Click here for June 30 openings
Below is the calendar of “theater openings”* for June, 2020, with many online shows, series and festivals showcasing LGBTQ Pride Month, and the entire list demonstrating the perseverance and resilience of an art form that is adjusting to the shut-down of physical stages.
Among the one-time only star-studded spectacles in June: We Are One Public at the Public Theater, two different Tony Awards celebrations, and the New York Times’ “Offstage: Opening Night” (see June 11.) This last show launches a series that will feature performances from shows that opened (or should have opened) in the 2019-2020 season.
Among the other exciting new online series in June: Lincoln Center’s Dance Week (which continues every day through June 4th) and its Broadway Fridays (Carousel on June 5th, The Nance on June 12, Act One on June 19), and Pride Plays, a partnership between Playbill and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, which will present “a live streamed theatrical event from the LGBTQIA+ theatrical canon” every Friday in June (including Mort Crowley’s sequel to The Boys in the Band. See June 26) — plus 11 new LGBT plays by emerging writers at dates yet to be announced.
Also take note of The Civilians’ ninth annual Findings series, which for the first time is going online. The five offerings in this year’s groundbreaking documentary theater series share “a common thread of how humanity perseveres and seeks out joy through adversity.”
Since so many shows are being put together at the last minute — sometimes not announced until the very day of their launch .. and also last-minute postponements/cancellations — I will be updating/filling in this preview guide every day, and highlighting the offerings each new day with the link up top. This calendar as of this moment offers a glimpse of what’s in store. Come back day by day for a better look.
Here are some ongoing series that have proven to be reliable sources of art and entertainment.
Four offer live performances (often called readings) of original plays:
The Homebound Project
Livelabs: One Acts from MCC
Play-PerView
Viral Monologues from 24 Hour Plays
(Play-PerView makes an exception this month to its original plays with what counts as a coup — the live reading of the Pulitzer finalist play Heroes of the Fourth Turning. )
A fifth offers live readings of classics and recent favorites: Plays in the House, Stars in the House’s twice weekly matinees and now Plays in the House Teen Edition.
Three offer recordings of previous (glorious) stage productions.
Metropolitan Opera
National Theatre at Home
The Shows Must Go On from Andrew Lloyd Webber
For details about these and other ongoing series, check out my post Where To Get Your Theater Fix Online (which lists, for example, the many long-running online sites such as BraadwayHD and Marquee TV that offer video-capture recordings of shows that were on stage)
All performances are free unless otherwise noted, although almost all hope for a donation (either to themselves or to a designated charity.)
*My definition of theater for the purposes of this calendar generally does not extend to variety shows, cast reunions, galas, panel discussions, documentaries, classes, interviews — all of which are in abundance this month, many worth checking out, but it would be too Herculean a task to list them all in a monthly calendar. My focus here is on creative storytelling in performance. (I make an occasional exception for a high-profile Netathon,involving many theater artists.)
June 1
POSTPONED We Are One Public
The Public Theater
Live beginning at 8 p.m.
A 90-minute Netathon (my term for the starry online fundraising concerts of the pandemic era) featuring “cameo appearances” by Jane Fonda, Alicia Keys, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Meryl Streep, and “stories and songs” by Antonio Banderas, Laura Benanti, Kim Blanck, Ally Bonino, Danielle Brooks, Glenn Close, Jenn Colella, Elvis Costello, Claire Danes, Holly Gould, Danai Gurira, Anne Hathaway, Stephanie Hsu, Oscar Isaac, Nikki M. James, John Leguizamo, Audra McDonald, Grace McLean, Sandra Oh, Mia Pak, David Hyde Pierce, Phillipa Soo, Trudie Styler & Sting, Will Swenson, Shaina Taub, Kuhoo Verma, Ada Westfall, Kate Wetherhead.
Update. From Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis: “…this is not the moment to focus on the Public. This is a time for mourning and reflection.”
POSTPONED The Revenger’s Tragedy
Red Bull Theater
Launches 7:30 p.m.
Jesse Berger’s adaptation of Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean thriller, written a few years after Hamlet, is a searing examination of humankind’s social need for justice and our animal desire for vengeance. Vindice, the “Revenger,” sets off a chain reaction of havoc in a corrupt and decadent Venice.
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey
92nd Y
Recording launches at 8 p.m, available through June 30
A recording of the one-man show written and performed by James Lecesne, whose short film “Trevor” spawned The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth. I liked this show when I saw it Off-Broadway in 2015. From my review: “A 14-year-old boy is reported missing, and eventually found dead. Chuck DeSantis, who worked the case as a tough-talking detective “in a half-ass town down the Jersey shore,” begins to tell us the story as if it’s a murder mystery, a film noir on stage (“The dark side is my beat.”) But “The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey”…is not really a murder mystery. It is, above all, a showcase for the impressive theatrical talents of James Lecesne, who portrays the detective and eight other characters, male and female, young and old. He does this without props or a change of costumes — just precise, spot-on gestures; a shift in accent and manner of speech.”
Ten Stories: A Decameron
The Builders Association
Throughout the month of May, The Buildings Association theater company presented five live half-hour episodes inspired by the Decameron, Boccaccio’s 14th-century plague-story. Starting today, all will be released for viewing
Burst
Playground Zoomfest
Launches 5 p.m. ET
As part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the San Francisco Playground Festival of New Works (this year completely digital), this play by Rachel Bublitz focuses on Sarah Boyd, the head of one of the fastest growing tech companies in history, at a moment before everything bursts.
Bellini’s I Puritani
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Starring Anna Netrebko as the fragile Puritan maiden Elvira, Eric Cutler as Elvira’s love, Franco Vassallo, and John Relyea, conducted by Patrick Summers. From January 6, 2007.
June 2
Coppélia
Lincoln Center
Launches at 8 p.m., available until July 17
Part of Dance Week, the New York City Ballet presents the 19th century comic ballet of a mad inventor and the life-like doll he creates.
Berg’s Lulu
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Starring Marlis Petersen in the title role, equal parts femme fatale, innocent girl, and abused victim, Susan Graham, Daniel Brenna, Paul Groves, Johan Reuter, and Franz Grundheber, conducted by Lothar Koenigs. From November 21, 2015.
Blue Ink
Musical Theater Factory
Launches at 8 p.m. Available for 24 hours
This edition of Musical Theater Factory’s Tune In Tuesdays series offers a 2019 concert at Joe’s Pub by Jillian Walker that includes something of a preview of her theatrical cabaret “SKiNFoLK: An American Show.” That show, using a range of music to tell the story of her family and no less a subject than blackness in America, opened at The Bushwick Starr to much acclaim in March of this year…and had to shut down a week later.
Notes from the Field
HBO
I don’t normally list shows from subscriber-only streaming services, but one should never miss a chance to see Anna Deavere Smith, and this acclaimed one-woman show, which I saw Off-Broadway in 2016, feels especially timely. She portrays 17 disparate characters with her usual dazzling virtuosity in what amounts to a somewhat diffuse argument that in the United States there is a school-to-prison “pipeline” for poor people and people of color. The show was adapted into this film in 2018.
June 3
POSTPONEDPues Nada
MCC
Launches at 5:30. Available until June 6.
This latest play in the LiveLabs One Acts series is written by Aziza Barnes, and features Karen Pittman as St. Francis and Samira Wiley as Sunny. “Two black femmes tend bar in East L.A. until the crack of dawn, unable to leave or sleep due to a plastered ex-employee, who refuses to go home. But is she the only reason no one will be sleeping tonight?”
