Below is the day-by-day calendar of “theater openings”* in August, 2020, a month of abundance: Two theatrical celebrations of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage (Aug 16 & 18), two ways to re-experience Amiri Baraka’s landmark play “Dutchman” (Aug 8 & 20), at least two annual summer theater festivals re-imagined, and three “reunion readings” of plays with their original starry casts.
And that’s just what we know about as the month begins. Since physical theaters were shut down in March, many shows are put together at the last minute, sometimes not even announced until the very day of their launch. (And there have also been last-minute cancellations.) That’s why I will be updating this preview guide every day, and highlighting the offerings each new day with a new 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. (Some of the plays listed do require advance reservation.)
Several ongoing series have been consistent in quality and output, many of them new or even ad-hoc.
Four offer live performances (usually referred to as readings), often of original plays:
The Homebound Project (See Aug 5)
Livelabs: One Acts from MCC
Play-PerView (See Aug 1, 8 and 15th)
Viral Monologues from 24 Hour Plays (some 10 short new monologues almost every Tuesday)
This month, the similar 48Hours in…Harlem celebrates its 10th anniversary, by going online. (See August 20.)
Playing on Air continues this month what they have done since 2012 — original audio plays with starry casts. There are four in August, a new one every Sunday.
There is also Stars in the House, a twice-daily variety and talk show that, twice a week — on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons — presents Plays in the House, Zoom readings of well-known plays, often classics…and a Sunday matinee for teenagers.
*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 — of which there are plenty, many worth checking out. My focus here is on creative storytelling in performance. (I make an occasional exception for a high-profile Netathon,involving many theater artists, such as Broadway Bares on Aug 1.)
A reminder that this calendar lists when the shows “open.” Some are live and available only for that one performance. Other shows are available for four days, or a week, or longer.
August 1
Stick Fly
Plays in the House
2 p.m. Available until August 5
The Zoom reading of Lydia Diamond’s play (which ran on Broadway in 2011) is the latest matinee in the twice-weekly spinoff series of Stars in the House. The affluent, African-American LeVay family is gathering at their Martha’s Vineyard home for the weekend, and brothers Kent and Flip have each brought their respective ladies home to meet the parents for the first time. The cast features Jelani Alladin, Crystal Monee Hall, Caroline Innerbichler, Keith Randolph Smith, Tiffany Rachelle Stewart, Daniel J. Watts and Renika Williams. New original music by Crystal Monee Hall
Liberty Or Just Us: A City Parks Story
Theatre for a New City
Live 2 p.m. Available through September 13
For the 43 summers in a row, Theater for the New City tour a free original, anarchic and political outdoor musical in streets, playgrounds and parks throughout all five boroughs — wild and really fun (My review of last year’s “No Brainer” — the photos above are from last year.) For its 44th summer show, TNC is going (surprise!) online. The new musical, written and directed by artistic director Crystal Field with original music by Joseph Vernon Banks, is described as an oratorio that celebrates the history of New York City parks as sites of activism and protest. “Later in the run, if city and state regulations permit outdoor performances, social distancing will be achieved by spreading the milk crates out for individuals and couples and marking areas where 3-4 family members can sit together.”
RoosevElvis
Play-PerView
Launches at 5 p.m.
Available through August 6
$5-$50
A reunion reading of The TEAM’s 2013 comedy, directed by Rachel Chavkin (Hadestown, Great Comet): On a hallucinatory road trip from the Badlands to Graceland, the spirits of Elvis Presley and Theodore Roosevelt battle over the soul of Ann, a painfully shy meat-processing plant worker, and what kind of man or woman Ann should become.
The Odds Are Good, But the Goods Are Odd
Dixon Place
7:30
On this last day of this year’s virtual Hot! Festival, Taylor Cozort presents her 45-minute autobiographical solo show billed as an “honest portrayal of trauma, food, and self love.”
Verdi’s Ernani
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours
A complicated story based on a Victor Hugo play about a young woman and the three men vying for her affection
Murder in Montgomery Manor
Broadway Whodunit
$21.30
8 p.m.
The first in a series of virtual unscripted murder mysteries created by Andrew Barth Feldman (Dear Evan Hansen), where we play detective after one Broadway star is murdered to figure out which Broadway star was the killer. The eight-member cast this time features Feldman as host Laurence Montgomery VI, Alex Boniello as Giuseppe Romano, The Lawyer (I’ll bet he winds up the killer), Will Roland and Shereen Pimentel.
