Ken Barnett, Jefferson Mays to Lead A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER at the Old Globe

The Old Globe today announced the complete cast and creative team for the world premiere of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, a new musical comedy with book by Robert L. Freedman, music by Steven Lutvak and lyrics by Freedman and Lutvak. Former Old Globe Co-Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak returns to the Globe to direct the production. Based on the novel Israel Rank by Roy Horniman, the musical also features choreography by Peggy Hickey. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder will run March 8 - April 14, 2013 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Preview performances run March 8 - March 12. Opening night is Wednesday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m. A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is a co-production with Hartford Stage. Single tickets go on sale Sunday, Feb. 3 at 12 noon. 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.

When Monty Navarro, the black sheep of the D'Ysquith family, finds out he is ninth in line to inherit a dukedom, he decides to eliminate the other eight heirs standing in his way - all played by Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife). Set in England's elegant Edwardian era, this witty music hall comedy was proclaimed "gorgeous, funny and melodious" by the Harford Courant. Named one of the top 10 "Hottest Tickets of the Year" by The New York Times, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder explores how low we'll go to make it to the top.

"I know that this beguiling and very funny new musical will delight Globe audiences," said Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "The remarkable team of Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak has crafted a show that is sharp, surprising and entertaining, and at its helm is the great Darko Tresnjak, an old friend I'm delighted to welcome back to the Globe. Darko's partners in crime are the stellar Ken Barnett and Jefferson Mays, two of the most exciting stage actors in America, whose deft and hilarious performances are real tours de force."

Ken Barnett stars as the charming and vengeful Monty Navarro. He has appeared on Broadway in Wonderful Town directed by Kathleen Marshall and The Green Bird directed by Julie Taymor, and his Off Broadway credits include the world premiere of February House, Manon/Sandra, Debbie Does Dallas, The Whore of Sheridan Square and La Ronde, for which he received the Best Actor Award at the New York International Fringe Festival.

Jefferson Mays plays all eight ill-fated members of the D'Ysquith clan. Mays' Broadway debut in the one-man show I Am My Own Wife earned him the 2004 Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play as well as Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Obie, Helen Hayes and Drama League Awards. His other Broadway credits include Journey's End, Pygmalion and last season's Gore Vidal's The Best Man, and his Off Broadway credits include the American premiere of Blood and Gifts, Measure for Measure, Quills and Orestes.

The cast of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder also features Chilina Kennedy (Phoebe D'Ysquith), Lisa O'Hare (Sibella Hallward) and Heather Ayers, Rachel Izen, Kevin Ligon, KendAl Sparks, Price Waldman and Catherine Walker (Ensemble).

Please see the attachment for complete cast biographies.

The creative team includes Alexander Dodge (Scenic Design), Linda Cho (Costume Design), Philip S. Rosenberg (Lighting Design), Dan Moses Schreier (Sound Design), Aaron Rhyne (Projection Design), Charles LaPointe (Wig Design), Jonathan Tunick (Orchestrator), Mike Ruckles (Music Director), Dianne Adams McDowell and Steven Lutvak (Vocal Arrangements), Binder Casting (Casting), Jan Gist (Dialect Consultant) and Susie Cordon (Stage Manager).

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is supported in part through gifts from Production Sponsors Valerie and Harry Cooper, HM Electronics, Inc. (HME) and California Bank & Trust.

Robert L. Freedman (Book and Lyrics) was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild Award for the ABC miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows starring Judy Davis. He won the Writers Guild Award for HBO's A Deadly Secret and was also nominated for ABC's Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella starring Brandy and Whitney Houston. He was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for the GLAAD Award-winning What Makes a Family. His other films for television include What Love Sees (Silver Plaque, Chicago International Television Festival), Honor Thy Mother (Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America), Unlikely Angel starring Dolly Parton, In the Best of Families: Marriage, Pride & Madness, Our Son, the Matchmaker, Taken Away, Murder at 75 Birch, Woman With a Past, Murder in the Hamptons and The Pastor's Wife and Broadway Sings: The Music of Jule Styne for "Great Performances." For his musical theater work with Steven Lutvak, Freedman won the Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyric Writing, the Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Songwriting and the California Musical Theatre Award. Their musical Campaign of the Century has been performed at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and the Chicago Humanities Festival. He is the coauthor, with Faye Greenberg, of the one-man play The Beast of Broadway: The Life and Times of David Merrick.