Update: postponed “due to a last-minute actor conflict.” Rescheduled for June 17.
Send for the Million Men
Here Arts Center
Launches at 7 p.m.
Joseph Silovsky uses animatronics, puppetry, and projections to tell the story of the infamous execution of immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, and of his own life as well.
New Work Series
New York Theatre Barn
Launches at 7 p.m.
A 40-minute live-streamed collection of musicals in development by writers under the age of 20 (they’re actually ages 13 to 18): “Hide & Seek” by Danny Feldman tells the story of a high school student who realizes that he is gay. “Two Maiden Ladies” by Abigail Greenwood is based on the true story of two women in the nineteenth century in the first same sex marriage. “The Hippie and the Hitman” by Eise Marra follows a “hippie activist” and a hitman for the Irish Republican Army. “The Perfect Fit” by Joshua Turchin (he’s the one who’s 13) follows Alexandra, a driven child actor with a powerful voice who grows concerned that she is growing too old to play a child and too young to play an adult.
POSTPONED The Homebound Project #3
Launches at 7 p.m.
Available through June 7
$10 donation to No Kid Hungry required
(free to frontline and essential workers)
This third edition of original plays fundraising for No Kid Hungry, on the theme of “champions,” features:
Jennifer Carpenter and Thomas Sadoski in a work by John Guare, directed by Jerry Zaks;
Ralph Brown in a work by Donnetta Lavinia Grays, directed by Jenna Worsham;
Diane Lane in a work by Michael R. Jackson;
Paola Lázaro in a work by Gina Femia, directed by Taylor Reynolds;
Joshua Leonard in a work by Mara Nelson-Greenberg;
Eve Lindley in a work by Daniel Talbott, directed by Kevin Laibson;
Arian Moayed in a work by Xavier Galva;
Ashley Park in a work by Bess Wohl, directed by Leigh Silverman;
Will Pullen in a work by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Jenna Worsham;
Phillipa Soo in a work by Clare Barron, directed by Steven Pasquale; and
Blair Underwood in a work by Korde Arrington Tuttle.
La Traviata
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 5 p.m., available 48 hours
Giuseppe Verdi’s romantic tragedy about a courtesan whose chance at true love is thwarted by bourgeois mores. Tony-winning director Michael Mayer staged this 2018 production, which stars Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez and Quinn Kelsey. This is part of the Met’s student stream
Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Starring Danielle de Niese, Heidi Grant Murphy, and Stephanie Blythe, conducted by James Levine. From January 24, 2009.
June 4
Seven Last Words of the Unarmed
Carnegie Hall
Launches at 5 p.m.
Joel Thompson’s composition inspired by the onslaught of killings of unarmed black men. Featuring the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club
Coriolanus
National Theatre
Launches at 2 p.m. ET
Available through June 11
Tom Hiddleston (Betrayal, The Avengers, The Night Manager) plays the title role in Shakespeare’s searing tragedy of political manipulation and revenge.
Alvin Ailey
Lincoln Center
Launches at 8 p.m.
This last show in Dance Week is a 2015 broadcast featuring Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performing Chroma, Grace, Takademe, and its signature dance, Revelations
Lets Stay In Together
Apollo Theater
A star-studded concert featuring Dionne Warwick, Doug E. Fresh “Captain” Kirk Douglas of The Roots, Vernon Reid, Ziggy Marley and many more.
Puccini’s Tosca
Metropolitan Opera
Launches at 7:30, available for 23 hours
Starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Conlon. From December 19, 1978.
Liza with a Z
Amazon Prime
requires a subscription
The award-winning hour-long 1972 television special stars the 26-year-old Liza Minnelli, in the year she won the Oscar for Cabaret. Directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, it features guests Tony Bennett and Marisa Berenson
June 5
POSTPONEDPeter Pan Live
The Shows Must Go On
Launches 2 p.m, available for 48 hours
An online presentation of the 2014 live NBC television adaptation, starring Allison Williams in the title role, Taylor Louderman as Wendy Darling, Kelli O’Hara as Mrs. Darling and Christian Borle as Mr. Darling and Smee, and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook.
Update: The streaming has been postponed. “We stand with our Black employees, colleagues, partners, and creators, in outrage at acts of racism.” Rescheduled for June 19.
POSTPONED Brave Smiles…Another Lesbian Tragedy
Pride Plays
Launches at 7 p.m.
The Five Lesbian Brothers (Maureen Angelos, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey, and Lisa Kron) directed by Leigh Silverman. Rescheduled to June 22.
Candidate X
The Civilians
Launches at 3 p.m.
Part of the Civilians “Findings” series, the show is “a dynamic cross between testimonial-based theatre and dance theatre,” celebrating “the risk-takers who challenge and defy the gendered expectations our country has of those who lead.”
The Nesting Instinct
Playground Zoomfest
Launches 5 p.m. E.T.
Part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the San Francisco Playground Festival of New Works (this year completely digital): Two siblings in a house in a Florida flood zone, a pair of blue-footed boobies (those are birds) on a shrinking island are the characters in two of the intertwined stories in this play by Tom Bruett that explores parenthood, identity and the steadfast power of home in a world that is changing drastically.
Black Superman
Astoria Performing Arts Center
Launches 7 p.m.
The third of six original “musicals from the quarantine,” this one, written by and starring Charles Inniss and Christopher Inniss, explores dual challenges of the pandemic and racism facing young black men in the Bronx and Harlem.
Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn, and John Tomlinson, conducted by Thomas Adès. From November 18, 2017.
Carousel
Lincoln Center
Launches at 8 p.m.
The first of Lincoln Center’s Broadway Fridays features a free digital stream of its concert production of this Rodgers and Hammerstein musical featuring the New York Philharmonic and starring Kelli O’Hara, Nathan Gunn, Stephanie Blythe, Shuler Hensley, Jason Danieley,Jessie Mueller, Kate Burton, Tony winner John Cullum, and New York City Ballet dancers Robert Fairchild and Tiler Peck.
POSTPONED We Are Freestyle Love Supreme
Hulu
I don’t routinely include a show from a subscriber-only streaming service, much less a documentary, but this one is about the hip-hop improv company founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda and other future Hamilton alumni, and it includes scenes from the recent Broadway version, in which no two performances were the same (but which I reviewed anyway)
June 6
Blithe Spirit
Plays in the House
Launches 2 p.m., available for four days
A re-reading of Noel Coward’s play starring much the same cast as did this last month, but technical difficulties marred that reading, so they’re trying again, live: Leslie Uggams as the medium, William Jackson Harper, Merle Dandridge and Montego Glover as the husband, wife and dead ex-wife.
Noel Coward wrote his comedy in 1941, when wartime Britain needed no reminders about death on stage. His solution: Make all of his characters comically unlikeable. “You can’t sympathize with any of them. If there was a heart it would be a sad story.”
The Rendering Cycle
Playground Zoomfest
Launches 2 p.m. ET Live
$10-$15
As part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the San Francisco Playground Festival of New Works (this year completely digital), Genevieve Jessee’s ten interwoven short plays
present a theatrical journey through 400 years of the African Diaspora. Directed by Margo Hall
Songs from the Spirit
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Launches at 7:30 pm.
A video of last year’s live ballet that took place in various rooms of the museum, choreographed by Silas Farley, to music of spirituals and new compositions by current and recently released incarcerated musicians at San Quentin State Prison.
Verdi’s Otello
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Željko Lučić, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From October 17, 2015.
