15 Stage Performances to Watch Online This Weekend June 3-5
While in-person theatre is back in NYC, there are still wonderful shows to stream at home. Below are performances you can watch online this weekend, Friday, June 3 to Sunday, June 5, for free or at low cost.
Friday, June 3
Ars Nova ANT Fest: Something’s in the Water at Abortion Beach!
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, Ars Nova‘s annual ANT Fest showcases exciting emerging artists (remember, this is where Lin-Manuel Miranda started!). This year’s edition takes place in person at Ars Nova’s Midtown theatre, but you can also live-stream the performances online. Tonight, catch Scottie Harvey‘s Something’s in the Water at Abortion Beach! about a song from a poorly aged anti-abortion beach musical that prompts a beatnik to do some soul searching. Tickets are $10 for streaming, $15 for in person.
PBS: American Masters: Joe Papp in Five Acts
On Friday at 9 p.m. ET, American Masters profiles the inimitable Joseph Papp, founder of The Public Theater and Free Shakespeare in the Park. A champion of bringing the performing arts to everyone who produced groundbreaking shows such as Hair, A Chorus Line and for colored girls…, Papp was a cultural change agent for half a century. This 90-minute documentary features rare footage of the man and the artists he loved, as well as interviews with James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Larry Kramer, Mandy Patinkin, Martin Sheen, Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken and George C. Wolfe. Watch for free on TV on PBS Thirteen or on the website until Saturday, July 2.
Saturday, June 4
Ars Nova ANT Fest: Black and Blue
On Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, Ars Nova‘s annual ANT Fest showcases cutting-edge exciting artists (remember, this is where Lin-Manuel Miranda started!). This year’s edition takes place in person at Ars Nova’s Midtown theatre, but you can also live-stream the performances online. Tonight, catch Black and Blue, Reynaldo Pinella‘s autobiographical solo show about a Black boy who learns how to stop hiding his vulnerability and trauma. Kevin R. Free directs. Tickets are $10 for streaming, $15 for in person.
Sunday, June 5
The Green Room 42: Reeve Carney
On Sunday at 9:30 p.m. ET, lauded cabaret club The Green Room 42 is now streaming many of its in-person performances to at-home audiences. Tonight, Hadestown star Reeve Carney continues his residency with an intimate concert featuring numbers from his stage career as well as original songs from his solo album Youth Is Wasted. Tickets are $19. If you prefer to attend in person, click here for info.
All Weekend
TheaterWorks Hartford: Zoey’s Perfect Wedding
Connecticut’s TheaterWorks Hartford is currently presenting an in-person production of Zoey’s Perfect Wedding, but you can also watch a recording at home. A new comedy from Tony-winning playwright Matthew López (The Inheritance, The Legend of Georgia McBride), this 90-minute romp chronicles disaster after disaster at the worst wedding ever. The theatre’s artistic director, Rob Ruggiero, helms this play about love, relationships and expectations. Tickets are $20 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
PBS Great Performances: Keeping Company with Sondheim
PBS Great Performances presents Keeping Company with Sondheim, a new documentary about director Marianne Elliott‘s gender-swapped revival of Company, which is nominated for nine 2022 Tony Awards. Filmed over two years, the doc features rehearsal and performance footage from pre- and post-(fingers crossed!) pandemic, plus interviews with Elliott, the late, great Stephen Sondheim, stars Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone, and members of the musical’s original 1970 cast. Watch for free until Friday, June 24 on PBS’ website.
PBS Great Performances: Sutton Foster in Anything Goes
PBS Great Performances presents Sutton Foster in P.G. Wodehouse and Cole Porter’s effervescent musical comedy Anything Goes, which was recorded live on stage in London last year. After winning a 2011 Tony Award for her brassy performance as nightclub singer Reno Sweeney in director-choreographer Kathleen Marshall‘s critically acclaimed revival of this classic, Foster reprised her role on the West End opposite Tony winner Robert Lindsay, Felicity Kendal and Gary Wilmot. Marshall again oversaw this zany tale of romance and intrigue aboard the high seas featuring iconic songs including “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top” and the title tune. Watch for free until Friday, June 10 on PBS’s website.
Roe v. Wade 2.0
Last month, Margaret Vandenburg presented a reading of her “theatrical rallying cry” Roe v. Wade 2.0, and you can watch a recording through June. A satire about women’s reproductive rights (or lack thereof), the play dramatizes the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization oral arguments from December 2021 that may be used to overturn Roe v. Wade. Carrie Preston (True Blood), Joel de la Fuente (The Man in the High Castle) and Florencia Lozano (One Life to Live) lead the cast. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish and the recording is viewable until Friday, July 1.
All Arts: King Lear Starring James Earl Jones
Here’s a gem from the vaults: All Arts is streaming a 1974 mounting of King Lear headlined by James Earl Jones! Filmed live on stage at the Delacorte Theater for the New York Shakespeare Festival (now known as Shakespeare in the Park), the production also features Raul Julia, Rosalind Cash and Paul Sorvino. A great way to get psyched for the upcoming Shakespeare in the Park season! Watch for free on All Arts’ website.
—
Top image: Joe Papp (on the left), the founder of The Public Theater, is the subject of American Masters: Joe Papp in Five Acts, which streams all weekend. Photo by George Joseph.
RAVEN SNOOK