26 Stage Performances to Watch This Mother’s Day Weekend, May 9-10
All Weekend
Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo
London’s National Theatre shares its acclaimed 2018 production of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, starring Tony winners Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo as the Roman general and the Egyptian queen torn between love and war. Simon Godwin directs this politically charged epic, which you can watch for free through Thursday, May 14 at 2 p.m. ET on the National Theatre’s YouTube channel.
Tiny Beautiful Things with Nia Vardalos
Earlier this week, Stars in the House hosted a live reading of Tiny Beautiful Things, Nia Vardalos‘ adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s inspirational advice book, and the recording stays up through the weekend. Just as she did in The Public Theater’s hit productions (it was so popular, there were two), Vardalos stars as the empathetic Sugar, who helps strangers by divulging her own troubles. It’s an incredibly moving and spiritually uplifting play—make sure you have tissues handy! Watch for free on YouTube.
Macbeth at the Stratford Festival
Ontario’s venerable Stratford Festival continues its Shakespeare on Film series with Macbeth featuring Canadian stage stars Ian Lake and Krystin Pellerin as the bloodthirsty aspirational couple. Watch for free on the Stratford Festival’s YouTube channel.
New York City Ballet: Concerto DSCH
NYCB continues its online spring season with Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH, set to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The ballet was filmed in 2018 and features Sara Mearns, Tyler Angle, Ashley Bouder, Gonzalo Garcia and Joaquin De Luz. Watch for free on NYCB’s YouTube channel
The Two Noble Kinsmen at Shakespeare’s Globe
London’s Shakespeare’s Globe shares a recording of its 2018 mounting of The Two Noble Kinsmen, a tragicomic love triangle written by the Bard in collaboration with John Fletcher. Watch for free anytime through Saturday, May 17 on the theatre’s YouTube channel.
The Wooster Group
Pioneering avant-garde theatre troupe The Wooster Group is posting recordings of some of its seminal works online, including Rumstick Road, Spalding Gray‘s response to his mother’s suicide; To You, the Birdie!, the company’s riff on Racine’s Phèdre; and House/Lights, a mash-up of Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights and the 1964 B-movie Olga’s House of Shame. If you’ve never seen a show by this influential and iconoclastic company, prepare for nudity, obscurity, multimedia experimentation and Willem Dafoe, who was in many early productions. Watch for free on the Wooster Group’s website.
Mabou Mines: Dead End Kids: A Story of Nuclear Power
More groundbreaking theatre! Founded 50 years ago, venerable experimental troupe Mabou Mines is sharing recordings of some of its landmark performances online. Its latest offering is playwright-director JoAnne Akalaitis‘ Dead End Kids, which fuses text by Goethe, Jorge Luis Borges and Marie Curie with ’80s reports on nuclear weapons. Music is by David Byrne and Philip Glass, one of the company’s cofounders. Watch for free on Mabou Mines’ Vimeo channel.
Saturday, May 9
Stars in the House Presents Blithe Spirit
On Saturday at 2 p.m. ET, Stars in the House presents a reading of Noël Coward’s effervescent comedy Blithe Spirit, and the cast is jaw-dropping: Memphis Tony nominee Montego Glover, Hamilton‘s Renée Elise Goldsberry, William Jackson Harper, Kiss Me, Kate Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell and the incomparable Leslie Uggams as the marvelous medium Madame Arcati. Watch for free on YouTube.
Sarah Brightman: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
On Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, the original Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera, Sarah Brightman, shares a recording of her 1997 concert featuring classical staples alongside musical theatre standards. The soprano is accompanied by the English National Orchestra as she sings works by Puccini, Gershwin, Bernstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Special guests include Andrea Bocelli and her ex-husband, Lloyd Webber, who accompanies her on piano. Watch for free anytime through Tuesday at 3 p.m. on YouTube.
Storm Large at Feinstein’s/54 Below
On Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET, Feinstein’s/54 Below shares a recording of Storm Large’s solo concert, a raucous, no-holds-barred account of her rock ‘n’ roll journey, from competing on CBS’s Rock Star: Supernova to fronting punk bands to her genre-defying solo career, which includes cabaret concerts with an indie edge. Watch for free on the club’s YouTube channel. This performance won’t be available after-the-fact.
The Opera House at the Met
On Saturday on 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera mixes things up tonight. Instead of a full-length stage production, it’s screening The Opera House, a three-year-old documentary about the creation and opening of the new Met at Lincoln Center in 1966. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can also stream yesterday’s opera, La Bohème starring Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti, until 6:30 p.m. today.
ABCirque at The Muse
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, The Muse in Brooklyn hosts an online revue featuring some of NYC’s best variety performers. Amazing mentalist and magician Eric Walton hosts and the lineup includes Cardone the Magician, aerialist and contortionist Elena Sanders, drag diva Nina West, pole performer Ivory Fox and more. Watch for free on The Muse’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
Sunday, May 10
Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Met
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera shares a double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. The production was filmed for the company’s Live in HD series in 2015, 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 offering, the documentary The Opera House about the building of the new Met, until 6:30 p.m. today.
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RAVEN SNOOK