Jamama Jones: Black Light
Joe’s Pub
Launches 8 p.m.
A recording of this show that I saw in 2018. (My review) Daniel Alexander Jones portrays Jomama Jones, less a character than an alter-ego, in this show that on the surface seems like a cabaret act, but is also an act of healing and an act of warning in these turbulent times, guided by the character’s (and creator’s) experience of being black.
June 7
POSTPONED Tony Awards Celebration
Broadway on Demand and TonyAwards.com
Launches 6 p.m.
A Netathon for American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League, co-producers of The Tony Awards (which would have taken place tonight), the hour-long even will celebrate “the Broadway community, the Tony Awards®, and the global impact that Broadway has as a cultural touchstone around the world.”
POSTPONED Show of Shows: Broadway.com Salutes the Tonys
Broadway.com
Launches 7 p.m.
Also a benefit for the Wing and the League, this one is produced by Paul Wontorek, who produced the 90th Sondheim celebration
Massenet’s Thaïs
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Starring Renée Fleming, Michael Schade, and Thomas Hampson, conducted by Jesús López-Cobos. From December 20, 2008.
June 8
Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
An ancient Roman story of desire, betrayal, murder, and public unrest composed by Mozart shortly before the end of his life. Starring Lucy Crowe, Barbara Frittoli, Elīna Garanča, Kate Lindsey, and Giuseppe Filianoti, conducted by Harry Bicket. From December 1, 2012.
June 9
Viral Monologues: Fists Up/Underlying Conditions
24 Hour Monologues
Launches at 6 p.m., unfolds every 15 minutes
Available for four days
Features black artists to benefit Communities United For Police Reform. This week’s performers include Kara Young, Susan Heyward, Stephanie Berry, Keith Arthur Bolden, Cherise Boothe, Rosalyn Coleman, Nina Domingue Glover, Benton Greene, Angela Lewis, Craig Scott, Elijah Smith, Salena Steward and Tamara Williams. Original monologues will be written by Zakkiyah Alexander, Dennis A. Allen II, Christina Anderson, Beresford Bennett, Amina Henry, Angie Bridgette Jones, Jaymes Jorsling, Shawn Randall, Monique A. Robinson, Stacey Rose, Nikkole Salter, Levy Lee Simon and Craig T. Williams.
Richard II
Bedlam
Launches live at 6:30 p.m.
A reading of Shakespeare’s history play to benefit the National Bail Fund Network. Register in advance to receive the Zoom link. Begins with a half hour of live music.
Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Valery Gergiev conducts Mariusz Trelinski’s new production of these rarely heard one-act operas. Anna Netrebko stars as the blind princess of the title in Tchaikovsky’s lyrical work, opposite Piotr Beczała as Vaudémont, the man who wins her love—and wakes her desire to be able to see. Nadja Michael and Mikhail Petrenko are Judith and Bluebeard in Bartók’s gripping psychological thriller about a woman discovering her new husband’s murderous past.
The Bedroom Plays
Eden Theater Company
Launches at 8 p.m.
Three ten-minute plays about coping with isolation, each taking place in a bedroom, and each featuring two characters: The Man in the Fuscia Mask by Jake Brasch; Daeva by Cassandra Paras; In a Bubble, With Only You by Tracy Carns.
June 10
Kill Move Paradise
Wilma Theater
Available through June 21
contribution required
A recording of the 2018 production of James IJames’ play about four black men who find themselves stuck in a cosmic waiting room in the afterlife, each of them a victim of violence.Tickets benefit Black Lives Matter Philly.
Free Speech
Plays in the House
Launches live 2 p.m.
“Performing Artists and the Power of the Spoken Word” performed by James Alexander, Masi Asare, Valerie David, Jennifer Nelson, Awa Sal Secka, Nandita Shenoy, Riki Stevens, Janelle Stewart and Bil Wright. Hosted by Devanand Janki. On Stars in the House YouTube channel
Festival of Live Digital Art (Folda)
Launches at 4:30 p.m.
The first day of four days of programming from Canada begins with Green Rooms Opening Picnic“featuring keynote speaker Eriel Tchekwie Deranger from Indigenous Climate Action, a performance by circus artist Erin Ball, a live song off of LAL’s brand new album Dark Beings, plus sound compositions from Matt Rogalsky, Debashis Sinha, Jose Rivera, and much much more.”
La Fanciulla del West
Met Opera
Launches at 5 p.m., available for 48 hours
Intended for students, this is a recording of the 2018 production of Giacomo Puccini’s vivid romance set during the California Gold Rush, as a charming outlaw wins the heart of a gun-toting saloon owner. Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jonas Kaufmann and Željko Lucic star.
Disposable Men
Here Arts Center
Launches at 6:30 p.m.
A recording of James Scruggs’ 2005 multimedia work about the monstrous depiction of black men in American film and culture. After the recording, Scruggs will talk live with director Kristin Marting. On Here Arts Facebook page
Teeth and Maya
New York Theatre Barn
Launches at 7 p.m.
A 40-minute YouTube presentation of two musicals-in-progress: Teeth by Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and Anna K. Jacobs is based on the campy 2007 horror movie. Maya by Cheeyang Ng and Eric Sorrels infuses traditional Indian music into its score.
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Richard Jones’s deliciously deranged production embraces the macabre sensibility of the original Brothers Grimm story, filling the stage with comically enlarged chefs, a fish-headed table waiter, and the most epic food fight the Met stage has ever seen.
June 11
The Madness of King George III
National Theater
Launches 2 p.m. ET, available until June 18
In this play by Alan Bennett, it’s 1786 and King George III (Mark Gatiss) is the most powerful man in the world. But his behaviour is becoming increasingly erratic as he succumbs to fits of lunacy. With the King’s mind unravelling at a dramatic pace, ambitious politicians and the scheming Prince of Wales threaten to undermine the power of the Crown, and expose the fine line between a King and a man.
Join the biggest stars from the abbreviated Broadway season for songs, stories and a special Offstage conversation, exploring what this moment of national unrest means for artists and the theater. R.S.V.P. for this free event now: https://t.co/BGiHCDsJvm pic.twitter.com/irS2GPqKNy
— New York Times Events (@nytimesevents) June 10, 2020
Offstage: Opening Night
New York Times
Launches at 7 p.m.
Patti LuPone and Katrina Lenk and the cast of Company performing the show’s opening number; Tony winner Mary-Louise Parkerperforming a monologue from The Sound Inside; a chat with Slave Play scribe Jeremy O. Harris and a sing-along with Elizabeth Stanley from Jagged Little Pill. Times writers will also discuss some of their favorite moments from the truncated season, and Wesley Morris, a Times critic at large, will sit down with Broadway stars Adrienne Warren, Daniel J. Watts (“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical”), Celia Rose Gooding (“Jagged Little Pill”) and director Kenny Leon (“A Soldier’s Play”), to hear their perspectives on the global protests shaping the lives of creators and fans alike. Free, but need to register in advance
The King Lear Project
Theater of War
Launches at 7 p.m. Live only
Bryan Doerries, artistic director of Theater of War (best-known for “Antigone in Ferguson”) presents a “streamlined” live reading of scenes from Shakespeare’s “King Lear” as a lead-in for a discussion among a group of community panelists and then the audience as a whole about the challenges of aging, dementia, and caring for friends and loved ones. The cast includes NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
Julius Caesar
Irondale
Launches at 7 .m.
