\'Honeymooners\' Musical To Open in San Diego

A new musical based on the beloved 1950s sitcom “The Honeymooners” will be produced next fall at the Old Globe theater in San Diego.

Ralph Kramden, the portly bus driver with big dreams and small means, will be played by Michael McGrath, the Broadway funnyman who won a Tony award for “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”

No announcement has been made yet about who will play Ralph's long-suffering wife Alice, nor their friends Ed and Trixie Norton. The musical's premiere will open the Old Globe's season on Sept. 22, with previews starting Sept. 8, the theater announced.

Jerry Mitchell (“Kinky Boots,” “Legally Blonde”) will direct and choreograph the show, which has a book by Dusty Kay and Bill Nuss, music by Step hen Weiner and lyrics by Peter Mills.

In the musical, Ralph and Norton (played by Jackie Gleason and Art Carney on TV) enter a jingle contest and, much to the chagrin of their wives, end up winning. This catapults them from their working-class jobs in Brooklyn into the backstabbing world of Madison Avenue, where they find themselves torn between success and friendship.

A private presentation of “The Honeymooners” was scheduled Thursday and Friday in New York for theater producers and others in the industry. Among those joining Mr. McGrath for the presentation are the Tony-nominated actor Christopher Fitzgerald (“Finian's Rainbow,” “Young Frankenstein”) as Norton and Leslie Kritzer (“Elf”) as Alice, Mr. Mitchell said in an e-mail on Thursday. Only Mr. McGrath is signed for the Old Globe production at this point, he added.

Mr. Gleason created “The Honeymooners” as a six-minute sketch for a variety show in 1951, and it became a half-hour se ries on CBS in 1955 and 1956. The plots usually revolved around Ralph's harebrained schemes to get rich quickly, which always came to nought, while his wife Alice, played by Audrey Meadows, said “I told you so.” In his frustration, Ralph often balled his fist and threatened to send Alice “to the moon,” a bit which drew laughs in the 1950s but which might not sit as well with modern audiences.