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 Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Friday, January 15 to Monday, January 18, for free or at low cost.

Friday, January 15

Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival: Transatlantic Tales
On Friday at 3 p.m. ET, since 2008, Origin Theatre Company has presented the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival featuring readings, productions and panels. Today, AboutFace Ireland presents Transatlantic Tales, a series of eight new playlets performed live on Zoom. The international cast includes many NYC stage actors, including Irish Rep regulars John Keating, Orlagh Cassidy and Kevin Collins, and Drama Desk Award winner Richard Topol. Tickets are free but required to receive the viewing link.

Virtual Halston: John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey
On Friday at 5 p.m. ET, Broadway funny lady Julie Halston welcomes husband-and-wife jazz masters John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey to her weekly chatfest. Expect lots of syncopated banter! Watch for free on YouTube.

Play-PerView: Blue Ridge
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, Play-PerView presents a live reading of Blue Ridge, Abby Rosebrock's searing and insightful play about female rage, which was a hit at Atlantic Theater Company a few seasons back. This event reunites the Off-Broadway cast, headlined by the spectacular Marin Ireland as a very angry halfway house resident, who disrupts the lives of everyone around her. Peter Mark Kendall, Kyle Beltran, Nicole Lewis, Chris Stack and Kristolyn Lloyd costar, and Obie winner Taibi Magar directs. I loved this play when I saw it on stage and it's sure to resonate in a powerful way these rage-filled days. Tickets start at $5 and proceeds go to the National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition. A recording will be viewable until Tuesday, January 19.

The Metropolitan Opera: Capriccio
On Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents John Cox's roaring '20s-set Capriccio, Strauss' love triangle featuring Renée Fleming as a countess courted by a composer (Joseph Kaiser) and a poet (Russell Braun). Sarah Connolly, Morten Frank Larsen and Peter Rose costar in 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, Armida, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

Stars in the House: Andrea Martin
On Friday at 8 p.m. ET, Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley celebrate the birthday of two-time Tony winner Andrea Martin on Stars in the House. Expect games, surprise guests, stories and songs. Watch for free on YouTube though donations to The Actors Fund are encouraged.

The Exponential Festival: Madge Love
On Friday at 8 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 Genée Coreno's multimedia Madge Love about the intense relationship between two small-town teenage girls. Watch for free on the fest's YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.

Adam Pascal: So Far: An Acoustic Retrospective
On Friday at 9 p.m., Tony nominee Adam Pascal performs a live concert from The Space in Las Vegas. With his shaggy sex appeal and raspy rock tenor, he rocketed to fame as Roger in the original production of Rent, and went on to star in Broadway's Aida, Cabaret and Chicago. In this intimate set, Pascal will share songs and stories from his career, accompanying himself on guitar—how very Roger from Rent! Tickets are $30.

PBS: In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl: Musicals and the Movies
On Friday at 9 p.m. ET, PBS' new series In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl launches with a compilation of uplifting past performances celebrating classic songs from musicals and cinema. The lineup includes Kristin Chenoweth singing "Over the Rainbow," Audra McDonald crooning "Moon River," and Sutton Foster and Brian Stokes Mitchell performing "On the Town," all backed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Watch for free on PBS' website.

Saturday, January 16

Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival: Under the Albert Clock
On Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, since 2008, Origin Theatre Company has presented the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival featuring readings, productions and panels. Today, The Lyric Theatre presents Under the Albert Clock, a quintet of new audio playlets penned by five Irish playwrights, each inspired by a different Belfast landmark and set in the year 2050. Tickets are $10.

Fabulous Fanny: The Songs and Stories of Fanny Brice
On Saturday at 7 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.

The Metropolitan Opera: Rodelinda
On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Stephen Wadsworth's staging of Rodelinda, Handel's drama about a queen faced with an impossible decision. Renée Fleming stars as the title royal alongside Stephanie Blythe, Andreas Scholl, Iestyn Davies and Joseph Kaiser in this 2011 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera's website. You can still stream yesterday's opera, Capriccio, until 6:30 p.m. today.

Metropolitan Playhouse: Aftermath
On Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, Metropolitan Playhouse, an Obie-winning company that revives forgotten plays, presents a reading of Aftermath, Mary P. Burrill's devastating 1919 one-act about a Black WWI hero who returns to his South Carolina home to discover his father has been lynched by an angry white mob. More than a century after its debut, the play continues to speak to the urgent issues of racism, nationalism and the danger of mob mentality. Timothy Johnson directs Ryan Vincent Anderson, Anthony T. Goss, Linda Kuriloff, Nia Akilah Robinson, Lawrence Winslow and Kim Yancey-Moore. Watch for free on the company's YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.

