After a less-than-promising start — “Let It Be,” “First Date,” “Soul Doctor” — the fall Broadway season is gathering steam with one of the most promising slates in recent memory. It is unusually starry and high brow, from the blinding wattage of Daniel Craig and his wife, Rachel Weisz, in Mike Nichols’s revival of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” to four productions that will be playing in repertory: two-time Tony-winner Mark Rylance leads an all-male British company in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “Richard III”; and Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart star in revivals of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” and Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” As you read through this analysis, be mindful that the theatrical gods can be fickle and take special delight in upending expectations.
“Betrayal”
While there is no such thing as “sure fire” in the theater, the conflagration around this revival of Pinter’s most accessible play started with the announcement that Craig and Weisz would star in this bitter ménage a trois with Rafe Spall. The advance for the show has already reached $10 million and scalpers are sharpening their knives. While this will mark the Broadway debut of Weisz and Spall, Craig previously proved his stage prowess in his 2009 Broadway debut as a conscience-stricken cop opposite Hugh Jackman in “Steady Rain.” Here he plays a mordant publisher who is betrayed by his wife with his best friend. The cancellation line will probably start in the wee hours on each day of performances. Previews begin on October 1, opening on November 3.
“Big Fish”
As the only original book musical opening in fall, “Big Fish” has the pond to itself. Already in previews, the show is receiving mixed-to-good response among the chatterati. Having had a tryout in Chicago earlier this year where it received respectful if conditional reviews, the musical has a top shelf Tony-winning creative team: director-choreographer Susan Stroman, actors Norbert Leo Butz and Kate Baldwin, songwriter Andrew Lippa, and librettist John August, adapting his own screenplay of Tim Burton’s 2003 film. Butz plays a garrulous Southerner spinning fantastical tales about how he saved a giant, had a circus werewolf as a mate, and planted a field of daffodils to win the heart of his beloved. The son isn’t snowed and thus the profligate father must make amends before its too late. The show opens on October 1.
“After Midnight”
The only other musical this fall has the potential to be sleeper: a revue featuring the songs of the Jazz Age and the infectious spirit of the Cotton Club, the fabled Harlem nightspot, as interpreted by a cast led by “American Idol” star Fantasia Barrino and the Jazz at Lincoln Center All Stars led by Wynton Marsalis. Under the title of “Cotton Club Parade,” the show was presented in the fall of 2011 at New York City Center where it was a hothouse hit. It’s hard to see how it can miss with such classics as “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” “Black-and-Tan Fantasy,” “Creole Love Call,” and “Stormy Weather,” and other songs from the Duke Ellington and Harold Arlen songbook set to the moves of director-choreographer Warren Carlyle. Another bonus: the lavish costumes are designed by Ruben and Isabel Toledo, the fashionistas who dress First Lady Michelle Obama. Previews begin on October 18, opening on November 3.
“The Glass Menagerie”
While almost all the dramas this season have “snob appeal,” the hottest ticket in that regard may be this revival of the Tennessee Williams classic, starring Cherry Jones as the imperious Amanda, Zachary Quinton as her poetic son Tom, Celia Keenan-Bolger as her cripplingly shy daughter Laura, and Brian J. Smith as the Gentleman Caller, the character who sets the tragedy in motion. The production, directed by John Tiffany (“Once,” “Black Watch”) began previews recently and raked in impressive box-office sales, helped by the strong critical notices the production received when it premiered at Boston’s American Repertory Theater, especially for Jones. “A magnificently human performance,” raved Ben Brantley in the New York Times review, in which he also noted that Quinton was the best Tom he’d ever seen. The show opens on September 26.
“The Snow Geese”
There are three good reasons to book tickets for “The Snow Geese”: star Mary-Louise Parker, veteran director Daniel Sullivan, and playwright Sharr White. White made an impressive Broadway debut last season with his highly under-valued “The Other Place,” starring Laurie Metcalf in one of the greatest performances in recent years. If the writing is as good in this drama set in World War I, then you can expect Parker to be among the Tony nominees. She plays Elizabeth Gaesling, a widow who is left with a mountain of debt and a son who is about to be deployed to the war that is raging in Europe. Previews begin on October 1, opening on October 24.
“A Time To Kill”
John Grisham has never before allowed any of his bestsellers to be adapted to the stage, but he gave the OK for this play about a young idealistic lawyer called upon to defend a black man accused of a vigilante crime in a small Mississippi town. But Grisham insisted on one condition: the play had to be first staged in a regional theater whereupon he could veto it. The production at Baltimore’s Arena Stage, directed by Ethan McSweeney and adapted by Rupert Holmes, got a thumbs-up from the novelist. Sebastian Arcelus stars as Jake Brigance, who goes mano-a-mano with Patrick Page’s Rufus Buckley in this courtroom drama. Previews begin on September 28, opening on October 20.
