Swan Lake, Sondheim Reunion With Assassins Cast, and More Streaming This Week
THIS WEEKEND
(image via the Strand Theatre)
Middletown, a new play by Dan Clancy, is currently streaming through April 4. The production stars Didi Conn (Grease), Sandy Duncan (My One and Only), Adrian Zmed (T.J. Hooker), and Don Most (Happy Days). The play is presented as a reading, with the actors standing at four podiums with scripts. Middletown tells the story of two couples, Peg and Tom, and Dotty and Don, as they "endure the roller coaster of life together in this exhilarating and universal depiction of love, life, and friendship." For tickets, click here.
(© Johan Persson)
New York City Center will present a streaming festival of ballets by choreographer Matthew Bourne, running March 5-April 4. Tickets are $15 per production, with a package including the full lineup for $50. The lineup will include Bourne's iconic Swan Lake, available March 5-14; The Car Man, a loose adaptation of Bizet's Carmen, available March 12-21; Cinderella, with a score by Prokofiev, available March 19-28; and Romeo and Juliet, also featuring a score by Prokofiev, available March 26-April 4. Each title will be remain on demand for 10 days. For more information, click here.
NNR – New Normal Rep has announced its inaugural four-play season, featuring works by playwrights Julia Blauvelt, Jack Canfora, Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony-nominated playwright Nilo Cruz, and Obie winner and Pulitzer nominee Nikkole Salter. Jericho, the first play, which streams March 4-April 4, will be directed by four-time Academy Award nominee Marsha Mason and feature Golden Globe and an Obie Award winner and Emmy nominee Jill Eikenberry. For tickets and more information, click here.
Japan Society, in association with PlayCo, presents the virtual production of Ludic Proxy: Fukushima, written and directed by the Brooklyn-based theater-maker Aya Ogawa. Based on her own play Ludic Proxy, it is a virtual reimagining of the original play's second act commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. This online iteration will stream March 6 at 9:30pm ET, March 7 at 4:30pm ET, and March 11 at 8pm ET. For tickets and more information, click here.
Actors from Broadway and London's West End have teamed up for the Shakespeare@ Home, all-free radio play Julius Caesar. Tony-nominated actor Patrick Page (Hadestown) stars in the title role with Jordan Barbour (Broadway's The Inheritance) as Brutus, Sky Lakota Lynch (Dear Evan Hansen) as Lucius, and Keith Hamilton Cobb (American Moor) as Cassius. Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare's best known and most often quoted plays, chronicling the political and moral crisis of Brutus and his fellow conspirators as they plot to murder Caesar to prevent a dictatorship. Part 3 of Julius Caesar will take place on March 8 at 7pm ET. The final episode will premiere on March 15. Tickets are free, and donations are welcome. Find out more here.
(© Martha Swope)
Patrick Cassidy will reunite the original cast and creative team of Assassins to mark the show's 30th anniversary, with a free event taking place on March 8 at 8pm ET. Cassidy and fellow original cast members Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Lyn Greene, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, William Parry, and Lee Wilkof will be joined by writers Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, director Jerry Zaks, musical director Paul Gemignani, and orchestrator Michael Starobin for a conversation about the show's creation, complete with rarely seen clips and images. Read our appraisal of Assassins at 30 here. The Assassins reunion event will be available here.
The Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center has launched Stories of Human Resilience — a groundbreaking video project with Emmy- and Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright, actor, author, journalist, and educator Anna Deavere Smith. Stories of Human Resilience premieres with a story about the escalating challenges facing frontline healthcare workers in New York City in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic (above, you can watch the first episode, "Facing the Frontline: Healthcare Workers in the Early Days of the Pandemic"). In April, Smith will present a story about the extraordinary life of Tony Award-winning actor LaChanze. And in May, Smith will focus on the migration crisis through stories of migrants in Latin America. For future episodes of Stories of Human Resilience, you can subscribe to Atlantic Council's YouTube channel here.
ON THE HORIZON
(© David Gordon)
Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain will stream on demand March 11-21, and feature original stars Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery, and Bradley Whitford. Evan Yionoulis directs the Manhattan Theatre Club presentation. For tickets and more information, click here.
In celebration of International Women's Day, Disney on Broadway has announced free registration, programming, and participants for the 4th annual Women's Day on Broadway virtual event on March 12 at 1pm ET. All gender identities and expressions are welcome. To learn more about the event's programming and to register for free, click here.
10×10 is back to shake those winter blues away, from the comfort of your own home! Filmed live on Barrington Stage Company's Boyd-Quinson Stage, this year's selection of ten 10-minute plays is sure to delight. For tickets and more information, click here.
In the tradition of the "one man composer shows" adding operatic voices when called for, Puccini — Live From Florence, starring Hershey Felder, will take place on March 14 at 8pm ET. The show tells the story of the great composer's deliciously scandalous life, his female characters, and how the real women in his life affected the women he created onstage. Filmed live on location in the places where these events and these compositions and premieres actually took place, Puccini will include music from La Bohème, Tosca, Turandot, and more. Purchase includes the live stream and a week of ON DEMAND viewing access to the recording of the live stream (through 3/21). For tickets and more information, click here.
Irish Repertory Theatre will stream The Aran Islands: A Performance on Screen March 16-28. The play by J.M. Synge is a haunting and visceral experience built around "a hypnotic performance" by Brendan Conroy, one of Ireland's finest actors, as he captures the spirit of Synge in Joe O'Bryne's theatrical adaptation. Tickets are free, but donations are welcome. For tickets and more information, click here.
