On March 15, the Old Globe Theatre had a bit of an open house in Balboa Park – a rehearsal, really – to which the staff invited a few folks particularly interested in musicals. Seems there’s a gal on the Globe campus that a lot of people are interested in, including Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. Her name is Sadie Thompson. Edelstein was sitting in his New York agent’s office a couple years ago looking for another world-premiere musical for the Old Globe to develop (it’s staged 29 others to now). Edelstein’s agent also represents a few outstanding other talented folk, too – and he said, “Have I got a musical for you!” It was that of Edelstein’s old friend Michael John LaChiusa and his writing partner Sybille Pearson, who’d been working a while on Sadie’s musical, aptly titled “Rain.” Really a lady of the night, Sadie (played by sultry Eden Espinosa at the Globe) shows up in this super-sexy Somerset Maugham short story in which a bunch of tourists on a cruise ship get quarantined on Pago Pago. Sadie moves into a hotel along with some fine, upstanding folks, including a man of the cloth and his wife. When the minister decides Sadie is ripe for salvation, her body kind of gets in his way, with disastrous results. And just wait till you see the repressed good man as portrayed by Jared Zirilli. The short story was so hot in the ’20s that all the femmes fatale in Hollywood wanted to play Sadie. Three succeeded: Gloria Swanson (1928), Joan Crawford (1932) and Rita Hayworth (1958). Performances of “Rain” are set for March 24 through May 1. The official opening is Friday, April 1. Info: theoldglobe.org or (619) 23-GLOBE. Yale Repertory Theatre will debut Sarah (“The Clean House” and “In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play”) Ruhl’s new play, titled “Scenes from Court Life” (Sept. 30 to Oct. 22) during its next season. Also planned are the world premiere of Amy Herzog’s “Mary Jane” and Aditi Brennan Kapil’s “Imogen Says Nothing.” On the agenda as well are Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins” and August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars.” Ruhl’s new play concerns two dynasties – the Stuarts of 17th-century Britain and the Bush family of contemporary America, according to New York Times Artsbeat. Sam Woodhouse recently directed Ruhl’s “The Oldest Boy” at San Diego Repertory Theatre. Woodhouse, long a devotee of Ruhl, introduced the Rep’s latest production Wednesday night to celebrate the Rep’s 40th anniversary season, under way now. Titled “R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe,” it was written and developed and directed by D.G. Jacobs and then premiered by the Rep in 2000, once again starring Ron Campbell. Now enhanced, it welcomes the return of Campbell, since chief clown of “Cirque du Soleil” for five years, as Fuller, one of the last century’s most original thinkers, inventor of the geodesic dome and coiner of the phrase “spaceship Earth.” “Bucky” continues through April 3 at the Lyceum Theatre. Tickets: sdrep,org or (619) 544-1000.
