15+ Stage Performances to Watch Online This Memorial Day Weekend May 27-30
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 Memorial Day weekend, Friday, May 27 to Monday, May 30, for free or at low cost.
Friday, May 27
PBS Great Performances: Keeping Company with Sondheim
On Friday at 9 p.m. ET, 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 on TV on PBS Thirteen or on the website. The recording is viewable online until Friday, June 24.
Sunday, May 29
Monday, May 30
All Weekend
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.
Classical Theatre of Harlem: Antigone
Last chance! Classical Theatre of Harlem presents a politically charged, Afropunk-styled staging of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, which was filmed in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park in 2018. Set in a dystopian future, the play opens with the death of two warring brothers. The new king proclaims one a hero and the other a usurper, leaving his limp body lying in the street as an example to those who dare act against the state. But the sister of the slain young men decides to stand up to tyranny. Carl Cofield directs this powerful reinvention of a classic that evokes the Black Lives Matter movement. Watch for free until Sunday on the company’s website.
Red Bull Theater: Mac Beth
Last chance! Writer-director Erica Schmidt’s radical, all-female reinvention of Shakespeare’s Macbeth , and now you can watch a recording courtesy of Red Bull Theater. Portraying high schoolers who are putting on the Bard’s bloody tragedy for their own amusement, Sharlene Cruz, Isabelle Fuhrman, Sophie Kelly-Hedrick, Ismenia Mendes, AnnaSophia Robb, Lily Santiago and Ayana Workman are fierce, funny and frightening. Be warned: this take is giggly, gruesome and unforgettable. Tickets are $25 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
Roe v. Wade 2.0
Earlier this 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 as early as next month. 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.
The Show Must Go On
The documentary The Show Must Go On chronicling the herculean efforts to save theatre during the pandemic comes to Apple TV+. The brainchild of celebrated theatre director Sammi Cannold and Emmy- and Tony-winning filmmaker and producer Dori Berinstein, the film focuses on artists involved in two stage productions, the international tour of The Phantom of The Opera and the South Korean tour of Cats, which went on in 2020 and inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s COVID-19 safety protocols for UK theatre. Apple TV+ subscribers can watch for free or you can rent it for $5.
All Arts: Lea Salonga in Concert
All Arts is streaming Lea Salonga‘s epic 2019 concert recorded live at the Sydney Opera House. Backed by a lavish orchestra, the Tony winner belts out numbers from her three-decade career, including “On My Own” from Les Misérables, “Why, God, Why?” from Miss Saigon and “A Whole New World” from Disney’s animated movie Aladdin. Watch for free on All Arts’ website.
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.
Ma-Yi Theater Company: Vancouver
Last chance! The innovative Ma-Yi Theater Company presents Vancouver, a timely new play written and directed by the troupe’s producing artistic director, Ralph B. Peña. Centering on a mixed race family portrayed by breathtaking puppets, the one-act examines their move from Japan to the Pacific Northwest as they search for a place that feels like a welcoming home. Watch for free until Tuesday, May 31 on Ma-Yi’s website.
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RAVEN SNOOK