The second of four installments of a revised version of its 2016 show “1599” inspired by the book “A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599” by James Shapiro. Will be shown on Irondale’s YouTube channel
John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Marilyn Horne and Renee Fleming are among the stars performing in this 1991 sequel to Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Håkan Hagegård is Beaumarchais, Figaro’s creator, who is deeply in love with Empress Marie Antoinette (Teresa Stratas) and determined to rewrite history and save her from the guillotine.
June 12
The Wiz Live
The Shows Must Go On
Launches 2 p.m. Available 48 houors
A streaming of the 2015 NBC live television musical that features Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, David Alan, Grier, Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelly, Uzo Aduba, Amber Riley, Common, Stephanie Mills, and Shanice Williams. (My recap) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s site will be encouraging contributions to the NAACP..
Poetry In America – Live featuring “Finishing The Hat” by Stephen Sondheim
Sheen Center
Launches at 3 p.m.
A livestream of an episode from the PBS series analyzing Stephen Sondheim’s song “Finishing The Hat” from Sunday in the Park with George. With panelists participating from the socially-distanced comfort of their own homes, this free event celebrates the work of Sondheim through performance of his songs and discussion of the lyrics to this particular song. PBS’s “Poetry in America” host Elisa New welcomes Tony Award nominee Melissa Errico, New Yorker staff writer and author Adam Gopnik, and noted musical director Tedd Firth. Errico, who starred in Sunday in the Park, at The Kennedy Center, will perform three songs from Sunday, including “Finishing the Hat,” accompanied by Firth.
Longview
Astoria Performing Arts Center
Launches at 7 p.m.
The next brief original work in the theater’s Musicals in Quarantine series is about three siblings whose closeness is threatened when one posts a will online during the pandemic.
POSTPONED The Nance
Lincoln Center
Launches at 8 p.m.
Part of Lincoln Center’s new Broadway Fridays series: A free digital stream of Lincoln Center Theater’s 2013 Broadway production of Douglas Carter Beane’s dark comedy starring Nathan Lane as a gay burlesque entertainer in the 1930s. ( My review)
One in two
Pride Plays
Launches at 7 p.m.
Donja R. Love on what it means to be queer, black and HIV-positive written as Love approached his tenth anniversary with the diagnosis. Three young Black queer are waiting to be chosen. When one of them is, he’s forced to live a new reality inside an epidemic. The cast of the play’s 2019 premiere at the New Group—Jamyl Dobson, Leland Fowler and Edward Mawere—return for this event, directed this time by Malika Oyetimein, which is the first of a series that will be live-streamed on a page of Playbill.
The Bacchae
Classical Theatre of Harlem
$10
Launches 8 p.m. 24-hour streaming period
Available through June 26
The streaming of last year’s staging of Euripides tragedy in a park in Harlem, which I saw and loved. As I wrote in my review: It would be hard to argue that it brings home the full force or horror that is the usual province of Ancient Greek tragedy. But what is a better tribute to the play’s principal character Dionysus, the god of ecstasy, wine…and theater, than a theatrical production with such intoxicating singing, dancing and design.
Twilight Los Angeles
PBS
Anna Deavere Smith’s unflinching look at the fallout from the 1992 Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King trial verdict
Andirondack Theatre Festival
Begun in 1994, ATF presents original works every summer in Glen Falls, New York. Starting today through August 7th (its normal season), the festival is presenting videos of some of its past theater pieces on demand, some of them recorded in subsequent productions, (plus films from its film festival), in exchange for a donation
At-Home Gala (Encore Screening)
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 48 Hours
A repeat of the Met’s April 25th virtual gala, with more than 40 opera stars
From Here
Launches 9 p.m.
Available through June 28
On the fourth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Equity Florida presents this musical by Donald Rupe about a gay man from Orlando in his thirties searching for love, and his close group of friends.
June 13
Macbeth
Plays in the House
Launches at 2 p.m.
Available for four days
In this live reading as part of Stars in the House, Patrick Page and Hannah Yelland star as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth with Andre DeShields as host, Ty Jones as Macduff, Maurice Jones as Malcolm and David Yelland as Duncan.
Criminal Queerness Festival
Dixon Place
Launches at 2 p.m.
The first day of a festival that runs through June 28th, showcasing queer and trans artists from countries that criminalize or censor LGBTQ+ communities. The festival begins with a Zoom panel discussion, “Creative Conversations: The Syrian Civil War and LGBTQ communities.” Later dates offer films, videos and (Zoomed) theatrical performances: Complete calendar
POSTPONED Heroes of the Fourth Turning
Play-Perview
Launches at 8 p.m.
Required $5 minimum donation
A live one-time Zoom reading of this much-praised (and 2020 Pulitzer finalist) play by Will Arbery “It’s nearing midnight in Wyoming, where four young conservatives have gathered at a backyard after-party. They’ve returned home to toast their mentor Gina, newly inducted as president of a tiny Catholic college. But as their reunion spirals into spiritual chaos and clashing generational politics, it becomes less a celebration than a vicious fight to be understood.” My review when it was a Playwrights Horizon rescheduled for July 18.
POSTPONED In These Uncertain Times
Source Material
Launches 7:30 p.m.
A digital performance piece that uses drinking competitions, sad Chekhov monologues, and corona-virus meme collages to contemplate the impossibility of theater as we’ve known it, and forge a new path in the art form, while grieving for the past.
Update: “in solidarity with Black Lives Matter” will now launch July 25
Best of Playground 24
Playground Zoomfest
the top 10-minute plays from the 2019-20 season of the Playground Festival.
Compromise
Metropolitan Playhouse
Launches at 8 p.m.
A 30-minute live reading of this 1925 one-act play by Willis Richardson, about Jane Lee, who has compromised with her white neighbor, Ben Carter, again and again, although he accidentally shot her eldest son, and his son has impregnated her daughter. Although little known now, Richardson was a prolific playwright, credited as the first African American to have a non-musical play produced on Broadway. (“The Chip Woman’s Fortune,” in 1923.)
The 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards
Begins at 7:30 p.m. on NY1.com, and DramaDeskAwards.com.
June 14
We Are Here
2 p.m.
This live concert, subtitled “A Celebration of Resilience, Resistance, and Hope,” features Mayim Bialik, Renée Fleming, Adrien Brody, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Joel, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Lang Lang, Joyce DiDonato, Lea Salonga, Lauren Ambrose, and many others. It commemorates the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 77th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, even as it speaks to the challenges of the current moment.
Partitime
Fresh Fruit Festival
Launches at 2 p.m.
In this new play by Gregory Marlow, the hippest party for Gay Men Of Color is shutting its doors for good. Men weave through connections and misconnections, in a maze of haze, whilst thumping beats pound out a final goodbye. Free but requires registration.
Oz
Plays in the House Teen edition
Launches at 2 p.m.
In this comedy by Don Zolidis, Beth is reeling from her sister’s death, and suddenly finds herself journeying through a world suspiciously resembling the film The Wizard of Oz. But with the yellow brick road sold to foreign investors after a financial meltdown, the Scarecrow reveling in his ignorant bliss, the Cowardly Lion acting like a paranoid sociopath, and the Tin Man embracing his emotional numbness, Beth wonders what role she plays in this classic story gone awry. Q&A with the playwright after! Benefitting Drama Club NYC.
Handel’s Rodelinda
Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30 pm, available for 23 Hours
Renée Fleming stars in the title role of one of Handel’s greatest dramas, seen in Stephen Wadsworth’s 2004 Met premiere production. Rodelinda is faced with an impossible dilemma: With her husband Bertarido believed dead, she either has to marry the despised Grimoaldo (the elegant Joseph Kaiser), who has usurped her husband’s throne, or see him murder her son. But Bertarido (leading countertenor Andreas Scholl) is alive and eventually reclaims both throne and wife
State vs. Natasha Banina
Arletin Players Theatre
Launches live at 8 p.m.
