Reasons To Get Excited; Broadway's October Openings

AN ACT OF GOD brought a quick start to the new Broadway season, not even waiting for last season's Tonys to be awarded before opening. The summer months brought us AMAZING GRACE, PENN & TELLER ON BROADWAY and HAMILTON, but now that the air is getting crisper the Broadway season kicks into high gear.

The Deaf West production of SPRING AWAKENING, opening this Sunday night, is definitely generating excitement as Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's Tony winning musical comes back to Broadway in a new staging that combines deaf and hearing actors. The company includes 18 performers making their Broadway debuts, including Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin and Obie and Emmy winner Camryn Manheim. They're joined by Broadway favorites Patrick Page and Krysta Rodriguez. Ali Stroker makes history as Broadway's first actor who uses a wheelchair.

Six new productions open on Broadway in October and they all feature good reasons to get excited.

Which of these October openings are you most excited about?

OLD TIMES (October 6th): The last time Eve Best appeared on Broadway in a Harold Pinter Play, the 2007 revival of THE HOMECOMING, she had all of Times Square talking about a simple, but dramatically devastating move where her character crossed her legs, silently displaying her control over the men surrounding her. Expect lots more juicy tension as she's joined by fellow acclaimed British actors Kelly Reilly and Clive Owen, both making Broadway debuts.

FOOL FOR LOVE (October 8th): Fresh out of college in 2010, Nina Arianda became the instant talk of the town with her alluring Off-Broadway performance in VENUS IN FUR and won the Best Actress Tony Award when it moved to Broadway the next year. Sam Rockwell plays her ex in Sam Shepard's tense relationship drama. Expect some serious steam.

THE GIN GAME (October 14th): James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson in D.L. Coburn's warm and funny two-person Pulitzer Prize winner. Come on, do you need any more than that?

DAMES AT SEA (October 22nd) This fast and funny spoof of Ruby Keeler and Busby Berkeley movie musicals of the 1930s was the first big hit to come out of Greenwich Village's legendary Caffe Cino, the birthplace of Off-Off Broadway and American gay theatre. Bernadette Peters was just a teenager when she starred in the original production. Eloise Kropp takes on her role as the innocent ingénue who falls for a sailor, but this small-cast ensemble show gives everyone a chance to shine. Expect plenty of hummable tunes and lots of tap dancing.

SYLVIA (October 27th) Twenty years ago Sarah Jessica Parker made a big splash in the title role of a playfully devoted pup in A.R. Gurney's comedy of a married man's midlife crisis. Now it's her husband Matthew Broderick playing the guy and one of Broadway's brightest new clowns, Annaleigh Ashford, is Sylvia. They're joined by the versatile Robert Sella and the hilarious Julie White.

THERESE RAQUIN (October 29th): The last time a stage version of Emile Zola's novel of a woman who takes drastic steps to get out of her passionless marriage came to Broadway it was the ill-fated musical THOU SHALT NOT. CORAM BOY playwright Helen Edmundson's adaption appears to be more in line with the source. Keira Knightley makes her Broadway debut in the title role and the consistently outstanding Judith Light plays her mom. This will be the first Broadway production of the season written by a woman.