David Turner to Lead BUYER & CELLAR at The Old Globe

The Old Globe today announced that Broadway veteran David Turner (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Arcadia, Sunday in the Park with George) will star in Jonathan Tolins's (The Twilight of the Golds) acclaimed Off Broadway hit Buyer & Cellar, directed by Ron Lagomarsino (The Last Night of Ballyhoo, My Favorite Year, "Homefront," "Ravenswood"). The one-man, tour-de-force comedy, which continues the Globe's 80th Anniversary festivities as part of the Balboa Park Centennial Celebration, will run April 4 through May 3 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run April 4 through April 8. Opening night is Thursday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m. Single tickets are currently on sale and 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.

What's a renowned diva to do with decades of memories that light the corners of her mind? And where to put the acres of memorabilia bursting the seams of her Malibu estate? If you're Barbra Streisand, you enshrine them in a mini-mall in your basement where you can pretend to go shopping! Out-of-work actor Alex More can't pass up the oddest of odd jobs-an offer to play shopkeeper for one tough customer who doesn't let anyone rain on her parade. Soon it begins to take a toll on his patience, his love life, and his view of people (who need people). Jonathan Tolins's "totally fictional" Off Broadway hit will have you rolling in the aisles and realizing why The New York Times called it "seriously funny - a remarkably sustained slice of absurdist whimsy," and the New York Daily News declared, "This play deserves a hearty 'Hello, gorgeous!'"

David Turner stars as Alex More. Turner recently starred in the Broadway revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever alongside Harry Connick Jr. and Jessie Mueller. His other Broadway credits include Arcadia, Sunday in the Park with George, The Ritz, In My Life, and The Invention of Love, the latter of which was directed by Old Globe Artistic Director Emeritus Jack O'Brien. His Off Broadway credits include As You Like It, directed by Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as The Last Sunday in June (also by Jonathan Tolins), The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Butter and Egg Man, Gutenberg! The Musical!, and most recently The Good Person of Szechwan at The Public Theater. Among Turner's television appearances are "Lipstick Jungle," "The Good Wife," and HBO's "The Leftovers." He is the recipient of two Helen Hayes Award nominations and BMI's prestigious Jerry Harrington Musical Theater Award for songwriting.

The creative team for Buyer & Cellar includes Erik Flatmo (Scenic Design), Charlotte Devaux (Costume Design), Philip S. Rosenberg (Lighting Design), Lindsay Jones (Original Music and Sound Design), Caparelliotis Casting (Casting), and Jess Slocum (Production Stage Manager).

"Buyer & Cellar is one of those wonderful plays that comes at you with a lot of laughs and then sneaks up on you with deep things to think about," said Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "Jonathan Tolins is one of the funniest playwrights out there, and he just nails that crazy Los Angeles world where the struggling actors and the movie stars-the Queen Bees and the wannabes-somehow mingle side by side. His play makes us reconsider the distance between superstar and nobody, and he spins a wildly inventive and surprisingly sweet yarn along the way. The brilliant Ron Lagomarsino navigates this daffy piece with great skill, and David Turner finds every nuance, from the biggest belly laugh to the most tender heartbreak. This is a special one, and I'm looking forward to seeing San Diego embrace it."

Jonathan Tolins (Playwright) is the author of Buyer & Cellar, which won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show and was named Best Unique Theatrical Experience by the Off Broadway Alliance. His other plays include The Twilight of the Golds, If Memory Serves, The Last Sunday in June, and Secrets of the Trade. He is represented on Broadway this season by additional material written for the revival of On the Town. His film work includes The Twilight of the Golds and Martian Child. For television, he was a writer for "Queer as Folk" (U.S.), "The Academy Awards," "The Tony Awards," and "Partners." He was the author of Pushkin 200: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall, acted as script consultant on Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular, and co-wrote The Divine Millennium Tour and The Showgirl Must Go On for Bette Midler. He has written articles for Opera News, Opera Monthly, TheaterWeek, Time, and The Huffington Post, and is a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz.

Ron Lagomarsino (Director) directed the Broadway productions of Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Tony Award for Best Play) and the Joseph Dougherty/Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty musical My Favorite Year. His Off Broadway credits include Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy (Pulitzer Prize, Drama Desk Award nomination), Digby (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), Beth Henley's Abundance, and John Patrick Shanley's Women of Manhattan. He is the recipient of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Daisy, Christopher Durang's Laughing Wild, and Timothy Mason's Only You. Lagomarsino also directed the national tour of Daisy with Julie Harris, as well as the West End production with Dame Wendy Hiller. His regional credits include the world premieres of Jane Anderson's Looking for Normal (Geffen Playhouse), I Am Not Mark Twain by Steven Cragg (Aspen Comedy Festival, Best One-Person Play), and Lisa Loomer's Birds (South Coast Repertory); the West Coast premieres of David Mamet's November (American Conservatory Theater) and Larry Shue's The Foreigner (SCR); Noises Off (Seattle Repertory Theatre); and Hay Fever (Kenyon Festival Theater). He served as Resident Director of Hartford Stage for two seasons as well as Associate Artistic Director of Berkshire Theatre Festival. He has developed many new works at New York Stage and Film, Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and Ojai Playwrights Conference. Lagomarsino's television credits include the pilots of "Picket Fences" (Directors Guild of America Award), "Homefront" (Emmy Award nomination), and most recently "Ravenswood," for which he also served as Co-Executive Producer. His favorite episodic television credits include "thirtysomething," "My So-Called Life," "Ally McBeal," "The Unit," "The Starter Wife," "The Fosters," and "Pretty Little Liars."

Buyer & Cellar is supported in part through gifts from Alan Benaroya and The Prado at Balboa Park.

TICKETS to Buyer & Cellar were initially available only as part of a Season Package, which offers substantial savings with special subscriber benefits. Subscription prices for the 2014-2015 Season range from $68 to $463. Subscription packages may 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. Single tickets on sale now, starting at $29. Performances begin on April 4 and continue May 3. Performance times: Previews: Saturday, April 4 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m., and Wednesday, April 8 at 7:00 p.m. Opening night is Thursday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m. Regular Performances: Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m., and Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m. There will a Wednesday matinee performance on April 22 at 2:00 p.m. and no matinee performance on Saturday, April 25. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and under, seniors, and groups of 10 or more.

Photo by Jim Cox

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