Casting Announced For Broadway-Bound THE FIRST WIVES CLUB Musical

Old Globe Executive Producer Lou Spisto is pleased to announce the complete cast and design team for its world premiere of The First Wives Club - A New Musical, as part of the Globe's 2009 Summer Season. Based on the best-selling novel and film of the same name, this Broadway-bound musical features a book by Tony Award-winner Rupert Holmes (Curtains!, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Say Goodnight Gracie) and a score by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, the threesome who created hits for Martha and The Vandellas, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops and The Supremes. The production will be directed by award-winning opera and theatre director Francesca Zambello (The Little Mermaid, Little House on the Prairie - The Musical, Rebecca, Porgy and Bess and the Wagner Ring Cycle at the San Francisco Opera where she is the Artistic Advisor). The production will run in the Old Globe Theatre July 15 - August 23, 2009, with a press opening on Friday, July 31 at 8:00pm. Following its run at The Old Globe, The First Wives Club will be produced on Broadway by Paul Lambert and Jonas Neilson, with a theatre and dates to be announced.

A world premiere, Broadway-Bound musical, The First Wives Club, is a funny, moving and empowering story based on the smash-hit movie comedy and Olivia Goldsmith's bestselling novel. Former college friends reunite at middle-age and soon discover they share the same unhappy story - their ungrateful husbands careened into midlife by dumping them for younger women. After drowning their sorrows, they decide to put their long dormant talents to use, band together, and stylishly, systematically and hilariously get even with their exes! With new music by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legends, Holland-Dozier-Holland ("Stop! In the Name of Love," "It's The Same Old Song," "Baby Love," and many more), book by Tony Award-winner Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Curtains!) and direction by Francesca Zambello (Disney on Broadway's The Little Mermaid, The Guthrie Theatre's Little House on The Prairie - The Musical), this glitzy new musical is destined to be the theatrical event of 2009!

Tickets are available immediately through subscription purchase. Individual tickets for The First Wives Club - A New Musical go on sale Sunday, June 7 at 10am and are available by calling (619) 23-GLOBE, on the Globe website at www.TheOldGlobe.org, or by visiting The Globe box office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Ticket prices range from $55 to $92.

The cast features Broadway veterans Karen Ziemba (Contact, Curtains) as "Annie," Adriane Lenox (Doubt; Kiss Me, Kate) as "Elyse," Barbara Walsh (Company, Hairspray) as "Brenda," John Dossett (Gypsy) as "Aaron," Kevyn Morrow (Dreamgirls) as "Bill," Brad Oscar (The Producers) as "Morty," Sara Chase as "Trophy Wife," Sam Harris (The Life) as "Duane," Ari Lerner and Austyn Myers alternating as "Jason," with Michelle Aravena, Mark Campbell, Thursday Farrar, Jenifer Foote, Bob Gaynor, Matthew Labanca, Victoria Matlock, Hayley Podschun, Martin Samuel and Richard Waits as The Ensemble.

The design team includes Scenic Designer Peter J. Davison (revival of Blithe Spirit in 2009, Is He Dead?, Deuce and Medea, for which he was nominated for a 1994 Tony Award), Costume Designer Paul Tazewell (2009 revival of Guys and Dolls, Tony Award Nominee in 2008 for In The Heights, in 2006 for The Color Purple and in 1996 for Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk), Lighting Designer Mark McCullough (The American Plan, 2000 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar), Sound Designer Jon Weston (13; 2006 revival of Les Miserables; The Color Purple; Caroline, or Change; Thoroughly Modern Millie), Choreographer Lisa Stevens, Music Supervisor Ron Melrose, Conductor John Gentry Tennyson and Orchestrator Harold Wheeler.

Tony-winning actor-singer-dancer Karen Ziemba ("Annie") is one of Broadway's most versatile and beloved performers. Karen received the Tony Award - along with the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards - starring in Susan Stroman and John Weidman's hit musical, Contact, at Lincoln Center Theater. On and Off-Broadway, Karen has played murderers and marathoners, a daughter of the West, to the daughter of an American president. She starred as "Roxie Hart" in Kander and Ebb's Chicago, and "Rita Racine" in their Steel Pier (for which she received her first Tony award nomination as well as Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations), and starred in the new Gershwin musical, Crazy For You. Karen Ziemba made her debut at the Globe earlier this year in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation as "Ouisa."