The Old Globe's 2016 Summer Season Will Include Steve Martin's METEOR SHOWER, Plus Kathleen Marshall-Helmed LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST

The Old Globe today shared its 2016 Summer Season, which will feature new and familiar works directed by four major American stalwarts. The season features the welcome return of Steve Martin (Bright Star) with the World Premiere of his new play Meteor Shower, an adult comedy, directed by Gordon Edelstein, in a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre, where he serves as Artistic Director. Paul Gordon's musical Sense and Sensibility will have its West Coast premiere, presented in association with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where it had its world premiere in February 2015, directed by CST Artistic Director Barbara Gaines. The Summer Shakespeare Festival will include Macbeth, directed by Brian Kulick, Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company, and Love's Labor's Lost, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall.

"The Old Globe's 2016 summer season is all about the excellence that makes this theatre so special," said Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "The caliber of artists joining us is extraordinarily high, and everyone is at the very top of the national field: four renowned and highly accomplished directors, a major Broadway composer, and of course Steve Martin, one of the true Renaissance men of our era. The range of talent on display will be breathtaking, as will the range of material that talent will shape. The two Shakespeare plays in next summer's Shakespeare Festival are at opposite ends of the Bard's spectrum: a delightful romantic comedy and a potent display of the playwright's tragic vision. Both will provide magical and moving evenings in San Diego's balmy night air. Sense and Sensibility is a knockout: a show of sweep and scope that transforms a favorite novel into a new and altogether remarkable work of musical theatre. And Meteor Shower is a complete entertainment: funny, surprising, and grown-up in the best ways. This lineup of productions, enhanced by our growing program of community engagement activities and of course the previously announced visit of Shakespeare's First Folio to our city, will make the summer of 2016 one to remember. I can't wait to share it with the Globe's warm and wonderful audience."

The Globe is delighted to announce the return of Steve Martin with the world premiere of Meteor Shower, an adult comedy. It will be directed by Gordon Edelstein, in a co-production with Long Wharf Theatre, where Edelstein serves as Artistic Director (and no, they are not related). Martin and Edie Brickell's Bright Star premiered at the Globe last summer and will play a limited engagement at The Kennedy Center starting December 2, prior to a just-announced Broadway run beginning performances March 7 at a Shubert Organization theatre to be named. Meteor Shower will play July 30 - September 4, 2016, with Opening Night on August 7, in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. As part of Long Wharf Theatre's 2016-2017 season, performances are scheduled for September 21 - October 16, 2016 (dates subject to change).

Get ready for the unexpected when Norm and his wife Corky invite another couple to their Ojai backyard to watch a meteor shower in the night sky. As the stars come out and the conversation gets rolling, cocktails flow, tempers flare, and sparks fly-literally. Steve Martin's surprising new comedy takes an offbeat and absurdist look at the comic anxiety lurking just beneath the surface of modern marriage.

The delightfully romantic new musical Sense and Sensibility will be presented in association with Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST), who originally commissioned it and presented the World Premiere on April 29, 2015. This musical adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved novel has book, music, and lyrics by Tony Award-nominated composer Paul Gordon (The Old Globe's Emma), orchestrations by Tony Award winners Larry Hochman (The Book of Mormon) and Bruce Coughlin (The Light in the Piazza), additional arrangements by Curtis Moore, developed with Rick Boynton, and it will be directed again by CST Artistic Director Barbara Gaines. The Old Globe's West Coast premiere will play July 6 - August 14, 2016, with Opening Night on July 14, on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

Jane Austen's beloved, emotional novels inspire readers' imaginations. Now Tony Award nominee Paul Gordon (The Old Globe's Emma, Broadway's Jane Eyre) and director Barbara Gaines refashion Austen's timeless classic Sense and Sensibility into a gorgeous, thrillingly romantic musical. After their father's untimely death, sisters Marianne and Elinor Dashwood lose their fortune, their home, and all their prospects for love. But fortunes can turn again. As the plucky heroines face their situation with courage and resolve, audiences will fall in love with the classic story in a whole new way, enchanted by the lush tones of Gordon's ravishing new musical score. The Chicago Sun-Timescalled Sense and Sensibility "flawless," and The Wall Street Journal dubbed it "a winner, full of wit and romance-a show as light on its feet as the novel from which it derives."

