15+ Stage Performances to Watch February 3-4
Wednesday, February 3
Irish Repertory Theatre: Love, Noël
On Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET, this winter, the venerable Irish Rep is presenting encore streams of its entire digital season. Today, catch Love, Noël, a virtual reinvention of its 2019 celebration of playwright, songwriter and sparkling wit Noël Coward. Barry Day devised this two-person tribute featuring seasoned cabaret stars Steve Ross and KT Sullivan singing Coward’s songs, such as “Mad About the Boy,” “Together with Music” and “I’ll Follow My Secret Heart,” and channeling his famous friends, including Gertrude Lawrence, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Elaine Stritch. Tickets are free but required to receive the viewing link; donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor
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 Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, starring Natalie Dessay as the tragic title character, who’s driven mad because she cannot marry the man she loves. Joseph Calleja, Ludovic Tézier and Kwangchul Youn costar in this 2011 production. Watch for free until Friday at 5 p.m. ET on the Metropolitan Opera’s website.
New York Theatre Barn: New Works Series
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, for the past 14 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, catch excerpts from The Lesson, a fantastical reimagining of a 1787 encounter between Beethoven and Mozart; and Nothing to See Here about the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial. Watch for free on New York Theatre Barn’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: Dialogues des Carmélites
On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents a gem from its vaults: John Dexter‘s striking mounting of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, about a young woman (Maria Ewing) who tries to escape the violence of the French Revolution by joining a convent of Carmelite nuns. Jessye Norman, Florence Quivar and Régine Crespin costar in this 1987 mounting. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, La Forza del Destino, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Thursday, February 4
Patrick Page in All the Devils Are Here
On Thursday, Hadestown Tony nominee Patrick Page shows off his mellifluous voice and classical acting training in his solo show All the Devils Are Here, an exploration of Shakespeare’s villains. A medley of scenes and monologues that trace the evolution of the Bard’s baddies, the one-person play was originally presented in 2017. This production was filmed during the shutdown at Washington, DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company on the same stage where Page previously played Prospero, Coriolanus, Iago and Macbeth. Tickets are $25 and the recording is viewable until Wednesday, July 28.
Stratford Festival: Othello
On Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, Ontario’s venerable Stratford Festival presents Othello, the Bard’s bloody tragedy of jealousy and manipulation. Recorded on stage in 2019 for the theatre’s Shakespeare on Film series, the production stars Canadian stage vet Michael Blake as the title general beset by the green-eyed monster. Amelia Sargisson and Gordon S. Miller costar and Nigel Shawn Williams directs. Watch for free until Saturday at 7 a.m. on the fest’s YouTube channel.
Fabulous Fanny: The Songs and Stories of Fanny Brice
On Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, if you only know Fanny Brice as Barbra Streisand’s character in Funny Girl, time to get schooled. Kimberly Faye Greenberg portrays the legendary Jewish singer, comedian and Ziegfeld Follies star in this solo show, which delves into her incredible career and dramatic life. Expect torch songs, old-school shtick and Baby Snooks! (No relation to yours truly.) Tickets are $10.
Irish Repertory Theatre: A Touch of the Poet
On Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, this winter, the venerable Irish Rep is presenting encore streams of its entire digital season. Tonight, catch Eugene O’Neill’s compelling immigrant drama A Touch of the Poet, featuring Tony nominee Robert Cuccioli as Con, an Irish-American inn owner near Boston in 1828, clinging to a gentlemanly past that never was. Ciarán O’Reilly directs a cast that includes Ciaran Byrne, Kate Forbes and Mary McCann. Tickets are free but required to receive the viewing link; donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: La Cenerentola
On Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents La Cenerentola, Rossini’s charming take on the old Cinderella story, which includes mistaken identities on the royal side, too. Elina Garanca stars as the plucky princess-to-be, wooed by Lawrence Brownlee in this 2009 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Dialogues des Carmélites, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Stars in the House: All My Children Game Night
On Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley host a Game Night with actors from All My Children, including the iconic Susan Lucci and Tony nominee Norm Lewis, who did a stint on the soap back in the ’90s. Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
Center Theatre Group: Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue
On Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, California’s lauded Center Theatre Group kicks off its third annual L.A. Writers’ Workshop Festival: New Plays Forged in L.A. with a digital reading of Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue, Kemp Power‘s powerful drama about Black fraternal twins whose lives go in starkly different directions because one presents as white. Kemp’s impressive credits include the recently released movies Soul and One Night in Miami (which was based on his original stage play), so we’re excited to see his latest work. Jennifer Chang directs Giovanni Adams, Jovan Adepo, Amaia Arana, Lorena Martinez, Connor Paolo, Adam J. Smith, Cory Michael Smith, Larry Bates and Justin Lawrence Barnes. Tickets are $10 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, April 4.
Available to Watch Both Days
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company: Hi, Are You Single?
Washington, DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Los Angeles’ IAMA Theatre Company partner on a digital adaptation of Ryan J. Haddad‘s autobiographical comedy Hi, Are You Single? about his adventures as a horny young gay man with cerebral palsy. The show was hit at The Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival in 2017 and helped Haddad land a recurring role on Netflix’s The Politician. Now you can watch his riotous and raunchy breakout almost-solo work, codirected by Laura Savia and Jess McLeod and filmed at Woolly Mammoth during the shutdown. Tickets are $16 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, February 28.
Little Wars
British stage and screen star Juliet Stevenson headlines Little Wars, a play by Steven Carl McCasland about a sextet of real-life sheroes—Lillian Hellman, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and antifascist agent Muriel Gardiner—hobnobbing at a pre-WWII soiree. Stevenson plays Hellman and Sophie Thompson, Linda Bassett, Debbie Chazen, Natasha Karp, Catherine Russell and Sarah Solemani round out the cast. Tickets are $10 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, February 14.
Falling Stars
British stage and screen actors Peter Polycarpou and Sally Ann Triplett conjure the roaring ’20s in Falling Stars, a celebration of the composers, collaborators and music publishers of that effervescent era. Tickets are $10 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, February 14.
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Top image: Patrick Page, who’s starring in the solo show All the Devils Are Here. Photo by Nathan Johnson.
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