Next Onstage ...

The Mosaic Theatre (954-577-8243) mounts an ambitious six-show season that kicks off with the wacky comedy The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (September 12-29). After that the not-so-wacky Holocaust drama, A Shayna Maidel; David Mamet's The Woods; Nicky Silver's urban comedy Food Chain; William Finn's latest musical A New Brain; and John Steinbeck's classic Of Mice & Men.

Public Theatre of South Florida opens its fifteenth season with Jeffrey (October 4-27), a comedy about one gay man's crazed love life, and the season moves along strongly from there, with Lanford Wilson's The Fifth Of July and Pastrami On Rye, a world premiere set in a kosher deli in Hell. Then Edward Albee's Three Tall Women; a new family comedy, The Wearing Of The Greenblatts; the Public's new play fest, An Evening of Winners; and the season finale, a new adaptation of Seneca's Oedipus.

One of South Florida's few acting ensembles, the Sol Theatre Project (954-525-6555), enters its second season with yet another tasty menu: Christopher Woods's Murmurs (opens September 20) is a series of twelve monologues from twelve different characters. On deck: As You Like It, Gertrude Stein and A Companion, the Obie Award-winning fantasy Marisol, and Sam Shepard's rock 'em sock 'em love story Fool For Love.

On The Boards Theatre Company (954-523-0506) celebrates its acquisition of a new space in Dania Beach with The Glass Menagerie (October 3-20), succeeded by the most ambitious play list in South Florida: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Arthur Miller's The Price, Christopher Renstrom's Widow's Walk, The Seagull, Julius Caesar, The Subject Was Roses, Congreve's The Way Of The World, Measure For Measure, and The Miser. Whew!

Like New Theatre in Miami, the Hollywood Playhouse (954-538-5500) has already opened its season with Rachel & Julio (through August 25), which will be followed by Michael McKeever's Open Season, Avi Hoffman's latest romp Meshuggah-Nuns, and two musicals -- Phantom and Hello Dolly!