Will 2001-2002 be Cincinnati's biggest theater season ever? It certainly looks like it.

        Best ways to be a part of it:

        When you check out the movie listings on Fridays, check out the theater listings, too. You might be surprised at what looks good.

        Clip out the “theater deals” story (below) and stick it on your refrigerator for easy reference.

        Stop off at the Playhouse after-work Sept. 10 (and bring a friend.) Snack and schmooze (for free) with our town's theater crowd at Curtain Up 2001! Ask them about their work. Enter the drawing for free tickets. Check out the season brochures.

        Get together with a group of friends, make a reservation at an Over-the-Rhine restaurant and follow it with a show.

        Don't know where to get started? Here's my list of week-by-week recommendations for the fall season:

        Week one: King Lear/Sing-a-Long Sound of Music. Talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous.

        King Lear, Playhouse, Sept. 4-Oct. 5. (421-3888) Playhouse opens its season with its Big Deal show. What's Shakespeare's tragedy about? Everything. The primo cast includes Playhouse veterans Joneal Joplin, Philip Pleasants and Dale Hodges.

        Sing-a-Long Sound of Music, Victoria Theatre, Dayton, Sept. 4-9. (937 228-3630). The London version was a smash hit. Things start off with a costume competition, then the movie unreels. We, in our lederhosen and wimples, sing along with Julie Andrews, hiss the Nazis, sigh over young love, etc. Be creative. Go in a group and dress up as kids in drapes or “brown paper packages tied up with string.” It may not be theater, but it's a show.

        Week two: Fuddy Meers/Fully Committed

        Fuddy Meers, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, Sept. 6-30 (381-2273). Demented tale of amnesiac Claire and her search for self despite her bizarre family was proclaimed the zenith of hip during its off-Broadway run last year.

        Fully Committed, Ensemble Theatre, Sept. 5-30 (421-3555). ETC favorite Bob Rais is the overwhelmed reservationist at a hot Manhattan eatery.

        Week three: The Fellowship of the Ring, Ovation Theatre, Aronoff Center Jarson-Kaplan Theater, Sept. 20-29 (241-7469). Company member Blake Bowden adapts J.R.R. Tolkien's timeless fantasy about the hero in all of us.

        Consider: The Imaginary Invalid, Stage First, Aronoff Center Fifth Third Bank Theater, Sept. 11-30 (241-7469). Local stage actor Michael Bath takes the title role in Moliere's savage social comedy about a hypochondriac, the charlatans who would take advantage of him and the savvy servant who puts all to rights.

        Week four: Phantom of the Opera, Broadway in Cincinnati, Aronoff Center, Sept. 19-Oct. 13 (241-7469) Costumes to die for, that gondola floating through the smoky subterranean caverns — and, oh, yeah, that misunderstood guy in the half-mask. If you like it, you love it.

        Week five: Love Child, Ensemble Theatre Off-Center Series, Oct. 5-15 (421-3555). This year's best new play in Chicago is about the timely topic of teen-age pregnancy and based on the writings of pregnant girls. Script is by Luther Goins, still a much-admired name in the African-American theater community 15 years after his departure from Arts Consortium for the Windy City.

        Week six: Twelfth Night, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, Oct. 11-Nov. 4. The Bard's comedy, complete with shipwreck, girl dressed as boy, much mistaken identity and some of the best supporting characters around, will get an Alice Through the Looking Glass spin. Count always watchable Drew and Sherman Fracher among the guest players.

        Week seven: Gypsy, Playhouse, Oct. 16-Nov. 16. Everything should be coming up roses with Pam Myers as the showbiz mom who takes no prisoners in her pursuit of stardom.

        Of note: Song and Dance, College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Oct. 18-20 (556-4183). Fans of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, here's another show for you. Even if you're anything but a fan of Lord Lloyd Webber, CCM's stars of tomorrow are always worth seeing, especially when it's free. Talented Diane Lala directs and choreographs.

        Week eight: The Tempest, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Oct. 25-28 (556-4183). Michael Burnham explores Shakespeare's feminine side as he casts women in key roles.

        Of note: The region gets its first look at hot playwright Rebecca Gilman with a ripped-from-the-headlines drama about prejudice on a college campus. Human Race, Dayton, Oct. 25-Nov. 10 (937-227-3391)

        Week nine: Rent/As Bees in Honey Drown. It's just like going to New York, but cheaper!

        Rent, Broadway in Cincinnati, Oct. 30-Nov. 4. Visit Alphabet City (the down, down, down-and-out edge of Greenwich Village) where young artistes suffer beautifully and tunefully in a pop updating of La Boheme.

        Bees, CCM Studio, Nov. 1-3. Mosey uptown for a tweaking of beautiful people and celebrity chic.

        Week 10: The Importance of Being Earnest, Children's Theatre, Taft Theatre, Nov. 9-10 (569-8080). Children's Theatre imports Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival for Oscar Wilde's delicious spoof of social mores.

        Of note: While Oscar Wilde was writing in London, Anton Chekhov was penning superb drama in Russia. The Cherry Orchard ponders a way of life shattering at the turn of the 20th century. Stage First, Oct. 30-Nov. 18.

        Week 11: Candide, CCM, Nov. 15-18. Voltaire and his Dr. Pangloss send innocents Candide, his beloved Cunegonde, Maximillian and servant girl Paquette to wander the globe in search of “the best of all possible worlds.” Expect the singing of this Leonard Bernstein masterpiece to sweep you away.

        Of note: Nothing could be less like Candide than Blast!, the drum and bugle corps extravaganza taking the stage at the Aronoff, Broadway in Cincinnati, Nov. 13-25.

        Week 12: Beehive, Playhouse, Nov. 3-Jan. 6. Note the long run. High-octane Beehive, which will again celebrate the history of girl groups in the Shelterhouse for the holidays, is a feel-good show extraordinaire and a proven hit for Playhouse. This year's cast includes Heather Ayers (from last season's holiday show I Love You, You're Perfect...) and CCM grad Kristen Wyatt.

        Week 13: A Christmas Carol/Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol. A perfect holiday match.

        Carol, Playhouse, Nov. 30-Dec. 30. For my money, there's no better local holiday entertainment than the Playhouse's annual telling of Charles Dickens' Christmas Eve adventure. Mr. Dickens miraculously combines a tale of heart and conscience with a delightful ghost story. Joneal Joplin as Scrooge (with the assistance of Playhouse's tech wizards) brings it wonderfully to life.

        Marley's Carol, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Nov. 29-Dec. 31. Who would have thought that there could be a winning companion piece that pays tribute to Mr. Dickens even as it gently spins the classic for a contemporary audience? The festival found this gem, destined to be an evergreen, at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

        E-mail jdemaline@yahoo.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/demaline

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