16 Stage Performances to Watch Today, July 20
Dixon Place: HOT! Festival
Downtown staple Dixon Place brings its 29th annual queer culture fest online with a month of theatre, dance, music, readings and comedy. Week three kicks off with:
- At 6:30 p.m. ET, They & High-Flying by writer, performer, filmmaker and university professor Jeff McMahon and some of his students. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available to purchase from the theatre.
- At 7 p.m. ET, Tadeusz von Moltke and Alexander Zuccaro‘s play Stop When You’re Done 20/21, a conversation between Black Panthers in 1970 and today’s Black Lives Matter protestors. Pay-what-you-can tickets are available to purchase from the theatre.
Theater for the New City: Charles Busch’s Visitors in the Dark
At 7 p.m. ET, East Village mainstay Theater for the New City presents Visitors in the Dark, a brand-new comedy by Tony-nominated playwright, drag icon and old Hollywood buff Charles Busch. A mash-up of classic melodrama and retro sci-fi, the play centers on four ladies in a Greenwich Village tenement bonding on the night of the 1965 blackout. Busch stars alongside Julie Halston, Becky London and Ruth Williamson, and his longtime collaborator Carl Andress directs. A must for old movie lovers! His references are sure to have you in stitches. Watch for free on Theater for the New City’s website though donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
At 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera shares Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini’s comic masterpiece about Figaro, a resourceful barber who helps a couple out of a hairy situation. Tony winner Bartlett Sher directed this 2014 mounting, which stars Christopher Maltman as the title character and Isabel Leonard and Lawrence Brownlee as the young lovers. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, La Bohème, until 6:30 p.m. today.
Bindlestiff Open Stage: Quarantine Edition
At 7:30 p.m. ET, run away with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus at the troupe’s weekly live-streamed variety show, hosted by adorkable ringmaster Keith Nelson. This evening’s cavalcade includes comedy sideshow performer and America’s Got Talent contestant Coney Island Chris, magician Jeff Moche, handbalancer and cyr wheel artist Joel Herzfeld, aerialist Maddy Gatrel and juggler Eries el Malabarista. Watch for free on Bindlestiff’s Facebook page though donations are encouraged.
Stars in the House: Andréa Burns
At 8 p.m. ET, On Your Feet! diva Andréa Burns guest hosts Stars in the House and she’s bringing her In the Heights and On Your Feet! co-star Luis Salgado with her. Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party
At 8 p.m. ET, cabaret maven Jim Caruso welcomes renowned singers and up-and-comers at Pajama Cast Party, a live-streamed version of his popular weekly Cast Party gatherings that have taken place at Birdland for years. Tonight’s lineup includes She Loves Me Tony nominee Sally Mayes, original Queer Eye star and musical theatre vet Jai Rodriguez, Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Monty Alexander and Soul Train Award-winning crooner Nicole Henry. Watch for free on YouTube though tips via the Venmo app are appreciated.
Available to Watch All Day
The Transport Group: Broadbend, Arkansas
Stalwart NYC theatre company The Transport Group presents Broadbend, Arkansas, a two-person musical about a Black father and daughter grappling with the personal impact of racial oppression three decades apart, first in the ’60s, then in the ’80s. The show had its but its themes feel even more urgent in the current moment. Reserve your free ticket to receive the viewing link; donations to the Black Theatre Network are encouraged. The recording is available until August 16.
Graeae Theatre Company: Reasons to Be Cheerful
Back in the ’70s and ’80s, Ian Dury became one of the first rockers with a disability to break through to mainstream success with his New Wave band The Blockheads. In 2017, London’s Graeae Theatre Company, which showcases artists with disabilities, produced a gleefully raucous musical about his life, Reasons to Be Cheerful, filled with songs from his career, including his in-your-face anthem “Spasticus Autisticus.” Watch for free until Monday, August 3 on Graeae Theatre Company’s YouTube channel. There’s also an audio-described version.
National Theatre: Amadeus
London’s National Theatre presents Amadeus, Peter Shaffer’s award-winning play about the rivalry between 18th composers Salieri and Mozart. Michael Longhurst directed this critically acclaimed production, which was filmed in 2017 and features live orchestral accompaniment by Southbank Sinfonia. Lucian Msamati portrays the more successful in life Salieri, who’s tortured by the knowledge that the louche Mozart (Adam Gillen) is the true genius who will be remembered. Watch for free until Thursday at 2 p.m. ET on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel. There’s also an audio-described version.
Stratford Festival: The Taming of the Shrew
Ontario’s venerable Stratford Festival continues its Shakespeare on Film series with the Bard’s admittedly problematic battle of the sexes Taming of the Shrew, starring real-life husband and wife Ben Carlson and Deborah Hay. Watch for free until Thursday, August 6 on the fest’s YouTube channel.
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Norm Lewis.
RAVEN SNOOK