Breaking News: Bang, Zoom! THE HONEYMOONERS Musical to Open Old Globe's 2013-14 Season; McGrath to Star & Mitchell to Direct & Choreograph

The Old Globe will open its 2013-14 Season with the world premiere of The Honeymooners, a new musical based on the legendary CBS television series. 2012 Tony Award winner Michael McGrath (Nice Work If You Can Get It) will star as Ralph Kramden, the small-time bus driver with big-time dreams. Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde) will direct and choreograph the musical comedy, with book by Dusty Kay and Bill Nuss, music by Stephen Weiner and lyrics by Peter Mills. The complete creative team and casting will be announced at a later date. The Honeymooners, presented under a license from CBS, will run on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, Sept. 8 - Oct. 27, 2013. Preview performances run Sept. 8 - 20. Opening night is Sunday, Sept. 22. Tickets are currently available by subscription only. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

"It's a real delight to bring this fun and rollicking new musical comedy to San Diego," said Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "I'm happy to see the brilliant Michael McGrath make his Globe debut, and I'm especially pleased to welcome the hugely talented Jerry Mitchell back to this theatre, where he choreographed The Full Monty, Imaginary Friends and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. As a kid I was a full-blown 'Honeymooners' addict, and I 'bang-zoomed' away many more hours with the Kramdens and Nortons than I should probably admit. That's why it's a special joy to see Ralph, Ed, Alice and Trixie come to vivid life on our stage and to introduce these iconic American characters to a new generation."

Ralph Kramden and his buddy Ed Norton are back with a whole new scheme in this world premiere musical. The two friends enter a jingle contest, and much to the shock of their long-suffering wives, they actually win! Soon they are catapulted out of Brooklyn and into the cutthroat world of Madison Avenue, where they find themselves torn between success and friendship. Bursting with bouncy tunes and showbiz pizzazz, The Honeymooners will send audiences to the moon!

Brainchild of the legendary American comedian, actor and musician Jackie Gleason, "The Honeymooners" took the world by storm after it was launched as a six-minute sketch on Gleason's "Cavalcade of Stars" in 1951. The sketches starred Gleason as Ralph Kramden, an everyman underdog struggling to make a better life for himself and his no-nonsense wife, Alice. With help from his sewer worker pal, Ed Norton, and his wife, Trixie, Ralph plotted hilarious get-rich-quick schemes, none of which ever succeeded. Over the next few years, "The Honeymooners" became a television sensation, even beating out "I Love Lucy" as the most-watched show of 1955. "The Honeymooners" served as the inspiration for the hit cartoon series "The Flintstones" and has since lived on in American popular culture through continuous reruns and references on dozens of TV shows from "The Simpsons" to "Sesame Street."

Michael McGrath (Ralph Kramden) won the 2012 Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award for Nice Work If You Can Get It. He has also appeared on Broadway in Born Yesterday, Memphis, Spamalot (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Is He Dead?, Wonderful Town, Little Me, Swinging on a Star (Theatre World Award, Drama Desk nomination), The Goodbye Girl and My Favorite Year. His credits with City Center Encores! include Follies, The Boys from Syracuse and Dubarry Was a Lady, and his Off Broadway credits include The Cocoanuts, The Butter and Egg Man, Game Show, Louisiana Purchase and Forbidden Broadway. McGrath appeared as the side man to Martin Short on "The Martin Short Show" and has been seen in the films The Interpreter, Changing Lanes and Ira & Abby.

Dusty Kay (Book) is a screenwriter, playwright and producer. He was the supervising producer of "Entourage," for which he received Emmy, Writers Guild and Golden Globe Award nominations. As supervising producer of "Roseanne," he received a Golden Globe nomination. Kay wrote and produced the television movie Triplecross (ABC), was supervising producer of "Early Edition" and "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (Warner Brothers/ABC) and was creator and executive producer of the critically acclaimed "Once a Hero" (ABC).

Bill Nuss (Book) is a television show runner, writer and producer. He is President of Confidential Pictures, a Los Angeles-based Production Company that supplies primetime series to network and cable broadcasters. Nuss has produced, written or created over 300 hours of network primetime series. In addition to the new "Hawaii Five-0" and "NCIS," he worked with his mentor, the late Stephen J. Cannell, on Fox's first hit, "21 Jump Street" starring Johnny Depp, "Booker," "The A-Team" and the NBC television movie The Return of Hunter: Everyone Walks in L.A. starring Fred Dryer and Miguel Ferrer. Nuss was the creator and executive producer of "Pacific Blue" starring Mario Lopez. The show was USA Network's highest-rated drama series during its reign.

Stephen Weiner (Composer) composed the score to the critically acclaimed Off Broadway production of Iron Curtain with Peter Mills. His additional scores include The Rivals, Rocket Science, Once Upon a Time in New Jersey, The Hudsucker Proxy, newyorkers and Spittin' Image. He is the winner of two Richard Rodgers Awards, a Jonathan Larson Grant, an ASCAP New Horizons Award and the Global Search for New Musicals Award. He is also an Obie, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award nominee. Weiner is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Peter Mills (Lyricist) contributed the lyrics to the critically acclaimed Off Broadway production of Iron Curtain with music by Stephen Weiner. He has received the 2011 Cole Porter Award, the 2010 Kleban Prize, the 2007 Fred Ebb Award and two 2005 Drama Desk Award nominations for his show The Pursuit of Persephone, and he is also a 2002 Jonathan Larson Grant recipient. As a composer/lyricist, his shows include Illyria, The Floodand Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge. He holds an M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University and a degree in English/Dramatic Literature from Princeton University. Mills is a founding member of Prospect Theater Company.

Jerry Mitchell (Director and Choreographer) made his Broadway and West End debuts as director with the Olivier Award-winning Legally Blonde, for which he also served as choreographer and was nominated for both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his choreography, as well as the Drama Desk Award for his Broadway direction. A Tony Award winner for his dazzling choreography created for the first revival of La Cage aux Folles, Mitchell was also nominated for Tonys for choreographing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray, Never Gonna Dance and The Full Monty. For Broadway, Mitchell also choreographed Catch Me If You Can and revivals of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Rocky Horror Show and Gypsystarring Bernadette Peters and, for Off Broadway and film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He also choreographed Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies for the West End. Most recently, Mitchell served as production supervisor for the Toronto and Broadway productions of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. His film work includes In & Out, Camp, Drop Dead Gorgeousand Scent of a Woman. Mitchell conceived and produces Broadway Bares, a comedy burlesque performed annually for the charity Broadway Cares, and directed and choreographed Peepshow, a Las Vegas production show based on his Broadway Bares. Currently he is directing and choreographing the forthcoming Broadway production of Kinky Boots, a new musical with libretto by Harvey Fierstein and score by Cyndi Lauper. Mitchell's newly formed partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group is currently developing three new musicals for the 2013-14 season in London and on Broadway.