thoughts on any or all of these
Spamalot
The Outsiders
Suffs
Stereophonic
The Notebook
Dracula
Hell's Kitchen
The Great Gatsby
Spamalot - Fun, silly; could be a great choice if you need a distraction. Monty Python isn't really my thing, but I enjoyed this. Could be a lot of stupid fun - especially if the cast is great.
The Outsiders - Loved this on Broadway last season - I walked out of it knowing it would win Best Musical. Staging is fantastic. That "rumble" is *not* to be missed!
Suffs - A new, original musical with some great music. The original Broadway cast was filmed for PBS I believe - though it may be some time before it airs.
Stereophonic - This is a LONG, not terribly exciting play (unofficially based on Fleetwood Mac) that really depends on having strong actors. It's a very slow moving plot. I was captivated by the performances; though when intermission rolled around I realized that not much had actually happened. I enjoyed it and didn't find the show boring, but I know many people did. I saw it from excellent, close seats and I can't imagine this will play very well in any of the larger touring houses. They did release an album of music from the show so that may be worth checking out before getting tickets; though despite all the tracks on the album, I believe we only ever hear one song in it's entirety on stage.
The Notebook - I've never seen the movie, but I thought this was pretty ok... not life-changing, though it definitely brought on some tears. Some nice music.
Hell's Kitchen - I liked this one... I was not familiar with most of Alicia Keys' music outside of the mega-hits. The plot is pretty predictable, but it was a satisfying night in the theatre.
Great Gatsby - It's changed from the novel, but it definitely has that big, Broadway, flashy feel. Hopefully they're able to keep most of that for the tour. I'm not super crazy about all of the score... some nice melodies in there though.
If you haven't already and you get the chance, give the cast albums for the shows a listen. This is a pretty solid season overall, I'd say!