Darya Denisova stars as a teenage girl on trial for attempted manslaughter; the audience, acting as the jury, decides the outcome. The Boston-based theater is presenting this play as part of the Cherry Orchard Festival. Two more live performances on Sunday, June 21 and 28.
Auntie Mame
Quarantine Theater Company
Launches at 8 p.m.
A reading of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s 1956 comedy.
Der Ring Gott Farblonjet
Theater at St. John’s
Launches at 8 p.m.
Everett Quinton, partner of the late Ridiculous Theatrical pioneer Charles Ludlam, headlines a live reading of one of their four-part parody of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, which premiered in 1977. This second installment is entitled The Dyke Bikers at Helgeland. Watch for free on St. John’s Lutheran Church’s Facebook page.
June 15
A Midsummer’s Night Dream
Shakespeare’s Globe
Launches 2 p.m.
Available until June 28
Dominic Dromgoole directs Michelle Terry and John Light as fairy royalty in the 2013 Renaissance staging of Shakespeare’s comedy.
A Musical Tribute to Edna Ferber
New York Theatre Barn
Launches at 7 p.m.
Forty minutes worth of excerpts from two one-act musical adaptations of short stories by Edna Ferber, “Every Other Thursday,” about the life of a Finnish domestic in New York City, and “Our Very Best People,” which explores the development of the American West Ferber has a fairly good track record; she wrote the novels adapted into Show Boat and Giant.
High School Theatre Festival
Shubert Foundation
Launches 7 p.m.
The sixth annual Shubert Foundation High School Theatre Festival, with host Jelani Alladin, will feature over 160 teen artists from New York City Public Schools.
This year, the excerpts, in order of presentation, include:
Brooklyn High School of the Arts (Brooklyn) – FAME
Curtis High School (Staten Island) – LUCKY STIFF
Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (Queens) – HAIRSPRAY
Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts (Manhattan) – AIDA
Talent Unlimited High School (Manhattan) – THE WOLVES
Songs for Our City
Times Square Alliance
Launches at 7:05 p.m.
Every day this week, a new group of original songs commissioned from dozens of theater artists will debut in this “songwriting challenge” overseen by Broadway Buskers host Ben Cameron. Each participant will perform a new song they’ve written about their feelings right now, community, or Broadway and the Theater District. Here’s the full schedule Tonight’s two-hour concert written and performed by Jaime Cepero, Donnie Kehr, Rob Rokicki, Jennifer Sánchez and Mike Wartella
The Government Inspector
Red Bull Theater
Launches at 7:30 p.m.
A live reading of Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 satire, starring the same cast that was so terrific in Red Bull’s 2017 production, most notably Michael Urie as a drunken, whoring wastrel who is mistaken in a small village for an important government bureaucrat.(My review.) The question here is: How will Urie, Michael McGrath, Mary Testa et al translate their physical clowning for this livestream?
Rossini’s Armida
Metropolitan Opera
Launches at 7:30 p.m.
Available for 23 hours
Renée Fleming delivers the dazzle in the title role, a Crusades-era Damascene sorceress who uses her overpowering beauty to further her ambitious, self-serving plans.
This Show Is Money
The Civilians
Launches at 8 p.m.
A musical about the 1 and 99 percent, exploring how our choices with this fictional creation called money affect people around us in ways we find difficult to see. this is part of the Civilians’ “Findings” series.
June 16
Today is Bloomsday, the day in the life of Leopold Bloom that is chronicled exhaustively in James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses” and is celebrated in theaters, bookstores and Irish pubs every year, including 2020, with some adjustments Check out my #Bloomsday Lives On, Online
Michael Feinstein on Irving Berlin
Carnegie Hall
Launches at 2 p.m.
Part of the Live with Carnegie Hall series, Feinstein leads an episode of music and conversation about the prolific songwriter and Broadway composer with performers Cheyenne Jackson, Kelli O’Hara, and Tony Yazbek.
Viral Monologues
24 Hour Plays
Launches at 6 p.m., rolls out every 15 minutes.
Performers taking part in Round 12 of this weekly anthology of short new theater pieces on Instagram include Raúl Esparza, Frankie J. Alvarez, Raúl Castillo, April Matthis, Jaime Ray Newman & Patch Darragh, Bojana Novakovic, Maria-Christina Oliveras, J. Smith-Cameron and Mariama Whyte. Original monologues will be written by Matt Barbot, Clay McLeod Chapman, David Cote, Chisa Hutchinson, Garlia Cornelia Jones, David Lindsay-Abaire, Tony Meneses, Audley Puglisi and Steve Yockey. This edition will benefit Juxtaposition Arts, a teen-staffed, nonprofit visual art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Godforsaken
The Tank
Launches at 7:30 p.m.
The last two Survivors on Earth, both male, one an optimist, one a nihilist, try to figure out what exactly happened and why they are still alive. Then a mutant threatens their existence. Written by Frank J. Avella, featuring: Carlotta Brentan, Rob Brinkmann & Marc Lombardo
My H8 Letter To The Gr8 American Theatre
Ma-Yi Theater
Launches at 8 p.m. live
Written, directed, and with original music by Diana Oh
Looking for Leroy
New Federal Theatre
An imagined encounter between playwright and poet Amiri Baraka (aka Leroy Jones) and a young intern who idoloizes him, featuring AUDELCO Award winning actors Tyler Fauntleroy and Kim Sullivan, directed by Petronia Paley
Rossini’s Semiramide
Metropolitan Opera
Launches at 7:30 p.m.
Available for 23 hours
Set in ancient Babylon, the scenario concerns the legendary queen Semiramis and her quest for ever more power, various betrayals and plots for revenge, mistaken identities, and even divine intervention.
June 17
Pues Nada
MCC
Launches at 5:30 p.m.
Available for three days
This latest live reading of a play in the LiveLabs One Acts series is written by Aziza Barnes, and directed by Whitney White. “Two black femmes tend bar in East L.A. until the crack of dawn, unable to leave or sleep due to a plastered ex-employee, who refuses to go home. But is she the only reason no one will be sleeping tonight?” The cast will feature Ito Aghayere , Alfie Fuller , Karen Pittman, and Kara Young.
Send for the Million Men
Here Arts Center
Launches at 6:30 p.m.
Joseph Silovsky uses animatronics, puppetry, and projections to tell the story of the infamous execution of immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, and of his own life as well.
‘Tasha
The Queerly Festival
Launches 7:30
Available through July 5
In the first show of the festival, Jusef Miller’s drama ‘Tasha is a modern update of Sophocles’ Antigone that imagines Black communities living under martial law imposed by a white-nationalist government.
Wally Flynn and The River is Me
New York Theatre Barn
Launches at 7:30 p.m.
The 40 minute presentation excerpts two new musicals. In the first, Wally Flynn’s world has been turned upside down since the death of his father. Today is his twelfth birthday, and nobody seems to care. In the second, inspired by the death o Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy whistles at a white woman in the summer of 1955 and is kidnapped by her husband, murdered, and buried at the bottom of a river. Rather than be dismantled, the boy is endowed by powers from the river and returns to walk the earth as a superhero to save his mother from the grown-up world of violence.
Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride
Metropolitan Opera
Launches at 7:30 p.m.
