25+ Stage Performances to Watch This Pride Weekend June 25-27
Friday, June 25
Theatre for a New Audience: The Oresteia
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, Brooklyn’s Theatre for a New Audience presents Ellen McLaughlin‘s contemporary adaptation of The Oresteia, an epic and tragic trilogy streamlined to one full-length evening. The action begins when Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter to appease the gods, which understandably enrages his wife, Clytemnestra. These ancient Greek stories prompt timely modern-day questions about duty, justice and cycles of violence. Andrew Watkins directs an ensemble cast that includes Kathleen Chalfant, Obi Abili and Kelley Curran. Register to receive the free viewing link. The recording is viewable until Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
The Metropolitan Opera: Turandot
On Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Puccini’s final masterwork Turandot, about an aloof princess whose suitors lose their heads over her knotty riddles. This 2019 mounting of Franco Zeffirelli‘s classic staging stars Christine Goerke as the hard-to-win royal and Yusif Eyvazov as the prince who ultimately succeeds. 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.
Queerly Festival
The Queerly Festival, an annual showcase of cutting-edge LGBTQ artists, is being held in person at the Kraine Theater in the East Village, but all performances are also being streamed to at-home audiences. Tonight there are two separate shows:
- On Friday at 8 p.m. ET, The Reparations Show is a monthly variety revue focused on BIPOC LGBTQ artists. Tickets are $10.
- On Friday at 10 p.m. ET, Jackson Sturkey Presents the Queerly Cabaret is a pride-filled hour of music and variety featuring LGBTQ artists. Tickets are $15.
Saturday, June 26
Mike Daisey: The Starry Night
On Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, performer-playwright Mike Daisey (The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, If You See Something Say Something) returns to The Kraine Theater in the East Village for his fourth solo piece in three months: The Starry Night. Performed live on stage to an all-vaccinated audience but also streamed to at-home viewers, this new work is an exploration of the commodification of Van Gogh’s art (there are currently two immersive digital exhibitions of his work in NYC!) as well as the dangerous romanticization of his mental illness. Daisey’s no-holds-barred shows are frequently funny and always insightful. Tickets are $15.
Play-PerView: Four Chords and a Gun
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, Play-PerView presents a live reading of Four Chords and a Gun, a new play by sitcom star John Ross Bowie (Big Bang Theory, Speechless) about the drama-filled 1979 recording session that led to The Ramones’ album End of the Century, produced by the combative Phil Spector. Jessica Hanna directs Michael Cassady, Ben Feldman, Brendan Hunt, Lena Hall, Justin Kirk and Bobby Conte Thornton in this slice of rock ‘n’ roll history. Tickets start at $5 and net proceeds benefit Food on Foot.
The Metropolitan Opera: Billy Budd
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd, based on Herman Melville’s novella of the same name about an innocent and empathetic young sailor wrongly accused of mutiny by a jealous master-at-arms. John Dexter‘s 1997 mounting stars Dwayne Croft as the tragic title character and James Morris as his enemy. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Turandot, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Stars in the House: Concert for America: Pride Edition
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Stars in the House shares a recording of Concert for America: Pride Edition, a star-studded event filmed on stage at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre in 2017, featuring performances and appearances by with Armistead Maupin, Wilson Cruz, Sharon Gless, Hal Sparks, Alan Cumming, Faith Prince, Kevin Chamberlin, Jane Lynch, Marga Gomez, Shoshana Bean and more. Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
Metropolitan Playhouse: My Wife’s Mirror
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Metropolitan Playhouse, an Obie-winning company that revives forgotten works, presents My Wife’s Mirror, Edward G.P. Wilkins‘ 1856 play about a newlywed who realizes the only way to cure her husband of his vices is to emulate him. An insightful look at sexist double standards that persist two centuries later! Alex Roe directs Andrew Firda, Charles Jeffries, Greta Quispe, David Logan Rankin and Barbra Wengerd. Watch for free on the company’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
Sunday, June 27
The Metropolitan Opera: La Traviata
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents La Traviata, Verdi’s romantic tragedy about a courtesan whose chance at true love is thwarted by bourgeois mores. Willy Decker helmed this 2012 mounting, which stars Sonya Yoncheva and Michael Fabiano as the ill-fated lovers, and Thomas Hampson as his disapproving father. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Billy Budd, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
All Weekend
American Conservatory Theater: Tales of the City
San Francisco’s lauded American Conservatory Theater celebrates Pride Month by streaming a never-before-seen recording of its 2011 smash Tales of the City, a musical adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s series of novels chronicling LGBTQ life in San Francisco in the late 20th century. With a book by Avenue Q Tony winner Jeff Whitty and songs by John Garden and Jake Shears from the glam-rock band Scissor Sisters, the production stars Waitress‘ Betsy Wolfe as San Fran newcomer Mary Ann Singleton, Tony winner Judy Kaye as her eccentric landlady Anna Madrigal, Mary Birdsong as her bisexual hippie neighbor Mona Ramsey and Wesley Taylor as Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, a gay man living with HIV. Tony nominee Jason Moore directed the show, one of the highest-selling productions in the theatre’s history. Tickets start at $19 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
Night of a Thousand Judys
Judy, Judy, Judy… Garland that is. This concert celebrates the life and career of the legendary singer-actor, who was born in a trunk in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and traveled over the rainbow to become a movie musical icon. Writer, performer and raconteur Justin Sayre presides over an online edition of this annual favorite, and the lineup of crooners includes Tony winner Alan Cumming, Tony nominees Sam Harris, Vivian Reed and Mary Testa, and stage favorites Karen Mason, Nathan Lee Graham, Jose Llana, Grace McLean and Margo Seibert. Watch for free until Saturday, July 24 on YouTube though donations to The Ali Forney Center are encouraged.
