25+ Stage Performances to Watch This Weekend March 5-7
Friday, March 5
M-34 Productions: Franz Kafka’s Letter to My Father
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, M-34 Productions presents Franz Kafka’s Letter to My Father, a one-man dramatization of the anguished but unread missive the groundbreaking author wrote to his dad in 1919. James Rutherford directs Michael Guagno in this digital production exploring alienation and isolation. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish.
The Metropolitan Opera: Peter Grimes
On Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents John Doyle‘s moving mounting of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, about an outcast fisherman (Anthony Dean Griffey) unjustly believed to be a murderer by his neighbors. Patricia Racette and Anthony Michaels-Moore costar in this 2008 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 Zauberflöte, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Saturday, March 6
Irish Repertory Theatre: Give Me Your Hand
On Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, this winter, the venerable Irish Rep is presenting encore streams of its entire digital season. Today is your last chance to watch Give Me Your Hand, a virtual tour of London’s National Gallery featuring Tony nominee Dearbhla Molloy and Dermot Crowley reciting Paul Durcan poems as paintings are projected. Directed by Jamie Beamish, this is a digital reimagining of the company’s 2012 hit production. Tickets are free but required to receive the viewing link; donations are encouraged.
The Metropolitan Opera: Rusalka
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Otto Schenk‘s staging of Rusalka, Antonín Dvorák’s tragic Little Mermaid-style fable, starring soprano Renée Fleming as a water nymph who longs to be where the people are so she can win her prince (Piotr Beczala). Emily Magee, Dolora Zajick and John Relyea costar in this 2014 mounting. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Peter Grimes, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Metropolitan Playhouse: Not Smart
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Metropolitan Playhouse, an Obie-winning company that revives forgotten works, presents a reading of Not Smart, Wilbur Daniel Steele‘s one-act farce about a couple whose high-minded principles about gender and class are undermined when their maid reveals that she’s pregnant. Mark Harborth directs Victoria Bundonis, Ryan Halsaver, Clara Kundin, Maria Silverman and Matthew Trumbull in this century-old play about culture and common sense wars. Watch for free on the company’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
Irish Repertory Theatre: A Touch of the Poet
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, this winter, the venerable Irish Rep is presenting encore streams of its entire digital season. Tonight is your last chance to catch Eugene O’Neill’s compelling immigrant drama A Touch of the Poet, featuring Tony nominee Robert Cuccioli as Con, an Irish-American inn owner near Boston in 1828, clinging to a gentlemanly past that never was. Ciarán O’Reilly directs a cast that includes Ciaran Byrne, Kate Forbes and Mary McCann. Tickets are free but required to receive the viewing link; donations are encouraged.
Japan Society: Ludic Proxy: Fukushima
On Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET, NYC’s Japan Society presents Ludic Proxy: Fukushima, Aya Ogawa‘s interactive one-act about two sisters living in the shadow of Japan’s devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The audience helps the characters cautiously navigate life in their hometown by voting in real time about the next moves they should make. Originally part of a longer in-person piece presented by PlayCo in 2015, the drama has been reimagined for digital consumption. Tickets are $15 but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase them at a discount.
Sunday, March 7
Irish Repertory Theatre: On Beckett / In Screen
On Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, this winter, the venerable Irish Rep is presenting encore streams of its entire digital season. Today is your last chance to watch Tony winner Bill Irwin in a virtual reimagining of his hit solo show On Beckett. Once again, the acclaimed clown takes the stage at the Chelsea theatre to explore the words and work of the groundbreaking Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. Only this time, no one is in the audience, which makes this meditation on Beckett’s themes of loneliness, loss and decay even more haunting. Tickets are free but required to receive the viewing link; donations are encouraged.
M-34 Productions: Franz Kafka’s Letter to My Father
On Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, M-34 Productions presents Franz Kafka’s Letter to My Father, a one-man dramatization of the anguished but unread missive the groundbreaking author wrote to his dad in 1919. James Rutherford directs Michael Guagno in this digital production exploring alienation and isolation. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish.