“The Winslow Boy”
The plays of Terence Rattigan, once among Britain’s most honored playwrights in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, were swept aside by the new wave of angry young men playwrights of the 1950s. The effort to rehabilitate his reputation, including Frank Langella in “Man and Boy” a couple of years ago, continues apace with The Roundabout Theatre’s production of “The Winslow Boy,” starring Roger Rees and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. In this 1946 classic, which Rattigan based on a real incident, a father fights a valiant court battle to clear his son’s name after he is expelled from Osborne Naval College for stealing a five-shilling postal order. To do so, he succeeds in engaging the shrewdest barrister in London. This courtroom drama begins previews on September 20 and opens on October 17.
The Bard on Broadway
“Romeo and Juliet”
Will Shakespeare has a lot to offer this fall, with each production looming with promise and idiosyncratic appeal. First up at bat is “Romeo and Juliet,” now previewing. Directed by David Leveaux, the production plays the race card with Orlando Bloom (“Lord of the Rings,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”) leading the house of Montague and Condola Rashad, his starry-eyed Juliet, as belonging to the house of Capulet. While Bloom is no doubt a worthy Romeo, the one to keep your eye on is Rashad, who comes from the accomplished house of Rashad, as in actress Phyllicia Rashad and sports star Ahman Rashad. The play opens on September 19.
“Macbeth”
Lost in the flurry of publicity over Kenneth Branagh’s Broadway debut as the Scottish thane next year was the fact that Ethan Hawke will get there first in a production directed by Jack O’ Brien and co-starring Anne-Marie Duff for Lincoln Center Theater. I wouldn’t underestimate its potential power. A slough of Tony nominations and awards honored “Henry IV,” the last Shakespearean collaboration between O’Brien and Hawke. It won’t surprise you to learn that Hawke played Hotspur and he will likely bring that same intensity and rage to the tortured Thane who keeps attracting actors. (Alan Cumming played him last season.) Previews begin October 24, opening on November 21.
Playing in Repertory
“Twelfth Night” and “Richard III”
Two-time Tony Award-winner Mark Rylance, arguably the greatest actor in the English-speaking world, will lead an all-male ensemble in these two productions, starring in the former as the love-struck noblewoman Olivia and in the latter as the Bard’s most spell-binding villain. Directed by Tim Carroll, the productions originated at London’s Globe Theatre before transferring to the West End, where they were met with critical hosannas. Also in the cast will be Stephen Fry (“Wilde”) as the priggish Malvolio and Samuel Barnett (Tony-nominated for “History Boys”), who will alternate in the roles of Viola in “Twelfth Night” and Queen Elizabeth in “Richard III.” Hewing to a cheap-ticket tradition at the Globe, the producers announced that 250 seats at each performance will be sold for $25, including ones onstage. Previews begin on October 15, opening on November 10.
“Waiting for Godot” and “No Man’s Land”
If any two actors can make these difficult and provocative plays come alive it is Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. While McKellan, playing Estragon/Spooner, and Stewart (Vladimir/Hirst) are getting all the attention, the two supporting actors in the rep are no slouches: Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley. Here’s an opportunity to see the two plays that are among the most influential of the 20th century, even though they were hardly welcomed by the critics at first glance. The 1956 American premiere in Florida famously bombed. No problem with that here. The only question is whether audiences are ready to be challenged by the surrealistic vagrants who argue, sleep, sing, philosophize, and consider suicide while waiting the arrival of Godot. There’s a little more action — and far more menace and alcohol — in Pinter’s work about two writers who may, or may not, know each other. Previews begin on October 26, opening on November 24.
One-Person Shows
I mean no disrespect by lumping together the three productions which may well prove that a majority of one is just that. In fact, in 2004, Jefferson Mays won a Tony Award, as did his one-person vehicle, Douglas Wright’s “I Am My Own Wife.” The protean actor is now back in “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” Directed by Darko Tresnjak, the dark musical comedy set in the Edwardian Era involves the murderous mayhem that ensues when black sheep Monty Navarro, ninth in line to inherit a dukedom, decides to murder his way to the title. Previews begin on October 22, opening on November 17. Prior to that, Mary Bridge Davies takes on the daunting task of incarnating one of the 20th century’s greatest rock ’n’ roll icons in “A Night with Janis Joplin.” The Southern Comfort starts flowing on September 20, with an opening set for October 10. And finally, Billy Crystal returns in his autobiographical tale, “700 Sundays,” which won him a Tony Award in 2005. His stories about growing up on Long Island inspired Ben Brantley to write in the New York Times that the show had been “carefully set up to suggest a night of home movies, screened by a buddy from your high school days who is equal parts attention-grabbing show-off and soft-hearted sweetie pie.” Previews begin November 5, opening on November 13.
