15+ Stage Performances to Watch Online This Weekend March 18-20
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, March 18 to Sunday, March 20, for free or at low cost.
Friday, March 18
Saturday, March 19
The Tank: Glass Town: A Rock Requiem
On Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, get ready to bang your head to the Brontë siblings! Songwriter Miriam Pultro’s staged concept album Glass Town: A Rock Requiem, which is currently playing in person at The Tank, is live-streaming this one performance. In this musical fantasy, the tragic 19th-century lit legends become alt-rock icons whose tunes explore the bonds of family and grief. Daniella Caggiano directs. Tickets are $25—be sure to pick the streaming option!
Sunday, March 20
Live from Feinstein’s/54 Below: Love in Springtime: NYC’s Rising Opera Stars
On Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, even though Feinstein’s/54 Below has reopened for in-person performances, the swanky cabaret club continues to stream select concerts live from its stage. Tonight, up-and-coming opera divas celebrate love in this uplifting concert. The performers’ credits include Porgy and Bess at The Metropolitan Opera and Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center Theater, and they’ll be singing a wide selection of beloved music, from show tunes to arias. Tickets are $25. If you prefer to attend in person, click here for info.
Coney Island USA: Puppets Come Home: WORLDWIDE!
On Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, Coney Island USA, haven for the wild, wacky and wonderful, celebrates World Puppetry Day with an adults-only lineup of contemporary, cutting-edge pieces by Cookie Tongue, Puppetomime and other puppet masters. Rated NC-17! Tickets are $10.
ABC: Step Into…the Movies with Derek and Julianne Hough
On Sunday at 10 p.m. ET, in honor of next weekend’s Academy Awards (which feature quite a few movie musical nominees), choreographers and performers Derek Hough and Julianne Hough are recreating iconic cinematic song-and-dance numbers in the one-hour TV special Step Into…the Movies. They’ll be joined by a slew of stage and screen stars, including West Side Story Oscar nominee Ariana DeBose, Amber Riley, John Stamos and Kevin Bacon, for reimagined routines from Singin’ in the Rain, Moulin Rouge, Beauty and the Beast, Chicago, Dirty Dancing, Saturday Night Fever and La La Land. Watch for free on ABC TV or online.
All Weekend
Birmingham Rep: The Play What I Wrote
Marvel baddie and Tony nominee Tom Hiddleston is the special guest star in Birmingham Rep‘s laugh-out-loud mounting of The Play What I Wrote about two performing pals who have different ideas about what belongs on stage. Thom has written an epic set in the French Revolution called A Tight Squeeze for the Scarlet Pimple. Dennis thinks they should do a tribute to a beloved British comedy duo. But first, Dennis needs to persuade someone famous to appear in Thom’s play. Guess who’s the lucky target? Dennis Herdman, Thom Tuck and Mitesh Soni round out the cast of this production, which was recorded last December. Tickets start at £10, approximately $13, and the recording is available until Monday, April 4. Captions and audio description are available.
Olney Theatre Center: A.D. 16
Maryland’s celebrated Olney Theatre Center is currently presenting the new musical comedy A.D. 16, but a recording is also available for at-home audiences. With songs by Schmigadoon! creator Cinco Paul and a book by Bekah Brunstetter, this hilarious and heartwarming show reimagines the relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus as a teenage rom-com. Can she get the son of the carpenter next door to love her back while fending off the mean girls and hipsters? Stephen Brackett (A Strange Loop) directs and Phoenix Best and Newsies‘ Ben Fankhauser portray the star-crossed couple. Tickets are $45 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
LAByrinth Theater Company: Through the Fire
Earlier this year, the lauded LAByrinth Theater Company presented Victor Almanzar‘s hip-hop-infused, autobiographical solo show Through the Fire at 59E59 Theaters, and a recording is streaming through Sunday. Best known for his searing performances in a series of Stephen Adly Guirgis plays (Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, Between Riverside and Crazy), Almanzar shares his powerful life story, starting with a near-death experience and flashing back to his childhood in the Dominican Republic, moving to NYC, getting involved with gangs and drugs, joining the Marines and finally finding his calling in the theatre. Elizabeth Canavan directs. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish and the recording is viewable until Sunday at noon ET.
American Repertory Theater: Ocean Filibuster
Massachusetts’ acclaimed American Repertory Theater is currently presenting the world premiere of Ocean Filibuster, but you can stream a recording of the eye-popping piece at home. Obie winner Jennifer Kidwell stars as both an advocate for and enemy of the ocean, which is being threatened by (who else?) humans. Welcome to the Senate chamber of a global governing body, where Mr. Majority introduces an “End of Ocean Bill” designed to shrink the Earth’s oceans into a more marketable collection of inland seas. When the floor is opened for debate, the Ocean arrives to speak in its own defense. Katie Pearl directs this multimedia, music-and-myth-filled epic, which was created by the Brooklyn-based duo PearlDamour and features music by Sxip Shirey. Tickets start at $25 and the recording is available until Sunday, March 27.
The New Group: i need space
Playwright Donja R. Love, whose drama one in two was a critically acclaimed hit for The New Group, is behind this new digital series called i need space. An eye-opening examination of isolation, loss and loneliness, it centers on a queer Black man named Marcus whose only contact with the world outside his childhood bedroom comes through Zooming. Sound familiar? Expect a real and raw dissection of disconnection. Watch the first six episodes for free on Broadstream.
TheaterWorks Hartford: This Bitter Earth
Last chance! Connecticut’s TheaterWorks Hartford is currently presenting an in-person production of Harrison David Rivers‘ play This Bitter Earth, but select performances are also being live-streamed to at-home audiences. Jesse, an introspective Black playwright is challenged by Neil, his white activist boyfriend about his political apathy. Can love overcome a reckoning of race and class? David Mendizábal directs this two-hander about a couple at a crossroads. Tickets are $20 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
The Huntington: The Bluest Eye
Boston’s The Huntington is currently presenting an in-person theatricalization of Toni Morrison‘s celebrated debut novel The Bluest Eye, but you can also stream a recording of the production online. Adapted for the stage by award-winning dramatist Lydia Diamond, the play centers on Pecola, a young Black girl who believes the world would be wonderful if she could have blue eyes. Awoye Timpo directs. Tickets start at $20 and the recording is viewable until Saturday, April 9.
New Victory Theater: Air Play
Last chance! NYC’s premiere family theatre, the New Victory, recently presented an in-person production of Air Play featuring married clowns the Acrobuffos exploring the power of air in a series of glorious vignettes. Now you can watch this enchanting circus spectacle online. Tickets are $25 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
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Top image: Dennis Herdman, Tom Hiddleston and Thom Tuck in Birmingham Rep’s production of the slapstick comedy The Play What I Wrote, which is streaming all weekend. Photo courtesy of the theatre.
RAVEN SNOOK