16 Stage Performances to Watch Today, July 14
OSL: Bach at Home 2020
At noon ET, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s wraps up its month-long celebration of Bach today. The final lineup includes a world-premiere dance piece choreographed by Doug Varone set to the sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 5, a performance by the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s string players and a series of brand-new compositions inspired by the Baroque great. Watch for free on OSL’s website.
The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues
At 7 p.m. ET, theatre artists from COVID-19 hot spot Arizona created the latest edition of The Viral Monologues, a six-hour series of solos about how we’re living today. Every 15 minutes from 6 p.m. until midnight, actors from the Arizona Theatre Company, Borderlands Theater, The Rogue Theatre, Teatro Bravo!, United Colours of Arizona Theatre and other companies in the Grand Canyon State will perform tailor-made monologues by local dramatists, all penned and filmed within the last 24 hours. Watch for free on The 24 Hour Plays’ Instagram though donations are encouraged.
Nocturne
At 7:15 p.m. ET, Out of the Box Theatrics presents a live performance of Nocturne, an early drama by Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Rapp about an aspiring writer who’s haunted by the death of his younger sister. Ethan Paulini stars in this searing solo show. Tickets are available to purchase from the theatre but TDF members get a discount.
The Metropolitan Opera: La Traviata
At 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera shares a gem from its vaults: its 1981 mounting of La Traviata, Verdi’s romantic tragedy about a courtesan whose chance at true love is thwarted by bourgeois mores. This production stars Ileana Cotrubas, Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil, and James Levine conducts. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Manon Lescaut, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Night of a Thousand Judys
At 8 p.m. ET, Judy, Judy, Judy…Garland that is. This concert celebrates the life and career of the legendary singer-actress, who was born in a trunk in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and traveled over the rainbow to become a musical movie icon. Writer, performer and raconteur Justin Sayre presides over an online edition of this annual favorite, and the lineup of crooners includes Tony winners Lena Hall and Alice Ripley, Adam Pascal from Rent, Ann Harada from Avenue Q, Fun Home‘s Beth Malone, Hadestown‘s Eva Noblezada and George Salazar from Be More Chill. Watch for free online though donations to The Ali Forney Center are encouraged.
Nuyorican Poets Cafe: The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda
At 8 p.m. ET, the East Village’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe presents a recording of its provacative 2019 production The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ishmael Reed‘s Christmas Carol-style examination of what the Hamilton creator left out of his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical. Ever since Hamilton debuted on Disney+ earlier this month, it’s reignited heated conversations about the show’s blind spots, especially the Founding Fathers’ slaveholding and mistreatment of Indigenous people. Watch the play for free on the Nuyorican Poets Cafe’s Facebook page.
The Kilroys List 2020 Celebration
At 8 p.m. ET, since 2013, an impressive group of playwrights, directors and producers has been tackling the theatre industry’s gender parity problem by releasing an annual list of the best under-produced shows by women, trans and nonbinary writers. This year, the focus has pivoted to shows by women, trans and nonbinary writers that closed early or were canceled due to the pandemic. Tonight, the team honors these plays with live performances of excerpts from some of the scripts, which will hopefully see the stage one day. Watch for free on Zoom though donations are encouraged.
The Public Theater: Richard II
At 8 p.m. ET, although The Public Theater had to cancel its free Shakespeare in the Park summer season, the invaluable institution is still giving audiences quality no-cost drama with its radio production of Richard II. A collaboration with WNYC, this four-part audio play is directed by Saheem Ali, who was scheduled to mount the tragedy at the Delacorte Theater before the pandemic hit. André Holland from Moonlight stars as the inept king, and the supporting cast includes Oscar winner Estelle Parsons, Tony winner Phylicia Rashad, and Tony nominees John Douglas Thompson and Stephen McKinley Henderson. Part II airs tonight for free on WNYC.
Dixon Place: HOT! Festival
Downtown staple Dixon Place brings its 29th annual queer culture fest online with four weeks of theatre, dance, music, readings and comedy. Tonight you can stream:
- At 7 p.m. ET, queer poet and performer Patrick Roche‘s autobiographical solo show A Socially Acceptable Breakdown, a no-holds-barred exploration of his mental health journey. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available to purchase from the theatre.
- At 8:30 p.m. ET, Experiments & Disorders featuring readings by writers Sur Rodney (Sur) and Bishakh Som. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available to purchase from the theatre.
Available to Watch All Day
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel
Lincoln Center shares a recording of the New York Philharmonic‘s 2013 concert staging of Carousel, starring Tony winner Kelli O’Hara as Julie Jordan and opera star Nathan Gunn as Billy Bigelow. The supporting cast is just as impressive, with Tony winner Shuler Hensley as the villainous Jigger, Tony winner Jessie Mueller (a future Julie Jordan) as Carrie Pipperidge opposite Jason Danieley‘s Enoch Snow, Kate Burton as Mrs. Mullin, Tony winner John Cullum (a former Billy Bigelow) as the Starkeeper and Dr. Seldon, and New York City Ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck in the Act II dream ballet. Watch for free until Tuesday, September 8 on Lincoln Center’s YouTube channel.
National Theatre: The Deep Blue Sea
London’s National Theatre presents its 2016 production of The Deep Blue Sea, Terence Rattigan’s devastating portrait of a woman unraveling in 1952 London. Olivier nominee Helen McCrory, known for playing Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, stars as Hester Collyer, whose passionate love affair ruins her marriage and her will to live. Watch for free until Thursday, July 16 at 2 p.m. ET on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel.
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Top image: Michael R. Jackson. Photo by Zack DeZon.
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