Grit and Glitter Will Share the Boards During Globe’s 1990 Season

Something old (“Uncle Vanya”), something new (by Neil Simon), something borrowed (Lee Blessing’s “Cobb,” first produced by the Yale Repertory Theatre) and something blue (“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” about singer Billie Holiday) are part of the Old Globe Theatre’s six-play season for next year.

“Jake’s Women,” the second world premiere of a Neil Simon play in two years at the Old Globe, and the West Coast premiere of “Cobb” should be the stars to watch as the 1990 season of glitter and grit unfolds. Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” directed by Old Globe artistic director Jack O’Brien, Jan. 11-Feb. 18, completes the offerings at the Globe’s 581-seat main stage.

The grit is in the three plays at the 225-seat Cassius Carter Centre Stage, which all feature playwrights found in the Old Globe Play Discovery and Latino Play Discovery programs: Mark Lee, whose play “Paradise” was found in the Play Discovery Program, will have the West Coast premiere of “Rebel Armies Deep into Chad,” about two arrogant journalists in an African region torn with violence, March 3-April 15; Lanie Robertson, whose “Alfred Stieglitz Loves O’Keefe” went from a Play Discovery Program reading to a full production at the Cassius Carter last year, will return with “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” April 28-June 10; and Roberto M. Cossa, whose play “The Granny” was a workshop production in Teatro Meta’s Latino Play Discovery Series, will have a full production of his black comedy about a family in depressed Argentina that starts plotting to get rid of granny because she eats too much, Jan. 6-Feb. 18.

For the glitter: The Simon play, “Jake’s Women,” and the Blessing work, about the legendary baseball hitter Ty Cobb, offer two looks at plays that are likely candidates to make the leap from regional theater to Broadway.

Only last year, with Simon’s “Rumors” at the Old Globe, the popular playwright opted for the first time to premiere a show in a regional theater production. “Rumors” moved directly to Broadway, where it is still running.

“Cobb,” which was first produced by the Yale Repertory Theatre and will be mounted with the same cast under the same director, Yale’s artistic director Lloyd Richards, is the third collaboration in three years between the two nonprofit regional theaters. The last two shows were August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” which subsequently went to Broadway, and “The Piano Lesson,” which is due on Broadway April 16.

Benjamin Mordecai, managing director of the Yale Rep, sees the cooperation between the Globe and Yale as the wave of the future.

“It’s replaced the old network of play development in the 1950s when there were no regional theaters and people would take a play through separate cities and try it out,” said Mordecai. “It’s financially unfeasible in the commercial theater now to spend time in the development of serious plays. I really believe in this process. I think that collaborations between theaters is a very good evolution.”

“Jake’s Women,” continues the semi-autobiographical tradition of the playwright’s “Chapter 2” and the trilogy of “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound,” with the story of a middle-aged writer and six of the most important women in his life--his analyst, sister, daughter, wife, ex-wife and a friend. The show, which will run March 8-April 15 under the direction of Ron Link, was supposed to be Simon’s first world premiere at the Old Globe last year. The show wasn’t ready so he debuted with “Rumors.”

“We had our collective breaths held,” said O’Brien, artistic director of the Old Globe, of the “Rumors” run. “Neil had never dealt with an organization like ours.” Simon’s decision to premiere “Jake’s Women” at the Old Globe is indicative to O’Brien that the collaboration worked. And he is especially pleased at the most recent fruit of those labors.

“I think this is the greatest play he has ever written,” O’Brien said of “Jake’s Women.” “ ‘Rumors’ is a departure from the vein in which he has written for the last eight or nine years. He needed to clear his head and not think too much. This is very funny and intensely personal and one of the most remarkably brave theatrical departures I’ve ever seen him make. I am so proud we are doing it.”

“Cobb,” tentatively slated for May 3-June 10, marks an Old Globe debut for Blessing, who has done three shows in three years at the La Jolla Playhouse, including the internationally reknowned “A Walk in the Woods” and the currently running “Down the Road.”

“Uncle Vanya,” a story of three men’s love for a single woman, represents a long desired venture back to the classics for O’Brien, who, with the exception of “Antony and Cleopatra” two seasons ago, has been largely directing new works for the Globe.

“The last couple of years I’ve done more new pieces than the resonating classics,” said O’Brien. “When you have a theater like this you have a dream list. You usually do what the institution needs rather than what you want to do. I started here in 1982 and it’s 1989 and I thought I should start doing some of those shows I always wanted to do.”

The season begins in January rather than December this year, to avoid butting up against the plentiful array of December holiday show offerings, said O’Brien. Instead, the stage will take a different turn--and a few somersaults--when the Peking Acrobats take their tumbles in a Dec. 5-10 spot at the Old Globe.