35+ Stage Performances to Watch This Weekend January 29-31

Friday, January 29

Marisa Tomei and Bobby Cannavale in Three Hotels
Tectonic Theater Project presents Three Hotels, Jon Robin Baitz‘s celebrated 1993 play about a seemingly successful couple hiding their moral and emotional decay. Told via monologues set in hotel rooms in Morocco, the Virgin Islands and Mexico, the production stars two-time Tony nominee Bobby Cannavale as an unethical international businessman and Oscar winner Marisa Tomei as his wife. Moisés Kaufman directs this digital performance. Watch for free until Saturday though donations are encouraged.

Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival: The Gifts You Gave to the Dark and The Scourge
Since 2008, Origin Theatre Company has presented the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival featuring readings, productions and panels. This year the event goes virtual with daily offerings through the end of the month. On Friday, catch two mainstage shows:

• At 3 p.m. ET, Irish Rep presents The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, Darren Murphy‘s moving one-act about the final Zoom conversation between Tom, sick in Belfast with COVID-19, and his elderly mother Rose, who’s on her deathbed in Dublin. Seán McGinley, Marty Rea and The Beauty Queen of Leenane Tony winner Marie Mullen star, Caitríona McLaughlin directs. Tickets are $10.
• At 8 p.m. ET, Wexford Arts Center presents The Scourge, Michelle Dooley Mahon‘s autobiographical solo drama about her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s and how it impacted their tight-knit Irish family. Former Abbey Theatre head Ben Barnes directs. Tickets are $10.

Virtual Halston: Jesse Tyler Ferguson
On Friday at 5 p.m. ET, Julie Halston welcomes Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his lawyer-producer husband Justin Mikita to her weekly chatfest. We’re cracking up just thinking about it! Watch for free on YouTube.

The Metropolitan Opera: Der Fliegende Holländer
On Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Der Fliegende Holländer, Wagner’s ghost story about a sea captain cursed to sail the globe forever unless he finds true love. Evgeny Nikitin, Anja Kampe, Sergey Skorokhodov and Franz-Josef Selig star in this 2020 mounting, which was filmed just before the pandemic shut down the opera house. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Falstaff, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

The Exponential Festival: Double Bill
On Friday at 8 p.m. p.m. ET, every January since 2016, The Exponential Festival has showcased cutting-edge works mostly on Brooklyn stages. For its sixth annual edition, the event goes virtual with performances by some of the most exciting theatre-makers in the digital space. Tonight, catch Anabella Lenzu‘s The night that you stopped acting/La noche que dejaste de actuar about the playwright-performer’s experiences as a Latina/European artist in NYC, and Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez and Ellpetha Tsivicos‘ Night Descends on Svalbard about three stranded researchers in Norway. Watch both for free on the fest’s YouTube channel.

Fabulous Fanny: The Songs and Stories of Fanny Brice
On Friday at 9 p.m. ET, if you only know Fanny Brice as Barbra Streisand’s character in Funny Girl, time to get schooled. Kimberly Faye Greenberg portrays the legendary Jewish singer, comedian and Ziegfeld Follies star in this solo show, which delves into her incredible career and dramatic life. Expect torch songs, old-school shtick and Baby Snooks! (No relation to yours truly.) Tickets are $10.

Saturday, January 30

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, catch a matinee of Give Me Your Hand featuring Tony nominee Dearbhla Molloy and Dermot Crowley reciting Paul Durcan poems as paintings from London’s National Gallery 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.

Theatre for a New Audience: An Exploration of The Merchant of Venice
On Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, Brooklyn’s Theatre for a New Audience enlists director Arin Arbus and Tony-nominated actor John Douglas Thompson for an exploration of scenes from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The two have collaborated on multiple productions at the theatre over the years (Othello, Macbeth, A Doll’s House) and Merchant is their next project, with Douglas as the complex Shylock. Today, they’re tackling Act IV’s explosive trial scene. Isabel Arraiza, Danaya Esperanza, Ian Lassiter, Ajay Naidu, Alfredo Narciso and Graham Winton costar and a talkback follows the performance. Register to receive the free viewing link.

The Metropolitan Opera: Rigoletto
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Tony winner Michael Mayer‘s mounting of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Reset in ’60s Las Vegas, the 2013 production stars Željko Lucic as the title character, a comedian who tries to protect his innocent daughter (Diana Damrau) from Piotr Beczal‘s lascivious Duke, a popular entertainer and casino owner. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera’s website. You can still stream yesterday’s opera, Der Fliegende Holländer, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

The Exponential Festival: Double Bill
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, every January since 2016, The Exponential Festival has showcased cutting-edge works mostly on Brooklyn stages. For its sixth annual edition, the event goes virtual with performances by some of the most exciting theatre-makers in the digital space. Tonight, catch underlords‘ eerie adventure Bloodshot: The Call, and Wi-Moto Nyoka‘s And Then I Wake Up, an audio horror play about dreams and nightmares. Watch both for free on the fest’s YouTube channel.

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, 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.

Metropolitan Playhouse: The Magical City
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Metropolitan Playhouse, an Obie-winning company that revives forgotten works, presents a reading of The Magical City, a free verse play about a love triangle and the absurd romanticism of urbanites. Written by Zoë Akins, who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for The Old Maid, the performance stars Kelly D. Cooper, Thomas Daniels, Cliff Miller, Brian Ott, Brian Richardson, Danielle Stanek, Pete Veliz and Barbra Wengerd and is directed by Michael Hardart. Watch for free on the company’s YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.

Sunday, January 31

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, catch 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.

Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival: Mustard
On Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, since 2008, Origin Theatre Company has presented the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival featuring readings, productions and panels. This year the event goes virtual with daily offerings through the end of the month. It wraps up today with Mustard, Eva O’Connor‘s solo show about heartbreak and heartburn presented by Dublin’s Fishamble theatre. Hildegard Ryan directs. Tickets are $10.

Fabulous Fanny: The Songs and Stories of Fanny Brice
On Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, if you only know Fanny Brice as Barbra Streisand’s character in Funny Girl, time to get schooled. Kimberly Faye Greenberg portrays the legendary Jewish singer, comedian and Ziegfeld Follies star in this solo show, which delves into her incredible career and dramatic life. Expect torch songs, old-school shtick and Baby Snooks! (No relation to yours truly.) Tickets are $10.

Brave New World Rep: Dutch Kings
On Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, Brooklyn’s Brave New World Rep kicks off a series of new online plays exploring police brutality and neighborhood reform. First up is Kristen I. Spencer‘s Dutch Kings about how gentrification upends a community. Christopher D. Betts directs Teri Brown, Anthony Holiday, Dexter McKinney, Travis Raeburn and TL Thompson. Reservations are required to receive the free viewing link though a $15 donation is suggested.

The Metropolitan Opera: Macbeth
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Macbeth, Verdi’s take on Shakespeare’s tragedy of a power-hungry power couple, played by Željko Lucic and Maria Guleghina. Dimitri Pittas and John Relyea costar in Adrian Noble‘s 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, Rigoletto, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

The Exponential Festival: Double Bill
On Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, every January since 2016, The Exponential Festival has showcased cutting-edge works mostly on Brooklyn stages. For its sixth annual edition, the event goes virtual with performances by some of the most exciting theatre-makers in the digital space. The fest wraps up tonight with Hannah Kallenbach‘s Purell Piece about a lonely woman who finds comfort in hand sanitizer, and José Rivera Jr.‘s LQQK about being nonbinary. Watch both for free on the fest’s YouTube channel.

All Weekend

The Homebound Project: Special Edition: 2021
One of last year’s most critically acclaimed digital series, The Homebound Project, returns with a fresh edition of world-premiere playlets. The 13 shorts, all inspired by the simple yet loaded prompt 2021, include Deirdre O’Connell and Christopher Abbott in a piece by Lucy Thurber; married thespians Becky Ann and Dylan Baker in a work by David Lindsay-Abaire; Michael Chernus in a playlet by Adam Rapp and Carolyn Ratteray in a solo by Bekah Brunstetter; plus a musical performance by Sting. The brainchild of playwright Catya McMullen and director Jenna Worsham, this initiative is raising money to support food insecure families during the pandemic. Tickets start at $10 and proceeds go to No Kid Hungry. The recording is viewable until Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.

Round House Theatre: The Catastrophist
Prolific and popular playwright Lauren Gunderson turns her perceptive pen on her husband, famed virologist Nathan Wolfe, who helped track Ebola, swine flu and now COVID-19. Gunderson has written many plays about historical figures in science but this is the first time she’s explored the life and career of her spouse, who’s portrayed by William DeMeritt in this one-man play, which was recorded at California’s Marin Theatre Company and is co-presented by Maryland’s Round House Theatre. Don’t worry if stats and data make your head spin—as always, Gunderson is more interested in what makes her characters tick personally rather than professionally. Tickets are $32.50 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, February 28.

Mischief Movie Night In
On Friday at 2:30 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 and 6:30 p.m., and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. ET, Mischief Theatre, the uproarious British troupe behind NYC’s long-running comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, presents a live improvised movie night, with the audience tasked with suggesting the title, genre and setting. Beyond lots of laughs, no one has any idea of what to expect—not even the performers. Tickets are £10, approximately $13.50.

WP Theater: The Nourish Project
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, WP Theater presents The Nourish Project, an innovative interactive experience curated by Rebecca Martínez, who brings together musicians, dancers and poets to explore how we feed ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. When booking, audiences choose one of four natural elements—water, earth, fire or air—to guide their multisensory journey. Tickets are required to receive the free viewing link though donations are encouraged.

All Arts: Isolation to Creation
Since 1984, the Guggenheim Museum has given audiences behind-the-scenes peeks at upcoming shows in its Works & Process series. But when the pandemic hit, the program changed its focus and began commissioning digital shorts from music, dance and theatre artists. All Arts‘ new documentary series Isolation to Creation explores how the pieces were created in our new abnormal. This inaugural episode focuses on dance, with interviews and performances by Ephrat Asherie, Les Ballet Afrik, Tony-nominated choreographer Joshua Bergasse, Sara Mearns from New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey’s Jamar Roberts and The Missing Element. Watch for free on All Arts’ website.

Safe Harbors NYC: Reflections of Native Voices
Safe Harbors NYC, a nonprofit that supports Indigenous performing artists, brings its annual Reflections of Native Voices festival online in partnership with New York Theatre Workshop and La MaMa Indigenous Collective. The lineup of performances include:

• Timothy White Eagle‘s Death and Mourning After, an improvised piece exploring the rituals and mythologies surrounding death
• Murielle Borst-Tarrant‘s Don’t Feed the Indians: A Divine Comedy Pageant, a satire loosely inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy
• Anthony Hudson‘s autobiographical solo Looking for Tiger Lily, about growing up a queer mixed Native person bombarded by problematic cultural references
• Murielle Borst-Tarrant‘s autobiographical solo Tipi Tales from the Stoop, about growing up in an Italian Brooklyn neighborhood

Visit the fest’s website to peruse the complete lineup. Tickets to individual shows are $10, or you can buy a full festival pass for $15. All shows are viewable until Sunday, February 7.

—

Top image: Bill Irwin in On Beckett at Irish Rep in 2018. The show is being streamed on Sunday. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

RAVEN SNOOK