30+ Stage Performances to Watch This Weekend December 4-6
Friday, December 4
Virtual Halston: Lewis Black
On Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET, Julie Halston welcomes stand-up comic Lewis Black to her weekly chatfest. Although he’s best known for his uproariously angry, politically charged rants in comedy clubs, Black actually started out in theatre—in the ’80s, he was the playwright-in-residence and associate artistic director of West Bank Cafe’s downstairs stage. We know he spent the summer driving across America during the pandemic and we can’t wait hear his blunt take on the current state of our nation. Watch for free on YouTube.
Long Wharf Theatre: New Works Festival: The Merit System
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre kicks off a weekend of new play readings by diverse dramatists. First up is Edwin Sánchez‘s The Merit System about the challenges immigrants face when trying to get ahead. Watch for free on Long Wharf’s YouTube channel.
The Metropolitan Opera: Carmen
On Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Richard Eyre‘s thrilling mounting of Bizet’s Carmen, featuring Elina Garanca as the title character, who captivates all the men around her. Filmed in 2010, the production was choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, and costars Barbara Frittoli, Roberto Alagna and Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Macbeth, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Isaac Mizrahi: Isaac@CaféCarlyle
On Friday at 8 p.m. ET, performer, wit and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi kicks off a series of cabaret concerts recorded at an empty Café Carlyle. Singer-storyteller Suzanne Vega is his guest for this inaugural offering, as the duo performs holiday numbers and standards backed by a six-piece band. Tickets are $22.
John Lloyd Young’s Vegas Holiday
On Friday at 9 p.m. ET, John Lloyd Young performs a live holiday 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 in between holiday favorites, plus songs by Roy Orbison, Smokey Robinson and Little Anthony. Tickets cost $30.
Saturday, December 5
Club Cumming: Ute Lemper: Rendezvous with Marlene
On Saturday at 2 p.m. ET, Alan Cumming, who hosted downtown divas at his eponymous East Village club pre-COVID, is now sharing their fabulousness online. Today, internationally renowned German chanteuse Ute Lemper stars in Rendezvous with Marlene, a celebration of Marlene Dietrich inspired by a three-hour conversation she had with the Hollywood icon back in 1988. Directed by Daniel Nardicio as a cinematic cabaret, the performance features some of Dietrich’s signature numbers as well as secrets divulged during that long-ago chat. Tickets are $25.
Round House Theatre: Ohio State Murders
On Saturday at 7 p.m. ET, Maryland’s Round House Theatre continues its celebration of avant-garde African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy with Ohio State Murders, about a writer recalling the trauma of her 1950s college experience filled with racism, misogyny and shocking violence. Lynda Gravatt and Billie Krishawn play the central character at different ages, and Valerie Curtis-Newton directs. Tickets are $15 and the recording is viewable until February 2021.
The Metropolitan Opera: Ariadne auf Naxos
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera shares a gem from its vaults: late diva Jessye Norman in Strauss’ opera-within-an opera Ariadne auf Naxos about a commedia dell’arte troupe stranded on an island populated by mythic Greek characters. James King is Bacchus and Kathleen Battle is the leader of the itinerant players. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Carmen, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
Long Wharf Theatre: New Works Festival: Dream Hou$e
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, Connecticut’s Long Wharf Theatre continues its weekend of new play readings by diverse dramatists. Today’s offering is Eliana Pipes‘ Dream Hou$e exploring how gentrification impacts communities. Watch for free on Long Wharf’s YouTube channel.
New Works Virtual Festival: Oscar and Walt
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, the ambitious New Works Virtual Festival kicks off tonight, offering 20 fresh plays in 20 days, with a debut every evening at 8 p.m. ET through Christmas. First up is Donald Steven Olson‘s Oscar & Walt inspired by a real-life meeting between Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman in 1882 when they were at very different points in their respective literary careers. Tony winner John Rubinstein plays the legendary American poet while Sam Underwood is the witty British playwright. Judy Kuhn rounds out the cast. Watch for free on YouTube.
Holidays at Stars in the House
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley kick off the holiday season with some of their famous friends, including Tony nominee and Disney princess Liz Callaway. Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.
Metropolitan Playhouse: The Widow’s Veil
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Metropolitan Playhouse, an Obie-winning company that revives forgotten plays, presents a reading of The Widow’s Veil, Alice Rostetter’s eerily timely dark comedy about a young woman preparing to become a widow as her husband because of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Laura Livingston directs. Watch for free on the company’s website though donations are encouraged.
The Tank: A Play about Doing a Play about Jared Kushner on Zoom!
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, indie theatre incubator The Tank presents A Play about Doing a Play about Jared Kushner on Zoom! Originally, Stephanie Swirsky‘s romp about a Jewish woman traveling back in time to break Jared Kushner’s penis was meant to be performed in person at the theatre. This online adaption is about all the things that can go wrong when mounting an outrageous comedy on Zoom. Tickets start at $5.
This Is Who I Am
On Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET, D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and NYC’s PlayCo present This Is Who I Am, Amir Nizar Zuabi‘s touching two-hander about a father in Ramallah and his son in New York trying to bridge their geographical and emotional divide by cooking together via Zoom. Performed live, the play stars Ramsey Faragallah and Yousof Sultani, and is directed by Evren Odcikin. Tickets start at $16.
Sunday, December 6
A Celebration of Light
On Sunday at 10 a.m. ET, celebrate Hanukkah a few days early with this concert of Yiddish songs performed by Tony nominee Eleanor Reissa and Zalmen Mlotek, the artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish and the recording is viewable until Sunday, December 20.