(images provided by the production)
A starry cast headed by Fionn Whitehead will perform a contemporary adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, streaming March 16-31. Whitehead will take on the title role, alongside Alfred Enoch as Harry Wotton, Joanna Lumley as Lady Narborough, Emma McDonald as Sibyl Vane, Russell Tovey as Basil Hallward, and Stephen Fry as the Interviewer. The play is written by Henry Filloux-Bennett and directed by Tamara Harvey. For tickets and more information, click here.
(© Tricia Baron)
Maulik Pancholy will star in George Street Playhouse's streaming production of Becky Mode's solo show Fully Committed, available March 23-April 11. Fully Committed is based on characters created by Mode and original star Mark Setlock. Pancholy will play more than 40 characters in the work, which follows a day in the life of Sam, a reservation-line receptionist at one of New York's trendiest restaurants. For tickets and more information, click here.
(© Tristan Fuge/David Gordon/Tricia Baron)
The second season of the Spotlight on Plays reading series will begin streaming on March 25. The lineup of plays includes The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse (March 25); Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous by Pearl Cleage (April 9); Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman; Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy; Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl; The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel; and The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein. Actors scheduled to take part include Debbie Allen, Ellen Burstyn, Bobby Cannavale, Kathryn Hahn, Kevin Kline, Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, Keanu Reeves, Heidi Schreck, Alia Shawkat, Heather Alicia Simms, and Alicia Stith. For tickets and more information, click here.
Maestra Music will hold its first annual concert event on March 29 at 8 pm, with an interactive pre-show beginning at 7 pm. Directed by Kate Baldwin and produced by Baldwin, Georgia Stitt, and Laura Ivey, Amplify 2021 is hosted by Brooks Ashmanskas and Andréa Burns. This eclectic concert will feature stories, conversations and musical performances from Ashley Park, Nikki M. James, Brandon Victor Dixon, Tanya Birl, Kenita Miller, Shelley Thomas, Eva Noblezada, and Reeve Carney, along with appearances from Anais Mitchell, Kirsten Childs, Helen Park, Rona Siddiqui, Britt Bonney, Kristy Norter, Dionne McClain-Freeney, Meg Zervoulis, Kat Sherrell, Nicole Rebolledo, Maestra founder Georgia Stitt, and a special appearance by Bernadette Peters'''. For tickets and more information, click here.
(© David Gordon)
American Conservatory Theatre has announced casting for its upcoming filmed reading of Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind, directed by Awoye Timpo and streaming on demand March 29-April 4. The company will be led by Patrice Johnson Chevannes, alongside David Harbour as Al Manners, Lauren Spencer as Millie Davis, Anthony Fusco as Bill O'Wray, Kadeem Ali Harris as John Nevins, Dakin Matthews as Henry, Steven Anthony Jones as Sheldon Forrester, Eliza Kaye as Judy Sears, and Johnny Rice as Eddie Fenton. Childress's masterpiece would have been the first play by a Black woman produced on Broadway if she had agreed to the producers' demands that she soften its message. For tickets and more information, click here.
(© Tricia Baron/David Gordon)
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has announced casting for its 2021 Broadway Backwards benefit, streaming for free March 30-April 3. In this virtual production, Jay Armstrong Johnson will star as an isolated New Yorker who dreams a fantastical journey guided by a late-night television host, portrayed by Jenn Colella. This year's streaming event also includes a special opening number featuring Stephanie J. Block, Deborah Cox, and Lea Salonga, plus performances and appearances by Matt Bomer, Darren Criss, Ariana DeBose, Robin De Jesús, Cynthia Erivo, Joshua Henry, Cherry Jones, Kelli O'Hara, and Jim Parsons. More of this year's special guests will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, click here.
CURRENTLY RUNNING
Jim Henson's The Muppet Show is airing on Disney Plus. The variety show, which introduced the world to characters like Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, and more, feature weekly guests culled from the world of Hollywood and Broadway. You can sign up for Disney Plus here.
(© Disney)
The much-loved 1997 Wonderful World of Disney presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring Brandy and Whitney Houston is now on Disney Plus. Cinderella stars Brandy in the title role and Houston as her Fairy Godmother, alongside Whoopie Goldberg as Queen Constantina, Bernadette Peters as the evil Stepmother, Paolo Montalbán as Prince Christopher, Victor Garber as King Maximillian, Jason Alexander as Lionel, Natalie Desselle as Minerva, and Veanne Cox as Calliope. To watch, sign up for Disney Plus here.
MasterVoices is presenting a new digital film series inspired by Adam Guettel's song cycle Myths and Hymns. Conceived by artistic director Ted Sperling, Myths and Hymns is divided into four chapters. The first edition of the digital series, titled "Flight," premieres January 13 at 6:30pm ET on the MasterVoices YouTube channel and will be available through June 30. It will include the songs "Prometheus," performed by Anderson & Roe; "Saturn Returns: The Flight," performed by Joshua Henry; "Icarus," performed by Mykal Kilgore and Norm Lewis; "Migratory V," performed by Julia Bullock, Renée Fleming, and Kelli O'Hara; "Pegasus," performed by Jose Llana, Capathia Jenkins, and Elizabeth Stanley; and "Jesus, the Mighty Conqueror," performed by Take 6. Watch the video above.
The Al Hirschfeld Foundation celebrates Black History Month with its latest online exhibition, Amplified Dignity: Black Dancers Drawn by Hirschfeld. The exhibition, which will be available though March 13, features Hirschfeld's reflections of legendary 20th-century artists including Sammy Davis Jr., Josephine Baker, Nicholas Brothers, Bunny Briggs, Judith Jamison, Hinton Battle, Maurice Hines, and Honi Coles. To view the collection, click here.
Shakespeare Theatre Company is streaming Tony nominee Patrick Page's All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain through July 28. Page explores how Shakespeare created the treacherous characters we all love to hate. Read our interview with the Hadestown star here, and watch the show's trailer above. For tickets and more information, click here.
