Theater: No way is it boring on the boards

What's drama without conflict, complexity, and mystery? All are present this fall theater season, in both the good-news and less-good-news departments. There is much of the former (art! beauty! truth! fun!) and some of the latter (money!).

OK: less-good-news first. With Philadelphia Theatre Company's Suzanne Roberts Theatre up for sale, and with the Prince Music Theater booking nothing after November, and with talented actors publicly declaring that they can't afford to continue their theater careers here, things can sound pretty grim. But on the upside of the money news, the Wyncote Foundation has made Wilma subscriptions amazingly affordable for the next five years.

The good news is the many tempting shows on offer in what promises to be a lively season ahead. Here's some of what I'm looking forward to.

Arcadia. (Sept. 25-Nov. 2, Lantern Theater Company) One of the best-loved and most-admired plays of the contemporary canon, Tom Stoppard's brilliant and thrilling play spans two centuries, as the modern characters try to solve a mystery buried in the past amid architecture, poetry, chaos theory, and, most of all, love. An adorable tortoise named Lightning links them all. An enormous challenge for little Lantern! (215-829-0395 or www.lanterntheater.org)

Rapture, Blister, Burn. (Oct. 8-Nov. 2, Wilma Theater) Gina Gionfriddo (Becky Shaw) premieres her new play here, promising a vivid, witty debate between the married-with-children contingent vs. the high-powered-career cohort. The cast, featuring the always-watchable Krista Apple-Hodge, will be directed by Joanna Settle, newly arrived head of UArts' theater program, in her Philly debut. (215-546-7824 or wilmatheater.org)

9 to 5. (Through Oct. 19, Walnut Street Theatre) With music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, this musical comedy, based on the movie, is about three women who rebel against their tyrannical boss. Broadway singer/dancer Dee Hoty takes the lead in a cast stuffed with local favorites, including Ben Dibble, Mary Martello, Paul Nolen, and Fran Prisco. (215-574-3550 or www.WalnutStreetTheatre.org)

Outside Mullingar. (Nov. 28-Dec. 28, Philadelphia Theatre Company) John Patrick Shanley (Doubt) turns to rural Ireland and romance in this delicious drama about two lonely people, not young, not beautiful, who live on neighboring farms. PTC is assured of its Suzanne Roberts Theatre home through Dec. 31, so this production is safe. (215-985-0420 www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org)

La Bete. (Through Oct. 12, Arden Theatre Company) David Hirson's breathtaking tour de force is a full-length play written entirely in rhyme. The hilarious debate is between high art and low, and the radical changes civilization faces. It takes place in 17th-century France, when an acting troupe is ordered by the king to change with the times - those times represented by a wildly vulgar street performer called "The Beast," played by the irresistible Scott Greer. (215-922-1122, ardentheatre.org)

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence. (Nov. 5-23, Azuka Theatre) Four Watsons: Sherlock Holmes' partner, Alexander Graham Bell's assistant, the AI that muscled out the competition on Jeopardy, and a character named Josh Watson, who is the local Dweeb Team guru. A Pulitzer finalist, Madeleine George's play promises that time will be traveled and minds bent. (215-563-1100 or www.azukatheatre.org)

Red Speedo. (Sept. 30-Nov. 23, Theatre Exile) Olympic swim team competitors and performance-enhancing drugs are at the center of this new play, which raises the question: Do actors have the physiques to wear Speedos, red or otherwise? Can't wait to find out. (215-218-4022 or www.theatreexile.org)

Row After Row. (Oct. 15-Nov. 9, People's Light & Theatre Company) Playwright Jessica Dickey, who wrote The Amish Project, takes on Civil War reenactors in this new comedy/drama that flips up and back between then and now. (610-644-3500. www.peopleslight.org)

The Frank Schaefer Project. (Nov. 12-Dec. 6, Curio Theatre) The Frank Schaefer of the title is the Methodist minister in Lebanon, Pa., who was defrocked for officiating at his gay son's wedding; the subsequent trial drew international attention and is the subject of this drama created collectively by Curio Theatre. (215-525-1350 or www.curiotheatre.org)

Caught. (Oct. 24, Nov. 16, InterAct Theatre Company) A Chinese artist rivets the world's attention with his account of his imprisonment in a Chinese detention center until an American publisher begins to question the authenticity of his story. (215-568-8079 or www.InterActTheatre.org)

King Lear. (Sept. 24-27, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Company at the Annenberg Center) This import from London offers the most surprising casting of the fall season: classically trained Joseph Marcell, who played the butler Jeffrey in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, stars as the tragic king. (215-898-3900, www.annenbergcenter.org)

The Events. (Oct. 7-19, Actors Touring Company at the Annenberg Center) Another import from England, and named the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival's best new play, it sounds both dramatically exhilarating and politically terrifying. The actors are accompanied by a different local choir at each performance, functioning as a kind of Greek chorus to "the events." (215-898-3900, www.annenbergcenter.org)

The Understudy. (Oct. 14-Nov. 2, McCarter Theatre) Theresa Rebeck's valentine to the theater is very funny and surprisingly moving, filled with collisions between a movie star who wants stage cred and his understudy, an actor who wants big bucks and a chance to go on in his place. The long-suffering stage manager navigates the horror show of male egos in a rehearsal of a goofy just-discovered play by Kafka. (609-258-5050 www.mccarter.org)

Ciphers. (Oct. 8-26, Inis Nua Theatre Company) As the title tells us, this American premiere from England needs decoding and unraveling. A spy drama in which everybody is somebody else, and all the crosses are double-crosses. (215-454-9776, www.inisnuatheatre.org)

A Number. (Oct. 9-12, Tiny Dynamite) The fourth season of A Play, A Pint and a Pie (you get a beverage and slice of pizza with the show, all for $15) includes Caryl Churchill's short, smart, chilling play about cloning, and thus about identity. (800-838-3006, tinydynamite.org)

Lost in Yonkers. (Nov. 11-30, Bristol Riverside Theatre) Neil Simon's brand of schmaltz is high-quality schmaltz indeed, and this Pulitzer Prize-winning play is, as many of Simon's plays are, autobiographical. In this one, two young brothers weather a stay at their grandmother's house in Yonkers. (215-785-1011 www.brtstage.org)

Death of a Salesman. (Oct. 22-Nov. 9, EgoPo Theater) The first of EgoPo's season of three "American Giants," this production of Arthur Miller's most iconic of American plays will star Ed Swidey in the role of Willy Loman, the little guy defeated by a changing world and false values. (267-273-1414, www.egopo.org)

The Addams Family. (Sept. 24-Nov. 2, Media Theater) With the knockout voices of Jeff Coon and Julie Eisenhower as Gomez and Morticia, this production of the Broadway musical comedy sounds very tempting. (610-891-0100, www.mediatheatre.org)

Rest, in Pieces. (Nov. 5-23, Delaware Theatre Company) A three-act comedy about the death of a family member, told from three different perspectives. (302-594-1100 www.delawaretheatre.org)

Quills. (Sept. 3-24, Luna Theater) The Marquis de Sade is imprisoned in Charenton, the celebrated loony bin in Napoleanic France. He continues to write, and the scandalous doings are enacted as he writes his scandalous novels and smuggles them out via a laundress. Ooh la la. (215-704-0033 www.lunatheater.org)

Newsies. (Oct. 28-Nov. 2, Kimmel's Broadway Philadelphia) Literally "direct from Broadway," this Disney musical begins its national tour in Philadelphia. Based on historical events when a bunch of New York newsboys (back in the heyday of what is now called "print journalism") rebelled against the powers that were and demanded their rights. (215-731-3333, www.kimmelcenter.org)