Playbill: Glimmer of Light
Last week, Playbill produced Glimmer of Light, an in-person Pride concert at Queens’ Radial Park, and now it’s being streamed online through the end of the month. The lineup includes on stage performances by Ezra Menas, Jo Ellen Pellman, Max Crumm, Jan Sport from RuPaul’s Drag Race and Sis along with virtual contributions from Alex Newell, Ariana DeBose, Felicia Fitzpatrick, L Morgan Lee and Peppermint. Watch for free on Playbill’s YouTube channel until Wednesday.
The Garden
On Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, Baltimore Center Stage presents The Garden, a moving new play written by and starring Tony nominee Charlayne Woodard about the complex relationship between a Black woman and her estranged adult daughter, who shows up unexpectedly at her mother’s garden gate attempting to reconcile old wounds. Patricia McGregor directs this world premiere, which costars Caroline Stefanie Clay. Tickets start at $25 but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase them at a discount.
Shakespeare Center LA: Macbeth: A Virtual Live-Action Graphic Novel
On Friday at 10:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 6 and 10:30 p.m. ET, Shakespeare Center LA presents a colorful new take on the Bard’s Macbeth, with kinetic comic book panels complementing the performances of seasoned classical actors, including Tony nominee Keith David as the title character. A Shakespeare tragedy reimagined as an animated experience? This is the kind of innovative virtual theatre the pandemic made possible. Tickets are $30.40 and a recording will be viewable until Friday, July 30.
Patrick Page in All the Devils Are Here
Hadestown Tony nominee Patrick Page shows off his mellifluous voice and classical acting training in his solo show All the Devils Are Here, an exploration of Shakespeare’s villains. A medley of scenes and monologues that trace the evolution of the Bard’s baddies, the one-person play was originally presented in 2017. This production was filmed during the shutdown at Washington, DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company on the same stage where Page previously played Prospero, Coriolanus, Iago and Macbeth. Tickets start at $25 but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase them at a discount.
Irish Repertory Theatre: Ghosting
On Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, NYC’s venerable Irish Rep presents Ghosting, Anne O’Riordan and Jamie Beamish‘s tragicomedy about a disconnected young woman who awakens to find the ex who abandoned her years earlier standing at the foot of her bed. O’Riordan stars in this one-woman play about revisiting the past in order to carve out a future. Directed by Aidan Kelly, the production was recorded at Theatre Royal in April 2020. Tickets are required to receive the free viewing link; a $25 donation is suggested.
Kinky Boots
Everybody say, “Yeah, yeah!” Catch the exuberant West End production of Kinky Boots starring Olivier Award winner Matt Henry as drag diva Lola, who helps shoe manufacturer Charlie (Killian Donnelly) inject some fabulousness into his factory. Although the musical examines serious subjects such as homophobia and father-son estrangement, it’s mostly a celebration of friendship and being true to yourself, with catchy songs by Cyndi Lauper and a heartfelt book by Harvey Fierstein. Tickets are $15 but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase them at a discount. The recording is viewable until Friday, July 2.
Lincoln Center Theater: Marys Seacole
Lincoln Center Theater presents Marys Seacole, Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury‘s critically acclaimed play about an ambitious Jamaican woman whose adventures span many countries and eras, from the Crimean War to a modern-day nursing home. A profound exploration of women who are paid to look after others, this fantasia is inspired by the real-life 19th-century nurse and healer Mary Seacole as well as all the caregivers who came after her. This Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 production was recorded on stage in 2019, with Lileana Blain-Cruz directing Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Gabby Beans, Marceline Hugot, Karen Kandel, Ismenia Mendes and Lucy Taylor. . The recording is viewable until Sunday, July 4.
North Coast Repertory Theatre: Becoming Dr. Ruth
California’s North Coast Repertory Theatre presents four-time Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh in Becoming Dr. Ruth, Mark St. Germain‘s inspiring one-woman bio play about the cheery sex therapist and her compelling past, including losing her family in the Holocaust, working as a sniper for the Haganah and finally finding Mr. Right after two divorces. David Ellenstein directs the production, which was filmed live on stage at Bay Street Theater, a co-producer of the show. Tickets start at $35 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, July 11.
Animal Wisdom
It’s your last chance to watch Heather Christian‘s singular musical Animal Wisdom about her family’s history of communing with the dead. A smash when it ran at Brooklyn’s Bushwick Starr in 2017, the Obie-winning songwriter and her four-person band have reinvented this tuneful séance for digital consumption in this stage-cinema hybrid, co-helmed by film director Amber McGinnis and stage director Emilyn Kowaleski. With its fiery blues, gospel and folk score and spiritual insight, Animal Wisdom is the perfect introduction to a unique talent. Tickets start at $19 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
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Top image: Lea DeLaria, who’s hosting Playbill’s The Progress of Pride Spectacular on Saturday. Photo by Kharen Hill.
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