After the Labor Day hoopla dies down, Seattle stages turn somber. ACT Theatre presents Caryl Churhill's A Number (September 7-October 1), a drama about the implications of cloning set in the not-too-distant future. The Empty Space Theatre looks back at a spring afternoon in 1946 when a young scientist causes a legendary lab accident at The Manhattan Project in Louis Slotin Sonata (Lee Center for the Arts, September 8 - October 7). Meanwhile, the Seattle Repertory Theatre is steeped in John Patrick Shanley's award-winning Doubt (September 21-October 21), about paranoia and suspicion in a 1964 Bronx Catholic Church.

But it isn't all brooding and torment this month. The 5th Avenue Theatre has the national tour of Bombay Dreams (September 12-October 1), the splashy musical set in India's Bollywood film industry, while the Broadway smash Wicked lands at the Paramount Theatre (September 20 - October 1). The Intiman Theatre serves up Ron Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias (September 13-October 7), a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Gone With the Wind. Seattle Public Theater debuts local playwright Steven Roseta's (Just Like) Starting Over (Bathhouse Theatre, September 7-17), based on the final interview with John Lennon on the afternoon of his death. Live Girls Theatre has Fall Off Night (September 22-October 7), which follows a twentysomething on a surreal journey through a big city on the longest night of the year. Museum Play (Washington Ensemble Theatre, September 1-25) offers a guided tour of the complications of love amid the wonders of the natural history museum.

Seattle novelist Stephanie Kallos' Broken for You (Center House Theatre, September 22-October 15) focuses on how a septuagenarian and her young housemate are transformed when their lives intersect. At Hugo House, Strawberry Theatre Workshop blends puppetry and live performance in an adaptation of Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey (September 8-October 8). Civic Light Opera stages the classic musical Man of La Mancha (through September 24) at the Magnuson Community Center Auditorium, and Issaquah's reliable Village Theatre has the stirring Evita (Francis J. Gaudette Theatre, September 13-October 22).

Finally, you know that summer's truly over when the Seattle Children's Theatre opens a show called Harriet's Halloween Candy (September 22-November 12). It's all about a young girl's obsession with Halloween candy and her dread of sharing it with her younger brother. We know some of you out there know what she's talking about!