Below are four “theater openings” today, including Lincoln Center’s first Broadway Fridays presentation, Astoria Performing Arts Center’s new entry in its original Musicals from the Quarantine series, and the latest from San Francisco’s 25th annual Playground Festival, and the Metropolitan Opera. The shows are listed below in the order in which they are being launched today.
Below the four launched today are four launched recently that are still available, and worth seeing.
Many shows have been postponed, almost all of the postponements meant as an expression of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and other African Americans. To see what other shows were planned — and what else has opened so far this month — check out my Calendar of June 2020 openings.
Also check out my overview of ongoing series and platforms, Where To Get Your Theater Fix Online
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.
Four shows still available
Much Ado About Nothing, with Danielle Brooks. Expires June 7
Coriolanus starring Tom Hiddleston. Available through June 11
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, available until June 30. a gay play and showcase for the impressive theatrical talents of James Lecesne, who portrays nine characters in the story of a teenager, who winds up dead.
Antigone in Ferguson – the production at Harlem Stage of Theater of War adaptation of Sophocles’ 2,500-year-old tragedy, first created in response to the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.Samira Wiley, Chris Noth, Tamara Tunie and a gospel chorus. This PBS documentary incorporates scenes from the show and interviews with the artists involved.