HI BI
Dixon Place
8:30 p.m.
Margot Meija’s play about two bisexuals who fall in love with one another is the final offering of this year’s month-long virtual Hot! Festival.
Broadway Bares
9:30 p.m.
The annual strip show for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has gone online this year, featuring (clothed) appearances by Nick Adams, Charles Busch, Lea DeLaria, J. Harrison Ghee, Jane Krakowski, Nathan Lane, Beth Leavel, Judith Light, Andrew Lippa, Lesli Margherita, Angie Schworer, Marc Shaiman, Miriam Shor, Christopher Sieber, Wesley Taylor
August 2
Martin Luther On Trial
Fellowship for the Performing Arts
4 p.m.
A courtroom drama featuring Hitler, Freud, MLK Jr and Pope Francis as witnesses in a reenactment of Satan’s rebellion and his failed attempt to enlist Michael the Archangel!
Today I Saw A Bird…and Waze
Playdate Theatre
Two 15-minute plays on day two of this new theater company’s festival. In Ben Kaye’s “Today I Saw A Bird and Watched You Fly Away With It,” Sean (Owen Thiele) logs on for a work call with Roxie (Wonza Johnson), but discovers he’s in for something else entirely. In Lizz Bogaard’s “Waze,” Casey’s desire to get a job at Waze is thwarted when his grandmother causes a ruckus during his interview.
Happy by Alan Zweibel
Playing on Air
In Alan Zweibel’s audio play, starring Frankie Faison and Scott Adsit, directed by Fred Berner, a baseball fan shows up at the home of his childhood hero, George “Happy” Halliday. Has the stranger come to pay his respects or to throw a curveball?
Wagner’s Die Walküre
Metropolitan Opera
7:20 p.m. available for 23 hours
The second installment of Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle, the most popular and most self-contained episode. It combines the mythical machinations of gods and demigods with the love story of the brave hero Siegmund and the dignified Sieglinde, whose passion is undiminished even when they discover that they are long-lost brother and sister,
August 3
The End of TV
Manual Cinema
1 p.m.
available for a week
The second of four shows from the archives of this ten-year-old company that uses shadow puppetry and “lo fi live video feeds” to simultaneously create a “manual” film and show you how they’re doing it. Set in a post-industrial Rust Belt city in the 1990s and told through a collection of original 70’s R&B-inspired art pop songs, The End of TV explores the quest to find meaning amongst the increasingly constant barrage of commercial images and advertising white-noise.
Cloudbusting
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
The first of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Chris Phillips. Directed by Stuart Green. Company: Jen Bradley, Richard Lear and Dan Teachout
Mozart’s The Magic Flute
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m., available for 23 hours
Staged by Julie Taymor (The Lion King), sarring Ying Huang, Erika Miklósa, Matthew Polenzani, Nathan Gunn, and René Pape, conducted by James Levine. From December 30, 2006.
Torched and Stellar Shorts
Pregones/PRTT
The last in the Remojo 2020 series of works in progress. 1. A new musical that looks at the South Bronx in the 1970s, drawn from the people who lived there. Written by Rosalba Rolón with original music by Desmar Guevara, and featuring Álvaro Benavides, Rosal Colón, Caridad de La Luz, Desmar Guevara, Gabo Lugo, and Omar Pérez. 2. A selection from the 21 Islands International Short Film Fest
breakfast lunch dinner
Echo Theater
10:30 p.m. ET
A Zoom reading by this L.A. company of a play by Kira Obolensky that follows on middle-class Midwestern family at meals over a 21-year period
August 4
Don Juan in Hell
Bedlam Theater
6:30 p.m.
A reading of George Bernard Shaw’s play in which Don Juan debates the Devil
THE OLYMPIANS
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
The second of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Fareeda Ahmed. Directed by Kristin Heckler. Company: Shravan Amin, Samantha Debicki and Paul Pryce
Carla’s Quince
SolFest
7:30
The second of three nights of this virtual Latinx festival offers a new bilingual immersive theatre experience that invites the audience to become guests at Carla’s Zoom Quinceañera. RSVP here
Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann
Metropolitan Opera
Starring Erin Morley, Hibla Gerzmava, Kate Lindsey, Christine Rice, Vittorio Grigolo, and Thomas Hampson, conducted by Yves Abel. From January 31, 2015.
