Be thankful that this season’s crop of playwrights isn’t charging by the word. Verbosity is apparently the soul of wit this fall, judging from the prominence of works by Aaron Sorkin, Tom Stoppard, George Bernard Shaw, Conor McPherson, and Samuel Beckett, all men of not so few words.

“The Farnsworth Invention” marks a return to Broadway for the exuberantly loquacious Mr. Sorkin. Television has been good to him since “A Few Good Men” launched him to Hollywood in 1989, and he returns the favor with a drama about TV’s early days, starring Hank Azaria. It opens November 14, the day before “The Seafarer,” the latest tale of bent elbows and bent ears in modern-day Ireland by the talented Mr. McPherson (“Shining City”).

“The Seafarer” got its start as an award-winning London production. So did “Rock ‘n’ Roll” (November 4), in which Mr. Stoppard turns his attentions from 19th-century Russian revolutionaries to 20th-century Czech revolutionaries; Rufus Sewell and Brian Cox star. Shaw’s best-known play, “Pygmalion,” returns to Broadway October 18 for the first time in 20 years; David Grindley directs two of his “Journey’s End” costars, Boyd Gaines and (as ‘enry ‘iggins) Jefferson Mays, along with Claire Danes as the malleable Eliza. And Mikhail Baryshnikov, JoAnne Akalaitis, and Philip Glass are among the notables attached to New York Theatre Workshop’s “Beckett Shorts” (December), a collection of four one-acts.

Joining their ranks in garrulousness is the acclaimed playwright Tracy Letts (“Bug,” “Killer Joe”), who will make his Broadway debut November 20 with “August: Osage County.” This sprawling family drama clocked in at over three hours during its acclaimed run at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre this summer; no word if the villainous Weston family has slimmed down in the intervening months.

Cyrano de Bergerac had a way with words, albeit vicariously; Kevin Kline dons the fake nose for a new Broadway adaptation (November 1), costarring Jennifer Garner as his beloved Roxane. And the always-talkative Russians will also be making appearances, with both Tolstoy (the Mint’s mounting of his 1886 rarity “The Power of Darkness,” opening September 24) and Dostoyevsky (a new adaptation of “Crime and Punishment,” opening in early November at 59E59) represented.

“Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” So said the most unlikely addition to this season’s roster — Mark Twain. “Is He Dead?” (November 29), a recently unearthed 1898 comedy about a group of students who fake a fellow artist’s death for financial gain, might raise some sticky questions come Tony time: Can the Best New Play prize go to a guy who died almost 100 years ago?

Elsewhere in the season, audiences who know Terrence McNally from his more somber work of recent years might do a double take at the bawdy farce “The Ritz,” one of his earliest successes. The Roundabout’s revival, opening October 11, features Rosie Perez in the role that won Rita Moreno a Tony Award in 1975. F. Murray Abraham, who appeared in the original production, joins Alison Pill and Katie Finneran in “Mauritius” (October 4), the Broadway debut of the prolific playwright Theresa Rebeck. And Chazz Palminteri revisits “A Bronx Tale” (October 25), his nostalgic solo show best known from the 1993 film version.

Last fall saw 10 Broadway musicals open, more than twice as many as this year. Still, two of this year’s entries are biggies: “Young Frankenstein” (November 8) and “The Little Mermaid” (December 6). Mel Brooks is hoping that audiences will pay even more than what they paid for “The Producers” to see less famous actors (including Tony winners Roger Bart, Shuler Hensley, Sutton Foster, and Andrea Martin) in a less beloved property. “Mermaid,” by comparison, features an unknown named Sierra Boggess in the title role and a director, Francesca Zambello, best known for her work in opera.

The only other Broadway musical besides a return engagement of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” (November 9) is a Wild West retelling of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” called “Lone Star Love” (December 3), featuring Randy Quaid as a rootin’- tootin’ Falstaff. Other titles that might have been Broadway-bound in other seasons have settled for off-Broadway outings. These include Lincoln Center’s “The Glorious Ones” (November 5), a look at a 16th-century commedia dell’arte troupe; and “Three Mo’ Tenors” (September 27), finally opening in New York after years of touring successfully.

Michael Cumpsty and director Brian Kulick continue their annual dip into high-style Shakespeare at Classic Stage Company, this time with “Richard III” (November 13), while Lincoln Center has rounded up Martha Plimpton, Phylicia Rashad, and Michael Cerveris for a mounting of the Bard’s fairly obscure “Cymbeline” (December 2). And “The Wooster Group’s Hamlet” (October 31 at the Public) uses a little-seen 1964 film of Richard Burton’s Broadway “Hamlet” as a fertile springboard for the Wooster Group’s adventurous hijinks. Wooster’s liberties with Shakespeare should pale in comparison, however, to those taken by Ivo van Hove at NYTW, his usual U.S. outpost. Next up on the Flemish provocateur’s list: Moliere’s “The Misanthrope” (September 24).

Several promising new playwrights will see their work performed by major off-Broadway companies. Adam Bock, whose “The Thugs” topped at least one critic’s Top 10 list for 2006 — okay, my list — presents “The Receptionist” at Manhattan Theatre Club (October 30). “The Piano Teacher”(November1attheVineyard) is the latest effort by Julia Cho, whose “BFE” made a big splash last season. And Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “The Brothers Size” (November), the critical hit of this year’s “Under the Radar” festival, returns to the Public with the same cast.

Also on tap: something new from Horton Foote (Primary Stages’ “Dividing the Estate,” opening September 27), something old from Harold Pinter (a Broadway revival of “The Homecoming,” opening December 9 and featuring Ian McShane and Raul Esparza), something borrowed from Edward Albee (“Peter and Jerry,” a combination of his seminal 1958 one-act “The Zoo Story” and a new prequel, opening November 11 at Second Stage), and something blue from Margaret Cho (“The Sensuous Woman,” a burlesque extravaganza that opens October 6 at the Zipper).

Political theater continues its welcome resurgence, led by St. Ann’s Warehouse’s presentation of three international pieces in October: “Black Watch,” the National Theatre of Scotland’s account of a Scottish infantry unit in Iraq, and “The Veiled Monologues” and “Is. Man,” a pair of Islam-themed plays performed in repertory. David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face” (November at the Public) casts a wry look back at racial politics in the late 1980s. Adrienne Kennedy’s semi-autobiographical “Ohio State Murders” gets a revival by Theatre for a New Audience (November 4). And the Roundabout addresses the genocide in Rwanda with J.T. Rogers’s “The Overwhelming” (October 23).