The 2016 Summer Shakespeare Festival:

William Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Brian Kulick, will play June 19 - July 24, 2016, with Opening Night on June 25, in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

Tempted by an evil prophecy, and encouraged by his wife ever deeper into his own dark ambition, Macbeth murders his way to the throne of Scotland. Shakespeare's chilling tragedy is filled with ferocious battles, supernatural horrors, famously gorgeous poetry, and some of the Bard's most vivid characters. A stellar cast, under the direction of renowned Shakespearean Brian Kulick, will electrify the San Diego night with a stunning rendition of one of Shakespeare's masterpieces.

William Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Kathleen Marshall, will play August 14 - September 18, 2016, with Opening Night on August 20, in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

The King of Navarre and his three schoolmates vow to embrace their studies-and not embrace girls-for three whole years. But the instant they take that vow, the Princess of France arrives with her three beautiful attendants, and all bets are off. Shakespeare's delightful romantic comedy is an unabashed celebration of innocence, idealism, and the sweet folly of young love. Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall makes her Old Globe directing debut with this intoxicating classic under the San Diego stars.

From June 4 to July 7, 2016, the Globe, in partnership with the San Diego Public Library, will be the California host for First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare, a traveling exhibition of the Shakespeare First Folio, one of the world's most treasured books. Published in 1623, this famous volume is the first collected edition of Shakespeare's 36 plays, half of which would have been lost if not for its publication. The Folger Shakespeare Library, in partnership with Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Library Association, is touring a First Folio across the nation, visiting one location in each of the 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. The volume will be on view in the Art Gallery at the San Diego Central Library at Joan Λ Irwin Jacobs Common. During the entire month, the Globe, the Library, and their project partners-UC San Diego, San Diego State University, University of San Diego, KPBS Public Broadcasting, and the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture-will offer numerous public programs for adults and families before, during, and after the tour visits San Diego.

Sense and Sensibility: July 6 - August 14, 2016

Paul Gordon (Book, Music, and Lyrics, Sense and Sensibility) was commissioned by Chicago Shakespeare Theater to write and compose Sense and Sensibility for its world premiere run. Gordon was nominated for a 2001 Tony Award for composing the music and lyrics to the musical Jane Eyre. He won the 2007 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for his libretto of the musical Emma, developed by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley and later staged at The Old Globe in 2011. His pop musical Analog and Vinyl, selected for the 2013 National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals, had its first production at Weston Playhouse in the summer of 2014.Daddy Long Legs, written with and directed by John Caird and developed by Rubicon Theatre Company, has had productions all over the world, including London, Canada, and Tokyo, and will make its New York debut in the fall of 2015. In 2009 Gordon won an Ovation Award for his music and lyrics to Daddy Long Legs. The world premiere ofLittle Miss Scrooge, written with and directed by John Caird, is slated for Christmas of 2016. Gordon's other shows include Being Earnest, Death: The Musical, The Front, and The Sportswriter.

Barbara Gaines (Director, Sense and Sensibility) is the founder and Artistic Director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where she has directed more than 30 of Shakespeare's plays. Her honors include Chicago Shakespeare Theater's 2008 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre; the prestigious Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of her contributions to strengthening British-American cultural relations; and Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Production (Hamlet, Cymbeline, King Lear, and The Comedy of Errors) and for Best Director (Cymbeline, King Lear, and The Comedy of Errors). At Lyric Opera of Chicago, Gaines directed Macbeth and The Marriage of Figaro. She received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Birmingham, the University Club of Chicago's Cultural Award, the Public Humanities Award from the Illinois Humanities Council, and the Spirit of Loyola Award. Gaines serves on the Globe Council of Shakespeare's Globe in London.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) (Co-Presenter, Sense and Sensibility) is a leading international theatre company and the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and Executive Director Criss Henderson, CST is dedicated to creating extraordinary productions of classics, new works, and family programming; to unlocking Shakespeare's work for educators and students; and to serving as Chicago's cultural ambassador through its World's Stage Series. Through a year-round season encompassing more than 650 performances, CST attracts 225,000 audience members annually. One in four of its audience members is under 18 years old, and today its education programs have impacted the learning of over one million students. CST is proud to take an active role in empowering the next generation of literate, engaged cultural champions and creative minds.

