World Premiere of Christopher Gattelli and Stephen Flaherty's IN YOUR ARMS Comes to The Old Globe This Fall

The Old Globe today announced it will open its 2015-2016 Season with In Your Arms, a World Premiere dance-theatre musical featuring direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, Godspell, Lincoln Center Theater's South Pacific) and original music by Tony Award winner Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island; two-time Oscar nominee for Anastasia). Co-conceived by Gattelli and Jennifer Manocherian, In Your Arms features 10 dance vignettes written by an incredible and diverse lineup of theatre powerhouses, including Douglas Carter Beane, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Carrie Fisher, David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, and Alfred Uhry. Among them, the creators have amassed 14 Tony Awards, five Pulitzer Prizes, six Pulitzer finalist designations, and one Academy Award.

Part of The Old Globe's yearlong celebration of its own 80th Anniversary and the Centennial of Balboa Park's Panama-California Exposition, In Your Arms will run September 16 - October 25, 2015 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run September 16 - September 23. Opening night is Thursday, September 24. Tickets will become available by subscription only this spring, with single tickets available to the general public later in the year.

In Your Arms is a sweeping and romantic evening of theatre created by an unprecedented constellation of America's preeminent writers for the stage. Ten dance vignettes tell wordless stories of love, yearning, and romance, and constitute a magical evening of movement and music performed by a cast of 20 talented dancers. Each vignette takes place in a different place and time, and the 10 dances range from duets to large ensemble numbers. Thrilling styles of dance from classical ballet to swing, tap to tango, rock 'n' roll to Charleston, modern to jazz are celebrated with verve and nuance. The emotional canvas of the stories is vast: some are funny, some are sad, and some are enchanting, but all delve deep into that most essential of human emotions: love.

"In Your Arms is one of the most romantic shows I've ever come across, and I am happy and proud to bring it to San Diego audiences," said Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "Its creators are a staggeringly brilliant group of top-rank theatrical talent, and the Globe is honored to host them. Stephen Flaherty's lush and beguiling music comes together with wildly imaginative scenarios by an unprecedented gathering of significant writers to express the many moods and varieties of love. And wizardly director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli weaves this diverse material together with a special magic: the potent and exuberant language of dance. I'm thrilled to open our new season with such a fresh, original, and moving show."

A workshop production of In Your Arms was presented by New York Stage and Film & Vassar at the Powerhouse Theater, Summer 2014. It is produced by arrangement with Jennifer Manocherian, Scott Landis, and Harriet Newman Leve.

The cast and full creative team for the World Premiere at The Old Globe will be announced at a later time.

Christopher Gattelli (Direction and Choreography) was awarded the 2012 Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his choreography in Newsies. As a choreographer, his Broadway credits include South Pacific (Tony, Outer Critics Circle nominations), Sunday in the Park with George, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Godspell, The Ritz, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, 13, and High Fidelity. His Off Broadway credits include Dogfight (Lucille Lortel Award), Altar Boyz (Lortel Award, Joe A. Callaway Award, Drama Desk nomination), Bat Boy: The Musical (Lortel Award), tick, tick... BOOM!, 10 Million Miles, Adrift in Macao, and I Love You Because. His choreography has also been seen on the West End and in London in South Pacific, Sunday in the Park with George, and tick, tick... BOOM! His national and international tour credits include Altar Boyz, Godspell, Grease, and the world premiere of Disney Theatrical's Pooh's Perfect Day, as well as South Pacific at the Sydney Opera House. His regional choreography credits include The Jungle Book (Goodman Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company), Little Miss Sunshine (La Jolla Playhouse), Me and My Girl and O Henry's Lovers (Goodspeed Opera House), and Tom Jones (North Shore Music Theatre). His credits as a director-choreographer include the Off Broadway production of Silence! The Musical (Time magazine's Top 10 of 2011), the world premiere of Jim Henson's Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and Radio Girl (Goodspeed Musicals), and Departure Lounge (The Public Theater's New York Shakespeare Festival). He recently directed and choreographed In Your Arms, which he also co-created, at New York Stage and Film. Gattelli also recently choreographed Amazing Grace, which played the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago, and the first national tour of Disney's Newsies, which is touring the U.S. He will soon be choreographing The King and I for Lincoln Center Theater, and he just completed choreographing the Coen brothers' feature film Hail Caesar!

Stephen Flaherty (Music) is the composer of Rocky, Ragtime (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Grammy Awards nominations), Seussical (Grammy, Drama Desk nominations), and Once on This Island (Tony nomination, Olivier Award for Best Musical). His additional Broadway credits include original songs for Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life and incidental music for Neil Simon's Proposals. Flaherty has also written four musicals at Lincoln Center Theater: The Glorious Ones (OCC, Drama Desk nominations), Dessa Rose (OCC, Drama Desk nominations), A Man of No Importance (OCC Award for Best Musical, Drama Desk nomination), and My Favorite Year. His oher theatre credits include Lucky Stiff, Little Dancer (The Kennedy Center), and Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein (Chicago's Jefferson Award for Best New Musical). His work for film includes Anastasia (two Academy Award and two Golden Globe nominations), the documentary After the Storm, and the upcoming Lucky Stiff. This year celebrates Flaherty's 30-year collaboration with lyricist-librettist Lynn Ahrens.

Tickets to In Your Arms will initially be available only as part of a Season Package, which offers substantial savings with special subscriber benefits. Subscription and single ticket dates and prices will be announced at a later date.

The Old Globe is located in San Diego's Balboa Park at 1363 Old Globe Way. There are numerous free parking lots available throughout the park. Guests may also be dropped off in front of the Mingei International Museum. The Balboa Park valet is also available during performances ($12), located in front of the Japanese Friendship Garden. For additional parking information visit www.BalboaPark.org. For directions and up-to-date information, visit www.TheOldGlobe.org/Directions.

PLEASE NOTE: To look up online or GPS directions to The Old Globe, please do not use the Delivery Address above. There is only a 10-minute zone at that physical address. For GPS users, please click here for the map coordinates, and here for written directions to The Old Globe and nearby parking in Balboa Park.

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe, celebrating its 80th Anniversary in 2015, is one of the country's leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Michael G. Murphy, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 14 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre's education and community programs. Numerous world premieres such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, A Catered Affair, and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.