Steven Lutvak (Music, Lyrics and Vocal Arrangements) was profiled in Time magazine's People to Watch column. He also wrote the title track to Paramount's hit film Mad Hot Ballroom. Lutvak and Freedman also wrote Campaign of the Century, which was presented at the Chicago Humanities Festival and the New York Musical Theatre Festival, winning the California Musical Theater Award Competition from the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild. Lutvak's other musicals include The Wayside Motor Inn, Almost September (eight San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards and seven Dramalogue Awards for its West Coast premiere) and Esmeralda, for which he won a New American Works Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His other awards include two Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Grants and the Johnny Mercer Emerging American Songwriter Award. As a singer/songwriter, Lutvak has performed at Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall and around the country. His albums include The Time It Takes and Ahead of My Heart, and his songs are discussed at some length in Classic American Popular Song.

Darko Tresnjak (Director) is the fifth Artistic Director of Hartford Stage. His directing credits at Hartford Stage include A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Breath & Imagination, Bell, Book and Candle and The Tempest. He was the Artistic Director of The Old Globe Shakespeare Festival from 2004 to 2009. His directing credits at the Globe include Cyrano de Bergerac, Coriolanus, The Women, The Pleasure of His Company, All's Well That Ends Well, Bell, Book and Candle, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Winter's Tale, The Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Pericles. He received four awards from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle for Outstanding Direction of Cyrano de Bergerac, The Winter's Tale and Pericles and for Excellence in Artistic Direction. His recent credits include Titus Andronicus (Stratford Shakespeare Festival), City of Angels (Goodspeed Musicals), Twelfth Night (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and the National Tour of The Merchant of Venice featuring F. Murray Abraham as Shylock. Tresnjak's directing career began at Williamstown Theatre Festival where, over eight seasons, he directed The Skin of Our Teeth, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Love of Three Oranges, Princess Turandot, The Blue Demon, The Winter's Tale, Moving Picture and Under Milk Wood. He has also directed at The Public Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Vineyard Theatre and Blue Light Theater Company. From 2002 to 2004 he was Director in Residence at Boston's Huntington Theatre Company. In Connecticut Tresnjak has directed Carnival, Amour and A Little Night Music (Goodspeed Musicals), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Long Wharf Theatre) and Hay Fever and Princess Turandot (Westport Country Playhouse).

Peggy Hickey (Choreography) has choreographed Hansel and Gretel, La Rondine, The Most Happy Fella, My Fair Lady and Lucky To Be Me at Lincoln Center and Antony and Cleopatra Off Broadway at Theatre for a New Audience. Her regional credits include Carnival, Amour, A Little Night Music, Brigadoon, King of Hearts and On the Twentieth Century (Goodspeed Musicals), Oklahoma! (Paper Mill Playhouse), Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, Brigadoon and Carousel (California Musical Theatre), Curtains, The King and I, My Fair Lady, State Fair and The Music Man (Music Theatre of Wichita) and The Music Man (The Bushnell). Her opera credits include work with LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Hong Kong Arts Festival and Savonlinna Opera Festival. Her film and television credits include The Brady Bunch Movie, "Samantha Who?," "90210," "Hot in Cleavland," "General Hospital" and "Day of Our Lives."

TICKETS to A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder 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. Tickets are currently available by subscription only. Single tickets go on sale Sunday, Feb. 3 at 12 noon. Performances begin on March 8 and continue through April 14. Ticket prices start at $39. Performance times: Previews: Friday, March 8 at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, March 9 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday, March 10 at 7:00 p.m. and Tuesday, March 12 at 7:00 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 is a 2:00 p.m. matinee on Wednesday, April 3 and no matinee performance on Saturday, April 6. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and under, seniors and groups of 10 or more.

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