Available for 23 hours
The opera recounts an episode from Greek myth about Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigenia and her time as a priestess of Diana in Tauris. The story revolves around her initially unknowing reunion with her brother Orestes, who has fled Mycenae after killing their mother Clytemnestra—and whom Iphigenia is ordered to sacrifice to her goddess.
Living La Vida Imelda
Ma-Yi Theater
Launches at 8 p.m.
Available through June 30
A recording of the 2014 solo show by the late Filipino activist Carlos Celdran about extravagant former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos
June 18
Small Island
National Theatre
Launches at 2 p.m.
Available until June 25
Andrea Levy’s epic play tracing the tangled history between Jamaica and the UK through three connected stories: Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots.
Greenwood
Alvin Ailey
Launches at 7 p.m
Available through June 25.
An ensemble work that draws on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, to honor Juneteenth.
Verdi’s La Forza del Destino
Metropolitan Opera
Launches at 7:30 p.m.
Available for 48 hours
This classic 1984 telecast features the legendary Leontyne Price, one of the all-time great Verdi singers, in one of her signature Verdi roles. As Leonora, a young Spanish noblewoman and one of the repertory’s most tormented characters, she endures the losses of her father, her lover, and her brother—as well as the guilt of being indirectly responsible for each of these calamitous events—before eventually being killed herself.
LAPA
Brick Theater
Launches at 8 p.m.
A genre-bending abstract work by Daniil Kharms, an early 20th century Soviet-era avant-gardist, “modulating between visual composition, soundscape, performance, and choreography, to emphasize the distance between words, objects, sound, and the body amidst Industrialization…”
June 19
Check out the separate list of Juneteenth 2020 Performances Online (and Demonstrations In the Streets), including “Greenwood” from Alvin Ailey, “Black Women and the Ballo”t from The American Slavery Project, “Polar Bears, Black Boys & Prairie Fringed Orchids” from Juneteenth Theatre Justice Project, and celebrations at Carnegie Hall, Joe’s Pub, and the oldest surviving black theater in the nation.
Peter Pan Live
The Shows Must Go On
Launches 2 p.m, available for 48 hours
An online presentation of the 2014 live NBC television adaptation, starring Allison Williams in the title role, Taylor Louderman as Wendy Darling, Kelli O’Hara as Mrs. Darling and Christian Borle as Mr. Darling and Smee, and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook.
As You Like It
Irondale
Launches at 6 p.m.
The third of four installments of a revised version of its 2016 show “1599” inspired by the book “A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599” by James Shapiro. Will be shown on Irondale’s YouTube channel
Act One
Lincoln Center
Launches at 8 pm
Available for two weeks
Broadway Fridays brings James Lapine stage adaptation of Moss Hart’s memoir for the stage, starring Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin and an especially winning Santino Fontana. My review from 2014
Mosque4Mosque
Dixon Place
Launches at 8 p.m.
Part of the Criminal Queerness Festival, this comedy by Omer Abbas Salem focuses on Ibrahim and his mother Sara, who wants to arrange her son’s Big Gay Muslim Wedding all on her own. The reading on Zoom is followed by a talkback moderated by director Sharifa Yasman.
June 20
West End Live
Official London Theatre
Launches 9 a.m.
Available for 24 hours
Each year, Official London Theatre presents an outdoor concert at Trafalgar Square with highlights of the year’s West End offerings (much like The Broadway League presents the annual Stars in the Alley with musical numbers from the Broadway season at Shubert Alley.) This year, the musical numbers from past years are presented on its Facebook page. The hour-long video will present numbers from some two dozen musicals, most familiar (The Lion King, Wicked, Six), some not (The Barricade Boys, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie)
The Dazzle
Available through Sunday
$20
Backyard Renaissance Theater Company
The San Diego theater company is presenting a recording of a live, socially distanced performance of Richard Greenberg’s 2002 play about the infamous hoarders The Collyer Brothers,who lived in seclusion in their brownstone for decades until they were discovered dead in 1947, surrounded by more than 140 tons of collected items. Actors Francis Gercke, Jessica John and Tom Zohar were filmed performing a minimum of nine feet apart; the footage was then edited together.
Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Plays in the House
Launches at 2 p.m.
A live reading of George Bernard Shaw’s 1895 play about a former prostitute, now a madam, who struggles to create a successful life for herself in spite of the constraints set against her by law and society. It stars Tonya Pinkins as Mrs. Warren, along with Midori Francis, David Huynh, James Monroe Iglehart, Thom Sesma, and Raphael Nash Thompson, narrated and directed by David Staller of Gingold Theatrical Group, to benefit the NAACP.
The Bed
TOSOS
Launches at 6 p.m.
Robert Heide’s play played over 150 performances at
the legendary Off-Off Broadway Caffe Cino and was the basis of Andy Warhol’s
early film of the same name.
Jack and Jim are forced to take a fresh look at their lives and relationship when they find themselves unable to get out of bed. The hour-long play in this production by the Other Side of Silence, which bills itself as the oldest LBTQ theater in NYC, is performed by Desmond Dutcher
and Christopher Borg, streamed live from their bed.
The Gorgeous Nothings
Playbill
Launches at 8 p.m.
Available for 48 hours
A recording of the live concert, conceived by Trevor Russ, at Joe’s Pub this past winter illuminating the vibrancy of NYC’s hidden LGBTQ+ community during the ’20s and ’30s, when gay men and lesbians were unjustly imprisoned for their sexuality. Seven real-life stories are dramatized in the show.
Where the Cross Is Made
Metropolitan Playhouse
Launches at 8 p.m.
A short, early, melodramatic play by Eugene O’Neill about a grounded sea captain and his skeptical son. A post-show talk by Alexander Pettit, editor of the Eugene O’Neill Review
Return
Dance Theatre of Harlem
Launches at 8 p.m.
Robert Garland’s ballet set to songs by James Brown and Aretha Franklin.
Spirit Night
Joe’s Pub
Launches at 8 p.m.
Larry Owens, who made a splash and won awards for his star turn in “A Strange Loop,” is one of the two hosts (the other is pianist-songwriter Henry Koperski) in this recording of the October 21, 2019 show that features Ana Fabrega, Henry Russell Bergstein, Mo Fry Pasic, Nora Palka, Arti Gollapudi, Karolena Theresa, Ryan J. Haddad, Chris Murphy and David Goldberg.
June 21
Finding Chase
Fresh Fruit Festival
Launches at 2 p.m.
In this play by Corey Wright, a man commits suicide, leaving behind his partner of 8-years, his hero dad, and a note with a very explicit final wish: for his partner and dad to spend time together, even though neither of them have ever spoken to each other.
Georgia Mae James Unplugs America
Plays the House Teen edition
Launches at 2 p.m.
In this play by Elizabeth Gregory Wilder, a girl shuts down the power grid in a bid for attention from her two older siblings while their parents are away.
She He Me
Dixon Place
Launches at 4 p.m.
Part of the Criminal Queerness Festival, this work written by Amahi Khouri is billed as the first Arab transgender play. It follows the true stories of three Arab characters who challenge gender norms. The live performance on Zoom will be followed by a talkback moderated by director Sivan Battat.
Cuttin Up
Playbill
Launches at 6 p.m.
an online streamed reading of Charles Randolph-Wright’s play about three black barbers, Howard (Joe Morton), Andre (Blair Underwood), Rudy (Dyllon Burnside) and the many women that stop by the shop played by Tisha Campell.Cast also includes Reynaldo Piniella, Marcel Spears, Charles Browning and Godfrey the Comedian.
