14 Stage Performances to Watch November 4-5
Wednesday, November 4
The Metropolitan Opera: Cendrillon
On Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, ever since the shutdown began, the Metropolitan Opera has been sharing productions from its Live in HD series nightly at 7:30 p.m. ET. But it also presents weekly student streams that debut on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. ET. These productions have been specially selected for families, and Zoom education sessions leading up to the screening teach school-age kids about opera. This week’s offering is Cendrillon, Jules Massenet and Henri Caïn’s turn-of-the-20th-century take on the old Cinderella story, featuring internationally revered mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role and Alice Coote as her prince. Kathleen Kim, Stephanie Blythe and Laurent Naouri costar in this 2018 mounting. Watch for free until Friday at 5 p.m. ET on the Metropolitan Opera’s website.
Joe’s Pub: Toshi Reagon’s Post-Election Concert
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, regardless of who ultimately wins the presidential election, our nation is clearly in need of healing. Singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon, whose socially conscious songs fuse folk, blues and rock, wants to jump-start that process. Joe’s Pub presents this live concert, as Reagon and her diverse all-women band come together to make beautiful and uplifting music. Watch for free on Joe’s Pub’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
New York Theatre Barn: New Works Series
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, for the past 13 years, New York Theatre Barn has showcased musicals in progress in its New Works Series. That initiative has now gone virtual, with 40-minute peeks at two new projects a week. Tonight, Amanda Robles and West Side Story‘s Shereen Pimentel perform excerpts from Nevada Lozano‘s Ramona, a musical adaptation of Helen Hunt Jackson’s 19th-century novel about a multicultural orphan girl on a journey of self-discovery across the US. Meanwhile, Douglas Waterbury-Tieman‘s Johnny and the Devil’s Box is a countryfied take on the old fiddling Satan story. Watch for free on New York Theatre Barn’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: Idomeneo
On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Idomeneo, an early Mozart work featuring Matthew Polenzani as the King of Crete, who’s faced with an impossible dilemma. Elza van den Heever, Nadine Sierra, Alice Coote and Alan Opie costar in Jean Pierre-Ponnelle‘s 2017 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Orfeo ed Euridice, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Thursday, November 5
The Metropolitan Opera: Semiramide
On Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Rossini’s rarely performed Semiramide, set in ancient Babylon as the title Queen (Angela Meade) discovers the warrior she’s wooing (Elizabeth DeShong) may be her long-lost son. Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov and Ryan Speedo Green costar in this 2018 mounting. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Idomeneo, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Available to Watch Both Days
The Shed: November
Claudia Rankine‘s buzzy play Help had just started previews at The Shed when the shutdown hit. Now the playwright and performance venue have transformed the piece into a short film titled November, which was shot during quarantine. Real-life exchanges Rankine had with white men in public spaces are reenacted by five Black women, Zora Howard, Tiffany Rachelle Stewart, Crystal Dickinson, April Matthis and Melanie Nicholls-King, examining how privilege impacts the way one navigates the world. A fusion of stage and cinema, November was filmed at The Shed, with Taibi Magar directing the actors on stage and Phillip Youmans behind the camera. Register to receive the free viewing link; the recording is viewable until Saturday.
Incidental Moments of the Day: The Apple Family: Life on Zoom
It’s your last chance to catch Richard Nelson‘s Incidental Moments of the Day, the final installment of his of-the-moment Zoom trilogy centered on his fictional Apple family. From 2010 to 2013, Nelson mounted one hyper-realistic play a year about this Rhinebeck, New York clan as they grappled with national milestones such as the 10th anniversary of September 11, the 2012 reelection of Barack Obama and the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. This past April, as the COVID-19 pandemic peaked in New York, the Apples reunited for What Do We Need to Talk About?, a Zoom call in quarantine, followed by And So We Come Forth in July. Once again, the four siblings and one boyfriend, played by the cast of the original tetralogy—Tony winner Maryann Plunkett, Sally Murphy, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders and Stephen Kunken—assuage their isolation via technology as they discuss how they’re faring. Watch for free until Thursday on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
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Top image: Joyce DiDonato in the title role of Cendrillon. Photo by Ken Howard, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera..
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