Old Globe to feature 3 musicals

Three musicals will anchor the lineup in San Diego during the Old Globe Theatre’s 2004-05 season, which also will feature the Southern California premiere of Richard Greenberg’s Tony Award-winning baseball drama, “Take Me Out,” the theater has announced.

The musicals will include two world premieres. “Himself and Nora” (March 24-April 24, 2005), by Sheila Walsh and Jonathan Brielle, is a look at James Joyce through the prism of his long relationship with the woman who was to become his wife, Nora Barnacle. It joins the previously reported “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” (Sept. 22-Oct. 24), an adaptation of the 1988 film.

Amanda McBroom will be the sole performer and co-writer, with Joel Silberman, of the third musical, “Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues” (Feb. 10-March 13, 2005), in which a songwriter channels Shakespearean heroines while creating a show.

Artistic director Jack O’Brien acknowledged some nervousness Monday about programming three musicals and emphasized that he is not trying to steer the Old Globe in a new direction. He said he found the shows compelling and thought their substance would prevent the season from turning into one with “too much sugar.”

“Take Me Out” (Jan. 20-Feb. 20) dramatizes the brouhaha after a star centerfielder announces he is gay. Joe Mantello, who won a best director Tony for the show’s Broadway production, will stage the Globe version, a co-production with Seattle Repertory Theatre.

Also announced were “Fiction” by Steven Dietz (Sept. 30-Oct. 31), Nicholas Wright’s “Vincent in Brixton” (April 7-May 8, 2005), George Bernard Shaw’s “Misalliance” (May 12-June 12, 2005) and Stephen Jeffreys’ “I Just Stopped by to See the Man” (May 26-June 26, 2005).