June 22
Brave Smiles…Another Lesbian Tragedy
Pride Plays
Launches at 7 p.m.
The Five Lesbian Brothers (Maureen Angelos, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey, and Lisa Kron) directed by Leigh Silverman. Shown on Playbill
8 p.m. Criminal Queerness Festival: The House of Joy. Roger Q. Mason and Ianne Fields Stewart lead an evening of art-based connection and queer community building.
8:15 p.m. Queerly Festival: Big Gay Love Story, The Musical
9:30 p.m. Queerly Festival: It’s Not Me, It’s You A queer take on the story of Lucifer’s fall from grace and the War in Heaven
For more Pride events, check out my Pride Week 2020 Calendar
June 23
Round 13 Viral Monologues
24 Hour Plays
Launches at 6 p.m, with a new show every 15 minutes
Anna Baryshnikov, Ato Essandoh, Marcia Gay Harden, Zosia Mamet and Saycon Sengbloh are among the actors paired this week with such playwrights as Jessica Goldberg, David Lindsay-Abaire, Kenneth Lonergan, Christopher Oscar Peña and Liza Jessie Peterson.
The Long Christmas Ride Home
Bedlam
Launches 6:30 p.m.
A reading of Paula Vogel’s 2003 play with puppetry about a road trip by two parents and their three young children to visit grandparents for the Christmas holiday, and the emotional turmoil that they undergo. The reading is a benefit for The Audre Lorde Project, a community organizing center in Brooklyn for LGBTQIA people of color. The reading will be broadcast on Bedlam’s Facebook Live at 7 PM ET June 23, or you can register to receive a Zoom link.
Nocturne Remix 2020
Ping Chong & Co
Launches at 7 p.m.
A collection of short online works responding to the current historical moment by artists who were set to perform in a stage show in April: Edwin Aguila, Kenya Bullock, Irisdelia Garcia, Zakaria Khafagy, and Ping Chong himself Registration required.
Doctor Atomic
The Metropolitan Opera
Launches 7:30pm. Available for 23 hours.
EDT / 12:30am BST (available for 23 hours)
SJohn Adams and Peter Sellars’s 2005 opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the nuclear bomb. Gerald Finley plays Dr. J, supported by Sasha Cooke, Thomas Glenn, Richard Paul Fink and Eric Owens.
June 24
When
MCC
Launches at 5:30. Available through June 27
In this short play by C.A. Johnson (All The Natalie Portmans), directed by Taylor Reynolds, Kecia Lewis and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy portray a mother and daughter. The mother wants to fix her daughter’s love life. The daughter wants the mother to face the changing world.
The Homebound Project #3
Launches at 7 p.m.
Available until June 28
The playwrights in the third edition of The Homebound Project have been given the prompt of “champions.” Participating actors, playwrights, and directors include:
Ralph Brown in a work by Donnetta Lavinia Grays, directed by Jenna Worsham;
Jennifer Carpenter and Thomas Sadoski in a work by John Guare, directed by Jerry Zaks;
Daveed Diggs in a work by C.A. Johnson;
Diane Lane in a work by Michael R. Jackson, directed by Leigh Silverman;
Paola Lázaro in a work by Gina Femia, directed by Taylor Reynolds;
Joshua Leonard in a work by Mara Nelson-Greenberg, directed by Jenna Worsham;
Eve Lindley in a work by Daniel Talbott, directed by Kevin Laibson;
Arian Moayed in a work by Xavier Galva;
Ashley Park in a work by Bess Wohl, directed by Leigh Silverman;
Will Pullen in a work by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Jenna Worsham;
Phillipa Soo in a work by Clare Barron, directed by Steven Pasquale; and
Blair Underwood in a work by Korde Arrington Tuttle.
Black Feminist Video Game, African.Isch
The Civilians
Launches at 7 p.m.
Part of the Civilians “Findings” series, the show presents a tapestry of theatrical narratives created from ethnographic interviews within the black community of Berlin, Germany.
Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila
Met Opera
Launches at 7:30
Available for 23 hours
The biblical story of Samson and Delilah
June 25
A Midsummer Nights Dream
National Theatre
Launches at 2 p.m.
Available until July 2
Shakespeare’s most famous romantic comedy captured live in 2019 from the Bridge Theatre in London. Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Oliver Chris (One Man, Two Guvnors) David Moorst and Hammed Animashaun (Barber Shop Chronicles, ‘Master Harold’… and the boys) lead the cast as Titania, Oberon, Puck and Bottom.
Kernel of Sanity
Bard at the Gate
Launches at 7 p.m.
The first in Paula Vogel’s new series, this 1978 play by Kermit Frazier examines the close if imbalanced relationship between a young African American actor and an older Caucasian actor with whom he had previously appeared in a production of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” Cast: Abigail Breslin, Matthew Hancock, Josh Hamiton. Directed by Gregg Daniel.
Hamlet
Irondale
Launches at 7 p.m.
The fourth of four installments of a revised version of its 2016 show “1599” nspired by the book “A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599” by James Shapiro.
Concert in the Park
New York Philharmonic
7:30 p.m.
“Throw down a blanket in your living room, pour yourself a drink, and join us” for the continuation of a summer tradition since 1965, featuring past performances with tenors Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, violinist Joshua Bell, and newly recorded performances from home, including one conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden
Falsettos
BroadwayHD
Launches at 8 p.m.
Available for 48 hours
Live From Lincoln Center has teamed with the subscription service for a free screening of the 2017 production of William Finn and James Lapine’s pioneering gay musical that follows Marvin, who left his wife to be with a male lover, and his friends and family, portrayed by Christian Borle, Stephanie J. Block, Andrew Rannells, and Brandon Uranowitz.
June 26
The Sound of Music Live
The Shows Must Go On!
Launches at 2 p.m., available for 48 hours
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s channel is resurrecting the 2013 live broadcast of The Sound of Music, the first and most popular NBC live musical, starring Carrie Underwood as Maria, Stephen Moyer as Captain Von Trapp, Audra McDonald as the Mother Abbess, Christian Borle as Max and Laura Benanti as the Baroness. Will we all live-Tweet during the streaming the way we did the TV broadcast? Starts at 2 p.m. and viewable for 48 hours. (Warning: This is the same show that was scheduled last month, and was inaccessible to U.S. viewers, reportedly because of rights issues.)
Check out LGBT+ events at this, the beginning of Pride Weekend, starting with the Pride Rally at 5 p.m.
Lungs
Old Vic
£10-£65 ($18-$120)
Live-streamed performances through July 4
Claire Foy and Matt Smith (who were Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in the TV series The Crown) star in the socially distanced performance of a play by Duncan Macmillan (Every Brilliant Thing; People Places and Things) about a couple contemplating parenthood. “The ice caps are melting, there’s overpopulation, political unrest; everything’s going to hell in a handcart – why on earth would someone bring a baby into this world?”
The Men from the Boys
Pride Plays
Launches at 7 p.m.
Available through June 29
Mort Crowley’s 2002 sequel to 1968 The Boys in the Band, showing what happens to the characters. The play reunites six characters from the earlier play at a gathering after the funeral party for a seventh, and adds three younger men: Denis O’Hare, Rick Elice, Mario Cantone, Joseph James O’Neil, Kevyn Morrow, Lou Liberatore, Carson McCalley, Charlie Carver and Telly Leung.
East Village Chronicles: Arrivals
Metropolitan Playhouse
Launches at 8 p.m.