La MaMa: Last Gasp WFH
On Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, La MaMa presents Last Gasp WFH, a series of playful and poignant vignettes about how we’re living, creating and caring for each other today, written and performed by Split Britches‘ Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver, two icons of the downtown theatre scene. A post-performance Q&A is included. Tickets start at $5.
Theater Mitu: remnant
On Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, the high-tech, avant-garde Brooklyn collective Theater Mitu reimagines remnant, its 2018 multimedia meditation on war, death and loss for digital consumption. Crafted out of extensive interviews and research with doctors, soldiers and other experts, the show is helmed by the company’s artistic director, Rubén Polendo. Tickets are $10.
This Is Who I Am
On Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and NYC’s PlayCo presents This Is Who I Am, Amir Nizar Zuabi‘s touching two-hander about a father in Ramallah and his son in New York trying to bridge a great geographical and emotional divide by cooking together via Zoom. Performed live, the play stars Ramsey Faragallah and Yousof Sultani, and is directed by Evren Odcikin. Tickets start at $16.
Theater of War Productions: The Book of Job
On Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, Theater of War Productions, a company that uses classical texts to examine contemporary issues, presents a starry reading of passages from The Book of Job, the ancient biblical story of how people react when disaster strikes, followed by a town hall-style discussion with the audience. Bill Murray, Frankie Faison, David Strathairn, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Kathryn Erbe and Nyasha Hatendi read the text, and director-adapter Bryan Doerries facilitates a post-performance conversation about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals, families and communities. Register to receive the free viewing link. This performance won’t be available after-the-fact.
The Metropolitan Opera: Tosca
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Puccini’s Tosca, starring Shirley Verrett as the title diva, Luciano Pavarotti as her artist lover and Cornell MacNeil as the man who stands in the way of their happiness. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Ariadne auf Naxos, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.
New Works Virtual Festival: Secret Hour
On Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, the ambitious New Works Virtual Festival showcases 20 fresh plays in 20 days, with a debut every evening at 8 p.m. ET through Christmas. Tonight is Jenny Stafford‘s Secret Hour about a 35-year-old ethics professor whose struggle with infertility plunges her into a moral quandary. Kate Loprest, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend‘s Vincent Rodriguez III and Kevin Pollack star. Watch for free on YouTube.
All Weekend
Manhattan Theatre Club: Old Friends New Works Benefit
Manhattan Theatre Club enlists some of its famous collaborators for an evening of brand-new pieces. The hour-long program includes Edie Falco performing a monologue by Simon Stephens; Laura Linney reprising her Tony-nominated turn as Lucy Barton in a follow-up monologue by Elizabeth Strout; and Jeremy Pope crooning a new tune by Jason Michael Webb. Watch for free until Monday on MTC’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.
Dylan McDermott in Night of the Iguana
La Femme Theatre Productions presents Night of the Iguana, Tennessee Williams’ steamy tale of an Episcopal priest turned tour guide, who gets into love trouble south of the border. Dylan McDermott stars as the struggling reverend, and Phylicia Rashad, Roberta Maxwell, Carmen Berkeley and Jean Lichty are some of the ladies who complicate his life. Emily Mann directs this prerecorded reading. Tickets start at $10 and all proceeds go to The Actors Fund. The recording is viewable until Sunday.
Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes — At Home Holiday Special
For the first time since its 1933 debut, Radio City Music Hall’s annual Christmas Spectacular is not going on… not on stage at least. Instead, NBC has put together an hour-long special featuring archival recordings of the show’s most beloved segments starring the legendary, leggy Radio City Rockettes. In between numbers such as the “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” Whoopi Goldberg, Josh Groban, John Legend and other celebrities share personal season’s greetings. Watch on NBC’s streaming service Peacock, which is free to join.
Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol
On Friday at 8 p.m. ET; Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m. ET; and Sunday at 4 and 7 p.m. ET, yes, there are a lot of virtual Christmas Carols this season. But the one by Manual Cinema, a company acclaimed for combining shadow puppetry and filmic elements, is surely the most original. Performed live from the troupe’s Chicago studio, the production uses hundreds of paper puppets, miniatures, silhouettes and a live original score to conjure Dickens’ holiday redemption tale. Tickets start at $15.
TheaterWorks Hartford: Christmas on the Rocks
Deck the halls with tales of folly with Christmas on the Rocks, TheaterWorks Hartford‘s irreverent holiday staple. Conceived and directed by Rob Ruggiero, it’s a cavalcade of Christmas jeer as iconic kid characters from holiday movies and specials share their woes in satirical shorts. Tickets are $25 and the recording is viewable until Thursday, December 31. Closed captions are available.
MNM Theatre Company: Closer Than Ever
Florida’s MNM Theatre Company presents Closer Than Ever, Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire’s witty musical revue of insightful songs about love and life. Propelled by theme not plot, the show features a cast of four and was filmed live on stage during quarantine in an empty theatre. Director Jonathan Van Dyke‘s clever blocking delivers a sense of intimacy while keeping actors socially distant. Tickets are $20 and the recording is viewable until Thursday, December 31.
Basil Twist’s Symphonie Fantastique
Puppet master Basil Twist presents a recording of his breakthrough show Symphonie Fantastique, an underwater ballet danced by vibrant pieces of fabric, sheets of plastic and other inanimate objects to Berlioz’s title composition. A one-of-a-kind spectacle, this production was filmed during the show’s 20th anniversary run at HERE Arts Center in 2018 and includes behind-the-scenes moments illustrating how the magic is made. Tickets are $20 for a 48-hour rental.
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Top image: the cast of 42nd Street at London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Photo by Sophie Thomas.
RAVEN SNOOK