TDF Stages

With in-person theatre out of commission for the foreseeable future, many companies and performers from Broadway and beyond are showcasing their work online. Below are performances you can watch this Wednesday, November 11 and Thursday, November 12 from the comfort of your couch for free or at low cost.

Wednesday, November 11

The Metropolitan Opera: La Traviata
On Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, ever since the shutdown began, the Metropolitan Opera has been sharing productions from its Live in HD series nightly at 7:30 p.m. ET. But it also presents weekly student streams that debut on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. ET. These productions have been specially selected for families, and Zoom education sessions leading up to the screening teach school-age kids about opera. This week's offering is La Traviata, Verdi's romantic tragedy about a courtesan whose chance at true love is thwarted by bourgeois mores. Tony-winning director Michael Mayer helmed this 2018 mounting, which stars Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez as ill-fated lovers, and Quinn Kelsey as his disapproving father. Watch for free until Friday at 5 p.m. ET on the Metropolitan Opera's website.

ACT of Connecticut: The Last Five Years
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, Jason Robert Brown's musical dissection of a romance, The Last Five Years, has proven to be a pandemic favorite with multiple productions in the UK and stateside. It makes sense since the two-hander is about disconnection, as the man tells his side of their love story chronologically while the woman recalls their relationship in reverse. This mounting comes courtesy of ACT of Connecticut and is performed live on stage in front of a small in-person audience with many more watching online. Tickets are available from the theatre but TDF members get a discount.

Broadway's Great American Songbook: Lee Roy Reams
On Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, The York Theatre Company continues its Broadway's Great American Songbook cabaret series with Tony nominee Lee Roy Reams, whose 50-plus-year career on Broadway includes scene-stealing turns in Hello, Dolly!, Beauty and the Beast, 42nd Street and The Producers. He choreographs and directs, too! Michael Feinstein hosts this intimate concert. Tickets are $20.

The Metropolitan Opera: La Fanciulla del West
On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents La Fanciulla del West, a rootin'-tootin' romance set during the California Gold Rush, as a charming outlaw wins the heart of a gun-toting saloon owner. Deborah Voigt and Marcello Giordani headline this 2011 mounting. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera's website. You can still stream yesterday's opera, Salome, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

Stars in the House: Bandstand Reunion
On Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, in honor of Veterans Day, Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley host a Bandstand reunion on Stars in the House. An underrated musical about WWII vets trying to win a music contest while grappling with PTSD, the Broadway production starred Corey Cott, Laura Osnes, Beth Leavel and Joey Pero, who'll all drop by to share backstage stories and onstage songs. Pero's journey with the show is particularly inspiring. Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.

Primary Stages: Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay
On Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, Off Broadway's Primary Stages kicks off its Living Room Commissions series with Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay, a choreopoem created by and starring Chesney Snow, set to music by Obie-winning composer Diedre Murray. An actor, singer and beatboxer, Snow appeared in Primary Stages' subway-set musical In Transit. This new one-act delves deep into urgent issues, including race, class and American politics. Tickets start at $35.

Thursday, November 12

DANCE NOW: Chapter 3
On Thursday at noon ET, usually presented over a few jam-packed days at Joe's Pub, this 25th annual dance festival has been reimagined for our virtual world, with monthly online installments through May 2021. Chapter 3 features new digital commissions from Mariana Valencia, Nicole Vaughan-Diaz and Orlando Hernández, alongside archival recordings of pieces by Take Dance and Amber Sloan. Tickets start at $10 and the program can be viewed anytime.

Primary Stages: Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay
On Thursday at 2 and 8 p.m. ET, Off Broadway's Primary Stages kicks off its virtual Living Room Commissions series with Soil Beneath: An Empirical Decay, a choreopoem created by and starring Chesney Snow, set to music by Obie-winning composer Diedre Murray. An actor, singer and beatboxer, Snow appeared in Primary Stages' subway-set musical In Transit. This new one-act delves deep into urgent issues, including race, class and American politics. Tickets start at $35.

London Coliseum: [title of show]
On Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET, the London Coliseum presents a digital reimagining of Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen's Tony-nominated meta musical [title of show], about two pals named Hunter and Jeff trying to write a tuner on an insanely tight deadline. London stage vets Marc Elliot, Tyrone Huntley, Jenna Russell and Lucie Jones star. Tickets start at £14.75, approximately $20.

Broadway's Great American Songbook: Lee Roy Reams
On Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET, The York Theatre Company continues its Broadway's Great American Songbook cabaret series with Tony nominee Lee Roy Reams, whose 50-plus-year career on Broadway includes scene-stealing turns in Hello, Dolly!, Beauty and the Beast, 42nd Street and The Producers. He choreographs and directs, too! Michael Feinstein hosts this intimate concert. Tickets are $20.

PlayCo: Read Subtitles Aloud
On Thursday at 5 p.m. ET, PlayCo and Media Art Xploration debut the interactive online series Read Subtitles Aloud featuring an unlikely star: you. Not only are you the main character, you're the only live actor in this mind-bending exploration of control, submission and isolation created by Onur Karaoglu and Kathryn Hamilton, who appear in prerecorded segments. No idea what to expect? That's the point! Register to receive the free viewing link; new episodes are released daily through Monday, November 23.

Ars Nova: Showgasm.
On Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, one of Off-Off Broadway's most innovative institutions, Ars Nova has served as the launching pad for lots of big things, including the musical The Great Comet, Lin-Manuel Miranda and now its own streaming service, Ars Nova Supra!. Tonight, you can catch a virtual edition of its anything-goes variety show Showgasm. Stage treasure Joél Pérez (Fun Home, Sweet Charity) guest hosts this edition, which features singer-songwriter Esabalu, drag diva Anya Kneez and comedian Milly Tamarez. Tickets are $5 or you can subscribe to the platform for a flat monthly fee of $15.

