Off-Broadway’s status as stepchild to Broadway is diminishing fast, given how often its fare transfers uptown. Who wouldn’t have wanted to get the jump on “Hamilton” when it was off-Broadway at the Public. As in that case, there is plenty to excite, tempt, and tantalize in this survey of off-Broadway fall season offerings.“Marie and Rosetta” Where: Atlantic Theatre Company’s Linda Gross TheaterWhen: August 24-October 2Why: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “the godmother of rock ’n’ roll,” is probably one of the most unsung heroes in history. She could play guitar like Eric Clapton, fill stadiums, and was buried in a potter’s field in Philadelphia.What: In this 90-minute play by George Brandt, directed by Neil Pepe and starring Rebecca Naomi Jones and Kecia Lewis, Sister Rosetta joins forces with her protégé Marie Knight to make glorious music and add a minor footnote to gay social progress.“Love, Love, Love” Where: The Roundabout’s Laura Pels TheatreWhen: September 22-December 18Why: The Beatles, Tony-winning director Michael Mayer (“Spring Awakening”), and Tony-nominated playwright Mike Bartlett (“King Charles III”).What: Baby Boomer alert: It’s 1967 the Beatles are globally ascendant and a trio played by Zoe Kazan, Amy Ryan, and Richard Armitage must come to terms with the notion that pop lyrics — such as “nothing you can do that can’t be done” — may not be the final word in love. “All the Ways to Say I Love You” Where: MCC’s Lucille Lortel TheatreWhen: Opening September 28Why: Neil LaBute brings his incendiary style to a solo drama starring two-time Tony Award winner Judith Light and directed by Leigh Silverman.What: Light plays a high-school English teacher and guidance counselor in a play described in press notes as “about love, hard choices, and the cost of all-consuming desire.” Since this is Labute, there’s “a favored student” and a big lie in there somewhere. “Plenty”Where: The Public Theater’s Newman TheaterWhen: October 4-November 6Why: Rachel Weisz and Corey Stoll in a David Hare classic directed by David Leveaux.What: Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz’s Broadway debut opposite husband Daniel Craig in Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” left critics unimpressed. But a better fit may be “Plenty” in which she plays Susan Traherne, an English Resistance fighter during World War II who in the two-decade aftermath becomes destructively disillusioned with her life of plenty.“The Harvest” Where: Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow TheatreWhen: October 8, opening October 24Why: The world premiere of a play by hot young playwright Samuel D. Hunter (“The Whale”) and directed by Davis McCallum.What: A tantalizing — and topical — premise described as such: “In the basement of a small church in Southeastern Idaho, a group of missionaries is preparing to go to the Middle East… One of them has brought a one-way ticket.”“Sweat” Where: The Public Theater’s Martinson HallWhen: October 18-November 27Why: A new play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynne Nottage (“Ruined”), directed by Kate Whoriskey.What: Drawn from interviews with the people of Reading, Pennsylvania, one of the poorest towns in the country, “Sweat” examines the fraught tensions and despair visited upon the town when a horrific crime and rumors of layoffs at the local factory blow apart its fragile fabric. Writing in the New York Times, Charles Isherwood called the play “scorching” and “extraordinarily moving” when it premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last August.“Dead Poets Society” Where: The Classic Stage CompanyWhen: October 27, opening November 17Why: Jason Sudeikis will star in the role created by Robin Williams in the 1989 Oscar-winning film, adapted for the stage by its screenwriter Tom Schulman and directed by John Doyle (“The Color Purple”).What: An English teacher introduces his prep school students —played in the movie by Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Josh Charles — to the wonders of poetry. It leads to tragic circumstances as his admonition to “carpe diem” (“seize the day”) runs into a reactionary force.“The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family: Women of a Certain Age” Where: The Public Theater’s LuEster HallWhen: First Preview, Election Night, November 4, 2016Why: Part two of Nelson’s “real-time” political drama of a Rhinebeck family takes place on the night when America will either pick its first woman president or its first performance artist president. What: When we last tuned into the Gabriel household, it was March 5, 2016, the day after a Republican presidential debate in which Donald Trump was acting as the school bully and his nomination was still considered something of a surreal development by much the population. The women of the household were wondering if the country was ready to elect a female president and if Hillary Clinton was the right one. On this night in the sequel, the American Dream may be just about to enter the Twilight Zone.
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