NEW YORK — The sound of Broadway this fall will include Stephen Sondheim, Bob Dylan and Marvin Hamlisch, not to mention Tom Stoppard, George Bernard Shaw, Victor Hugo, P.L. Travers and Dr. Seuss.

could be the season's most poignant production — a reminder of what the American musical theater lost when its creator, director-choreographer Michael Bennett, died of AIDS in 1987. Bennett's show about a group of dancers auditioning for a Broadway musical ran from 1975 into 1990 — then the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Can director-choreographer Twyla Tharp do with Bob Dylan what she accomplished several seasons back with Billy Joel and "Movin' Out"? Her new theatrical venture is called a coming-of-age story set in a circus, and using such Dylan standards as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Lay Lady Lay, "Subterranean Homesick Blues," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and, of course, the show's title song.

Michael Arden plays the young man, Thom Sesma his tyrannical father and Caren Lyn Manuel a beautiful circus performer. Sounds like a love triangle. You can find out Oct. 26 at Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

Christine Ebersole earned cheers for her performance as Little Edie Beale in when the musical was done off-Broadway last season. Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, as Edie's equally eccentric and reclusive mother, head the Broadway production that opens Nov. 2 at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

Based on the Maysles brothers' film documentary about relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, "Grey Gardens" has a book by Doug Wright, author of "I Am My Own Wife," and music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie. For those who can't wait to hear the score, a cast recording has just been released by PS Classics.

Sooner or later, the Grinch had to come to Broadway in a starring role. He had a small part in "Seussical" in 2000. Now that venerable green meanie, a creation of Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss), will headline a limited holiday engagement at the Hilton Theatre, opening Nov. 8 for a run through Jan. 7.

The show, of course, is the impossibly long-titled It's a 90-minute stage version that in past seasons has been wowing audiences at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. And the show, starring Patrick Page as the Grinch, will play 12 performances each week to accommodate the kiddies during one of the busiest theatergoing times of the year.

The following night, Nov. 9, another old favorite returns. sets up its barricades at the Broadhurst for a six-month run with a new cast of theater veterans.

the tales of P.L. Travers' most efficient nanny, was the basis for an acclaimed Disney movie starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Four decades later, Disney joined forces with Cameron Mackintosh to put "Poppins" on stage, first in London and now at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre, where the musical, directed by Richard Eyre, opens Nov. 16.

Most of the songs from the movie are still around — where would we be without "Chim Chim Cher-ee" — although new numbers by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe have been added.

Last season, director John Doyle created a stir with his revival of "Sweeney Todd," in which the actors on stage played the show's instruments. This season, Doyle does it again with another Stephen Sondheim musical, a look at a bachelor who can't commit. It opens Nov. 29 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Breaking up happens all the time for Rob, the record-store owner who is the hero of a new musical based on British author Nick Hornby's novel. Transplanted to Brooklyn from London (the John Cusack movie was set in Chicago), the musical stars Will Chase as Rob and Jenn Collela as Laura, the last one who got away.

The musical, opening Dec. 7 at the Imperial Theatre, features a score by Tom Kitt (music) and Amanda Green (lyrics) with a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, author of last season's "Rabbit Hole." The director is Walter Bobbie.

Frank Wedekind's 19th-century look at adolescent sexuality, has been reworked with music by pop singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik and book and lyrics by Steven Sater. The musical finds its way to Broadway in December, arriving Dec. 10 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

In Johnson brings his skills as a ventriloquist to the Helen Hayes Theatre, where his parade of characters, including a talking tennis ball, officially arrives Sept. 28.

The cast is sterling: Philip Bosco, Swoosie Kurtz and Laila Robins, among others. And we know the dialogue is golden. It's George Bernard Shaw's the master's look at a world — namely Edwardian England — and personal relationships right before some momentous changes. The Roundabout Theatre Company's revival, directed by Robin Lefevre, opens Oct. 11 at the American Airlines Theatre.

More contemporary personal problems are explored in Simon Mendes da Costa's play receiving its American premiere Oct. 12 at the Biltmore Theatre.

Alan Bates starred in the American premiere of in 1972, Simon Gray's play about a caustic professor whose life is crumbling. Nearly 25 years later, it's Nathan Lane's turn to portray the unhappy title character. Look for it Oct. 25 at the Booth Theatre.

The season's most gargantuan dramatic adventure begins Nov. 5. It's the first chapter of Tom Stoppard's trilogy chronicling a group of 19th-century Russian intellectuals from 1834 to 1865. This sprawling epic features more than 30 actors playing more than 70 roles.

The cast includes Billy Crudup, Richard Easton, Jennifer Ehle, Ethan Hawke, Amy Irving, Brian F. O'Byrne and Martha Plimpton. The director is Jack O'Brien. Part 1, "Voyage," opens Nov. 5; Part 2, "Shipwreck," Dec. 21, and Part 3, "Salvage," Feb. 15. For hardy souls, there will be three marathon performances — Feb. 23, March 3 and March 10 — when all three parts can be viewed in one day.

In Julie White plays an acerbic Hollywood agent trying to control rumors about the sexuality of her top client, a rising screen star. It opens Nov. 13 opening at the Cort Theatre.

Hare's new work, which arrives Nov. 30 at the Music Box, concerns a former journalist turned college teacher (Moore), who arrives in Wales for a vacation with her boyfriend, portrayed by Andrew Scott. There she meets an older Englishman — played by Bill Nighy, who also is making his Broadway debut. Complications ensue, which, of course, are the stuff of good drama. The director is Sam Mendes.

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