Fall Mo' Shows

The Third Story: Charles Buschs latest adds another tough-talking dame to his canon, the kind of role Joan Crawford would kill for. But since shes dead, Busch will once again don the wigs and shoulder pads, this time to play an unemployed Hollywood screenwriter who recruits her son to help her draft a screwball sci-fi script she hopes will resurrect her career. (La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego; opens September 16) Equus: OK, technically, sexual attraction to a horse isnt a gay thing. But when the horse is played by a man and the naked rider is Daniel Harry Potter Radcliffe, its hard to ignore the gay appeal of this revival. Richard Griffiths of The History Boys and the Harry Potter movies costars. (Broadhurst Theatre, New York City; opens September 25) Billy Elliot: Elton John continues his love affair with musicals with his fourth outing, based on the 2000 film about the working-class boy from County Durham, England, who just has to dance. A smash in London, this adaptation gives Billys gay cross-dressing friend, Michael, his very own number about the joys of Expressing Yourself. (Imperial Theatre, New York City; opens October 1) Bounce: More than 10 years after its genesis, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidmans newest creation finally gets its New York debut. Beginning with the Gold Rush and encompassing 40 years in the lives of the real-life Mizner brothers as they eke out their American dream, Bounce features Sondheims very first gay lead. John Doyle directs. (Public Theater, New York City; Fall) A Prayer for My Enemy: Like his searing tale The Dying Gaul, Craig Lucass latest play features a closeted married man dealing with his desire for another man -- this time the mans wifes brother. And thats only the tip of the dysfunctional iceberg in this portrait of an American family desperately trying to cope. (Playwrights Horizons, New York City; Fall) Dixie's Tupperware Party: After 18 marriages, thank God Dixie Longate (Kris Andersson, above) has found something at which shes good. That would be selling Tupperware -- and showing you uses for the stuff that you never considered. Youll leave exhausted from laughter, touched by pathos, and weighed down by Tupperware purchases. (National Tour; Fall) Send a letter to the editor about this article.