World Premiere by Bacharach/Slater, SCOTTSBORO BOYS et al. Set for Old Globe in 2011-2012; Full Season Announced

Executive Producer Lou Spisto today announced that The Old Globe will produce the World Premieres of four new plays and musicals in its 2011-12 Winter Season. The season will feature the World Premiere musicals Some Lovers by music legend Burt Bacharach and Tony Award winner Steven Sater and Nobody Loves You by Gaby Alter and Itamar Moses, as well as the West Coast Premiere of John Kander and Fred Ebb's The Scottsboro Boys, recently nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical, directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman. The two plays receiving World Premiere productions are Somewhere by Globe Playwright-in-Residence Matthew Lopez and The Recommendation by Jonathan Caren. The new season also includes revivals of Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show and the Eugene O'Neill classic Anna Christie directed by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner David Auburn. Special events include the World Premiere of Odyssey by Todd Almond, a music theater event conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet celebrating the Globe's 75th Anniversary, The Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program production of Twelfth Night and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, which returns for its 14th consecutive year.

"The season is particularly exciting because of all the new work, and I think it is quite varied in terms of style and story," said Spisto. "We are working with some of today's most interesting and accomplished writers, and they all have something to say that both resonates with us and sparks a reaction. The revivals are also entertaining and a bit daring. It's a big season with 10 productions, and that's only the winter! All in all we are doing 15 productions and one special event celebrating the culmination of our 75th Anniversary - it's pretty amazing."

The Old Globe 2011-12 WINTER SEASON

Old Globe Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center

September 15 - November 6, 2011
Richard O'Brien'S THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW
Book, Music and Lyrics by Richard O'Brien
Directed by Oanh Nguyen

When Brad and Janet, a clean-cut young couple from the suburbs, get caught with a flat in the middle of nowhere, they seek help from the devilishly charming transvestite Dr. Frank N. Furter. What they discover in his mysterious laboratory is a time warp of sexual and scientific possibilities - and, perhaps, true love. The musical that became a movie and started a 35-year nonstop cultural phenomenon is back where it is meant to be seen - live on stage.

Richard O'Brien (Book, Music and Lyrics) began his career as an actor, performing in the London productions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar in the 1970s. With the guidance of director Jim Sharman, O'Brien opened his new musical The Rocky Horror Show at the Theatre Upstairs in 1973. Within weeks it became a cult theater hit and quickly led to an original cast album. Two years later O'Brien and Sharman adapted it into a film, retitled The Rocky Horror Picture Show, starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick. Though the material was highly provocative for its time, including depictions of gay and transgender culture, the movie gained a huge cult following and made stars of its leads. O'Brien himself appeared in the movie as Riff Raff. Still in limited release 35 years after its premiere, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the longest-running theatrical release in film history. O'Brien created a follow-up movie, Shock Treatment, and several more stage musicals in the ‘80s, and he continued to act in bit parts in cult films such as Flash Gordon, Dark City, Ever After and Dungeons & Dragons. In 1998 he released a CD, entitled Absolute O'Brien, of music from his one-man revue, Disgracefully Yours. He served as the host of the popular British game show "The Crystal Maze" and appeared on the West End in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He also occasionally does cabaret-style music and comedy performances on stages around the world, singing songs from Rocky Horror, among others.

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