Marx Theatre

Sept. 2-Oct. 3 - My Fair Lady. Co-produced with St. Louis Rep and Alliance Theatre of Atlanta, the Lerner and Loewe classic will revisit the musicalization of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion by reducing it to its core. The spare production will feature a cast of 10, limited scenery and a two-piano orchestration as it explores the adventures of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and irascible phonetician Henry Higgins.

Oct. 19-Nov. 21 - Metamorphoses. From Midas and Aphrodite to Psyche and Apollo, Ovid's tales of love and loss, triumph and transformation are played out in a stage-spanning pool of water. It was Time magazine's "No. 1 show of the year."

Dec. 3-30 - A Christmas Carol returns for its 13th edition, starring Joneal Joplin as Ebenezer Scrooge.

Jan. 11- Feb. 13 - Going Gone. Karen Hartman, 32, writes about family and assimilation in America and a father, Harry Hartman, who's mostly a voice on the radio as he trails the Reds across America. "Going, going, gone - that was him," she says. "He was credited with being the first person to use that phrase describing a home run. For me it has a double meaning, it also means someone slipping away."

Feb. 29-April 2 - Blue, by Charles Randolph Wright, is a comedy-drama about a family who owns the only African-American owned funeral home in a small South Carolina town. The family's story is accompanied by the music of Blue Williams, a singer who provides the underscoring for their lives.

April 25-May 28 - Mister Roberts is an American classic comedy set on a WWII cargo ship where the title character spends his time trying to get transferred into the war and the rest of the crew battles boredom.

Thompson Shelterhouse

Sept. 27-Oct. 26 - One by local playwright Joseph McDonough is a trio of monologues that interweave three lives - a television star, his No. 1 fan and his unrequited high school love - through a series of unanswered letters written by a Civil War soldier to his love. "One is a tiny little word," observes McDonough, "that can have opposite definitions - alone, isolated, individual and also unified, together. Both those things apply to these stories.

Nov. 8-Jan. 18 - Always ... Patsy Cline brings the summer blockbuster from 2000 back with the fabulous Molly Andrews and Adale O'Brien reprising their roles as country legend Patsy and pen pal Louise Segar.

Feb. 7-March 7 - Drawer Boy, one of Time magazine's "10 Best Plays of 2001," uses long friendship of two bachelor farmers to explore the blurred line between memory and reality, and the power of art to help us remember. The show marks Playhouse's first collaboration with Actors Theatre of Louisville. If this partnership goes well, another title is already in play for the 2004-05 season.

March 20-April 18 - Rosenthal New Play Prize, to be announced.

May 15-June 27 - Sing Hallelujah!, a gospel revue that was a Playhouse hit in the mid-'80s, will be revived to celebrate the opening of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It will mark the return of Worth Gardner, former Playhouse artistic director and the favorite enfant terrible of Cincinnati's theater scene in the '80s.

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