Japan Society: Ludic Proxy: Fukushima
On Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET, NYC’s Japan Society presents Ludic Proxy: Fukushima, Aya Ogawa‘s interactive one-act about two sisters living in the shadow of Japan’s devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The audience helps the characters cautiously navigate life in their hometown by voting in real time about the next moves they should make. Originally part of a longer in-person piece presented by PlayCo in 2015, the drama has been reimagined for digital consumption. Tickets are $15 but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase them at a discount.
The Metropolitan Opera: La Forza del Destino
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera shares a gem from its vaults: John Dexter‘s mounting of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, starring the legendary Leontyne Price as an ill-fated Spanish noblewoman who loses three of her loved ones before facing her own demise. Giuseppe Giacomini, Leo Nucci and Bonaldo Giaiotti costar in this 1984 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Rusalka, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
All Weekend
New York City Ballet: Theme and Variations
New York City Ballet continues its digital spring season with Theme and Variations, George Balanchine’s celebration of classical Russian ballet, set to the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s third orchestral suite. Andrew Veyette and Tiler Peck headline this archival recording. Watch for free until Thursday, March 11 on NYCB’s YouTube channel.
Some Old Black Man
Three years ago, James Anthony Tyler‘s moving two-hander Some Old Black Man had its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters. Last fall, the University of Michigan restaged and recorded that production, with Joe Cacaci directing original star Wendell Pierce and Charlie Robinson stepping in for the late Roger Robinson (no relation). Pierce plays Calvin, a 62-year-old NYC college professor who moves his irascible, working-class Southerner father into his Harlem brownstone. There, the two engage in a generational conflict about race, opportunities and past history. Register to receive the free viewing link. The recording is viewable until Friday, March 12.
Emilia
In 2018, Shakespeare’s Globe commissioned Morgan Lloyd Malcolm to write a play inspired by the life of Emilia Bassano, the 17th-century poet and feminist rumored to have been the Bard’s Dark Lady, the subject of some of his bawdiest sonnets. Titled Emilia, the empowering, all-women work was such a critical and commercial hit, it transferred to the West End and a recording of that production is being streamed all month long. Pay-what-you-can tickets start at £1, approximately $1.40, and the recording is viewable until Wednesday, March 31. Closed captions and audio description are available.
Where Did We Sit on the Bus?
The son of El Salvadoran refugees who came to the US seeking a better life, Brian Quijada explores his family and his culture in the exuberant autobiographical solo show Where Did We Sit on the Bus? A gifted storyteller, beatboxer and musician, Quijada spent years developing this moving piece with director Chay Yew, and toured it around the country, including a 2016 stop at NYC’s Ensemble Studio Theatre. This performance was filmed live on stage in Chicago with his parents in the audience and the energy is palpable. Tickets are $30 and the recording is viewable until Sunday.
Company XIV
Brooklyn’s upscale burlesque and circus troupe Company XIV has released recordings of two sexy spectacles: the holiday-themed Nutcracker Rouge and Valentine, a Virtual Variety Show. Both were recorded at the company’s swanky Bushwick theatre and feature titillating acts of music, magic, aerial arts and striptease. Tickets to each show are $50, but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase them at a discount.
The Wild Project: Happy Days
On Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, East Village mainstay The Wild Project presents a digital production of Happy Days, Samuel Beckett’s bittersweet tragicomedy about the toll life inevitably takes. Despite being a two-hander, the play is essentially a monologue delivered by Winnie, a woman who’s literally trapped but still strives to remember the good times and greet each day with optimism. Although Beckett wrote this masterpiece 60 years ago, it takes on new resonance during these time-warped pandemic days. Nico Krell directs Tessa Albertson and Jake Austin Robertson. Tickets are free but required to receive the viewing link; a $25 donation is suggested.
Husband-and-wife writers Fred Van Lente and Crystal Skillman have turned one of their most popular collaborations, King Kirby, into a four-episode audio play chronicling the incredible origin story of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee’s frequent yet insufficiently famous collaborator who helped co-create the Hulk, Iron Man and several X-Men. Steven Rattazzi, who , once again stars as the undersung comic book great. Listen to all four parts for free .
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Top image: Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, which is streaming for 10 days beginning Friday. Photo by Johan Persson.
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