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Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
Michael Bradley Cohen as Benjamin Cohen, Regina De Vera as Louise Maske, and Eddie Kaye Thomas as Theo Maske. Photo by Jim Cox.
By Steve Martin
Adapted from Carl Sternheim
Directed by Walter Bobbie
Legendary comedian and writer Steve Martin is back with a riotously funny farce. Newly married Louise is bored with her demanding and uptight bureaucrat husband. Then one day at the royal parade, she jumps up on a bench to see the king go by, and oops—wardrobe malfunction!—her bloomers come loose and fall down around her ankles. Her husband is frantic that her faux pas will cost him his job and reputation. But suddenly the room they’ve been trying to rent out has plenty of takers, and it just might have something to do with…the underpants. Steve Martin, who gave Globe audiences hits like Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Bright Star, and Meteor Shower, brings us a hilarious look at sudden fame and the crazy things people do when they’re in the grip of romantic fever. The New York Times calls the play “laugh-out-loud funny!” and “an amalgam of comic book and social commentary made out of sex jokes, slamming doors, and sophisticated repartee.”
Running time: 1 hour and 35 minutes. There is no intermission.
Production Sponsors
Terry Atkinson and Kathy Taylor
Peter Cooper and Erik Matwijkow
Pamela Farr and Buford Alexander
Hal and Pam Fuson
Leonard Hirsch, in memory of Elaine Hirsch
Vicki and Carl Zeiger
Artist Sponsors for Walter Bobbie (director)
Gail and Doug Hutcheson
Steve Martin (Playwright) began his career on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” (1967–1969), for which he earned his first Emmy Award, for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music in 1969. In the mid-1970s, Martin shone as a stand-up on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and “Saturday Night Live.” His films are widely popular successes: The Jerk (1979), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Roxanne (1987), Parenthood (1989), L.A. Story (1991), Father of the Bride (1991), and Bowfinger (1999). As an author, Martin’s work includes the novel An Object of Beauty; the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile; a collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel; a bestselling novella, Shopgirl; and his memoir, Born Standing Up. His writing has also appeared in The New Yorker. Martin is an accomplished, Grammy Award–winning, boundary-pushing bluegrass banjoist and composer who has won three Grammys for performing and composing. He has earned numerous honors, including an Academy Award, five Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, the Mark Twain Prize, and the Kennedy Center Honor. Martin and Edie Brickell’s musical Bright Star premiered at The Old Globe in 2014, played a limited engagement at The Kennedy Center, and received acclaim in its Broadway run. In addition to five Tony Award nominations, Bright Star received Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding New Broadway Musical and Outstanding New Score. His play Meteor Shower made its world premiere at the Globe in 2016 before playing a Tony-nominated run on Broadway. Martin’s 2018 Netflix special with Martin Short, An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, received four Emmy nominations. They are currently touring their new comedy show, Now You See Them, Soon You Won’t, across the U.S. and internationally.
Walter Bobbie (Director) just returned from Theatre Royal Bath, where he directed the U.K. premiere of Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. His New York productions include Bright Star, Venus in Fur, Golden Age, The School for Lies, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Chicago, The Submission, The Savannah Disputation, New Jerusalem, High Fidelity, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Sweet Charity, Twentieth Century, Footloose, and A Grand Night for Singing,among others. Bobbie served as Artistic Director of City Center’s acclaimed Encores!, and he is on the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. As an actor, his career spans the original cast of Broadway’s Grease to the 1992 Guys and Dolls and the recent Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan. Bobbie is the recipient of Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Tony Awards.
John Lee Beatty (Scenic Design) has designed the Globe productions of Much Ado About Nothing, King Richard II, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Cornelia, Dancing in the Dark, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,and Redwood Curtain. His 115 Broadway credits include Sweat, Disgraced, The Nance, After Midnight, Good People, Venus in Fur, Other Desert Cities, Time Stands Still, The Royal Family, The Color Purple, Rabbit Hole, Doubt, Chicago, Proof, A Delicate Balance, The Heiress, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Most Happy Fella, Burn This, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Talley’s Folly, Fifth of July,and Crimes of the Heart. His Off Broadway credits include The Whipping Man, Sylvia, The Substance of Fire, A Life in the Theatre, and Lips Together, Teeth Apart, as well as 38 seasons at Manhattan Theatre Club and Circle Repertory Company, 22 seasons at City Center Encores!, film, opera, television, and circus. Beatty is the recipient of Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and he is a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame. He is a graduate of Brown University and Yale School of Drama.
