and, SEEN!

SEEN: July 30, 2019

Book, music, and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Co.

The acclaimed PigPen Theatre Co. charmed and astonished Old Globe audiences with The Old Man and The Old Moon. Now they return to San Diego, bringing their one-of-a-kind theatrical and musical inventiveness to Kate DiCamillo’s beloved, Newbery Medal–winning modern fable. Despereaux is a courageous mouse who dreams of becoming a knight. He sets off on a noble quest that will take him down into dungeons and up to the heights of a castle tower to rescue a beautiful human princess—but the dark-hearted rat Roscuro has other ideas. The Boston Herald proclaims, “PigPen Theatre Co. is already a phenomenon,” while The New Yorker says, “It’s like watching child geniuses at play!” Full of gorgeous music, stunning stage effects, witty performances, and a message of optimism and community, The Tale of Despereaux is an inspiring and beguiling story for all ages.

SEEN: June 26, 2019

What You Are

By JC Lee

Don scrapes together a living and struggles to support his family through hard work and good intentions. But everything around him, from his younger co-workers, to the technology in his office job, to even his own opinionated daughter, seems alien to the certainties and stabilities he once knew. When a simple misunderstanding at work escalates into an all-out confrontation, Don hatches a plan to set right all the things he feels have gone wrong. Can the people who love him manage to hold him together? JC Lee’s Globe-commissioned world premiere is a riveting, of-the-moment exploration of the personal struggles that accompany sweeping social change. Contains strong language.

SEEN: June 4, 2019

Gods of Comedy

By Ken Ludwig

Daphne and Ralph are young classics professors who have just made a discovery that’s sure to turn them into academic superstars. But something goes disastrously wrong, and Daphne cries out in a panic, “Save me, gods of ancient Greece!”…and the gods actually appear! The Ivy League will never be the same as a pair of screwball deities encounters the carnal complexity of college coeds, campus capers, and conspicuous consumption. Two-time Olivier Award–winning comic playwright Ken Ludwig, who delighted Globe audiences with Robin Hood! and Baskerville, brings us a knockabout world premiere with laughs that are simply divine.

SEEN: May 7, 2019

West Coast premiere

In 1960 the famed “Mercury Seven” trained at NASA to become the first American astronauts. But they weren’t alone. Thirteen women also underwent the same rigorous psychological and physical testing. The first woman to be tested, Jerrie Cobb, even out-performed her male counterparts. But while Alan Shepard and John Glenn went on to become household names, Ms. Cobb never got that chance. In vividly theatrical terms, the West Coast premiere of They Promised Her the Moon tells the unknown true story of this exceptional and unjustly overlooked woman—skilled aviator, world-record-holding pilot, successful business executive—and the powerful forces that kept her from reaching orbit. Contains strong language.

SEEN: April 16, 2019

Book, music, and lyrics by Britta Johnson

Grieving the recent loss of her famous father, 16-year-old Alice begins to question the events surrounding his death and sets out to uncover what really happened on the night that changed her family forever. Britta Johnson’s Life After is a bittersweet, witty, and life-affirming new musical that explores the mess and beauty of loss and love. Through the vivid imagination of a young woman looking for the facts, we find a more complicated truth instead. The Old Globe’s Barry Edelstein directs the American premiere of this rapturously beautiful and stirring new musical from a composer the Toronto Star calls “a startlingly talented emerging voice.” BroadwayWorld dubs Life After “musical theatre perfection…exquisite from start to finish.”

SEEN: Feb 26, 2019

By Danai Gurira

Donald and his wife Marvelous have been living the American Dream since emigrating from Zimbabwe nearly three decades ago. They have a beautiful house and impressive careers, and now one of their daughters is getting married! But when the bride insists on a traditional African wedding ceremony, tensions start to rise. Throw in an eccentric aunt from the old country and a bewildered bridegroom, and soon it’s not certain the couple will ever make it down the aisle. Familiar, from Tony Award nominee Danai Gurira (Black Panther, “The Walking Dead”), takes a funny, warmhearted look at tradition, marriage, and what it means to be an American family. The New York Times calls it “an engrossing, fiercely funny comedy–drama that probes with subtlety and smarts.” Contains strong language.