What's Streaming? Menopause The Musical and Many Other Shows Are Now Running Online
(courtesy of Menopause The Musical)
With theaters closed around the country, some companies are making their productions available online. Below, you'll find our weekly update of productions, videos, and other theater-related streaming content from across the US and elsewhere. Some streams are free, while others may charge a fee or request a donation. Either way, you're sure to find something to scratch your theater itch. Theaters may be dark, but the shows go on.
This Weekend
* Tickets for a streaming version of the musical comedy Menopause The Musical went on sale May 4 and are available through May 17. To join the virtual sisterhood, click here.
* Lucy DeVito, Tracee Ellis Ross, Carole Kane, Natasha Lyonne, and Rosie O'Donnell star in Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss & What I Wore. The stream of the 2017 production will be available through May 25. To buy $10 tickets, click here.
* Geffen Playhouse has extended The Present, its world premiere live, virtual, and interactive theatrical experience written and performed by master illusionist, storyteller, and Geffen alum Helder Guimarães. The show will now run May 7-July 5. A mystery package will be sent to you inside a USPS Priority Mail box before the show, so you must purchase tickets at least seven days in advance. To purchase tickets, click here.
* Leslie Uggams will star as Madame Arcati in a live reading of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, presented in support of the Actors Fund, on Saturday, May 9 at 2pm ET. Renee Elise Goldsberry, Thom Sesma, Angel Desai, Montego Glover, Kendyl Ito, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and William Jackson Harper join the cast. The recorded performance will stream until 2pm ET on Wednesday, May 13. To watch, click here.
* The 1998 filmed stage version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats will stream live on the Shows Must Go On! YouTube channel beginning Friday, May 15. The free broadcast will launch at 2pm ET and be available for 48 hours. To visit the page, click here.
Upcoming
* Irish Repertory Theatre will stream a virtual performance of Brian Friel's Molly Sweeney on Tuesday, May 12 at 7pm, Wednesday, May 13 at 3pm, Thursday, May 14 at 7pm, and Friday, May 15 at 8pm. To view the performance, click here.
* Bill Irwin and Christopher Fitzgerald will star in the world premiere of Irwin's new 10-minute play In-Zoom, in which two comics convene for a meeting on Zoom and surprise themselves as they look at the pandemic and the virtual way we're living it. The production is presented by San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. A preview performance will be streamed for Globe donors and subscribers on Wednesday, May 13. A recorded version will debut on May 14 at 9:30pm ET and be available through May 16. The stream is free, but donations are welcome. For more information, click here.
* On Thursday, May 14 at 2pm ET, the National Theatre will stream the never-before-seen archive recording of Inua Ellams's smash-hit play Barber Shop Chronicles. The cast includes Fisayo Akinade, Hammed Animashaun, Cyril Nri, and Sule Rimi. The stream will be available for free for one week. Visit the National Theatre's YouTube page here.
* The Orange County School of the Arts Musical Theatre Conservatory will stream its full-length spring musical Now. Here. This. beginning on Thursday, May 14 and running through May 17. To watch, click here.
* St. Ann's Warehouse has partnered with Complicité to host a The Encounter, created and performed by Simon McBurney, from this Friday, May 15 at 2pm ET through Friday, May 22 at 5pm ET. The Encounter will stream for free here.
* Red Bull Theater's free live stream reading of Shakespeare's Coriolanus will be broadcast on Monday, May 18 on 7:30pm ET. This reading will feature the cast of Red Bull's acclaimed 2016 off-Broadway production: Matthew Amendt, Zachary Fine, Rebecca S'Manga Frank, Lisa Harrow, Merritt Janson, Dion Johnstone, Aaron Krohn, Edward O'Blenis, Tony Award nominee Patrick Page, Olivia Reis, and two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Spinella joined by Lily Santiago. To watch on YouTube, click here.
* On Monday, May 18 at 8pm ET, Audra McDonald and John Dickerson will host a live stream of Broadway on Demand's A Night of Covenant House Stars, featuring more than 50 powerhouse performers — including Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Jon Bon Jovi, Rachel Brosnahan, and many more — uniting to sing and share a message of inspiration for young people in support and celebration of the Covenant House. For more information, click here.
