16 Performances with Stage Stars to Watch Today, April 16
At 4 p.m. EST, catch Peter Michael Marino’s Show Up, Kids!, a live-streamed interactive family romp aimed at stir-crazy youngins. The solo artist has been performing this comedy for years in cities around the globe, and he’s spent weeks figuring out how it will work online. The show can’t go on without the kids, since they help determine everything from the story to the set design. Tickets are available online but TDF members get a discount.
At 5 p.m. EST, groundbreaking trans artist and activist Justin Vivian Bond shares their wit, wisdom and singular song stylings in their weekly “live-screamed” show Auntie Glam’s Happy Hour. It’s sure to be an entertaining and insightful time. Watch on their website for free, though tips are encouraged.
At 6 p.m. EST, Classic Stage Company kicks off Classic Conversations with a chat between artistic director John Doyle and three-time Tony nominee Brandon Uranowitz, who was set to star in the theatre’s highly anticipated revival of Assassins, which has been indefinitely postponed. While this is billed as an interview series, the theatre promises “occasional” singing, and we’re hoping they’ll up that to frequent. Watch on Classic Stage Company’s Facebook page. Assassins bonus: Watch Uranowitz’s costar Ethan Slater croon “The Ballad of Czolgosz” with fellow cast members. It gives you a tantalizing taste of what could have been—and hopefully one day will be.
At 7:30 p.m. EST, the Metropolitan Opera shares its 2011 mounting of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory, starring Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez, and conducted by Maurizio Benini. The production was filmed for the company’s Live in HD series, and is available to watch for free for 23 hours after the start time at on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, La Rondine, until 6:30 p.m. today, as well as Carmen.
At 8 p.m. EST, one of the most acclaimed regional theatres in the country, the Actors Theatre of Louisville, shares a recording of Where the Mountain Meets the Sea by lauded playwright Jeff Augustin (Little Children Dream of God at Roundabout Theatre Company, The New Englanders at Manhattan Theatre Club) with songs by The Bengsons (Hundred Days). An exploration of the complicated relationship between a Haitian immigrant and his American-born son, the show was commissioned by the theatre for its Humana Festival of New American Plays. Tickets are available to purchase from the theatre but TDF members get a discount.
At 8 p.m. EST, Actors Theatre of Louisville shares a recording of Are You There?, a trio of new short works about socializing in the digital age that were commissioned for its annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. Tickets are available to purchase from the theatre but TDF members get a discount.
A few weeks ago Dave Malloy, the Tony-nominated creator of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, posted a full-length recording of the 2015 mounting of his musical Ghost Quartet on YouTube. Now he’s sharing another one from his archives, the original 2011 Shotgun Players production of Beardo, which he describes as “a surreal retelling of the Rasputin myth.” Clearly Russia is his muse. Watch it for free on Vimeo.
London’s Hampstead Theatre continues its #HampsteadTheatreAtHome series with a recording of its 2013 production of Drawing the Line, Harold Brenton’s historical epic about the behind-the-scenes drama leading to the world-changing Partition of India in 1947. Watch it for free anytime on the company’s website through Sunday, April 19.
Remember to check out our roundup of performances you can watch online anytime.
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Top image: Josh Groban.
RAVEN SNOOK