Who’s There
New Ohio Theater
10 p.m.
Available through August 8
Cross-cultural encounter involving artists based in Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States: Accusations, feuds, and revelation.
Created by The Transit Ensemble, co-directed by Sim Yan Ying “YY” and Alvin Tan.
August 5
Homebound Project # 5
7 p.m. Available through August 9
The fifth anthology of short new plays (and planned as the last), this time with a cast featuring
Laurie Metcalf, Kelli O’Hara, Brian Cox, Austin Pendleton, Daniel K. Isaac, performing in works by playwrights Craig Lucas, Lena Dunham, Sylvia Khoury, Stephen Karam, Donnetta Lavinia Grays.
Between The Lines and My Little Barbizon
New York Theater Barn
7 p.m.
Two more musical works in progress. 1. Delilah, an outsider in a new school who seeks comfort in the pages of her favorite book, where she feels heard and understood. But as the lines between the two worlds of reality and fantasy begin to blur in extraordinary and astonishing ways, Delilah has to confront whether she alone has the power to rewrite her own story. 2. When Annie checks into her room at the Barbizon Hotel, an infamous boarding house for ambitious career girls, she finds company in Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath, Eudora Welty, and Gael Green — writers and former Barbizon girls. What unfolds are a series of conversations that unravel Annie’s fears, desires, and relationship to her place in the world.
WHAT IF YOU READ MY PLAYS b
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
One of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Jeff Tabnick. Directed by Richard Rose. Company: Alyssa M. Chase, David Harrell
Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra
Metropolitan Opera
Starring Kiri Te Kanawa, Plácido Domingo, Vladimir Chernov, and Robert Lloyd, conducted by James Levine. From January 26, 1995.
Black Trans Women at the Center
Long Wharf Theater
8 p.m.
A free Zoom reading of three short plays: Dezi Bing’s “Things Unknown,” CeCe Suazo’s “You Will Nevaaa …” and Douglas Lyons’s “Sunshine.”
August 6
Cutting Up
noon
available until August 9
Charles Randolph-Wright’s play center on three black barbershops, and features a stellar cast including Joe Morton, Blair Underwood, and Reynaldo Piniella. The streamed reading is an encore presentation originally presented in June.
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly
Metropolitan Opera
Starring Kristine Opolais, Maria Zifchak, Roberto Alagna, and Dwayne Croft, conducted by Karel Mark Chichon. From April 2, 2016.
Untitled
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
One of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Tatiana Rivera. Directed by Everett Quinton. Company: Veronica Cruz, Christopher Imbrosiano, Patrick O’Hare, Estrella Tamez
The Bathroom Plays
Eden Theater Company
8 p.m.
All three plays take place in a bathroom, and will be streamed on Eden’s YouTube channel
In Amy Berryman’s “Pidgeons,” a woman confesses to a priest via Zoom, as she “lurks the bowels of the Internet” after her husband’s death. In E.E. Adams’s “Mary,” a young woman who is sheltering in place alone attempts to befriend the ghost haunting her bathroom. In Brennan Vickery’s “Monogamous Animals,” the characters would’ve never thought being so close could make them feel so lonely. A cigarette, a bathtub and a one-night getaway from quarantine might just break them.
Cerulean
TAPS Summer Theater
9 p.m. ET Repeated Friday
students from Stanford’s Department of Theater and Performance Studies present a new devised play about a new social media platform that encourages authentic connections and vulnerability.
August 7
In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams
PBS Great Performances
A documentary of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical, as part of the program’s new “Broadway at Home” series. A cool follow-up to Hamilton on Disney+ (still available to subscribers) and the Freestyle Love Supreme documentary on Hulu (ditto.)
Howard
Disney Plus
A documentary on Howard Ashman, the lyricist for “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast,” who died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of 40.
3 GODS ON A ZOOM
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
One of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Monét Marshall. Directed by Keyanna Alexander. Company: Kalilah Black, Robin Carmon Marshall, AhDream Smith
Wagner’s Parsifal
Metropolitan Opera
Starring Waltraud Meier, Siegfried Jerusalem, Bernd Weikl, and Kurt Moll, conducted by James Levine. From March 28, 1992.