* The Actors Fund and People magazine will stream the 2015 benefit concert of Bombshell, the musical within the short-lived television drama Smash on Wednesday, May 20 at 8pm ET on people.com.
* On Thursday, May 21, the 2014 National Theatre Live broadcast of the Young Vic and Joshua Andrews co-production of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire will stream for free. The cast includes Gillian Anderson, Ben Foster, and Vanessa Kirby. The stream will be available for one week. Visit the National Theatre's YouTube page here.
* TriviaMania co-host and Broadway star Ellyn Marie Marsh has teamed up with Patrick Hinds for a brand-new true-crime podcast Obsessed With: Disappeared, which will recap episodes of Investigation Discovery Channel's hit series "Disappeared" in a comedic and witty tone, with perpetrators always the butt of the joke. It will be available May 27.
* A reading of Stephen Adly Guirgis's Our Lady of 121st Street will be presented on Saturday, May 23 at 8pm ET and will be available to stream for 24 hours. Bobby Cannavale, Laurence Fishburne, and more will take part in the reading. The event is free to the public; donations will be accepted throughout the evening. To watch, click here.
Available for a Limited Time
* New York City Ballet has launched a digital season offering content through May 30. For dates and more information, click here.
* Tickets for a streaming version of the musical comedy Menopause The Musical are available through May 17. To join the virtual sisterhood, click here.
* Lucy DeVito, Tracee Ellis Ross, Carole Kane, Natasha Lyonne, and Rosie O'Donnell star in Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron's Love, Loss & What I Wore. The stream of the 2017 production will be available through May 25. To buy $10 tickets, click here.
* The Goodman Theatre is streaming Jocelyn Bioh's School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play through May 31. Tickets are $20. To purchase, click here.
* Geffen Playhouse has extended The Present, its world premiere live, virtual, and interactive theatrical experience written and performed by master illusionist, storyteller, and Geffen alum Helder Guimarães. The show will now run May 7-July 5. A mystery package will be sent to you inside a USPS Priority Mail box before the show, so you must purchase tickets at least seven days in advance. To purchase tickets, click here.
Always Available
* Theater producer and playwright David Lan has a conversation with longtime artistic collaborator Stephen Daldry celebrating Lan's new memoir, As If By Chance: Journeys, Theatres, Lives. The conversation, a part of BAM's ongoing series of digital programs Love from BAM, can be seen here.
* More than 70 cast members from various international productions of Maury Yeston and Peter Stone's musical Titanic have gathered to record a socially distant version of the ballad "We'll Meet Tomorrow." Watch it below:
* Derek Klena performs a contemporary take on "Younger Than Springtime" from South Pacific in the R&H Goes Live! series. Check out that video and the whole series here.
* The Broadway Sings series launches daily performances on its Instagram IGTV account, featuring new arrangements of iconic pop songs.
* Wicked celebrates first responders on the front lines of the public health crisis with a video featuring stars Lindsay Pearce (Elphaba) and Ginna Claire Mason (Glinda) singing the anthem "For Good."
* Composer Charles Strouse, the last surviving writer of the musical Annie, has tried to help bolster optimism by recording a video of himself performing the show's beloved anthem, "Tomorrow."
* From their homes in Ireland, the UK, the United States, Canada, Spain, Australia, Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia, as well as those dancers who have swapped their dancing shoes for scrubs, the Riverdance cast have come together while being apart to say thank you to all frontline and essential workers, as well as the people at home who continue to do their part in the fight against COVID-19.
* Six fans from across the globe joined the cast for a special performance in isolation.
* Abrons Arts Center has made all of its performance documentation public on its Vimeo page, alongside contact and donation information for the artists whose work you are viewing.
* Tony and Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce, star of TV's Frasier and Broadway's Hello, Dolly!, talked to TheaterMania's Senior Features Reporter David Gordon about the theater and favorite moments from past shows. Check out the video interview below:
