TDF Stages

In-person theatre is back in NYC, both on Broadway and beyond. But there are still wonderful shows to stream at home. Below are performances you can watch online this Halloween weekend, Friday, October 29 to Sunday, October 31, for free or at low cost.

Friday, October 29

Almeida Theatre: The Tragedy of Macbeth
On Friday at 2 p.m. ET, London's Almeida Theatre presents James McArdle and four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan in a critically acclaimed production of Macbeth. Directed by Yaël Farber, this mounting of Shakespeare's tragedy about history's bloodiest aspirational couple is being performed in person on stage, but will also be live-streamed to at-home audiences for a handful of performances. Tickets start at £25, approximately $34.

Young Vic: Hamlet
On Friday at 2 p.m. ET, London's lauded Young Vic presents stage and screen star Cush Jumbo in a bold new mounting of Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by her frequent collaborator Greg Hersov. While the production is being staged in person, select performances will be live-streamed to at-home audiences. Tickets start at £15, approximately $21. Captions and audio description are available.

Song for Nature
On Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET, the London Climate Change Festival presents Song for Nature, an inspiring concert raising awareness about the impact of climate change. Filmed on location at the London Coliseum, this program of dance, song, music and activism includes performances by opera singers Gerald Finley, Danielle de Niese and Marcelino Sambe, award-winning actor David Suchet, and musical theatre stars Kerry Ellis and Janie Dee. Tickets are £15, approximately $21.

Saturday, October 30

Almeida Theatre: The Tragedy of Macbeth
On Saturday at 8:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET, London's Almeida Theatre presents James McArdle and four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan in a critically acclaimed production of Macbeth. Directed by Yaël Farber, this mounting of Shakespeare's tragedy about history's bloodiest aspirational couple is being performed in person on stage, but will also be live-streamed to at-home audiences for a handful of performances. Tickets start at £25, approximately $34.

Young Vic: Hamlet
On Saturday at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET, London's lauded Young Vic presents stage and screen star Cush Jumbo in a bold new mounting of Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by her frequent collaborator Greg Hersov. While the production is being staged in person, select performances will be live-streamed to at-home audiences. Tickets start at £15, approximately $21. Captions and audio description are available.

Sunday, October 31

Kraine Theater: Cabaret: A Night with the Dead, a Tribute to Our Loved Ones
On Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, the Kraine Theater in the East Village presents an in-person Day of the Dead cabaret that will also be streamed to at-home audiences. A cavalcade of downtown divas will share poems, stories and songs about their departed loved ones on a stage featuring a traditional ofrenda (altar). Tickets are pay-what-you-wish.

The Seth Concert Series: Shoshana Bean
On Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, even though show-tune savant Seth Rudetsky is back doing shows in person, he hasn't completely abandoned the virtual realm. In fact, he's relaunched his weekly live-streamed concert series! Tonight, catch Broadway leading lady and solo recording artist Shoshana Bean. Musical lovers know her as Elphaba in Wicked and Jenna in Waitress, but this singer-songwriter has also released a number of independent solo albums and amassed quite a YouTube following. Tickets are $25.

All Weekend

New York Theatre Workshop: Sanctuary City
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, if you weren't able to see this eye-opening drama by Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok (Cost of Living, queens, Ironbound) during its critically acclaimed Off Broadway run, you can now stream Sanctuary City online. Like many of Majok's previous plays, Sanctuary City focuses on the struggles of undocumented immigrants as two teenage friends try to figure out how to forge a future in an unforgiving country. Olivier Award winner Rebecca Frecknall directs Jasai Chase-Owens, Sharlene Cruz and Austin Smith in this piercing piece, which unfolds in an unexpected, nonlinear way. Tickets start at $30.

Donmar Warehouse: Constellations
London's acclaimed Donmar Warehouse presents Nick Payne's Constellations, a time-bending two-hander that explores the notion of the multiverse by replaying key moments in one couple's romance. Michael Longhurst, who helmed the play on Broadway, directed this production, which was filmed on stage with four different casts taking on this trippy tale. The pairings are Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah; Peter Capaldi and Zoë Wanamaker; Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey; and Anna Maxwell Martin and Chris O'Dowd. Tickets are £15 for each cast, approximately $21. Or you can watch all four for £40, approximately $55. Captions and audio description are available. You must create a Donmar Warehouse account to watch.

I Put a Spell on You: The Sanderson Variant
For years, Broadway scene-stealer Jay Armstrong Johnson (Hands on a Hardbody, On the Town) has been resurrecting the enchanting Sanderson Sisters from the cult movie Hocus Pocus for an in-person Halloween extravaganza. Like last year, 2021's hilarious concert event is virtual, with Johnson (in the Bette Midler role) and his sorceress siblings Allison Robinson and Amanda Williams Ware recruiting some of pop culture's coolest villains to ensure the holiday's a real scream. Expect bewitching numbers from Broadway favorites such as Gavin Creel, J. Harrison Ghee, Todrick Hall, Robyn Hurder, Eva Noblezada and Will Swenson. Tickets are $20 and the recording is viewable until Monday, November 1. Proceeds benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Cape May Stage: Ghost Light: The Haunting
Cape May Stage presents Ghost Light: The Haunting, Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei's mash-up of Macbeth and the kabuki Yotsuya Ghost Tales. When an actress named Keiko is brutally betrayed by her ambitious actor spouse Bryan, she reenacts the tale of the ancient Japanese spirit Oiwa, haunting her husband as he attempts to navigate a high-profile Broadway production of Macbeth. Penny Bergman directs. Tickets start at $5 and the recording is viewable until Monday, November 1.

TheaterWorks Hartford: Someone Else's House
On Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 and 11 p.m., and Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, Connecticut's TheaterWorks Hartford presents Obie Award-winning multimedia artist Jared Mezzocchi in Someone Else's House, a real-life ghost story about the spirits his family encountered inside their 200-year-old New England home. Directed by Margot Bordelon, the production is performed live on Zoom with audience interaction, so every haunting is frighteningly unique. Tickets start at $45.

Theater Three Collaborative: Blue Valiant
After a successful Zoom reading during the pandemic, Theater Three Collaborative decided to stage Karen Malpede's moving drama Blue Valiant at Pennsylvania's outdoor Farm Arts Collective starring the invaluable Kathleen Chalfant. Filmed live on that alfresco stage, this story of trauma and healing centers on a lonely woman, a wild horse and a refugee child thrown together by circumstance and the unexpected bonds they forge. Watch for free until Sunday, November 28 on Theater Three Collaborative's YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.

National Alliance for Musical Theatre for the 33rd Annual Festival of New Musicals
Every fall, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre hosts a festival for industry folks featuring 20-minute teasers of promising in-development shows. Come From Away and The Drowsy Chaperone are two of the hits that were previously seen at this annual event. This year, the presentations were recorded so anyone can watch from home. Catch excerpts from Private Gomer Jones starring Stephen Bogardus; Little Duende; Missing Peace; TL;DR: Thelma Louise; Dyke Remix!; Maya starring Kuhoo Verma; Fanny & Stella starring Nathan Lee Graham, Eddie Korbich and Judy Kuhn; AZUL and Senior Class. Tickets start at $32 and the recordings are viewable until Monday, November 1.

Vineyard Theatre: Fall Forward Festival
During the shutdown, the Vineyard Theatre commissioned five artists to create new boundary-breaking theatre. The resulting works will debut throughout the fall and two are available to experience this weekend. Aunt Lillian is a new audio musical comedy by the wonderful Kirsten Childs (Bella: An American Tall Tale, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin). Based on her own childhood memories, the short is inspired by her real-life aunt, who traveled from North Carolina to Los Angeles to help care for Childs and her siblings. Maybe Dorothy Was Right is a short film by celebrated playwright-performer Ngozi Anyanwu exploring the neighborhoods and theatres that have been part of her NYC journey. Alfonso Johnson directs. Both offerings are available for free on the Vineyard's website though you need to create a log in.

Center Theatre Group: Chavez Ravine: In 9 Innings
Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group presents Chavez Ravine: In 9 Innings, a virtual reimagining of a 2003 play about the small, tight-knit LA neighborhood that was razed so Dodger Stadium could rise. Devised by the collective Culture Clash, this digital production features scenes from the original script filmed at LA's Kirk Douglas Theatre and on location around the city, incorporating music, archival videos and photos, and new interviews. Tickets are $20 and the recording is viewable until Monday, December 6.

Lantern Theater Company: The Plague
Philadelphia's Lantern Theater Company presents The Plague, Neil Bartlett's adaptation of Albert Camus' existentialist classic La Peste about a disease upending a city. Talk about timely! Charles McMahon directs this production, which was filmed live on stage this past summer. Tickets are $20 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, November 7.

Playing on Air: Ghoul Fools
Acclaimed podcast Playing on Air partners with TDF's Young Playwrights to present a new audio short by one of our talented students! Samuel Schell's Ghoul Fools focuses on two paranormal investigators whose friendship becomes strained when they try to turn their supernatural adventures into a podcast. Will they end up ghosting each other? Sarah Storm directs Megan Hill, Neimah Djourabchi and Steve Maurice Jones. Listen for free on Playing on Air's website.

Lantern Theater Company: Me and the Devil
Renaissance man Steve H. Broadnax III, who's currently making his Broadway debut as the director of Thoughts of a Colored Man, cowrote, costars and helms Me and the Devil, a new play with music about blues great Robert Johnson. According to legend, the guitarist, singer and songwriter made a deal with the Devil for his talents. Broadnax plays Lucifer and Lawrence Stallings is his mark in this show, which finds Johnson trying to extract himself from the contract to save his soul. Tickets are $20 and the recording is viewable until Sunday, November 21.

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Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her at @RavenSnook. Follow TDF at @TDFNYC.

Top image: James McArdle and Saoirse Ronan in The Tragedy of Macbeth, which is being live-streamed from the stage of London's Almeida Theatre this weekend. Photo by Marc Brenner.