![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sut-l-stage-cyrano-01.jpg\")
Michael Braun plays the title character in Jason O\u2019Connell and Brenda Withers\u2019 \u201cCyrano,\u201d an adaptation of Edmond Rostand\u2019s 1897 French play \u201cCyrano de Bergerac,\u201d at The Old Globe. (Rich Soublet II)<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a little bit of Cyrano in all of us, and it\u2019s not about the nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the kind of guy we all want to be, and yet he has this Achilles heel of insecurity,\u201d said Brenda Withers who, with writing partner Jason O\u2019Connell, has twice adapted Edmond Rostand\u2019s 1897 French play \u201cCyrano de Bergerac,\u201d this time for the Old Globe. \u201cIn his case, it\u2019s about his appearance, but everyone has their own \u2018nose,\u2019 so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell calls the protagonist of his and Withers\u2019 stripped down (for just five actors) adaptation, \u201cCyrano,\u201d an \u201can amazing human being on so many fronts and so many levels. He knows what his skills are, what his many gifts are. There\u2019s one thing he can\u2019t get past and it\u2019s the thing that winds up robbing him of true and complete happiness in his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a cautionary tale about insecurity and about the way we see ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
That one thing Cyrano can\u2019t get past is that famously large nose of his.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like you have a stain on your shirt and you think everybody at a party\u2019s looking at it, but they\u2019re not,\u201d said O\u2019Connell. \u201cWe build these mountains in our minds and it\u2019s incredible to the degree to which they can stymie us and prove obstacles to our happiness. Cyrano knows his value on the battlefield, his value as a poet, a thinker, a wit. He\u2019s not some sad sack schlumping around. It\u2019s a very specific blind spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Braun plays the title character in Jason O\u2019Connell and Brenda Withers\u2019 \u201cCyrano,\u201d an adaptation of Edmond Rostand\u2019s 1897 French play \u201cCyrano de Bergerac,\u201d at The Old Globe. (Rich Soublet II)<\/p>\n
Cyrano\u2019s insecurity about his value as a romantic match for the beautiful Roxane \u2014 in Withers\u2019 and O\u2019Connell\u2019s play, as in the classic that inspired it \u2014 leads him to write love letters to her on behalf of another, the young cadet named Christian. The scenario is \u201ccompelling and fascinating and heartbreaking,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cYou want to get on the stage and shake him and say \u2018snap out of it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The writing team\u2019s first adaptation of the Cyrano story premiered in 2018 from Amphibian Stage Productions in Fort Worth, Texas, with O\u2019Connell directing and his wife, actor\/playwright Kate Hamill, portraying Roxane. After that and a few other productions elsewhere, \u201cCyrano\u201d was waylaid by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think, \u2018OK, well that\u2019s it,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Connell recalled. \u201cIt was exciting and gratifying when the Old Globe reached out. It was like \u2018This might give it a new lease on life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Withers considers the Globe commission \u201ca new adaptation to the adaptation. We were super happy to try it. Having a play at the Old Globe is a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell is returning to the Globe, this time as a playwright, three years after performing as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in a production of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d directed by Kathleen Marshall on the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival stage.<\/p>\n
![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sut-l-stage-cyrano-02.jpg\")
Michael Braun plays the title character in Jason O\u2019Connell and Brenda Withers\u2019 \u201cCyrano,\u201d an adaptation of Edmond Rostand\u2019s 1897 French play \u201cCyrano de Bergerac,\u201d at The Old Globe. (Rich Soublet II)<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Globe we haven\u2019t re-adapted our ideas as much as we\u2019ve tried to streamline and focus everything,\u201d he said. \u201cBarry (Globe Artistic Director Edelstein) was hungry to see if there was more of an essential version of our take that might work at the Old Globe. Bring it down to something a little more muscular, something that really focuses, as ours already was hoping to do on the love triangle between Cyrano, Roxane and Christian.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s rare for a theater to invest time and resources in reexamining a play that has been produced multiple times, but Barry saw what he considered a diamond within the rough that we might be able to focus more.