The Understudy
Play Reading Fridays
7 p.m.
Theresa Rebeck’s comedy focuses on Roxanne, who is charged with running the understudy rehearsal for the Broadway premiere of a heretofore undiscovered masterpiece by Franz Kafka. She is rattled when she discovers it’s her ex-fiance who is understudy for Jake, a mid-tier action star yearning for legitimacy.
Ballots Over Broadway
8 p.m.
$25-$3,000
A Democratic political fundraiser featuring performances by Laura Benanti, Andre De Shields, Eden Espinosa, Santino Fontana, Andy Karl and Orfeh, and Jessica Mueller, among others.
August 8
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Check out first batch of 30 plays on The Space UK
WeSongCycle
Tokyo Performing Arts
8:45 a.m.
The season finale of an online documentary-style series, centered on several cultures’ definition of “Heroism.” The 16-member cast hails from the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Japan.
Dutchman
Play-PerView
7 p.m.
A read of Amiri Baraka’s 1964 play that’s a stark, allegorical confrontation between Lula, a white woman, and Clay, a black man, on the subway in New York, featuring the cast of the 2007 Cherry Lane production — Dulé Hill, Jennifer Mudge, and Christopher Meyer.
3 STOPS FROM LOOP TAPE STATION
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
One of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Enrique Huili. Directed by Ashley Scott. Company: Juan Carlos Diaz and Melissa Jennifer Gonzalez
Handel’s Agrippina
Metropolitan Opera
Starring Brenda Rae, Joyce DiDonato, Kate Lindsey, Iestyn Davies, Duncan Rock, and Matthew Rose, conducted by Harry Bicket. From February 29, 2020.
August 9
Ham4Change
1 p.m.
$10.95
Appearances by Hamilton cast members Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Ariana DeBose,Ephraim Sykes, Carleigh Bettiol, Alysha Deslorieux, Hope Easterbrook, Elizabeth Judd Salinas, Austin Smith, and host Okieriete Onaodowan to raise money for nine organizations.
Anniversary
Playing on Air
Sarah Sokolovic, Michael Esper, Sue Jean Kim, and Steven Boyer star in this play by Rachel Bonds in which a grieving New Yorker finds herself drawn to a quirky, flirtatious friend-of-a-friend.
SING
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
One of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Khalil LeSaldo. Directed by Ward Nixon. Company: Martin Lewis and AhDream Smith
Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Metropolitan Opera
Starring Hibla Gerzmava, Malin Byström, Serena Malfi, Paul Appleby, Simon Keenlyside, and Adam Plachetka, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From October 22, 2016.
Antigone in Ferguson
Theater of War Productions
8:30 p.m.
This is the most-lauded of this company’s many productions that use Greek tragedy to illuminate current issues, first created after a police officer killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014 (This is the sixth anniversary of the shooting.). The Zoom version follows Theater of War’s usual format, the starry cast will first read Sophocles’ tragedy, four panelists will discuss it, and then the discussion will be open to attendees. The cast features Oscar Isaac, Tracie Thoms, Ato Blankson Wood, Willie Woodmore, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, De-Rance Blaylock, Duane Martin Foster, Marcelle Davies Lashley, John Leggette, and Gheremi Clay, and the Antigone in Ferguson Choir.
August 10
No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks
Manual Cinema
1 p.m. Available for a week
The story of the remarkable poet who was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in any category, told in this theater company’s unique hybrid genre of puppetry, theater, and do-it-yourself cinema.
Check out my review
Cock
Trevor Project
6 p.m.
$15-100
Michael Hsu Rosen (Torch Song) will star with Ron Bohmer, Nick Rashad Burroughs, and Charnette Batey in this play by Mike Bartlett (King Charles III) that received raves in a 2012 production Off-Broadway, although some publications refused to mention the title. When John takes a break from his boyfriend, his accidentally meets the girl of his dreams. Filled with guilt and indecision, he decides there is only one way to straighten this out..
M-O-U-S-E
Theater Breaking Through Barriers
7:30 p.m.
The last of eight new plays from the festival entitled Voices from the Great Experiment, which will be presented on TBTBTheater’s YouTube channel every night at 7:30 through August 10. This one is by Christopher Chan Roberson. Directed by Kimille Howard. Company: Scott Barton, Nayab Hussein, Ayako Ibaraki, Sean Phillips
I Am Here
Planet Connections Zoom Fest
7:30 p.m.
