25+ Stage Performances to Watch Friday to Sunday, October 2-4
Friday, October 2
Theater of War Productions: Antigone in Ferguson
On Friday at 5 p.m. ET, Theater of War Productions, a company that uses classical texts to illuminate contemporary issues, presents Antigone in Ferguson, a Black Lives Matter-infused take on Sophocles’ tragedy, which was previously mounted in Harlem, Brooklyn and Missouri. The production fuses dramatic readings of passages from Antigone by actors and activists with original gospel music by Phil Woodmore sung by a diverse choir. Today’s performance features actors Tracie Thoms, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Nyasha Hatendi and Jason Isaacs; pastor Willie Woodmore; New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; and De-Rance Blaylock and Duane Foster, both former teachers of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teen killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, an event that inspired this piece as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. After the performance, director-adapter Bryan Doerries will co-moderate a discussion with Missouri social worker De-Andrea Blaylock Johnson about racialized violence, structural oppression and social justice, Register to receive the free viewing link. This performance won’t be available after-the-fact.
Virtual Halston: BeBe Winans
On Friday at 5 p.m. ET, Julie Halston, and longtime friend to TDF, welcomes gospel star and COVID-19 survivor BeBe Winans to her weekly chatfest. Watch for free on YouTube.
New Federal Theatre: Do Lord Remember Me
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, New Federal Theatre, one of NYC’s leading Black companies, kicks off a month of readings of important plays from its past. First up is Jim De Jongh‘s Do Lord Remember Me inspired by the firsthand recollections of former slaves. The cast of the company’s 1997 production reunites for this event: Ebony JoAnn, Barbara Montgomery, Roscoe Orman, Kim Sullivan and Glynn Turman. Watch for free on New Federal Theatre’s website though donations are encouraged.
Home Again: The Marx Brothers and New York City
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, writer, performer, Groucho impersonator and Marx Brothers expert Noah Diamond presents a multimedia presentation about the comedy clan’s relationship to their hometown of NYC. The piece is part of SUNY Fredonia’s annual Marx Brothers celebration Freedonia Marxonia, inspired by the name of the fictional nation in Duck Soup. Watch for free on YouTube.
The Metropolitan Opera: Don Giovanni
On Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera‘s week of Mozart favorites continues with Michael Grandage‘s striking 2011 staging of Don Giovanni, featuring Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role of the world’s most notorious lover. Marina Rebeka, Barbara Frittoli, Mojca Erdmann, Ramón Vargas, Luca Pisaroni and Štefan Kocán costar. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Die Zauberflöte, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Together LA Festival
On Friday at 10 p.m. ET, 34 diverse Los Angeles theatre companies come together for the three-week Together LA Festival, featuring 10-minute shorts created specifically for digital consumption. Tonight, enjoy Rogue Machine Theatre‘s African Hyphen American by Dionna Daniel, Chekhov UnScripted by Impro Theatre and Whitefire Theatre‘s Judgment Day by Juliette Jeffers. This is the perfect way to get a taste of what’s happening on stage on the West Coast! Register to receive the free viewing link; donations are encouraged.
Saturday, October 3
Play-PerView: Title and Deed
On Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, Play-PerView presents a live reading of Title and Deed, a Beckettian solo play by the always thought-provoking Will Eno that was a hit at Signature Theatre Company in 2012. This event reunites the creatives from that production: actor Conor Lovett and director Judy Hegarty Lovett of Gare St Lazare Players Ireland. Tickets start at $5. This performance won’t be available after-the-fact.
John Lloyd Young in Concert
On Saturday at 6 p.m. ET, John Lloyd Young performs a live virtual concert from The Space in Las Vegas. The perpetually boyish actor-singer won a Tony Award for his star-making turn as Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys. He’ll croon tunes from that musical, as well as The Wiz, Les Misérables, Chicago and more. Tickets cost $30.
