Neuwirth, Holbrook in Old Globe Plays : Stage: ‘Damn Yankees’ and ‘King Lear’ part of San Diego theater’s six-play Festival ’93.

As “Cheers” closes up the bar this spring at the end of the current television season, Bebe Neuwirth, the Emmy and Tony winner who plays the uptight Lilith on the hit television show, has a new role. She will star as the sultry, uninhibited Lola in the Old Globe Theatre’s production of the 1955 baseball musical “Damn Yankees” during the company’s six-play Festival ’93.

The festival, which runs from June 30-Nov. 14 in the company’s three theaters in Balboa Park, also includes two by Shakespeare, a translation of a South American play, a world premiere and a show to be announced.

As previously announced, Hal Holbrook, who played Shylock in the Old Globe’s “The Merchant of Venice” two years ago, will star in the title role of “King Lear” July 10-Aug. 29. Globe artistic director Jack O’Brien will direct “Lear” and “Damn Yankees” (Oct. 1-Nov. 14), both on the Globe’s mainstage.

O’Brien is reworking the book of “Damn Yankees” with the active cooperation of the legendary 106-year-old George Abbott, the original producer, director and writer of the musical.

“Ballad of the Blacksmith,” in a new translation by Globe Literary/Multicultural Program Associate Raul Moncada, is based on a 1981 adaptation by Uruguayan playwrights Mercedes Rein and Jorge Curi of a classic story about a peasant who tries to outwit death.

The show, directed by Rene Buch, artistic director of the New York-based Repertorio Espanol, will be presented with traditional folk music. It opens the season June 30 in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

Sheldon Epps, who directed “Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting” at the Globe last year, will stage “All’s Well That Ends Well” at the Lowell Davies Sept. 10-Oct. 17.

Douglas Michilinda’s “Burning Hope” will have its world premiere at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage July 7-Aug. 15. “Hope” tells the story of conflict in an Irish family between a son and his father, whose pub languishes while the local mill is on strike. Michilinda co-wrote the Globe’s 1988 production of “White Linen” with Stephen Metcalfe. A director has not yet been named. The show that will play the Carter Sept. 8-Oct. 17 has yet to be announced.