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In-person shows have been back for over a year now, but sometimes we want to get our theatre fix at home. Thankfully, there are still wonderful stage performances to watch online. Our carefully curated list spotlights the five best performances to stream this holiday weekend, Friday, October 7 to Monday, October 10, for free or at low cost.
Streaming for FREE until Saturday, November 5
PBS Great Performances presents Merry Wives, Jocelyn Bioh's fabulous one-act adaptation of the Bard's The Merry Wives of Windsor, filmed live on stage at Shakespeare in the Park's Delacorte Theater in summer 2021. Set in modern-day Harlem with ladies' man Falstaff (Broadway vet Jacob Ming-Trent) attempting to woo two married West African immigrants, the show is an exuberant romp that celebrates broad comedy and Black joy. Saheem Ali directs an all-Black cast in this laugh-out-loud comedy, which I absolutely loved.
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Streaming for FREE until Friday, October 14
PBS Great Performances presents Black Lucy and The Bard, a dance-spoken word hybrid from Nashville Ballet featuring poetry by Caroline Randall Williams and an original score by Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens. Explore Shakespeare's romantic life from the perspective of two lovers name-checked in his sonnets: the "Dark Lady" and the "Fair Youth," embodied here by a Black woman and a young man. Williams narrates the piece with passages from her 2015 book Lucy Negro, Redux.
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Streaming for FREE until Sunday, October 16
Roundabout Theatre Company partners with Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater for season two of The Refocus Project, an initiative to expand the canon of classics by spotlighting undersung works by playwrights of color. Earlier this year, Roundabout hosted three readings of works by Latine dramatists live on stage, and you can now stream those performances: Sarita, about one woman's quest for personal agency by legendary experimental Cuban-American playwright María Irene Fornés; René Marqués' The Oxcart, about a Puerto Rican family's migration from the mountains to San Juan; and Fausto Avendaño's El Corrido de California (performed mostly in Spanish) about the fight for California between Mexico and the US. In order to view the videos, you must share your name and email address.
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Live-streaming Sunday, October 9 at 7 p.m. ET for $25
Here's a recipe for a sweet evening: a cabaret featuring seven performers who played the leading role of Jenna in Waitress on Broadway (Kyra Kennedy, Bailey McCall, Grace Stockdale, Stephanie Torns) and on tour (Kelly Prendergast, Jisel Soleil Ayon, Christine Dwyer). They'll be "Opening Up" about all their Waitress memories and singing numbers from the musical. Matt DeAngelis hosts this tasty concert, which is live-streaming from 54 Below's swanky stage. If you prefer to attend in person, click here for info.
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Live-streaming Sunday, October 9 at 9:30 p.m. ET for $19
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a group of Broadway artists banded together to raise their voices and some money for women's reproductive rights. This marks their inaugural concert, with all proceeds going to the New York Abortion Access Fund. The lineup includes Taylor Iman Jones (Head Over Heels, Scotland, PA), Anthony Lee Medina (Hamilton), Kyra Kennedy (Waitress) and Julia Bain (Waitress). Live-streaming directly from The Green Room 42 in Midtown. If you prefer to attend in person, click here for info.
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Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her at @RavenSnook. Follow TDF at @TDFNYC.
Top image: Pascale Armand and Susan Kelechi Watson in Merry Wives, which is streaming all month. Photo by Joan Marcus.
Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her on Facebook at @Raven.Snook. Follow TDF on Facebook at @TDFNYC.
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