Meteor Shower: July 30 - September 4, 2016

Steve Martin (Playwright, Meteor Shower) is one of the most acclaimed and beloved talents in entertainment. His work has earned numerous honors including an Academy Award, five Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor. Martin 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 NBC's "Saturday Night Live." Martin's films are widely popular successes and are the kind of movies that are viewed again and again: 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 playPicasso at the Lapin Agile; a collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel; a bestselling novella, Shopgirl; and his memoirBorn Standing Up. His writing often appears in The New Yorker. Martin is also an accomplished, Grammy Award-winning, boundary-pushing bluegrass banjoist and composer. In 2013, he released his third full-length album calledLove Has Come For You, a unique collaboration with songwriter Edie Brickell. Love Has Come For You, which won a Grammy for Best American Roots Song for the title track, inspired their new musical Bright Star, which was first staged at The Old Globe in 2014 and opens at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on December 17, 2015, to be followed by a Broadway premiere on March 7, 2016. Martin and Brickell's second album together, So Familiar, was released on Rounder Records in October. The album features 12 remarkable new songs that bring the acclaimed duo's musical collaboration into fresh creative territory.

Gordon Edelstein (Director, Meteor Shower) is in his 14th season as Artistic Director of Long Wharf Theatre. His most recent Long Wharf Theatre credits include The Second Mrs. Wilson, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Our Town, The Last Five Years, The Shadow of the Hummingbird, The Underpants, Ride the Tiger, Curse of the Starving Class,Satchmo at the Waldorf, My Name is Asher Lev, Shirley Valentine, and his own adaptations of A Doll's House andUncle Vanya. His acclaimed Long Wharf Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie played at Roundabout Theatre Company and the Mark Taper Forum and was the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival. He has a continued artistic association with Athol Fugard, directing the world premieres of The Shadow of the Hummingbird, Have You Seen Us?, and Coming Home as well as the East Coast premiere of The Train Driver. Edelstein most recently directed Audra McDonald in A Moon for the Misbegotten at Williamstown Theatre Festival, as well as the Off Broadway production of Satchmo at the Waldorf starring John Douglas Thompson at Westside Theatre. His New York City production of My Name is Asher Lev won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. He also directed the Broadway production of Fugard's The Road to Mecca for Roundabout Theatre Company. Among Edelstein's countless plays and workshops for Long Wharf Theatre are BFE, The Day the Bronx Died, A Dance Lesson, The Times, The Blue Album, We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, A New War, A Moon forthe Misbegotten, Anna Christie, The Front Page, and Mourning Becomes Electra. As a director of an extremely diverse body of work, Edelstein has garnered three Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, and under his artistic leadership, Long Wharf Theatre has received 17 additional Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, including six Outstanding Actor or Actress Awards in plays that he directed. He is also the recipient of the organization's Tom Killen Award, given annually to an individual who has made an indelible impact on the Connecticut theatrical landscape.