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Globe, this \u201cCyrano\u201d is being directed in the Sheryl and Harvey White theater-in-the round by Annie Tippe, who last year directed the Globe\u2019s world-premiere musical \u201cHuzzah!\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Braun will star as Cyrano, with Cailen Fu (from \u201cHuzzah!\u201d) as Roxane and Max Monnig as Christian and in other roles. The ensemble, including understudies, also includes Maria Elena Ramirez, Phillip Taratula, Devyn Wade, Justin Lang and Maya Sofia Enciso.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell and Withers are enthusiastic about their new adaptation being staged in the intimate White Theatre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so excited when Barry said it would be in that space,\u201d O\u2019Connell said. \u201cThat\u2019s how Brenda and I always envisioned it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Globe had an instinct that it (the play) would work in that space specifically because of the tone we\u2019ve taken with the adaptation,\u201d added Withers. \u201cAnnie (director Tippe) is a font of creativity. She always has a great answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Annie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/sut-l-stage-cyrao-tippe.jpg\")
Annie Tippe is the director of Brenda Withers\u2019 \u201cCyrano\u201d at the Old Globe. (The Old Globe)<\/p>\n
Though the first adaptation of \u201cCyrano\u201d has been produced in a variety of theater settings and didn\u2019t necessarily have to be staged in the round, \u201cIt felt essential,\u201d said O\u2019Connell. \u201cThe play starts in a theater and it felt so right, when we were writing it, that we wanted (audiences) to be dropped into the center of the playing space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both O\u2019Connell and Withers, who is a founding member of the Harbor Stage Company on Cape Cod, are experienced actors who\u2019ve performed in \u201cCyrano\u201d productions.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Connell played the title role in their own play in 2019 in a Two River Theater\/Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival co-production. Withers portrayed Roxane in a different adaptation by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner ,also called \u201cCyrano,\u201d in 2011 at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Long before that as a playwright, Withers co-wrote and co-starred with Mindy Kaling in their 2002 comic play \u201cMatt & Ben,\u201d about Hollywood stars and lifelong best friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. That play, with Enciso as Matt and Alejandra Villanueva as Ben, made its San Diego debut earlier this year at New Village Arts in Carlsbad.<\/p>\n
For Withers, friendship has played an important role this time around, too, in writing both \u201cCyrano\u201d adaptations with O\u2019Connell, whom she has known for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re co-authoring,\u201d she said, \u201cIt\u2019s like a third writer is in the room, and that\u2019s the two of you together. When you\u2019re with your friend you\u2019re not only committed to the art and to the story but you\u2019re committed to them. You have to put a lot more thought into the way you discuss your differences.\u201cAll the battles were fought with a good spirit in this instance.\u201d<\/p>\n
One thing O\u2019Connell and Withers agreed upon early on was to play down the appearance of Cyrano\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were working on this (first) adaptation in 2017,\u201d O\u2019Connell said, \u201cit was still de rigueur to have the big old prosthetic on the face. We both thought partly because of the minimalist nature of our task that the nose should be similarly stripped down \u2013 not that it\u2019s not there, but that we don\u2019t actually need to see it. It\u2019s not really about the nose. It\u2019s about whatever albatross around your neck is.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like \u2018I don\u2019t want to see the nose. I want every person in the audience to be projecting what this nose looks like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Following its Old Globe engagement, O\u2019Connell and Withers\u2019 \u201cCyrano\u201d will be produced early next year by Trinity Repertory Company in Rhode Island. Both of their adaptations are still in play, with the second not canceling out the first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know which version it will be exactly,\u201d Withers said. \u201cThat\u2019s still in discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Cyrano\u2019<\/p>\n
When: Now in previews, through Wednesday. Opens Thursday and runs through Aug. 16. 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays<\/p>\n
Where: Old Globe Theatre\u2019s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego<\/p>\n
Tickets: $44 and up<\/p>\n
Phone: 619-234-5623<\/p>\n