Dear Theater Fans, The new season is barreling toward us, and we at the theater desk have been talking to the artists leading the charge. Alexis Soloski spoke with the dazzling Julia Louis-Dreyfus about her history of playing “appetitive” women who eat the world; her Broadway debut in “Other Desert Cities” will no doubt give her another chance to wolf down a role. I talked to Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who will be directing August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars” at Lincoln Center Theater this fall. Thirty years ago Santiago-Hudson won a Tony for playing Canewell in this same beautiful tragedy; he spoke to me about maintaining that electric connection with Wilson across decades — and his death. It’s boom time for Wilson fans: “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is at the Yale Rep from Oct. 2-24, directed by Timothy Douglas. In fact, according to a survey conducted by American Theater magazine, Wilson is currently the most produced non-Shakespeare playwright in the country. (The most produced play? “John Proctor Is the Villain.”) Also coming soon: “Wanted,” a new musical, which is a rare thing these days on Broadway! The show is based (loosely) on the history of the writer Angelica Chéri’s own great-great-aunts, pistol-packing outlaws who passed as white in the 1800s. Chéri and the composer Ross Baum talked with Derrick Bryson Taylor about the 12-year construction of their Wild West musical. It’s notable this year that the Edinburgh Fringe is exporting so many of its biggest and weirdest hits. I reviewed the very naked “Garry Starr: Classic Penguins,” which allowed me to write many sentences that would not normally have passed our standards team. I am on tenterhooks for the wildly successful Fringe comedian Elf Lyons, who will be at SoHo Playhouse in just a few days, and for Alex Bechtel’s “Penelope,” with Grace McLean, which has been added to the Classic Stage Company’s schedule this December. Speaking of the fringe, I’m starting to see pretty wild stuff at our own avant-garde venues. I loved, loved, loved “Michael Haggerty’s ‘Where Were You?’,” a slippery meta-theatrical “presentation” by Dan Hasse at JACK that manages to be both tongue-in-cheek and oddly sincere about how we remember Sept. 11. And Kate Kremer’s shocking and abstract “The Intimacy” (part of Kunst Fest at the Collapsable Hole) is a conversation between Bette Davis (onscreen) and a half-woman, half-hermit-crab (maybe?), who has recently given birth. It’s a waking, sexually explicit dream. I recommend it for fans of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.” André Gregory is one of the greatest voices in the American avant-garde, and one of the city’s cultural cornerstones. On Oct. 4, 5 and 11, the New York Film Festival will be screening “One More Time,” the documentary he co-directed with Cindy Kleine about working on Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame.” For anyone who was changed by Gregory’s “Vanya on 42nd Street,” this is necessary viewing. The beginning of a new season means bidding some shows farewell. “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” has announced that it will close on Nov. 29, while “& Juliet” and “Six” will both end their runs Jan. 3. There is also news of the year to come. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will bring “Grass” to the Park Avenue Armory in February, and Michael Paulson tells us that Patti LuPone will be playing Diana Vreeland (starting in January) and Sam Pinkleton will be directing “Annie” next fall. Annie! That plucky little orphan is 50 years old; may we all greet middle age with her same can-do approach. Thank you for reading each week! Tell us if you’ve seen something great. Please reach out at theaterfeedback@nytimes.com with suggestions for articles or to offer your thoughts about our coverage. And urge your friends to subscribe to this newsletter. Have a wonderful week, Like this email?Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up here.
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