From Political Parables To Battles Royale

For theater lovers, the 20th century did not end in 1999. Instead, May 8, 2007, is the big day. That's when the most ambitious theatrical cycle in American history — August Wilson's 10-play, decade-by-decade chronicle of black life in the 1900s — wraps up with the opening of "Radio Golf." A political parable set in the 1990s, it may or may not be the year's most accomplished new play. It will undoubtedly be the saddest, coming 19 months after Wilson's death.

The theater season traditionally ends in mid-May, and the next few weeks will see significant openings. Donna Murphy and Audra McDonald, two of musical theater's more versatile leading ladies, will be stretching further. Ms. Murphy stars with Michael Cerveris in "LoveMusik" (May 3), about the romance between Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya; Harold Prince, absent on Broadway since 1998, directs. Ms. McDonald stars in the Roundabout revival of 1963's "110 in the Shade" (May 9).

Erudite musicality of a smaller sort will be on display at the Zipper Theater, where "Make Me a Song" (April 19) will look at the music of William Finn ("Falsettos," "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"). And the Public Theater, which has spotlighted the singer-songwriter known as Stew at its Joe's Pub cabaret space, gives him and cowriter Heidi Rodewald a proper stage for his rock musical "Passing Strange" (May 14).

Theater for a New Audience rounds out its rogues' gallery with a new "Oliver Twist" (April 1). The group will also present "Accomplices" (April 9), a look at American complicity in failing to rescue European Jews during World War II.

Several offerings feature enticing battles. Angela Lansbury returns to Broadway in "Deuce" (May 6), a Terrence McNally comedy about former doubles tennis champions; the estimable Marian Seldes co-stars. Brian Dennehy and Christopher Plummer square off in the latest "Inherit the Wind" revival (April 12). Athol Fugard takes a gentler approach to the two-character drama with "Exits and Entrances" (April 4 at Primary Stages), about a friendship between a young playwright and an older actor.

Peter Morgan wrote Academy Award-winning scripts for both Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker last year. Frank Langella and Michael Sheen probably hope Mr. Morgan finds similar luck with "Frost/Nixon" (April 22), a fictionalized take on David Frost's post-Watergate TV interviews with Richard Nixon.

Other London imports include: Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" (April 9), starring Kevin Spacey; Jeff Daniels in "Blackbird" (April 10 at Manhattan Theater Club), a dark romantic drama that won London's Olivier Award; Cheek by Jowl's all-male production of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" (BAM, May 2); and "Coram Boy" (May 2).

A number of smaller theaters are tackling older works, among them Classical Theatre of Harlem (a new Sophocles adaptation called "[The Blood] Elektra" date TBA), the Transport Group (William Inge's "Dark at the Top of the Stairs," April 5), and the family-friendly New Victory (a "Macbeth" collaboration between Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Colla Marionette Company from Milan, April 20).

For something lighter, there's Legally Blonde" (April 29), the latest movie-to-musical offering. Former "America's Funniest Home Videos" host John Fugelsang brings his one-man show "All the Wrong Reasons: A True Story of Neo-Nazis, Drug Smuggling, and Undying Love" (April 15) to New York Theatre Workshop. And City Center's Encores! will present "Stairway to Paradise" (May 10), a revue culled from other revues.

Also returning is Living Theater, the avant-garde company founded in 1947 that was instrumental in creating off-off-Broadway. Its first offering: "The Brig" (April 26), the 1963 docudrama about a U.S. military prison.