A double feature; two plays about immigrating to New York. Paloma Sierra’s Cola’o (performed in Spanish and English, with supertitles), in which lovers bicker about Puerto Rico and coffee, and Bill Russell’s Fulltime Active, based on interviews conducted in the 1970s and 1980s.
Gloria: A Life
PBS
Launches at 9 p.m.
Great Performances offers the play by Emily Mann about Gloria Steinem, starring Christine Lahti. When I reviewed it at the Daryl Roth Theater in 2018, I found the scripted Act I to be a moving, enlightening and inspiring show about the life and work of the famous feminist, journalist, activist, co-founder of Ms. Magazine and one-time Playboy Bunny. Then Act II is a “talking circle,” turning the show into half storytelling, half consciousness-raising.
June 27
Tartuffe
Moliere in the Park
Live at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Available through July 1.
Raúl E. Esparza, Samira Wiley and Jennifer Mudge et al star in Moliere’s timely satire about a pretend-pious crook, happy to use the Bible as a prop for personal gain. With French and English captions.
Beautiful Thing
Plays in the House
Launches at 2 p.m.
Jonathan Harvey play tells the story of a teen coming of age and coming out in a working-class neighborhood in ’90s London. Devanand Janki directs a cast that features Natalie Toro, Kennedy Kanagawa, Cheech Manohar, Kuhoo Verma and Jason Veasey.
Masculinity Max
Pride Plays
Launches at 7 p.m. Available until June 30.
A play by MJ Kaufman, directed by Will Davis, about a recently transitioned trans man flirting with toxic masculinity and male privilege. The cast includes Ty Defoe, David Greenspan, Judy Gold, Aneesh Sheth, Kelli Simpkins and Vishal Vaidya
Check out other Pride events for Saturday June 27
Brain Problems
Play-Perview
Launches at 8 p.m., live only
$5 minimum
a new comedy by Malcolm Barrett (star of NBC’s Timesless) about a cynic whose mental illness thrusts him into an imaginary world.
The Gay Card.
Queerly Festival
Launches at 8 p.m.
Three young gay men are searching for love and connection
June 28
Almost, Maine
Plays in the House
Launches at 2 p.m. Available until July 1
A live reading of John Cariani’s surprise hit play comprised of nine vignettes about love and loss in a magical, mythical town in Maine. (My review when it returned triumphantly to New York, after regional and scholastic success throughout the country)
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me.
Provincetown Theater
Launches at 7 p.m.
A streaming of the 2013 production of David Drake’s play, featuring Drake (who initially performed it in the 1990s as a solo show), André De Shields, BD Wong, Robin De Jesús, Rory O’Malley, Anthony Rapp, Wesley Taylor, Chad Ryan, Donald C. Shorter, Jr., Aaron Tone, Brandon Cordeiro and Claybourne Elder.
Maid in America
Criminal Queerness Festival
Launches at 7 p.m.
This short musical film is conceived by and starring Migguel Anggelo as a hotel worker with big dreams.
Pride Spectacular Concert
Playbill Pride Plays
8 p.m., live only
A concert benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, with more than 50 artists who perform musical-theater songs with LGBTQ+ themes.
June 29
Hamlet
Brave New World Repertory
Launches at 2 p.m.
The final act of Shakespeare’s tragedy. (You can catch the previous four acts, with different casts and directors, on the theater’s website)
Against Women and Music
The Civilians
Launches at 3 p.m.
Part of the Civilians’ Findings series, an anachronistic chamber musical that explores the notions of privilege, ambition and morality through the eyes of a female piano tuner in the 1800s. At that time, music was considered dangerous for women to play or even hear.
Une Saison En Enfer: Selected Poetry by Arthur Rimbaud
Pan Asian Rep
Launches at 5 p.m.
The last in their Nu Works series is about Rimbaud’s agony after being shot by his lover Verlaine.
Bad Daughter
Create Theater
Launches at 7 p.m.
Mary Testa and Frank Wood star in this reading of a new comedy by Julie Weinberg: “When Maddie’s father falls ill, she has to leave her secret life in Paris to return to the old family drama in New Jersey.”
Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment
Metropolitan Opera
Launches at 7:30 p.m. Available for 23 hours
Donizetti’s comedy about a woman who falls in love with a villager, much to the dismay of the army regiment that raised her
The Jam: Love Terrorists
BET Plus Instagram
Launches at 7:30
Music, dance, spoken word, and storytelling organized by Broadway veteran Daniel J. Watts, featuring Derrick Baskin (Ain’t Too Proud, Memphis), Ephraim Sykes (MJ The Musical, Hamilton), Taharqa Patterson (Lights Out On Broadway), Michael Thurber (Thurber Theater, Goddess), Jennifer “Flo” Florentino (On Your Feet, Spielberg’s West Side Story), and Tituss Burgess (Respect, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
Performance Check
Queerly Festival
Launches at 8 p.m.
A live Dungeons and Dragons play, in which players work together with the audience to create a story that’s never been told before.
Tribute to Balanchine
Lincoln Center
After George Balanchine’s death in 1983, the New York City Ballet honored its co-founder with this performance of three ballets, set to music by Strauss, Tschaikovsky and George Gershwin.
June 30
On this last day of the month, three Latinx theaters — Repertorio Espanol, Ballet Hispanico, and Nuyorican Poets Cafe — each offer something new.
Jenna and the Whale
Launches at 5:30 p.m., live only
Tickets $8
A reading of a new play by Vanessa Garcia and Jake Cline about a woman who, after a surfing accident off the coast of Florida, awakes to discover that she and a man named Jonah are inside the belly of a whale.
Eva Luna
Repertorio Espanol
Launches at 6 p.m.
A streamed reading of Caridad Svich’s play based on Isabel Allende’s novel about a woman born into poverty who rises up through the world to find her voice as a storyteller and a reflector of history. The reading, directed by Estefanía
Fadul, will be in Spanish, with a cast that includes Carmen Borla, Zulema Clares, Luis Carlos de la Lombana, Mario Peguero, Juan Villa, Mariana Fernández, and Marcel Mascaró.
Viral Monologues Pride Play edition.
24 Hour Plays
Launches at 6 p.m
Round 14. A new short play every 15 minutes on the company’s Instagram and YouTube channels. Available through July 4th.
Featuring Larry Owens, Lea DeLaria, Philippe Bowgen, Yin Chang, Travis Coles, Drew Droege, Scott Evans, Lola Kelly, Jordan Kisner, L Morgan Lee, Josh Rivas and Ianne Fields Stewart.
Original monologues will be written by Rodney Hicks, Preston Max Allen, Omar Hantash, Audrey Lang, Carmen LoBue, Ted Malawer, Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, Hayley St. James as well as West Coast partner artists Lovell Holder and Roger Q Mason.
Improvised Buffy
Queerly Festival
Launches at 7 p.m.Available through July 5.
A filmed edition of the ongoing series, in which actors make up an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Wagner’s Die Walküre
Metropolitan Opera
Launches at 7:30 pm available for 23 hours
The second installment of Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle
Noche Unidos
Ballet Hispanico
Launches at 7:30
The company’s hour-long 50th anniversary gala features ten new dances (pictured: Paulo Hernandez-Farella in Rodney Hamilton’s “Punto de Vista,” as well as appearances by such luminaries as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gloria Estefan, Rita Moreno, and Norman Lear.
Lipshtick
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Launches at 8 p.m.
In this play by Lipshtick
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Launches at 8 p.m.
In this play by Romy Nordlinger, an invasive reality show takes a sneek peek into women’s lives, which uncovers what lies just under the surface.