ACT of Connecticut: The Last Five Years
On Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, Jason Robert Brown's musical dissection of a romance, The Last Five Years, has proven to be a pandemic favorite with multiple productions in the UK and stateside. It makes sense since the two-hander is about disconnection, as the man tells his side of their love story chronologically while the woman recalls their relationship in reverse. This mounting comes courtesy of ACT of Connecticut and is performed live on stage in front of a small in-person audience with many more watching online. Tickets are available from the theatre but TDF members get a discount.

Live with Carnegie Hall: Kronos Quartet and Friends
On Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET, Carnegie Hall presents cutting-edge classical ensemble Kronos Quartet in a live concert celebrating the activist songs of the late Pete Seeger, the subject of the group's tribute album Long Time Passing. Watch for free on Carnegie Hall's YouTube channel.

The Metropolitan Opera: Lulu
On Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Berg's Lulu about the charismatic title character, who captivates all the men around her. Marlis Petersen stars in William Kentridge's 2015 production, with Johan Reuter Daniel Brenna, Paul Groves and Franz Grundheber as those under her spell. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera's website. You can still stream yesterday's opera, La Fanciulla del West, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

Dance On! An Evening with the Mark Morris Dance Group Part 2
On Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, Mark Morris celebrates his namesake troupe's 40th anniversary with a quartet of videodances created remotely by the choreographer. Two are based on preexisting Morris pieces, Empire Garden Layla and Majnun; the two premieres are set to Debussy's Clair de Lune and Conlon Nancarrow's Piano Sonata. The program includes a special performance by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and a Q&A with Morris. Register to receive the free viewing link; a $20 donation is suggested.

Broadway's Best Shows: Boston Marriage
On Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, Broadway's Best Shows, which presented powerhouse readings of plays such as Love Letters and November in the spring, continues its virtual season with Boston Marriage, an uncharacteristic comedy by David Mamet centering on the power struggles between two lesbians (Patti LuPone and Rebecca Pidgeon) in Victorian-era New England. Sophia Macy rounds out the threesome as their maid and the playwright himself directs. Tickets start at $5 and proceeds go to The Actors Fund. The recording will remain viewable until Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.

Stars in the House: Legally Blonde: The Musical – The Search for Elle Woods Reunion
On Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, omigod you guys, it's a Legally Blonde: The Musical – The Search for Elle Woods reunion on Stars in the House. Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley welcome contestants from MTV's reality competition, including Autumn Hurlbert, who ended up understudying the role of Elle Woods on Broadway, Emma Zaks, Lauren Zakrin and Celina Carvajal, who changed her name to Lena Hall and won a Tony for her performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch! Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.

Available to Watch Both Days

The Shows Must Go On: Fiona Shaw in Richard II
Since theatres shut down, the UK-based The Shows Must Go On series has been screening musicals on weekends. But for the month of November, they're adding weekly streams of starry Shakespearean productions. This week's gem is a 1997 recording of the brilliant Fiona Shaw as the peevish title monarch in the rarely mounted tragedy Richard II, helmed by her frequent collaborator Deborah Warner. Watch for free until Sunday on YouTube.

Syracuse Stage: Talley's Folly
Real-life spouses Jason O'Connell and Kate Hamill, known for costarring in her clever stage adaptations of classic literature, headline Talley's Folly, Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning two-hander about an unlikely romance in rural Missouri in 1944. The production was recorded live at Syracuse Stage to an empty house, and the lighting design is by TDF Wendy Wasserstein Project mentor Dawn Chiang! Tickets start at $30.

Emilia
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 Vaudeville Theatre on the West End, and a recording of that production is being streamed until Monday, November 23. Pay-what-you-can tickets start at £1, approximately $1.30. Closed captioning and audio description are available.

Play-PerView: Toni Stone
On Tuesday, Play-PerView presented a live reading of Toni Stone and you can watch a recording until Saturday. Lydia R. Diamond's rousing play centers on the title Black athlete, the first woman to play big-league professional baseball alongside men when she joined the Negro American League in 1953. A potent examination of racism and misogyny in America, the show was a hit for the Roundabout Theatre Company last year. This event reunites that production's director, Pam MacKinnon and cast, led by April Matthis in her superb Obie-winning turn as Toni Stone. Tickets start at $15 and benefit the Negro League Baseball Museum.

George Street Playhouse: Conscience
New Jersey's George Street Playhouse presents an encore streaming of Conscience about US Senator Margaret Chase, who heroically denounced McCarthyism in her 1950 "Declaration of Conscience" speech. Written by Memphis Tony winner Joe DiPietro, this play was running at the New Brunswick theatre when the shutdown hit. Director David Saint reunites castmates Mark Junek, Lee Sellars, Cathryn Wake and Tony winner Harriet Harris as the courageous Chase for this virtual production. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish but a $25 donation is suggested. The recording is viewable until Sunday.

JoyceStream
Chelsea dance haven The Joyce Theater continues its virtual season with four eclectic recordings available for four weeks: Michela Marino Lerman's troupe Love Movement in Jazz on a High Floor in the Afternoon; Louis Mofsie and the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers in concert; Gimp Gait and an excerpt from Reprise by Pioneer Winter Collective, and Sankofa Danzafro's Fecha Limite about the violence against and displacement of Afro-Colombian and Native communities. Watch for free until Sunday, December 6 on The Joyce's website.

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

Top image: Patti LuPone, who stars in David Mamet's Boston Marriage.