Adam Pascal: So Far: An Acoustic Retrospective
On Saturday at 9 p.m. ET, Tony nominee Adam Pascal performs a live concert from The Space in Las Vegas. With his shaggy sex appeal and raspy rock tenor, he rocketed to fame as Roger in the original production of Rent, and went on to star in Broadway's Aida, Cabaret and Chicago. In this intimate set, Pascal will share songs and stories from his career, accompanying himself on guitar—how very Roger from Rent! Tickets are $30.

The Exponential Festival: Double Bill
On Saturday 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. Tonight, catch a double bill of Nathan Repasz's PowerPoint performance The Unquestioned Interiority of Humankind, followed by The Puzzlers + The Puzzlers 2: Black Box, two short films inspired by Samuel Beckett's Texts for Nothing. Watch both for free on the fest's YouTube channel.

Sunday, January 17

The Flashpaper Open Forum
On Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, last year, former TDF Stages editor Mark Blankenship launched The Flashpaper, a fantastic print magazine about this pivotal moment in American theatre featuring thoughtful articles by well-known practitioners of the art form. This afternoon, Blankenship hosts an online open forum featuring Eclipsed Tony nominee Pascale Armand, Broadway vet Amber Iman and Obie-winning playwright Caridad Svich talking about their hopes for the industry's future. Register to receive the free viewing link.

New Federal Theatre Virtual Gala
On Sunday at 4 p.m. ET, one of New York's most lauded Black companies, Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre, celebrates its 50th anniversary with a starry virtual gala. The guest list includes Tony winner Phylicia Rashad as well as Tony nominees Debbie Allen, Trazana Beverley, Stephen McKinley Henderson and S. Epatha Merkerson. Watch for free on New Federal Theatre's website though donations are encouraged.

The Exponential Festival: perverse reverie forever
On Sunday at 5 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 Deepali Gupta's perverse reverie forever described as "a filmed album project concerning the limbic and the liminal." Watch for free on the fest's YouTube channel though donations are encouraged.

NewYorkRep: CivilWrights
On Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the ongoing fight for equality, New York Rep presents CivilWrights, an evening of anti-racist playlets by four BIPOC dramatists. The lineup consists of Jerome A. Parker's Animals - The Last Days of Amy Cooper, about last year's infamous encounter between a Black male bird watcher and a white woman walking her dog in Central Park; Akin Salawu's N%##&r of the Month (or Feeding the Beast), which examines racism in the allegedly progressive nonprofit world; Ren Dara Santiago's Where We At. featuring two friends discussing identity and relationships; and James Anthony Tyler's Those Wishing about a Black family grappling with whether to call the police for help. The performance will be followed by a Town Hall-style talkback. Register to receive the free viewing link.

The Metropolitan Opera: Rusalka
On Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Otto Schenk's staging of Rusalka, Antonín Dvorák's tragic Little Mermaid-style fable, starring soprano Renée Fleming as a water nymph who longs to be where the people are so she can win her prince (Piotr Beczala). Emily Magee, Dolora Zajick and John Relyea costar in this 2014 mounting. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera's website. You can still stream yesterday's opera, Rodelinda, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

The Seth Concert Series: Kelli O'Hara
On Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, apparently, hosting a daily online talk show and a Sirius XM Satellite Radio series isn't enough for the multitalented Seth Rudetsky. Well-known for his skills as a pianist, musical director and interviewer, he's hosted a series of intimate live concerts with Broadway favorites for the past decade. This season he brings the show online and tonight's headliner is Tony winner Kelli O'Hara. Rudetsky and O'Hara are old friends—in fact, back in May, she was the first star to perform in this concert series. So, in addition to hearing her croon songs from the shows she's starred in (The King and I, Kiss Me, Kate, The Bridges of Madison County), Rudestsky is sure to get this diva to dish! Tickets are $25.

Monday, January 18

BAM's 35th Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On Monday at 11 a.m. ET, BAM's annual MLK Day celebration goes virtual this year with an impressive array of performers and politicians. The lineup includes a keynote speech by Alicia Garza, cofounder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, and performances by Grammy winner PJ Morton, Sing Harlem!, and spoken word artists Timothy DuWhite and Ashley August. Watch for free on BAM's website.

The Seth Concert Series: Kelli O'Hara
On Monday at 3 p.m. ET, apparently, hosting a daily online talk show and a Sirius XM Satellite Radio series isn't enough for the multitalented Seth Rudetsky. Well-known for his skills as a pianist, musical director and interviewer, he's hosted a series of intimate live concerts with Broadway favorites for the past decade. This season he brings the show online. Last night's headliner was Tony winner Kelli O'Hara and you can watch a recording today. Rudetsky and O'Hara are old friends—in fact, back in May, she was the first star to perform in this concert series. So, in addition to hearing her croon songs from the shows she's starred in (The King and I, Kiss Me, Kate, The Bridges of Madison County), Rudestsky is sure to get this diva to dish! Tickets are $25.

Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival: Transatlantic Tales
On Monday at 3 p.m. ET, since 2008, Origin Theatre Company has presented the annual Origin 1st Irish Festival featuring readings, productions and panels. Today, AboutFace Ireland presents Transatlantic Tales, a series of eight new playlets performed live on Zoom. The international cast includes many NYC stage actors, including Irish Rep regulars John Keating, Orlagh Cassidy and Kevin Collins, and Drama Desk Award winner Richard Topol. Tickets are free but required.

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene: Soul to Soul
On Monday at 4 p.m. ET, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene honors the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with Soul to Soul, an annual concert celebrating cross-cultural connections between the African-American and Jewish communities. A tuneful mix of gospel, jazz, klezmer and folk songs, the event was conceived by Folksbiene artistic director Zalmen Mlotek and stars Lisa Fishman, Magda Fishman, Elmore James, Zalmen Mlotek, Tony Perry and Tatiana Wechsler. Tickets are $12 but if you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase them at a discount.

Theater of War Productions: The Drum Major Instinct
On Monday at 7 p.m. ET, Theater of War Productions, a company that uses classical texts to examine contemporary issues, presents a reading of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "The Drum Major Instinct" speech, which he delivered in February 1968 at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church. A cautionary sermon about the oppressive outcome of always wanting to be first, the text will be read by Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Moses Ingram from The Queen's Gambit, with soloists De-Rance Blaylock, Duane Foster and John Leggette singing original music by Dr. Philip Woodmore. After the performance, director Bryan Doerries will facilitate a community conversation about racism, inequality and social justice. Tickets are free but required.

The Metropolitan Opera: Carmen
On Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET, the Metropolitan Opera presents Bizet's Carmen starring Anita Rachvelishvili as the title character, who captivates all the men around her. Anita Hartig, Aleksandrs Antonenko and Ildar Abdrazakov costar in this 2014 production. Watch for free for 23 hours after the start time on the Metropolitan Opera's website. You can still stream yesterday's opera, Rusalka, until 6:30 p.m. ET today.

Jim Caruso's Pajama Cast Party
On Monday at 8 p.m. ET, cabaret maven Jim Caruso welcomes renowned singers and up-and-comers at Pajama Cast Party, a live-streamed version of his popular weekly Cast Party gatherings that have taken place at Birdland for years. Tonight's lineup includes Broadway vets Claybourne Elder and Capathia Jenkins, singer-songwriter Susan Werner, and husband-and-wife opera duo Jessica Fishenfeld and Scott Joiner. Watch for free on YouTube though tips via the Venmo app are appreciated.

All Weekend

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella
On Friday at 11 p.m.; Saturday at 5 and 11 p.m.; and Sunday at 4 and 9:30 p.m. ET, visionary choreographer Matthew Bourne brings his signature theatrical flair to the old Cinderella story with this breathtaking ballet, set to Prokofiev's sumptuous score. This production was filmed live at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre during Cinderella's 2017-18 tour, and the dancing and camerawork are absolutely dazzling. If you enjoyed Bourne's take on Swan Lake, this is a must-see. Tickets are $10.

MasterVoices: Myths and Hymns: Flight
MasterVoices presents Flight, the first installment of the four-part theatrical song cycle Myths and Hymns by Light in the Piazza Tony winner Adam Guettel. Inspired by Greek myths and 19th-century Presbyterian hymns, the 1998 work explores the nature of faith and longing in our secular society. Released as digital chapters conjured by multimedia artists, this first section features the MasterVoices choir, a cappella gospel group Take 6, and Broadway vets Renée Fleming, Joshua Henry, Capathia Jenkins, Mykal Kilgore, Norm Lewis, Jose Llana, Kelli O'Hara and Elizabeth Stanley. Watch for free on MasterVoices' YouTube channel; the other three parts will be released in the coming months.

Ordinary Days
The Pittsburgh Playhouse presents Ordinary Days, Adam Gwon's chamber musical about four disparate New Yorkers who end up connecting in unexpected ways. The show was a smash at Roundabout Theatre Company a decade ago. Filmed during quarantine, this new production is a stage-cinema hybrid conceived by director Dave Solomon and production designer Jason Ardizzone-West, a Broadway vet who won an Emmy for his work on Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. There are two different casts to choose from, and tickets start at $5. The recording is viewable until Sunday.

Repertorio Español: La gringa
Venerable Latinx theatre company Repertorio Español presents La gringa, Carmen Rivera's heartwarming tale about a young Nuyorican who travels to Puerto Rico for the first time to connect with her extended family and her heritage. The longest-running Spanish-language production in Off-Broadway history, the play premiered 25 years ago. This production was recorded on stage at Repertorio Español pre-pandemic and is performed in Spanish with English subtitles. Tickets are $10.

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

Top image: Ashley Shaw and Andrew Monaghan in Matthew Bourne's Cinderella, which is streaming Friday through Sunday. Photo by Tristram Kenton.