Alejo Vietti (Costume Design) designed The Old Globe’s Familiar, Allegiance, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Broadway Bound, Engaging Shaw, and Lost in Yonkers. On Broadway he designed Allegiance (Drama Desk Award nomination), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (West End, Japan, Australia, U.K. tour, U.S. tours; Olivier Award nomination), and Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical. His Off Broadway credits include Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theater Company, Primary Stages, MCC Theater, The New Group, Radio City Music Hall’s Rockettes, and City Center Encores!, among others. Vietti has designed regionally for La Jolla Playhouse, Ford’s Theatre, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Colorado Ballet, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and others. His international credits include Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Japan and Germany), Ukraine’s Donetsk Opera, and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His other opera credits include Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, and Minnesota Opera. He also designed for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Vietti is a recipient of Theatre Development Fund’s 2010 Irene Sharaff Young Master Award. alejo_vietti_costume_design on Instagram.
Philip S. Rosenberg (Lighting Design) has designed the Broadway productions of Pretty Woman: The Musical, The Elephant Man, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,and It’s Only a Play. His Off Broadway credits include The Ruins of Civilization, The Explorer’s Club, and Cactus Flower. His regional credits include productions with The Old Globe, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Ford’s Theatre, Guthrie Theater, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Dallas Theater Center, Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, McCarter Theatre Center, Manhattan School of Music, Portland Stage, The Actors Company Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dorset Theatre Festival, Bay Street Theater, Goodspeed Musicals, Two River Theater, George Street Playhouse, and Westport Country Playhouse.
Nevin Steinberg (Sound Design) previously designed The Old Globe’s productions of The Tale of Despereaux and Bright Star. His Broadway credits include Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Hadestown (Tony Award), The Cher Show, Bandstand, Bright Star, It Shoulda Been You, Mothers and Sons, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Tony nomination), The Performers,and Magic/Bird. His Off Broadway credits include Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, The Landing,and Far from Heaven. He has designed over 30 Broadway productions with Acme Sound Partners, receiving five additional Tony nominations, for The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Fences, Hair,and In the Heights.
Calleri Casting (Casting) (James Calleri, Paul Davis, Erica Jensen) cast the recent Broadway productions and tours of Burn This, Bright Star, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Fool for Love, The Visit, The Elephant Man, and Venus in Fur. Their recent Off Broadway and regional credits include Kate Hamill’s Little Women at Primary Stages; the Pride Plays festival and Samuel D. Hunter’s Lewiston/Clarkston at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; and productions at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, and Two River Theater. Their television credits include the upcoming “Dickinson” (Apple) and “The Path” (Hulu), and their films include I Origins and Another Earth. Calleri Casting has received 14 Artios Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Casting. They are members of the Casting Society of America. callericasting.com.
Marie Jahelka (Production Stage Manager) previously worked on The Old Globe’s Native Gardens, The Wanderers,Powers New Voices Festival (2016–2018), Red Velvet, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Somewhere, The Last Romance, The Whipping Man, Romeo y Julieta, Back Back Back, Opus, The American Plan, In This Corner, and Oscar and the Pink Lady. Her regional credits include Put Your House in Order, Hollywood, Ether Dome, Miss You Like Hell,and The Tall Girls (La Jolla Playhouse), Aubergine, Evita, and Violet (San Diego Repertory Theatre), Hir, Dogfight, My Fair Lady, True West, Fool for Love, Spring Awakening, Company, Shakespeare’s R&J, Assassins, Mistakes Were Made, Parade, Cabaret, and Love Song (Cygnet Theatre Company), The Full Monty (San Diego Musical Theatre), miXtape (Lamb’s Players Theatre), The Amish Project (Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company), and This Wonderful Life (North Coast Repertory Theatre). She received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from University of San Diego.
This series provides Old Globe patrons with an opportunity to closely connect with productions both onstage and backstage. A panel selected from the artistic company of each show (playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and/or technicians) engages patrons in an informal and illuminating presentation of ideas and insights to enhance the theatre going experience. Each Insights Seminar takes place 90 minutes before curtain time on the Tuesday after performances begin, and includes an informal reception 30 minutes before the start. FREE; no reservations necessary.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at 5:30 p.m.
Join us after the show for an informal and enlightening question-and-answer session with cast members. Get the "inside story" on creating a character and putting together a professional production. Post-show forums are scheduled after select Tuesday and Wednesday evening performances. FREE; no reservations necessary.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Tuesday, August 13, 2019