What's on Off-Broadway this season?

With all the previews of Broadway openings -- and, no doubt, upcoming stories about Broadway's winter closings -- it would be a big mistake to overlook the rich promise of the Off-Broadway season. Here is a (highly abridged) heads-up on the next busy months in some of the city's most valuable theaters.

And my list doesn't even include the much-anticipated revival of "Merrily We Roll Along" by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine at the Encores! Series in early February or "Sleeping Demons," the final part of John Patrick Shanley's church-and-state trilogy that began with his Pulitzer Prize-winning "Doubt." The Atlantic Theatre plans to open that one when the company finally returns to its remodeled Chelsea home, probably before summer.

RUSSIAN TRANSPORT (opens Jan. 30, The New Group, 410 W. 42nd St.) Janeane Garofalo makes a rare stage appearance as half of a Russian immigrant couple in Erika Sheffer's new drama about family suspense in Sheepshead Bay.

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS (previews Jan. 31, Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St.) Here's another chance to catch Mike Daisey's equally entertaining and disturbing solo about things we don't want to know about the manufacturing of our beloved electronics in China.

LOOK BACK IN ANGER (opens Feb. 2, Roundabout at Pels Theatre, 111 W. 46th St.) John Osborne's 1956 class-conscious drama set off the "angry young man" movement in postwar British theater. Sam Gold, one of the brightest (and busiest) New York directors, stages the revival, which stars Welsh actor Matthew Rhys ("Brothers & Sisters") as disaffected Jimmy Porter.

Rx (opens Feb. 7, Primary Stages, 59 E. 59th St.) Kate Fodor, whose smart "100 Saints You Should Know" introduced this valuable new voice in 2007, explores the effects of a new drug for workplace depression.

GALILEO (opens Feb. 12, Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St.) The ever-intense and fascinating F. Murray Abraham stars in this rare revival of Bertolt Brecht's timely masterwork about the struggle between science and dogma.

HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE (opens Feb. 13, Second Stage, 305 W. 43rd St.) Paula Vogel's bold, morally complex drama about incest earned the Pulitzer when Mary Louise Parker starred in the 1997 production. Elizabeth Reaser (Esme in the "Twilight" movies) co-stars with Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz in this first New York revival.

THE TOTAL BENT (previews Feb. 14, Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St.) Stew and collaborator Heidi Rodewald, whose boundary-breaking "Passing Strange" went from this theater to Broadway in 2008, are back with a new musical about a black gospel prodigy and a white British music producer.

THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE (previews Feb. 14, Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St.) Edward Albee's scathing drama about late-night party games ran just 12 performances on Broadway in 1980. Thanks to the Signature Theatre's ongoing interest in Albee's amazing career, we'll find out what the ensuing 32 years -- and star Jane Alexander -- have to say about this rarity.

PAINTING CHURCHES (previews Feb. 14, Keen at the Clurman Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St.) Tina Howe's resonant Pulitzer finalist gets what promises to be a formidable revival with Kathleen Chalfant, Richard Easton and Kate Turnbull as the aging Churches and their questioning daughter.

AN ILIAD (previews Feb. 15, New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E. Fourth St.) Stephen Spinella and co-author Denis O'Hare in a contemporary look at Homer and the Trojan War.

CQ/CX (opens Feb. 15, Atlantic at Norton Space, 555 W. 42nd St.) Gabe McKinley's drama about the rise and fall of a black reporter at The New York Times is inspired by infamous plagiarism scandal of Jayson Blair.

BLOOD KNOT (opens Feb. 16, Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St.) The Signature Theatre opens its new multi-space theater with this first play in a much-anticipated season devoted to South African playwright and activist Athol Fugard.

HURT VILLAGE (opens Feb. 27, Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St.) The Signature also presents this premiere by Katori Hall, whose "Mountaintop" is currently on Broadway.

CARRIE (opens March 1, MCC at Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St.) Yes, a revival -- and presumably a major revision -- of arguably Broadway's most notorious musical flopola.

GATZ (previews March 14, Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St.) The Elevator Repair Service's utterly remarkable six-and-a-half-hour recreation of every word of "The Great Gatsby" makes a welcome return.

NOW. HERE. THIS. (previews TBA in March, Vineyard Theatre, 108 E. 15th St.) The folks that created the ultimate meta-theatrical autobiographical musical, "[title of show]" has a new autobiographical adventure.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (previews March 28, Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St.) Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci are two of the altogether unexpected woodland creatures in Shakespeare's comedy.

AN EARLY HISTORY OF FIRE (previews TBA April, The New Group, 410 W. 42nd St.) Lily Rabe stars in the premiere about the '60s by her father, playwright David Rabe, in the theater that last staged a piercingly effective revival of his "Hurlyburly."

THE CARETAKER (previews May 3, Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater, through June 17) The always marvelous and sometimes creepy Jonathan Pryce crawls into the crumbling skin of one of Harold Pinter's unforgettable characters.

RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN (previews May 11, Playwrights Horizons, 416 W. 42nd St.) Gina Gionfriddo is back with her first major play since her Pulitzer-finalist, the comedy of bad manners, "Becky Shaw," in 2009. This one, again directed by Peter DuBois, involves a reunion of old friends who chose very different lives.