"Equus" -- a season of play revivals!

With the Broadway run of Equus opening Thursday, I'm struck by the number of play revivals we'll be seeing on Broadway this fall.

I count the following: Arthur Miller's All My Sons, David Mamet's American Buffalo and Speed-the-Plow, Peter Shaffer's Equus, Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, and Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons.

In winter and spring, those will be supplemented by Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and Friedrich von Schiller's Mary Stuart.

If last season was the season for musical revivals, with Gypsy, Sunday in the Park with George, and South Pacific each earning rave reviews and multiple Tony nominations, this seems to be the year producers are hoping to bank on audiences' familiarity with classic plays and penchant for star turns. Among those starring in play revivals are: Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths (Equus); John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Katie Holmes, and Patrick Wilson (All My Sons); Cedric the Entertainer, John Leguizamo, and Haley Joel Osment (American Buffalo); Jeremy Piven and Raul Esparza (Speed-the-Plow); Kristin Scott Thomas (The Seagull); and Frank Langella (A Man For All Seasons). Looking ahead, Mary Louise Parker's turn in Hedda Gabler looks particularly poised to create some buzz as well.

At the moment, as its opening night fast approaches, all eyes are turned to Equus. Is Daniel Radcliffe's penis worth paying $120 for? Is he a better actor on stage than he is in the middling Harry Potter adaptations? And how is Radcliffe's costar Richard Griffiths, making his first return to Broadway since his Tony-winning turn in The History Boys? The answers are all forthcoming in my review of the play, but I suspect that a visit of one's own will ultimately be the only way to assuage one's curiosity.