With the dawn of the regular theater season this month, I am now entering my 15th year of theater reviewing. But instead of reflecting on the times gone by, I’ll use this space as a primer on the coming season. I’ve reviewed all of the theater lineups in the South Sound and picked one show per theater that stands out in its season schedule.

Capital Playhouse will be staging a work that is still being noted 10 years after first producing the show. The Olympia stage is putting on the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, which is best known as the story of the Passion, marking the final days of Jesus of Nazareth. This show offers some of the best rib shaking music the rock opera genre has to offer the world.  

Harlequin has another month before it wraps up its current season, so it seems only right to point out that its production Antony and Cleopatra by some dude named William Shakespeare is worth a look. Most folks who didn’t sleep through history or English classes in high school will already know the story as it follows the assassination of Julius Caesar, when Mark Antony, Octavius Caesar and Lepidus become the joint rulers of the known world. That ruling model goes away after Antony finds love in all of the wrong places when Cleopatra enters his life. He forgoes his military and political responsibilities to indulge in luxury and decadence in the seductive embrace of the most beautiful woman in the ancient world. This affair not only ruined the couple but doomed Rome. Good times will be had by all.

Marking another milestone alongside this hack is the Lakewood Playhouse, which was founded in 1938. That means it will be turning 70 years old this season. Picking a best of the season show for this stage is a bit difficult because the top two choices are solid picks for different reasons. 

War of the Worlds jumps out as the obvious favorite since it will be celebrating its own 70th anniversary. The show’s popularity in recent years brought by the hit movie version and the old-school radio play make it a good pick. But then there is Into the Wood, a wonderful musical by Stephen Sondheim that wraps all of the childish fairy tales of long ago into one great musical.

Federal Way’s Centerstage, heretofore to be named the theater that does no wrong, has brought the area the tradition of the English panto. So it is only fair that its panto offering gets the nod. Its show Aladdin will have girls who play guys and guys who play girls. Topical jokes and ancient gags abound. It will have some quick humor and cheap shots. It will have audience participation and some poor fellow in the audience being the butt of all the good jokes.

Tacoma Little Theatre is going for the gut as it stages On Golden Pond, one of the most touching plays about growing old ever staged. It tells the story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the 48th time. They know time is not long since they are both aging and their bodies are beginning to fail. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness and slang in return. 

Tacoma Musical Playhouse is staging its version of the Producers late in its season this year as a way to guarantee a hit — as if it had to bet. This show will pack houses as it rumbles through the stage telling its story of a gathering of producers out to stage the worst show in history. The show itself is the most celebrated hit on Broadway.

Olympia Little Theater is staging Tuesdays with Morrie, another great old-person play about time, friendship and all things that come to pass. Based on a true-life story, this is a loving memoir to a man whose lessons on life have much to teach us about ourselves.

On a stage near you

Psychopathia Sexualis: Harlequin’s Production’s Psychopathia Sexualis is a funny little show about a poor soul who can’t seem to relate to women without the presence of his father’s socks. His therapist then steals them as a way to break him of this need. Mayhem ensues.

[State Theater, through Sept. 13, $12-$33, 202 E. Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.786.0151]

I Hate Hamlet: Olympia Little Theater is staging I Hate Hamlet, a show that has the ghost of legendary stage actor John Barrymore helping an up-and-coming television actor conquer the role of Hamlet. All would go well if only the ghost’s ego didn’t get in the way all the time. 

[Olympia Little Theatre, through Oct. 5, $10-$12, 1925 Miller Ave. N.E., Olympia, 360.786.9484, www.olympialittletheatre.org]