Theater

A fall full of comedies! Here’s what looks good.

by Toby Zinman

Checking in with Jiri Zizka

Artistic director of The Wilma Theater since 1979, Jiri Zizka has directed over 50 productions. He’s currently working on the East Coast premiere of Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blues, which starts its run on Sept. 17. In March, he’ll direct the Philly premiere of Charles L. Mee’s Wintertime. The show at the top of his list to see this season won’t be up until May 4: "The Visit at Mum Puppettheatre. [It’s] one of my favorite plays."

Anna in the Tropics

Through Oct. 19, McCarter Theatre, 91 University Pl., Princeton, N.J., 609-258-2787. Nilo Cruz won this year's Pulitzer Prize although his plays are nearly unknown, so this season opener is a Major Event. And, making matters even tastier, it stars Jimmy Smits. The plot's premise is charming: In 1929, readers were hired in Cuban cigar factories to entertain and educate the workers; Anna's last name is Karenina.

Alarms and Excursions

Sept. 12-Oct. 12, Act II, 56 E. Butler Pike, Ambler, 215-654-0200. A play by Michael Frayn (who gave us both the heady meditation on modern physics, Copenhagen, and the hilarious farce, Noises Off). This show is really eight skits, all about electronic technology and various contemporary exasperations.

Midons or The Object of Desire

Sept. 17-Oct. 12, People's Light & Theatre Co., 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, 610-644-3500. A world premiere written and directed by Lillian Groag (The Magic Fire). This sexy postmodern farce is about 12th-century France, with Crusaders waging love and war to the strains of Sinatra.

Resurrection Blues

Sept. 17-Oct. 26, The Wilma Theater, Broad and Spruce sts., 215-546-7824. This is another Major Event: The new Arthur Miller play (the granddaddy of the American stage is still at it at the age of 87!) is a satire about a new messiah whose crucifixion will be televised. Jiri Zizka directs this East Coast premiere. Miller has been disgusted with American society since Death of a Salesman, and he's still mad.

Suddenly Last Summer

Sept. 24-Oct. 12, Vagabond Acting Troupe, 2nd Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-563-4330. This brave little company has given us some excellent shows (The Crucible and Baltimore Waltz) and opens their new season with Tennessee Williams' lurid and humid drama about truth, lobotomies and cannibalism.

Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)

Sept. 30-Oct. 12, Villanova Theatre, Vasey Hall, Villanova, 610-519-7474. A funny, feminist, lit-crit twirl-around by Ann-Marie MacDonald in which a college professor finds herself totally immersed in two great Shakespearean roles.

Underneath the Lintel

Oct. 3-Nov. 2, Lantern Theater Co., St. Stephen's Theater, 10th and Ludlow sts., 215-829-9002. A Dutch librarian finds a book returned through the overnight slot that is 113 years overdue. Clues lead to the legend of the Wandering Jew in this funny one-man mystery starring Peter DeLaurier.

Julius Caesar

Oct. 3-Nov. 16, Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, 2111 Sansom St., 215-496-8001. OK: This one is definitely not a comedy. David Howey directs.

Séance

Oct. 7-Nov. 1, Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St., 215-925-8686. A play about two of puppetmaster Robert Smythe's favorite things: spirituality and family secrets.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Oct. 9-Nov. 9, Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. Second St., 215-922-1122. Tom Stoppard's brilliant and hilarious riff on Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters, proving once and for all that there is no such thing as a small role.

Topdog/Underdog

Oct. 10-Nov. 16, Philadelphia Theatre Co. at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey St., 215-985-1400. This terrific play by Suzan Lori-Parks (arguably the most important young playwright in the country) won the Pulitzer last year: It's very funny and very fierce, and it's about three-card monte and two brothers, one named Lincoln, one named Booth. Guess what happens.

Wintertime

Oct. 14-Nov. 2, McCarter Theatre. Another of Charles L. Mee's (Big Love) athletic comedies about falling in love.

The Fantasticks

Oct. 15-Nov. 30, People's Light & Theatre Co. A whole new generation can discover this romantic date show, a charming musical (which ran off-Broadway nearly as long as The Mousetrap in London). You'll exit misty-eyed and humming.

MacHomer

Oct. 17-19, Penn Presents, Zellerbach Theatre, 3680 Walnut St., 215-898-3900. Canadian Rick Miller's one-man, 50-voice version of Macbeth a la The Simpsons.

Permanent Collection

Oct. 24-Nov. 23, InterAct at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-568-8079. A world premiere of a play by local author Thomas Gibbons, which is already bedecked with disavowals of any similarity between its plot and the Barnes controversy. The emphasis is on racial politics, not on paintings.

It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues

Nov. 5-23, Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St., 215-569-9700. A history of the blues from Muddy Waters to Billie Holiday, nominated for four Tonys when it was on Broadway. Lots of famous songs that should be sung by lots of big voices.

The House of Blue Leaves

Nov. 7-15, University of the Arts School of Theatre at the Arts Bank, Broad and South sts., 215-717-6450. A revival of John Guare's surreal comedy about show biz, the Pope and a songwriter.

Urinetown

Nov. 18-23, Kimmel Center Presents at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-893-1955. Part of the inaugural season of Broadway shows at the Grand Old Lady. The show manages to combine hilarious song and dance with serious warnings about squandering natural resources -- big Broadway production numbers combined with smart off-Broadway dialogue. Despite the worst title in the history of show biz, this brilliant show by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis started at the N.Y. Fringe, and went on to win the Tony.

Embarrassments

Nov. 26-Jan. 4, The Wilma Theater. This world premiere of a new Polly Pen (Bed and Sofa) musical is about Henry James, his debut on the turn-of-the-century London stage and a playwright who may or may not be realer than Henry James. Sounds likely to be witty in a complicated, convoluted Jamesean sort of way.

Something Wonderful Right Away

Dec. 5-Jan. 4, 1812 Productions at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-592-9560. The newest of this committed-to-comedy company's always-irresistible holiday shows. This time the laughmeisters who never fail to cheer us up (Jen Childs, Pete Pryor, Scott Greer, Tony Braithwaite and Dave Jadico) gather for improv in the great tradition of Second City.