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Each Broadway season is a tug-of-war between old and new, with original plays and musicals balancing out revivals of popular shows. This fall's lineup promises an eclectic mix of both, with the added draw of marquee actors, celebrated writers and spicy subject matter.

Two new productions buck the recent trend of jukebox musicals. Fela!, which had a successful off-Broadway run last season, recounts the life of Fela Kuti, the talented and controversial Nigerian musician and dissident. Directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones (Spring Awakening), the show incorporates Fela's groundbreaking Afrobeat songs. Meanwhile, Memphis, which originated at the La Jolla Playhouse in California, tells the story of the birth of rock 'n' roll through a young radio DJ. The musical is directed by Christopher Ashley (Xanadu), with original songs co-written by David Bryan, a member of Bon Jovi, and Joe DiPietro, who also wrote the show.

Both Fela! and Memphis deal with race, a theme that lends itself to the title of one of two David Mamet plays opening this fall. Race, the playwright's Broadway directorial debut, stars David Alan Grier and James Spader. The plot has been kept tightly under wraps. Sexual harassment, another hot-button issue, is the subject of Mamet's Oleanna, which made its New York debut 17 years ago. Julia Stiles, who won acclaim for her performance in a recent London revival, appears opposite Bill Pullman.

With the success of his Pulitzer Prize–winning August: Osage County, Tracy Letts has become, like Mamet, one of those rare playwrights whose name alone can attract an audience. After working on a wide canvas with August, Letts focuses on a smaller but no less intriguing world in his new work, Superior Donuts. First performed at the Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre, the play is about a small business in Chicago. With a former community organizer in the White House, Letts' investigation of class and community is particularly timely.

Keith Huff, a lesser-known Chicago playwright, makes his Broadway debut with A Steady Rain, the story of two policemen who offer two different accounts of a tormenting few days. The Chicago cops are played by Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig—yes, Wolverine and James Bond, but also two accomplished theatre actors.

Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House had a successful run at Lincoln Center several seasons ago. Her new work, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), is a period piece about intimacy, science and sexuality, featuring two New York theatre veterans, Laura Benanti and Michael Cerveris. After Miss Julie, an adaptation of August Strindberg's classic Miss Julie, is another look at sexual politics from a playwright adept at exposing the raw nerves of his characters' needs and desires. Patrick Marber (Closer) transposes the story from late-19th-century Sweden to England in July 1945, after the British Labour Party's election victory. The Roundabout Theatre Company's production features the glamorous casting combo of Jonny Lee Miller and Sienna Miller. Also from Roundabout is a very different story of needs and desires, Carrie Fisher's one-woman autobiographical show Wishful Drinking, adapted from her memoir of her struggle with drugs and alcohol.

Leading a season of big-name revivals is Jude Law in Hamlet, a limited run of a production by London's acclaimed Donmar Warehouse. Law received many glowing notices in the British press for his turn as the Danish prince. (Ralph Fiennes was the last actor to come to Broadway in the role, in 1995.) Additionally, two beloved musicals are slated to make a return. Ragtime, which is based on E. L. Doctorow's novel and first premiered on Broadway in 1998, is being imported from a popular run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Finian's Rainbow, originally produced on Broadway more than 60 years ago, had a successful stint this spring with New York City Center's Encores! series of great American musicals. Co-written by E.Y. "Yip" Harburg—who also wrote the songs from The Wizard of Oz and such standards as "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"—this tale of a stolen pot of gold might be a welcome dose of escapism for penny-pinched theatergoers.

For a complete list of current shows, visit nycgo.com/broadway.