25 Stage Performances to Watch Today, June 26
The Sound of Music Live!
At 2 p.m. ET, the Shows Must Go On! presents The Sound of Music Live!, NBC’s 2013 live broadcast of the iconic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical starring Grammy winner Carrie Underwood as Maria and True Blood‘s Stephen Moyer as Captain von Trapp. While it got incredible ratings, many fans criticized the production, especially the two leads. But this mounting has its pleasures: Tony winners Christian Borle and Laura Benanti delight in supporting roles, and Audra McDonald is breathtaking as Mother Abbess. Her rendition of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” is guaranteed to make you weep. Watch for free until Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on YouTube.
Bristol Old Vic: The Grinning Man
The Bristol Old Vic shares a recording of The Grinning Man, a darkly comic 2016 musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel The Man Who Laughs, about a disfigured young man, an innocent blind girl and a wolf, all denizens of a circus. Watch for free until Thursday, July 2 at 2 p.m. ET on the theatre’s YouTube channel.
The Royal Ballet: Woolf Works
At 2 p.m. ET, London’s Royal Ballet shares a recording of Woolf Works, resident choreographer Wayne McGregor‘s triptych named after the inimitable Virginia Woolf. The dance-maker drew inspiration from her essays, letters and diaries as well as her seminal novels Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves. Watch for free until Friday, July 10 on YouTube.
The Other Palace: The Last Five Years
At 2:30 p.m. ET, London’s The Other Palace presents The Last Five Years, Tony winner Jason Robert Brown‘s musical dissection of a romance, with the man telling his story chronologically while the woman recalls their relationship in reverse. The actors, Danny Becker and Lauren Samuels, who also directs, recorded their parts remotely, which adds to the sense of a couple disconnected. Tickets are £8, approximately $10.
San Francisco Ballet: Mixed Repertory Program
At 5:30 p.m. ET, San Francisco Ballet shares a trio of short pieces that were recorded earlier this year: Soirees Musicales and Concerto Grosso by the troupe’s artistic director Helgi Tomasson, and a pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain. Watch for free on the dance company’s website.
The Joyce Theater: Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
At 7 p.m. ET, dance haven The Joyce Theater presents Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana in a program recorded at the venue last year. The flamenco greats perform Tablao Flamenco to live music played by guitarist José Manuel Alconchel and a pair of singers. Watch for free until Friday, July 3 at 10 a.m. on the Joyce’s YouTube channel.
Criminal Queerness Festival: vichitra: an anthology of queer dreams
At 7 p.m. ET, 2019 marked the inaugural Criminal Queerness Festival, showcasing plays set in cultures and communities where it’s particularly complicated being part of the LGBTQ rainbow. This year’s fest has gone digital, and tonight you can catch vichitra: an anthology of queer dreams, an audiovisual collage created by queer artists of South Asian origin. Watch for free on Dixon Place’s Facebook page.
Astoria Performing Arts Center: The Insiders – Musicals from the Quarantine
At 7 p.m. ET, Queens’ venerable Astoria Performing Arts Center ends its six-week run of mini musicals inspired by the weird way we’re living today with Vectir, about a couple trying to reconnect with the help of an opera singer turned computer code crooner. What the HTML?! Watch for free on the theatre’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: L’Elisir d’Amore
At 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera shares a gem from its vaults: Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore starring Kathleen Battle, Luciano Pavarotti, Juan Pons and Enzo Dara, conducted by James Levine. The production was filmed for the company’s Live in HD series in 1991 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, Manon, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Queerly Festival: The Reparations Show
At 8 p.m. ET, the Queerly Festival presents The Reparations Show, a weekly variety show focused on BIPOC LGBTQ artists. This week’s episode is hosted by Kevin R. Free, an Obie-winning Black gay theatre-maker who is also the curator of the entire Queerly Fest. Tickets are available to purchase from the theatre but TDF members get a discount.
Christine Lahti in Gloria: A Life
At 9 p.m. ET, PBS presents Gloria: A Life, Emily Mann‘s vibrant bio-play about feminist icon Gloria Steinem starring Christine Lahti. and is as engaging as it is informative, with insightful recreations of Steinem’s seminal moments such as her 1963 undercover assignment at the Playboy Club, her cofounding of Ms. magazine in 1971 and the 1977 Houston Women’s Conference. A multiracial, all-female ensemble embodies a variety of her peers. Watch for free on PBS’ website.
Available to Watch All Day
National Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
London’s National Theatre presents the Bridge Theatre’s lauded 2019 mounting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Bard’s beloved romantic comedy about sparring fairies messing with lovesick humans in a magical forest. Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie pulls double duty as Titania and Hippolyta, with hilarious support from UK stage vets Oliver Chris, David Moorst and Hammed Animashaun. Watch for free until Thursday, July 2 at 2 p.m. ET on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel. Bonus: London’s Shakespeare’s Globe is also streaming its mounting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream until Sunday, June 28.
Stratford Festival: The Adventures of Pericles
Ontario’s venerable Stratford Festival continues its Shakespeare on Film series with The Adventures of Pericles, a rechristening of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, written at least in part by the Bard. Rarely staged, the play follows the dramatic journey of the title character, who gains, loses and then unexpectedly reunites with his family. Watch for free until Thursday, July 16 on the fest’s YouTube channel.
Bard at the Gate: Kernel of Sanity
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel curates Bard at the Gate, a new series of play readings showcasing urgent, under-the-radar scripts, some of which have never been produced! First up is Kernel of Sanity written in 1978 by Kermit Frazier, about the complicated relationship between a young Black actor and an older white peer who appeared together in a mounting of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The cast features Matthew Hancock, Josh Hamilton and Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin. Watch for free on Bard at the Gate’s YouTube channel.
MCC LiveLabs: One Acts: When
MCC Theater presents When by C.A. Johnson, whose play All the Natalie Portmans had its run cut short at the venue due to the pandemic. Portia and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy star as a costume drama-loving mother and her more down-to-earth daughter, as they try to find a way to face the real world. Watch the performance until Saturday on MCC Theater’s YouTube page.
The Homebound Project
The Homebound Project presents its third edition of world-premiere playlets, and the lineup is stellar. The dozen shorts include Jennifer Carpenter and Tony nominee Thomas Sadoski in a piece by Pulitzer Prize winner John Guare, directed by Jerry Zaks; Hamilton Tony winner Daveed Diggs in a work by C.A. Johnson; and Diane Lane in a piece by newly minted Pulitzer winner Michael R. Jackson, directed by Leigh Silverman. The brainchild of playwright Catya McMullen and director Jenna Worsham, this initiative is raising money to support food insecure families during the pandemic. Tickets start at $10 and proceeds go to No Kid Hungry.
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Top image: Audra McDonald and Carrie Underwood in The Sound of Music Live!. Photo by Will Hart/NBC.
RAVEN SNOOK