On Broadway and off: The fall season

By Matt Windman | amNewYork Theater Critic

6:44 PM EDT, October 11, 2007

Roger Bart in Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" .The New musical comedy from the creative team of the 12-time Tony Award winning smash The Producers, opens on Broadway November 8 at the Hilton Theatre. Previews begin October 11th 2007. (Paul Kolnik)

After a summer of countless theater festivals and a very boring September, the fall theater season is slowly flickering back to life -- although the threat of a labor lockout overshadows a busy fall season. As we anxiously await word, three back-to-back Broadway offerings from the non-profits are set to open: Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius," Terrence McNally's "The Ritz," and Shaw's "Pygmalion." Let's take a look at some of the upcoming Broadway and Off-Broadway stuff we're most excited about.

The Wooster Group's Hamlet The Public Theater opens its new season with a wildly experimental take on Shakespeare's best-known tragedy. It's described as an archeological excursion into Richard Burton's "Hamlet." At the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St. Now in previews. Opens Oct 31.

Die Mommie Die! Playwright Charles Busch stars as Angela Arden, a fallen pop diva trapped in a hateful marriage. Desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, Angela gruesomely murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository. At New World Stages, 340 West 50th St. Now in previews. Opens Oct. 21.

Fuerzabruta The creators of "De La Guarda" present their latest movement-based production. It features a man running full-throttle through a series of moving walls, individuals racing to connect from opposite sides of a whirling sail and performers frolicking and interacting in a watery world suspended above the audience. At Daryl Roth Theatre, 20 Union Square East. Previews start Oct 11.

Peter and Jerry Edward Albee delves deeper into his 1958 play "The Zoo Story" by adding a first-act "Homelife," leading to Peter's fateful meeting with Jerry on a park bench in Central Park. At Second Stage, 307 West 43rd St. Previews start Oct 19.

Cyrano de Bergerac Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner star in a new production of Edmond Rostand's 1897 romantic classic. Cyrano (Kline) falls for the beautiful Roxanne (Garner), but is too ashamed of his large nose to tell her. At the Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 West 46th St. Now in previews. Opens Nov 1.

Rock 'n' Roll Tom Stoppard's new play spans the years 1968-90, showcasing both the perspective of anti-Communist rock 'n' roll lovers in Prague, Czechoslovakia; and of the family of a Marxist philosopher in Cambridge, England. At the Bernard Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th St. Previews start Oct 19.

Young Frankenstein It's Mel Brooks's "Young Frankenstein." Enough said. At Hilton Theatre, 213 West 42nd St. Now in previews. Opens Nov 8.

The Farnsworth Invention In Aaron Sorkin's ("The West Wing") new drama, two ambitious visionaries race against each other in 1929 to invent a device called "television." At the Music Box Theatre, 329 West 45th St. Previews start Oct 15.

August: Osage County Immediately after Pulitzer finalist Theresa Rebeck made her Broadway debut, Pulitzer finalist Tracy Letts gets her shot. When their patriarch vanishes, the Weston clan must return to their three-story home in rural Oklahoma to get to the heart of the matter. At the Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th St. Previews start Oct 31.

The Little Mermaid It's Disney. At the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, 205 West 46th St. Previews start Nov 3.

The Homecoming Ian McShane, Raul Esparza, and Michael McKean star in the Broadway revival of Harold Pinter's most sexually provocative work. Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th St. Previews start Nov 23.

Cymbeline One of the final plays written by Shakespeare, this rarely-seen romance will receive a first-class Broadway production with Michael Cerveris and Phylicia Rashad. At Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th St. Previews start Nov 1.