24 Stage Performances to Watch December 7-8
Monday, December 7
JoyceStream
On Monday at 5 p.m. ET, Chelsea dance haven The Joyce Theater continues its virtual season with five eclectic recordings available for four weeks: STREB‘s Massive Rotations; a program of short works by the Native American troupe Indigenous Enterprise; excerpts from Vanessa Sanchez & La Mezcla‘s tap piece Pachuquísmo; fabulous drag dance troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in Paquita; and a triple bill from Rennie Harris Puremovement, Soul Maggot, A Day in the Life and Black Promises. Watch for free until Sunday, January 3, 2021 on The Joyce’s website.
92nd Street Y: Lyrics & Lyricists: Jule Styne and His Many Lyricists: Distant Memory
On Monday at 7 p.m. ET, the 92nd Street Y‘s popular Lyrics & Lyricists concert series continues with a program dedicated to the prolific Jule Styne, who wrote more than 1.500 songs with dozens of lyricists. Gypsy, Funny Girl and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes are just a few of the musicals he created with collaborators such as Stephen Sondheim, Bob Merrill and Leo Robin. Musical theatre vets Farah Alvin, Allison Blackwell, Nikki Renée Daniels, Jeff Kready, Julia Murney, Zachary Noah Piser, Zachary Prince, Pearl Sun and Mariand Torres croon a wide array of his tunes. Tickets are $15 and the recording remains available through Thursday, December 31.
Working Theater: To the Bone
On Monday at 7 p.m. ET, Working Theater, which mounts shows for, about and with working people, presents a benefit reading of Lisa Ramirez‘s harrowing To the Bone, inspired by interviews with immigrant employees in upstate New York poultry processing plants. This event reunites the cast of the play’s 2014 Cherry Lane Theatre production, and is hosted by playwright and activist V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), organizer Rosa Clemente and author Maria Hinojosa. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish and proceeds go to the Rural & Migrant Ministry, an organization serving migrant farm workers in Sullivan County. Spanish translation available.
The Metropolitan Opera: The Tempest
On Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Robert Lepage‘s 2012 mounting of The Tempest, Thomas Adès’ take on Shakespeare’s stormy revenge tale that ends well. Simon Keenlyside stars as Prospero the sorcerer, Isabel Leonard is his daughter Miranda and Alek Shrader is the shipwrecked hunk who steals her heart. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Tosca, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Bindlestiff Open Stage: Quarantine Edition
On Monday at 8 p.m. ET, the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus continues its weekly live-streamed variety show hosted by adorkable ringmaster Keith Nelson. This evening’s cavalcade includes aerialist Chloe Zabicki, Acrobatrix, and jugglers Ollie Lukes and Will Oltman. Watch for free on Bindlestiff’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
Stars in the House: The Prompter
On Monday at 8 p.m. ET, Stars in the House presents a live reading of The Prompter, written by and starring Wade Dooley as a line feeder to a forgetful stage star (Brenda Vaccaro) who’s headlining a hip reinvention of The Importance of Being Earnest. Scott Schwartz directs. Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
Tuesday, December 8
Theater of War Productions: Philoctetes and Women of Trachis
On Tuesday at noon ET, Theater of War Productions, a company that uses classical texts to examine contemporary issues, presents a reading of scenes from Philoctetes and Women of Trachis, followed by a town hall-style discussion with the audience. Kathryn Erbe, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Frankie Faison and David Strathairn will perform scenes from Sophocles’ tragedies, and then director-adapter Bryan Doerries will facilitate a conversation about how the plays’ themes relate to the trauma frontline medical workers are facing during the pandemic. Tickets are required to receive the free viewing link. This performance won’t be available after-the-fact.
Manhattan Theatre Club: As Is: Conversations with Big Black Women in Confined Spaces
On Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET, Manhattan Theatre Club continues its virtual reading series with As Is, Stacey Rose‘s insightful portrait of four incredible and curvy Black women trying to navigate their intertwined friendships and a world that resists making space for them. Tiffany Nichole Greene directs. Watch for free until Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on MTC’s YouTube channel.
Folksbiene Chanukah Spectacular
On Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, Why is tonight different from all other nights? Because the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is throwing an early Hanukkah extravaganza! The troupe welcomes stars of stage and screen for seasonal greetings, stories and songs, including Carol Burnett, Mayim Bialik, Billy Crystal, Tovah Feldshuh, Beanie Feldstein, Joel Grey, Jackie Hoffman, Carol Kane, Barry Manilow, Mandy Patinkin, Itzhak Perlman, Neil Sedaka, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Jerry Zaks, though we expect Folksbiene regulars to do most of the entertaining. If you saw Yiddish Fiddler, Amerike – The Golden Land or any of the company’s other glorious musicals, you know that’s a mitzvah! Reservations are required to receive the free viewing link but donations are encouraged. The recording is viewable until Saturday, December 12.
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: The Gett: A Young Wife’s Tale
On Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater presents a live reading of The Gett: A Young Wife’s Tale, Liba Vaynberg‘s examination of the ancient ritual of religious Jewish divorce. The cast features four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh, Peter Mark Kendall, Alfredo Narciso and Miriam Silverman, and Daniella Topol directs. Tickets are required to receive the free viewing link; a recording is viewable until Saturday, December 12.
Bedlam: Three Sisters
On Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET, Bedlam, a NYC theatre company celebrated for its reinventions of classics (Sense & Sensibility, The Crucible), presents a live reading of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, about women yearning for a richer life. Kathryn Tkel, Lauren Modica and Jessica Frey are the title siblings, and Violeta Picayo plays their sister-in-law and directs. The evening kicks off with a half hour of live music at 6:30 p.m. ET. Watch for free on the company’s Facebook page though donations to The Black Theatre Network are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: Doctor Atomic
On Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents John Adams’ Doctor Atomic about the impact the test of the first atomic bomb had on those at Los Alamos. Gerald Finley plays the brilliant J. Robert Oppenheimer in this 2008 mounting costarring Sasha Cooke, Thomas Glenn and Richard Paul Fink. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, The Tempest, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
This Is Who I Am
On Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET, D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and NYC’s PlayCo present This Is Who I Am, Amir Nizar Zuabi‘s touching two-hander about a father in Ramallah and his son in New York trying to bridge their geographical and emotional divide by cooking together via Zoom. Performed live, the play stars Ramsey Faragallah and Yousof Sultani, and is directed by Evren Odcikin. Tickets start at $16.
Available to Watch Both Days
Classical Theatre of Harlem: A Christmas Carol in Harlem
While there’s a cornucopia of Christmas Carols streaming this season, the Classical Theatre of Harlem‘s version offers a modern-day, gospel-infused spin on Charles Dickens’ holiday redemption tale. Recorded at Aaron Davis Hall last year, the show cleverly examines the ramifications of gentrification, making the story feel more urgent and poignant than ever. Watch for free until Sunday, January 3, 2021 on the theatre’s website though donations are encouraged.
Williamstown Theatre Festival: A Streetcar Named Desire
Although the celebrated Williamstown Theatre Festival had to cancel its in-person summer season, some of the scheduled productions were reimagined and recorded as audio plays, a genre that has exploded during the pandemic. The first release is an audio mounting of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, starring six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald as the fragile Blanche DuBois, Carla Gugino as her sister, Stella, and Ariel Shafir as Stanley Kowalski, the man who upends their tenuous lives. Tony nominee Robert O’Hara directs. The recording costs $8.
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Top image: Classical Theatre of Harlem: A Christmas Carol in Harlem. Photo by Jill Jones.
RAVEN SNOOK