Presented as the first show of the Globe's 2014 Summer Shakespeare Festival, Othello will be helmed by Old Globe artistic director Barry Edelstein, making his outdoor directorial debut in the Globe's Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. Opening is scheduled for June 28, and the production will continue through July 27.

Underwood joins the previously announced Emmy Award winner Richard Thomas and Kristen Connolly, who will play Iago and Desdemona, respectively.

Underwood made his Broadway debut as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire, and his Shakespeare credits also include Measure for Measure. His screen work includes "In Treatment," "L.A. Law," "Sex and the City," "The Trip to Bountiful," "The New Adventures of Old Christine," "Deep Impact" and "Gattaca." 

Thomas has performed onstage in An Enemy of the People and Race, and he has appeared on TV in "The Americans" and "The Waltons." His film work includes "The Wonder Boys" and "Taking Woodstock."

"House of Cards" star Connolly has appeared Off-Broadway in King Lear and the 2011 Shakespeare in the Park productions of All's Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure. Her film work includes "Revolutionary Road" and "The Cabin in the Woods." Here's how the production is billed: "Despite the prejudices in Venice, the brilliant general Othello excels both on the battlefield and in the halls of state. But when he marries Desdemona, his envious lieutenant Iago sets in motion a diabolical plan to destroy him."

"I'm honored and excited to welcome the great Blair Underwood to the Old Globe family," Edelstein said in a statement. "He is a distinguished stage actor whose intensity and charisma will give us a majestic and magnetic Othello. That he joins a company already boasting the luminaries Richard Thomas and Kristen Connolly is truly for me an embarrassment of riches."

The creative team includes Wilson Chin (scenic design), Katherine Roth (costume design), Stephen Strawbridge (lighting design), Sten Severson (sound design), Curtis Moore (original music) and Jan Gist (vocal and dialect coach). Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting, and Leila Knox is stage manager.

Tickets to the Globe's 2014 Summer Season are currently available by subscription only. Subscription packages may be purchased online at TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE, or by visiting the box office.