16 Performances with Stage Stars to Watch Today, April 17

At noon, Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet shares a recording of Spartacus about the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans. Watch it for free on the dance company’s YouTube channel through noon on Saturday.

At 6:30 p.m. EST, cabaret haven Feinstein’s/54 Below continues its #54BelowatHome series with a recording of Tovah Feldshuh‘s inspirational concert Aging Is Optional, in which the four-time Tony nominee (and erstwhile Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star) recounts her decades-long career on stage and screen. Watch for free on Feinstein’s/54 Below’s YouTube channel. Note: this performance won’t be available after-the-fact so you have one chance to watch.

At 7 p.m. EST, the live-streamed theatre series Play-PerView presents a reading of Jonathan Caren’s Four Woke Baes about a bachelor weekend upending by the unexpected arrival of a liberated woman. The cast includes Evan Cabnet (the artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 series), Nate Corddry, Danny Pudi (NBC’s Community) and Gayle Rankin, who was Ophelia to Oscar Isaac’s Hamlet at The Public Theater in 2017. The performance takes place on the free app Zoom, which you’ll need to download in advance. Tickets start at $5, and proceeds benefit nonprofit troupes Center Theatre Group and IAMA Theatre Company as well as the Los Angeles Mission.

At 7:30 p.m. EST, the Metropolitan Opera shares its 2009 mounting of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, starring Patricia Racette, Marcello Giordani and Dwayne Croft, and conducted by Patrick Summers. 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 on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Le Comte Ory, until 6:30 p.m. today, as well as Carmen.

At 8 p.m. EST, experimental theatre mecca La MaMa presents its weekly Downtown Variety show, featuring brief acts of dance, music, theatre, new media and comedy. Prepare yourself for the unexpected! Watch for free on the theatre’s website.

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.

At 10:30 p.m. EST, you can see two performers in the same room thanks to Seattle-based playwright Danielle Mohlman’s brilliant idea of having her two-hander Nexus played by actors in lockdown together. A dissection of a dysfunctional romance, the drama will star a different pair at every performance. Imagine, a live show in which characters touch and kiss live! Tickets are a suggested $10 per viewer, though a donation of any amount will get you access to the show.

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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RAVEN SNOOK