Long Wharf Theatre (Co-Producer, Meteor Shower) was founded in 1965 by Jon Jory and Harlan Kleiman and is currently led by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein and Managing Director Joshua Borenstein. Long Wharf Theatre is an organization of international renown and has been a leader in American theatre, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classic and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works, and a variety of world and American premieres. Under the artistic leadership of Arvin Brown for over 30 years, Long Wharf Theatre established itself as an important force in the regional theatre movement. Following Brown's leadership, Doug Hughes served as Artistic Director for four seasons. Throughout its history, Long Wharf Theatre has created a unique home in New Haven for theatre artists from around the world, resulting in the transfer of over 30 productions to Broadway or Off Broadway, including Satchmo at the Waldorf, My Name is Asher Lev, The Glass Menagerie, Durango, BFE, Sixteen Wounded,Wit (Pulitzer Prize), Hughie, American Buffalo, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Quartermaine's Terms (Obie Award for Best Play), The Gin Game (Pulitzer Prize), The Shadow Box (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play), The Changing Room, The Contractor (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play), and Streamers, among many others now in the American theatre canon. In 1978, Long Wharf Theatre was honored with a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Currently in its 51st season, Long Wharf Theatre produces an annual season of six plays on its two stages, along with children's programming, new play workshops, and a variety of special events.

Macbeth: June 19 - July 24, 2016

Brian Kulick (Director, Macbeth) is finishing up his final year as the Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company, a theatre he has lead since 2003. This season he will direct Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children with Tonya Pinkins and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's rarely seen Nathan the Wise with F. Murray Abraham. Kulick's other directing credits for CSC include Alexander Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and William Shakespeare'sThe Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, Hamlet, Richard II and Richard III with longtime collaborator Michael Cumpsty. Kulick commissioned and co-directed poet Anne Carson's award winning An Oresteia and helmed CSC's multi-year Brecht Fest with productions of Galileo, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and A Man's a Man. He also conceived and oversaw the theatre's critically acclaimed Chekhov Cycle, which produced productions of Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard with a constellation of artists that included Alan Cumming, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Denis O'Hare, Joely Richardson, Peter Sarsgaard, John Turturro, and Dianne Wiest. Kulick has made CSC the home for the work of playwright David Ives, producing world premieres of New Jerusalem, The School for Lies, and Venus in Fur, the latter of which transferred to Broadway and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. Most recently he instituted CSC's popular Musical Theatre Initiative, bringing revivals of such neglected masterworks as Stephen Sondheim's Passion and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro. Prior to this he was an Artistic Associate and then Associate Producer for The Public Theater, where he directed critically acclaimed productions of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, The Winter's Tale, and Twelfth Night as part of the theatre's popular Shakespeare in the Park. He also directed A Dybbuk, Pericles, and Kit Marlowe at the theatre's downtown home on Lafayette Street. He has directed the premieres of works by Nilo Cruz, Tony Kushner, Charles Mee, and Han Ong. Kulick's work has been seen at Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Mark Taper Forum, Trinity Repertory Company, McCarter Theatre Center, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, and Magic Theatre. He has also spent the past 15 years teaching in the graduate directing program at Columbia University's School of the Arts with Anne Bogart.

Love's Labor's Lost: August 14 - September 18, 2016

Kathleen Marshall's (Director, Love's Labor's Lost) Broadway credits include Living on Love, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Anything Goes, The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, Follies, Seussical, Kiss Me, Kate, 1776, and Swinging on a Star. Her Off Broadway and regional credits include Two Gentlemen of Verona(New York Shakespeare Festival), Saturday Night (Second Stage Theatre), My Paris (Goodspeed Musicals), Ever After (Paper Mill Playhouse), Diner (Signature Theatre Company); Living on Love (Williamstown Theatre Festival); and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Denver Center Theatre Company). She was the Artistic Director of City Center Encores! for four seasons, where she directed and choreographed The Band Wagon, I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road, Bells Are Ringing, Carnival, and Babes in Arms, among others. She choreographed the musical sequences in the film My Week with Marilyn. For ABC/Disney she directed and choreographed "Once Upon a Mattress" and choreographed "The Music Man" (Emmy Award nomination). Marshall has received three Tony Awards (out of nine nominations), three Drama Desk Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Astaire Award, the George Abbott Award, the Smith College Medal (her alma mater), and the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for the Arts, and she has been named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.