. 'Back to Before' will be making its debut at the Cafe Carlyle. Ms. Salonga's engagement at the Cafe Carlyle will run from tonight, May 21st to June 8th.

Audiences will be left tapping their toes all summer long with Pittsburgh CLO's production of 42nd Street, May 31-June 9 at the Benedum Center. The production will feature *N SYNC legend, Joey Fatone, musical theater veteran Patrick Ryan Sullivan, and an incredible supporting cast including Pittsburgh CLO veterans.

TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, presents the Regional Premiere of OTHER DESERT CITIES by acclaimed playwright Jon Robin Baitz (The Substance of Fire, A Fair Country, Three Hotels). In this gripping Broadway hit, nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play, a Hollywood star's desert estate glows with Christmas cheer. But home for the holidays is daughter Brooke, a novelist whose tell-all memoir threatens to rip the politically-divided clan apart. Broadway vets Kandis Chappell and James Sutorius will star as Polly and Lyman Wyeth, Brooke's staunch right-wing parents. With dazzling wit and razor-sharp insight, this Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play and Drama League Award for Distinguished Play balances fierce comedy and riveting family drama in its Regional Premiere at TheatreWorks, co-produced with San Diego's The Old Globe. Contains mature language.

Today we are talking to a five-time Tony Award-winning director/choreographer celebrated for her stupendous work on CRAZY FOR YOU, THE PRODUCERS, CONTACT, THE FROGS, THOU SHALT NOT, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS and many more - the master musicals director Susan Stroman. In discussing a vast array of topics, Stroman and I touch upon many of her past projects as well as look ahead to her current and future endeavors - that is: the forthcoming Broadway bow of the new musical BIG FISH, starring Norbert Leo Butz, as well as the world premiere of Ahrens & Flaherty's LITTLE DANCER next year. Most importantly, Stroman shines a light on her enduring artistic partnership with Mel Brooks in bringing to life the screen-to-stage musical adaptations of both THE PRODUCERS and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, with BLAZING SADDLES on the way - their rich collaboration also being highlighted in this week's AMERICAN MASTERS tribute to Mel Brooks on PBS. Additionally, Stroman reflects on some of her lesser-known entities and casts a light on some of her foremost influences as well as candidly discusses her specialty work for a bevy of major stars - such as at SONDHEIM: A CELEBRATION AT CARNEGIE HALL in 1992 - and the finer points of working with Stephen Sondheim and Nathan Lane on Sondheim's most recent original Broadway musical, THE FROGS. Plus, Stroman shares first details of her upcoming collaboration with comedy master Woody Allen on the musical stage adaptation of Allen's Academy Award-winning BULLETS OVER BROADWAY and also offers the 411 on the upcoming Los Angeles and West End productions of Kander & Ebb's THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS - including the real-life role the musical has played in the pardoning of the originally accused nine just last month. Stroman also comments on her work with Hal Prince on the career revue PRINCE OF BROADWAY, opening in Japan in 2015, and also touches upon her ongoing desire to pursue a film adaptation of her multi-Tony Award-winning and genre-redefining 2000 Best Musical, CONTACT. All of that and much, much awaits in this wide-ranging conversation!

Hartford Stage, under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts, presents Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed by Tresnjak, on stage from tonight, May 18 through June 16.