Broadway shows opening fall 2012: from 'Chaplin' to 'Cyrano'

When the 2011-2012 Tony nominators ignored just about everything that opened before last spring, we wondered if producers would bother with a fall season altogether.

But here we are with 16 upcoming Broadway openings, not counting "Elf" and "A Christmas Story: The Musical" at the holidays. And if we add those, plus "Bring It On" and "Harvey," which opened in the summer, we get 20 productions for the first half of the season, which ends Dec. 31. That's one more than the number we had at this time last year -- and the previous year.

Like last year, there are just as many plays as musicals (five each), and more play revivals (seven) than returns of familiar musicals (three). The other shocker, in our musical- and Brit-obsessed corner of the culture, is that all the new plays are by Americans.

Speaking of things American, it just may be excellent timing for "Annie," the little-orphan hit machine from 1977, when some pundits ascribed the unlikely success of the sunny and simple show to something called "Carter-era optimism." No kidding.

The musical, with book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin, will be directed this time by James Lapine -- the sophisticated fellow best known for his collaborations with Stephen Sondheim, who also happens to make remarkable theater with child actors.

It may always be tomorrow somewhere in the world for the icon with the orange poodle wig and the pooch and the seven Tonys.

But this will be Broadway's first "Annie" revival since 1997, the 20th-anniversary production that barely ran seven months. Perhaps nobody was talking about the New Deal in those prosperous times, much less singing about federal works projects. The new revival has the advantage, such as it is, of being a Depression-era musical in a Depression-mentality era.

Of course, neither "Annie" nor Broadway statistics will be the real story of the autumn. The news, just like last year, will be the stars.

Al Pacino is doing "Glengarry Glen Ross" again, but he's doing a different character than he played in the movie. Single mom Katie Holmes, who had a modest part in Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" in 2008, takes center stage in a new drama, "Dead Accounts." Paul Rudd and Ed Asner cross demographics in a dark comedy, "Grace." Henry Winkler takes on a comedy about the porn industry, "The Performers." Theater newcomer Debra Winger joins Broadway pro Patti LuPone in David Mamet's "The Anarchist," while Jessica Chastain, who sprang into consciousness with her Oscar nomination for "The Help," dares one of the stage's big female roles in "The Heiress."

It would be nice if, next spring, the Tony nominators found at least a few of them unforgettable. Here are 16 big shows coming to Broadway this fall.