On broadway: broadway bound: season highlights include imports, revivals, and Tharp's Bob Dylan salute.

For lovers of Broadway dance, the big news of the new season can be summed up in two words: Twyla's coming. After fashioning the songs of Billy Joel into the terrific musical Movin' Out, this time Twyla Tharp is tackling the Bob Dylan songbook. The show, still untitled at this writing, will be unveiled at the Old Globe in San Diego in January, then make its way to Broadway later in the season. There are plenty of other musicals in the pipeline, but for the dance world, this one carries the heaviest expectations. If Tharp pulls off another hit on the order of Movin' Out, she will be rewriting the Broadway rule book once and for all and opening the way for a serious influx of dance-based shows.

Tharp's success with Movin' Out has already had an influence. The recent crop of musicals dedicated to pop composers or performers--the unlamented Good Vibrations, the much more entertaining All Shook Up--is due in no small part to the box office generated by Movin' Out (and, of course, Mamma Mia!). Needless to say, Billy Joel, The Beach Boys, and Elvis Presley are hardly the only pop stars with devoted followings. John Lennon's songs were due to come to the Broadhurst Theater in August, in Lennon, the first musical of the new season. The biographical show was conceived by its director, Don Scardino, and features Joe Malone's choreography. Right behind Lennon, sometime in the fall, Jersey Boys brings the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons to the stage, complete with "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," and their other hits. Sergio Trujillo is choreographing for director Des McAnuff. And in yet another twist on the "greatest hits" formula, Chita Rivera's career on Broadway will be documented in Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, which opens this month at the Old Globe in San Diego with Broadway its final destination. (See "Reviews & Previews," page 76.)

Rivera, who knows a thing or two about Broadway's ups and downs, would appreciate the long history of another show headed for Broadway, Nefertiti: A Musical Romance. Originally tried out in Chicago in 1977, it's the story of the famed queen of ancient Egypt, circa 1,300 B.C. Christopher Gore, who died in 1988, wrote the book and David Spangler the score, and a tryout played this past spring in Fort Lauderdale. The book has been revised by Gore's brother, Rick, and Robert Johanson is directing and choreographing.

Rivera would also presumably understand the impetus behind In My Life, which begins performances this month at the Music Box. Oscar-winning songwriter Joseph Brooks has written a show--music, book, and lyrics--about a New York songwriter. And he's directing, too. The choreography's by Richard Stafford.

David Zippel also wears multiple hats this season. He's directing Princesses, a musical he conceived and wrote lyrics for, about a posh girls' school that hires a movie star to direct the annual show. Rob Ashford will do the choreography, with a fall opening set after the current run in Seattle.

Lestat, based on the Anne Rice vampire, aims to open in April, with a score by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and direction and choreography by the Beauty and the Beast team, Robert Jess Roth and Matt West.

Another traditional book musical with Broadway aspirations is Palm Beach-The Screwball Musical, which completed a run this summer at La Jolla Playhouse. Based on the classic Preston Sturges film The Palm Beach Story, it has music by David Gursky, direction by McAnuff, choreography by Debbie Rosche, and a featured number performed by tap specialist Noah Racey.

There are, of course, other movie-based shows on the calendar--how could there not be, after Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Spamalot, and The Light in the Piazza turned into hits? The Wedding Singer, with a score by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin, goes to Seattle at the end of January with an eye to a spring opening on Broadway.

British imports heading stateside this season include Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White, with lyrics by Zippel and direction by Trevor Nunn, and the long-awaited Jerry Springer--The Opera, directed by one of its authors, Stewart Lee.

"What?" you're thinking-"no revivals?" Relax. Sweeney Todd, the 1979 Sondheim classic, comes to Broadway this month. Purlie, the deliciously melodic 1970 show based on the late Ossie Davis' comedy, should be arriving after a run at the Pasadena Playhouse and an opening this month at Chicago's Goodman Theater. The Pajama Game, the 1954 hit with direction by George Abbott and Jerome Robbins and choreography by Bob Fosse, is scheduled to return under the guiding hand of Kathleen Marshall. The Roundabout Theater is reviving The Threepenny Opera, with Scott Elliott directing. And the revival of revivals, A Chorus Line, is revving up for September of 2006, just in time for another report of this history of Broadway dreams-and pipe dreams.

Sylviane Gold has written about theater for Newsday and The New York Times.