Performances are underway for the San Diego premiere of Steve Martin's comedy The Underpants, running at the Old Globe through September 1 after beginning performances July 27. The production, directed by Tony winner Walter Bobbie (Chicago), stars Tony nominee Jeff Blumenkrantz (Martin’s Bright Star), Michael Bradley Cohen (Sleep No More), Tanghalang Pilipino Actors’ Company alum Regina De Vera, Joanna Glushak (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Eddie Kaye Thomas (The Diary of Anne Frank), Luis Vega (The Humans national tour), and Kris Zarif (A Thousand Splendid Suns at the Old Globe). Opening night is set for August 1.
The Underpants marks the first Martin title to play the Globe in recent seasons, following the world premieres of Bright Star and Meteor Shower (both later playing Broadway) and the 2017 staging of Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Adapted from Carl Sternheim’s 1910 German farce Die Hose, the play follows a newlywed couple who, upon a potentially scandalous wardrobe malfunction at the royal parade, receive not scorn but unexpected infatuation and fame.
The comedy premiered at Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company in 2002 in a commission by Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “[Martin] turned this strange comedy from Germany in 1910 into a fresh and riotous farce that’s suffused with Steve’s very particular brand of highbrow-lowbrow hilarity,” he said in a statement.
Flip through photos from the production below:
