25+ Stage Performances to Watch Thanksgiving Weekend November 26-29
Thursday, November 26
Josh Groban: An Intimate Concert to Celebrate Harmony
On Thursday at 4 p.m. ET, top off your Thanksgiving feast with the rich voice of international recording sensation Josh Groban. The Tony-nominated Great Comet star is performing a live online concert in honor of his new album Harmony. Expect songs from that release plus perennial favorites. Tickets start at $25 and a recording will be available until Sunday.
The Metropolitan Opera: Elektra
On Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Elektra, Strauss’ adaptation of the ancient Greek myth featuring Nina Stemme in the title role. Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier and Eric Owens costar in this 2016 mounting of the tragedy. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Hamlet, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Friday, November 27
National Theatre: Death of England: Delroy
On Friday at 2 p.m. ET, earlier this month, London’s lauded National Theatre presented the first live show on its stage since the pandemic: Clint Dyer and Roy Williams‘s Death of England: Delroy. The searing one-man play centers on Delroy, a working-class British Black man (Michael Balogun) grappling with overt and unconscious racism on the day his child is born. Because of new lockdown measures, the production’s opening performance turned out to be its closing night. Thankfully a recording was made and the theatre is streaming it at no cost for 24 hours, with a promise to revive the show in person next spring. Watch for free until Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel.
The Metropolitan Opera: Lucia di Lammermoor
On Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor starring Natalie Dessay as the tragic title character, who’s driven mad because she cannot marry the man she loves. Joseph Calleja, Ludovic Tézier and Kwangchul Youn costar in this 2011 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Elektra, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
PBS’ Great Performances: Lea Salonga in Concert
On Friday at 9 p.m. ET, PBS’ Great Performances presents Lea Salonga in concert at the Sydney Opera House. Backed by a lavish orchestra, the Tony winner belts out numbers from her three-decade career, including “On My Own” from Les Misérables, “Why, God, Why?” from Miss Saigon and “A Whole New World” from Disney’s animated movie Aladdin. Watch for free until Friday, December 25 on PBS’ website.
Saturday, November 28
POSTPONED Metropolitan Opera Stars Live in Concert: Sonya Yoncheva
On Saturday at 1 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera continues its series of live recitals with Sonya Yoncheva performing from the stunning Baroque library of the Schussenried Cloister in Germany. The powerhouse soprano will sing popular arias from operas such as Verdi’s Aida, Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s La Bohème, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau on piano. Tickets are $20 and a recording is viewable until Friday, December 11.
The Metropolitan Opera: Die Walküre
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Die Walküre, the second opera in Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, with Brünnhilde defying her god father Wotan. Christine Goerke, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jamie Barton, Stuart Skelton, Greer Grimsley and Günther Groissböck star in this 2019 mounting of Robert Lepage‘s high-tech staging. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Lucia di Lammermoor, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Jefferson Mays in A Christmas Carol
On Saturday at 9 p.m. ET, Jefferson Mays is a master at playing multiple characters in the same show. He won a Tony Award for doing just that in I Am My Own Wife (40 different roles!), and earned a nomination for portraying eight members of the ill-fated D’Ysquith family in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder. He’s at it again in this solo adaptation of A Christmas Carol in which he plays everyone from Scrooge to Tiny Tim. Originally mounted at LA’s Geffen Playhouse in 2018, the production was reimagined for digital consumption by director Michael Arden (Once on This Island) and costume and set designer Dane Laffrey, who restaged and recorded it during quarantine at the stunning United Palace theatre in Washington Heights. The result is a fresh and intimate take on Dickens’ timeless tale featuring Mays in a tour-de-force performance—make that performances. Tickets are $50 and a portion of the proceeds goes to TDF! The recording is viewable until Sunday, January 3.
Sunday, November 29
Lockdown Theatre: For One Knight Only
On Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, get ready to bow down when UK’s Lockdown Theatre brings together legendary actors Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judi Dench for a live chat about, well, whatever they want! Sir Kenneth Branagh serves as host, but we have a feeling it’s going to be a fabulous free-for-all. Tickets are £45, approximately $60, and proceeds go to UK arts workers.
The Metropolitan Opera: Simon Boccanegra
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, featuring Plácido Domingo as a man in love with the daughter (Kiri Te Kanawa) of his sworn enemy, the doge of Genoa (Vladimir Chernov). Giancarlo Del Monaco staged this 1995 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Die Walküre, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
All Weekend Friday to Sunday
San Francisco Ballet: Nutcracker Online
From Friday at 3 p.m. ET on, experience this holiday staple on stage and backstage with this interactive program from San Francisco Ballet. In addition to streaming a high-definition 2008 recording of choreographer Helgi Tomasson’s Nutcracker, audiences can take a virtual tour of the troupe’s glorious opera house home and enjoy digital activities like taking seasonal selfies and learning dance steps. A great way to introduce youngsters to Tchaikovsky’s enchanting ballet. Tickets are $50 and the recording is available until Thursday, December 31.
The Shows Must Go On!: Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Since theatres shut down, the UK-based The Shows Must Go On! has been screening musicals on weekends. But for the month of November, they added weekly streams of starry Shakespearean productions. The series wraps up with passionate readings of Shakespeare’s sonnets—all 154 of them—by Fiona Shaw, Patrick Stewart, David Tennant, Simon Callow, Simon Russell Beale, Dominic West, Harriet Walter, Ruth Negga, Stephen Fry and other talented Bard interpreters. Watch for free until Sunday on YouTube.
Atlantic for Kids: She Persisted: The Musical
Earlier this year, Atlantic for Kids was performing She Persisted: The Musical when the shutdown hit. Now the theatre has reunited the cast for a virtual mounting of this empowering show based on Chelsea Clinton’s picture book celebrating inspirational women. The hour-long tuner centers on a young student, who goes on a class trip to a Women’s History Museum and magically meets abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, astronaut Sally Ride and other real-life figures. An excellent choice for families raising feminists of any gender. Tickets start at $5 and closed captioning is available. The recording is available until Thursday, January 21, 2021.
The Fire This Time Festival Alumni Spotlight: Roger Q. Mason
The Fire This Time Festival, which showcases emerging Black dramatists, kicks off its alumni spotlight series with a look at the work of Roger Q. Mason. Wayne Brady, Larry Owens, Gillian Williams, Pierre Jean Gonzalez, Ianne Fields Stewart, Adam Hyndman and the playwright himself will perform a selection of his pieces. Watch for free until Sunday on the Fire This Time Festival’s YouTube channel though a $10 donation is suggested.
Southwark Playhouse: The Last Five Years
From Friday at 7 p.m. ET on, Jason Robert Brown‘s musical dissection of a romance, The Last Five Years, has proven to be a pandemic favorite with multiple productions in the UK and stateside. It makes sense since the two-hander is about disconnection, as the man tells his side of their love story chronologically while the woman recalls their relationship in reverse. This mounting was filmed live on stage earlier this fall at London’s Southwark Playhouse with a pair of actor-pianists, Oli Higginson and Molly Lynch, as the star-crossed couple. Tickets are $18 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
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Top image: Jefferson Mays in A Christmas Carol at LA’s Geffen Playhouse in 2018. Photo by Chris Whitaker.
RAVEN SNOOK