Jan. 13--AUSTIN -- For a 140-day limited engagement, the Texas Legislature players begin their performance at noon today.

The show under the Rotunda is always a balancing act -- between House and Senate, revenue and spending, posturing and policy -- and this year promises to be no different.

Fans, critics and observers think this year's plot is likely to be a more traditional drama, a return from the 2007 Vaudeville-inspired show. In last season's cliffhanger, dozens of the session's biggest bills were tied to the railroad tracks and the House was being held hostage by Tom Craddick, who had replaced the parliamentarian with someone better able to read his script, including his belief that the speaker held "absolute power."

The standoff between Craddick and his own members, who clearly had the numbers to throw him from the stage if he had allowed such a vote, reached a raucous conclusion that practically brought down the House. And not in a good way.

During the off-season, the players decided to bring up the curtain with a rising star who has sat largely in the wings, Republican Joe Straus of San Antonio. Straus is younger, and while he prefers to enter stage right, he has promised to deliver his lines from the center. On the Senate side, the troupe has hardly changed, adding only two new members. With a 19-12 split among the Republican and Democratic actors, the play is expected to continue in a bipartisan vein, avoiding pratfalls and vulgarities. It's the offstage plots and schemes that are always worth the peek, where senators work to devise their best lines -- getting pet projects approved and positioning themselves for the next plum assignment.

Here's a look at the men who will determine whether the reviews for this show are any good.

GOV. RICK PERRY

He began the last session with a school funding migraine. It was mitigated only by signing the biggest business tax in state history to offset property tax reductions. He added to his headache with an idea to sell the lottery to raise money. He also threw in an executive order to require a cervical cancer vaccine for teenage girls, and lawmakers rebelled. Then he tried to defend his highly ambitious and equally unpopular toll road system. It turned into a mixed bag.

This year, he has offered no sweeping proposals. He wants to balance the budget without new taxes. He wants road improvements and more accountability for higher education. He wants to shore up his credentials as the biggest anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, pro-religion, pro-gun governor in Texas history. Not unrelated, he also could be facing off against the popular Sen.