This is a busy weekend for exciting or at least intriguing live-streamed shows. Some of them are of mammoth proportions, albeit one isolated performer at a time, such as the impossibly starry Sondheim birthday concert on Sunday, and the Met Gala on Saturday. But there’s also a 15-minute live “Zoom opera, and a film of the much snarked-about sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies. Many (but not all) of the shows remain online for up to three days after their launch. Most are free, but encourage contributions to the charity of their choice.
This is just a selection, mostly of those shows (not all of it theater) that I’m most tempted to “attend.” There is much more happening online (Check out Where to Get Your Theater Fix, and Calendar of April “Openings” )
Please feel permitted to just…dip in….or read a book instead, or sleep all weekend.
Friday
Play-On Fest,
the virtual equivalent of Coachella, will start at noon and run for three days, featuring 65 performers including Ben Platt, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Lizzo, Panic at the Disco. Click here for a full schedule,
“all decisions will be made by consensus,”
“the world’s first Zoom opera,” by composer Kamala Sankaram, librettist Rob Handel, and director Kristin Marting, about an online meeting of social activists, just 15 minutes long, at HERE Arts Facebook page , 1 p.m. Friday, then Saturday at 7 pm, Sunday at 3..
Love Never Dies
, the sequel to “Phantom of the Opera” (which was streamed last weekend.). See for yourself what the fuss (if that’s the right word) was about. The musical follows on ten years after the original musical, with the Phantom disappeared from the Paris Opera House to New York, where he now lives amongst the joy rides and freakshows of Coney Island. This film of the 2012 production stars Ben Lewis and Anna O’Byrne. Friday starting at 2pm ET. and available for 48 hours afterwards, on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s new YouTube Channel, The Shows Must Go On.
Justin Peck’s Rotunda. A new stream of a ballet, following up on NYC Ballet’s debut last Tuesday, 8 p.m. on the company’s YouTube channel and for three days after that.
The Ducks, Justin Sayre’s spoof of Hitchcock’s The Birds, live-streamed via Zoom
8 p.m. Tickets start at $11.49
Saturday
featuring more than 40 artists performing live around the world, 1 p.m.
Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw
, live reading on Stars in the House Youtube channel, narrated and directed by David Staller, with Daniel Davis, Santino Fontana, Alison Fraser, Tom Hewitt, Daniel Jenkins, Lauren Molina, and Phillipa Soo, 2 p.m.
Bad Education, HBO. Inspired by bizarre true events that occurred on Long Islnd, Bad Education stars Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney, which seems reason enough to see it
Sunday
“Take Me To The World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration”,
Meryl Streep, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonal, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Laura Benanti and too many more to mention celebrate Stephen Sondheim in concert,, organized by host Raúl Esparza, on Broadway.com’s YouTube channel at 8 p.m., timed to coincide with the the 50th anniversary of the opening night of Sondheim’s musical Company.
Together in Pride: You Are Not Alone,
A GLAAD fundraiser with performances by Alex Newell, the cast of Broadway’s “Jagged Little Pill”, Kesha, Melissa Etheridge. Mj Rodriguez and George Salazar, 8 p.m.
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