Cast Announced for Kathleen Marshall Directed MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at The Old Globe

The Old Globe today announced the cast and creative team as the 2018 Summer Shakespeare Festival continues with the finest of the Bard's work outdoors under the stars in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. Celebrate romance with Much Ado About Nothing, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall

The production will run August 12 - September 16, 2018. Tickets start at $30.00, on sale to the general public now. Previews run August 12-17. Opening night is Saturday, August 18 at 8:00 p.m.

Marshall makes her return as director to the Festival Theatre stage with one of the greatest romantic comedies ever, in a production full of colorful characters, passionate poetry, and Shakespeare's wittiest wordplay. Everyone can see that confirmed bachelor Benedick and headstrong Beatrice are meant for each other-except for Benedick and Beatrice themselves! While their friends try to trick the bickering pair into admitting they're in love, their young sidekicks Hero and Claudio start a romance of their own. But will false accusations, broken promises, and even a nutty and bumbling police force prevent a happy ending?

"Much Ado about Nothing is one of the masterpieces of Shakespeare's canon, and in a glorious production like this one, it delivers a special kind of joy," said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "The play is sparklingly witty, sweepingly romantic, and full of music, laughter, dance, and poetry. It's everything that's thrilling about Shakespeare, all in one play. The brilliant director Kathleen Marshall returns to the Globe to make summer Shakespeare magic again, and her company of actors and designers is as good as it gets. This will be a highlight of the Globe's work, and I know that our audiences will join me in cheering for it."

The cast features Sara Topham as Beatrice (Olivia in the Globe's 2015 Twelfth Night, Broadway's Travesties revival and The Importance of Being Earnest, Saint Joan at the Shaw Festival, U.K. world premiere of Love Me Do) and Michael Hayden as Benedick (last at the Globe in Double Indemnity, Broadway's Carousel, Judgment at Nuremberg, Cabaret, Henry IV, Parts I and II, "Chicago Fire"); Fred Applegate as Dogberry (Broadway's Wicked, Tuck Everlasting, The Last Ship, La Cage aux Folles), Michael Boatman as Don Pedro, Balthasar (Ken Ludwig's Robin Hood!, "The Good Fight," Broadway's "Master Harold"...and the Boys revival), Manoel Felciano as Don John (the Globe's The Tempest, Ken Ludwig's Robin Hood!, and Twelfth Night, Broadway's Sweeney Todd, Amélie), James Newcomb as Antonio, Verges (the Globe's Twelfth Night and Coriolanus), and René Thornton Jr. as Leonato (The Tempest, entire Folio at American Shakespeare Center in Virginia). The cast also includes students in The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, all of whom were seen earlier this summer in the Globe's The Tempest: Carlos Angel-Barajas (Claudio), Sam Avishay (Messenger), Nora Carroll (Margaret), Yadira Correa (Conrade), Daniel Ian Joeck (Friar Francis), Jose Martinez (Watch), Renardo Charles Pringle Jr. (Messenger), Larica Schnell (Ursula), Jersten Seraile (Watch), Samantha Sutliff (Watch), Morgan Taylor (Hero), Wenona Truong (Sexton), Jared Van Heel (Messenger), and Eric Weiman (Borachio). The musicians are Abigail Grace Allwein (Violin) and James Michael McHale (Guitar).

The creative team includes John Lee Beatty (Scenic Design), Michael Krass (Costume Design), Stephen Strawbridge (Lighting Design), Sten Severson (Sound Design), Stephen Flaherty (Composer, "Sigh No More"), Abigail Grace Allwein (Music Director), Ursula Meyer (Voice and Text Coach), Tara Rubin Casting/Laura Schutzel, CSA (Casting), and Jess Slocum (Production Stage Manager).

Kathleen Marshall (Director) made her Globe directing debut in 2016 with the acclaimed Love's Labor's Lost. Her Broadway credits include In Transit; Living on Love; Nice Work If You Can Get It; Anything Goes; The Pajama Game; Wonderful Town; Grease; Little Shop of Horrors; Follies; Seussical; Kiss Me, Kate; 1776; and Swinging on a Star. Her Off Broadway and regional credits include City Center Encores! (Artistic Director for four seasons), New York Shakespeare Festival, Second Stage Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, Boston Pops, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Long Wharf Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, and The Muny. Ms. Marshall's film and television work includes My Week with Marilyn (choreographer), "Once Upon a Mattress", "The Music Man" (Emmy Award nomination), and "2 Broke Girls." She has received three Tony Awards (out of nine nominations), three Drama Desk Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Astaire Award, the George Abbott Award, the Smith College Medal (her alma mater), and the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for the Arts, and she has been named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. She is an Associate Artist of Roundabout Theatre Company and a member of the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Much Ado About Nothing is supported in part by the Jean and Gary Shekhter Fund for Classic Theatre and through gifts from Production Sponsors Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Darlene Marcos Shiley, and June Yoder, as well as Artist Sponsor Ann Davies (for director Kathleen Marshall). Financial support is provided by The City of San Diego.

SINGLE TICKETS to Much Ado About Nothing start at $30.00 and are on sale to the general public now. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE [234-5623], or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and under, seniors, military members, and groups of 10 or more.