The Metropolitan Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera‘s week of Mozart favorites continues with Le Nozze di Figaro, a romantic comedy of marriage and madness with Bryn Terfel as the wily Figaro, who’s always trying to outwit his womanizing master Count Almaviva, played by Dwayne Croft. Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli and Susanne Mentzer costar in this 1998 mounting, staged by Jonathan Miller. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Don Giovanni, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Metropolitan Playhouse: The Clod
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Metropolitan Playhouse, an Obie-winning company that revives forgotten plays, presents a reading of Lewis Beach‘s 1918 dark comedy The Clod, about the hijinks that ensue when a Northern spy sneaks into a Southern home during a turning point in the Civil War. Watch this curio for free on the company’s website though donations are encouraged.
Play-PerView: Title and Deed Starring Will Eno
On Saturday at 9 p.m. ET, Play-PerView presents a second a live reading of the Beckettian Title and Deed, this time starring the playwright himself, Will Eno. Tickets are pay what you wish; a recording will remain available through Wednesday, October 21.
Together LA Festival
On Saturday at 10 p.m. ET, 34 diverse Los Angeles theatre companies come together for the three-week Together LA Festival, featuring 10-minute shorts created specifically for digital consumption. Tonight, enjoy EST/LA‘s Camp by Makeda Declet, Open Fist Theatre Company‘s The Viduy by Wendy Graf, Aja Houston’s Terrorist is Spelled K-A-R-E-N presented by The Road Theatre Company and The Birds Are Feeding Me by Rex McGregor from Towne Street Theatre. This is the perfect way to get a taste of what’s happening on stage on the West Coast! Register to receive the free viewing link; donations are encouraged.
Sunday, October 4
The Metropolitan Opera: Idomeneo
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera wraps up its week of Mozart favorites with Idomeneo, an early work featuring Matthew Polenzani as the King of Crete, who’s faced with an impossible dilemma. Elza van den Heever, Nadine Sierra, Alice Coote and Alan Opie costar in Jean Pierre-Ponnelle‘s 2017 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
All Weekend
New York City Ballet: All Balanchine
After taking the summer off, New York City Ballet leaps into fall with five weeks of exhilarating archival recordings. The series kicks off with an all-Balanchine program—Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and The Unanswered Question from Ivesiana, with excerpts from Symphony in C, Liebeslieder Walzer, Episodes and Stravinsky Violin Concerto—featuring some of the company’s biggest stars, including Ashley Bouder, Lauren Lovette, Sara Mearns, Tiler Peck, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Ask la Cour and Taylor Stanley. Watch for free until Monday on NYCB’s YouTube channel.
Even though Len Cariou has spent the past decade playing the patriarch on CBS’ Blue Bloods, the stage is his first and greatest love. In this charming solo show, he celebrates his five decades on the boards as both a Shakespearean actor and a musical theatre star whose credits include his Tony-winning turn as the title character in Sweeney Todd. Watch for free until Sunday on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
Two River Theater: Romeo and Juliet
New Jersey’s Two River Theater teams up with NYC’s National Asian American Theatre Company for a reading of an innovative take on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This version was translated into modern verse by Hansol Jung and is directed by Chay Yew, and the all-Asian cast features Be More Chill favorite Stephanie Hsu and Mitchell Winter as the ill-fated couple alongside stage stalwarts Mia Katigbak and Joel de la Fuente. Watch for free on the theatre’s YouTube channel.
The Theatre Channel Episode 1
West End stage stars perform classic musical theatre numbers on The Theatre Channel, a brand-new series recorded at London’s The Theatre Café. The first 30-minute episode features Olivier winners Matt Henry and Jenna Russell, plus Jodie Steele from Six, Carrie Hope Fletcher from Heathers, Lucie Jones from Waitress and Tarinn Callender from Come From Away. Tickets are £12, approximately $15.50.
Primary Stages: The Tribute Artist
Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, Primary Stages kicks off its virtual season with camp master Charles Busch headlining a reading of his real estate romp The Tribute Artist. The uproarious tale of a female impersonator who poses as his deceased landlady in order to hold on to her townhouse, this event reunites Busch with two of his regular comedy conspirators, director Carl Andress and funny lady Julie Halston, who . Tickets are $35.
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Top image: Josh Groban.
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