A new batch of plays online on specific themes every Monday in August. This week: “Monologues and short plays exploring fiercely unapologetic, female creativity, and imagination.” Whitewashed by Lynda Crawford, The TV Interview by Rohina Malik, The Essential Bronx by Desi Moreno-Penson, Till Hell Freezes Over by Tonya Pinkins and My Second Quinceanera by Noemi de la Puente. To make a reservation, email Kim Jones at PlanetKimJ@gmail.com.
Puccini’s Manon Lescaut
Metropolitan Opera
7:30. Available for 23 hours
Songs from an Unmade Bed
8 p.m.
B.D. Wong and videographer Richert Schnorr create a series of music videos out of this song cycle by librettist Mark Campbell and 18 composers about the inner musings and romantic life of a gay man living in New York.
Corkscrew 4.0
Available through August 23.
What was going to be the fourth annual Corkscrew Festival has been delayed until August 2021. HOWEVER, in the meantime, “the creative teams behind the five world premiere productions have adapted, reimagined, and exploded their plays, ending up with five unique interactive web experiences.”
So, for example: “In Yankees, it’s Study Abroad Florence 2015! Introduce yourself to the Facebook group, check out the program website, and get ready to become a citizen of the WORLD…’
August 11
Love, Noel
Irish Rep
7 p.m.
The songs and letters of Noel Coward, performed by Steve Ross and KT Sullivan
Bizet’s Carmen
Metropolitan Opera
7:30. Available for 23 hours.
August 12
The Plantation
7 p.m.
Brave New World Rep
An adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, presented as a Zoom reading. Faithful to Chekhov’s text about freed serfs in Russia and the disintegration of the Russian aristocracy, The Plantation examines the root causes of racial injustice in America when freed slaves gained education, employment, property and held public office in the Southern States, including two African American men in Congress, before Jim Crow Laws sowed seeds of racism that would cripple African American advancement for almost a century. Reservations required.
Tyrants and Songs for Slutty Girls
New York Theatre Barn
7 p.m.
Two more musicals in progress. 1. In the wake of the Lincoln assassination, Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, goes from being the most famous actor in America to the most scorned. The lines between the past and the present begin to blur as Edwin remembers and revises his own life story, trying desperately to ascertain his own responsibility for his brother’s crime. 2. an interactive diary entry that examines the ecstasy, pain, and hilarity of sex through a year in the life of one woman
Verdi’s Rigoletto
Metropolitan Opera
7:30, available for 23 hours
Luciano Pavarotti plays the villainous duke
August 13
In The Southern Breeze
Rattlestick
5 p.m.
When a runaway slave gets lost in a mysterious forest, an Absurdist drama ensues
A Burning Church
New Ohio Theater
7 p.m.
Available for two days
Staged as a religious service as part of the Ice Factory Festival, this new musical traces the lives of church leaders and congregants amid protest movements, tragedies, and spiritual rebirth.
Puccini’s Turandot
Metropolitan Opera
7:30. Available for 23 hours
Seize the King
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
7:30 p.m.
A five-person reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Richard III written by Will Power.
August 14
Andromeda Sisters
Neopolitical Cowgirls
5:30 p.m.
$25=$120
An evening of monologues by female-identifying playwrights performed by acclaimed actors.
Dainty & In My Arms, Or Under My Foot
Bold2020
6 p.m.
The premiere of a festival of ten-minute plays that’s in response to the systemic silencing of Black womxn’s voices
Much Ado About Nothing
PBS Great Performances
A recording of the 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production starring Danielle Brooks as Beatrice. (My review at the Delacorte)
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley: Broadway and Beyond
Broadway on Demand
8 p.m. available through August 16
$8
A year before she died, Marin Mazzie joined her husband Jason Daniely in 2017 for this concert at Feinstein’s/54 Below where they shared popular theater songs, including those one or the other had originated in the original casts of Ragtime, Passion, The Full Monty, Curtains and The Visit
August 15
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
Play-PerView
7 p.m.
The tenth annual reunion reading of this play written and directed by Kristoffer Diaz. Macedonio “The Mace” Guerra is a middle rank wrestler who may have discovered his ticket to the big time: a charismatic, trash-talking Indian kid from Brooklyn whom he recruits as the perfect foil to the all-American champion, Chad Deity. But when their rivalry is used to exploit racial stereotypes in the name of ratings, all three men find themselves fighting for much more than the championship title. (My review of the play Off-Broadway in 2010.)
Puccini’s La Boheme
Metropolitan Opera
7:30. Available for 23 hours
August 16
Cell
Playing on Air
Tonya Pinkins, Condola Rashad, and Melanie Nicholls-King star in this audio play by Cassandra Medley:When a jaded guard at an immigrant detention center finds jobs for her sister and niece, family tensions erupt into a battle over home and homeland security.
Tight (Haha Nice)
The Tank
7 p.m.
As part of the theater’s LimeFest, this play by Rebecca Kane focuses on Brooke, who gets a diagnosis of vaginismus, an involuntary tightening of the vagina. She’s determined to overcome it, using awkward conversations, dating apps, sex toys, friends with benefits and an obscene amount of that free lube from Planned Parenthood.
Verdi’s Luisa Miller
Metropolitan Opera
7:30. Available for 23 hours
August 17
Frankenstein
Manual Cinema
1 p.m. available until August 24
The fourth and final video in the “Retrospectacular” celebrating the tenth anniversary of this innovative company that creates stunning visual effects combining theater and do-it-yourself film using live actors, shadow puppetry and overhead projectors. My review of Manuel Cinema’s Frankenstein when it was on stage (and simultaneously screen) at the Public Theater.
Mrs. Sorken by Christopher Durang and I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow by Tennessee Williams
Food for Thought Productions
Once again, this company is presenting a live, in-person production, and simultaneously streaming it for the more squeamish on Zoom. Cady Huffman and Nathan Darrow star in a pair of one-acts, this time at Theatre 80 in the East Village. They plan to do these Monday matinees once a month through the end of the year.
A Quarantine Lab: Raja Feather Kelly and Tislarm Bouie
New York Theater Barn
7 p.m.
Excerpts of “new dancing in a virtual space” by celebrated New York choreographers Raja Feather Kelly (A Strange Loop) and Tislarm Bouie (Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus). each part of larger work — respectively Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan, a musical by Rona Siddiqui about a character with a binational identity, and Thug, Bouie’s short film focusing on redefining what it means to be a black man in America
Puccini’s Tosca
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours
Rise
Planet Connections Zoom Fest
7:30 p.m.
A new batch of plays online on specific themes every Monday in August.This week: “An evening of comic social-justice themed monologues and short plays.” Written by Maggie Bofill, Jake Brasch, Glory Kadigan, Robin Rice, Jerry Polner, and Mark Jason Williams. To make a reservation, email Kim Jones at PlanetKimJ@gmail.com.
August 18
100 Years | 100 Women
Park Avenue Armory
2 p.m.
a “Virtual Watch Party” that premieres Shola Lynch’s film “100 Years/ 100 Women” offering one hundred women’s responses to the legacy of the 19th amendment, as well as sneak peeks of other commissioned works.
Inalienable Rights and The Tender-Hearted
Burning Coal Theater Company
This Raleigh, N.C. company is premiering 14 ten-minute plays from now through August 30 as part of its Nineteenth Amendment Project. Each cost two dollars. All of them are $25. The first two: 1.A woman goes to her local precinct to vote before she has to pick up her daughter; but as soon as she gets into the voting booth, something strange happens. 2. Ellen is leaving her rural home for the day to go into town and march at the Women’s rally, her husband, Tobias, has other plans for her
Finish the Fight
New York Times
7 p.m.
The play by Ming Peiffer (“Usual Girls”) was commissioned by the Time to mark the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote The performance is available for free to viewers who R.S.V.P. in advance.
Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours
Doomed To Live
Theatre 68
8 p.m.
The first short play of the theater’s 9th annual One-Acts festival, which this year is on the theme of Primal Instincts and runs each night through September 27.
August 19
Silver Foxes
Sing Out Louise! Productions
6 p.m.
George Takei and Daniel Davis star as two older gay men who rescue their friend from a homophobic senior living facility and bring him to live with them in Palm Springs, in a new play by Stan Zimmerman and James Berg billed as the gay Golden Girls. The “industry reading” will be directed by Michael Urie. “The link will only be sent to those who RSVP via joey@singoutlouiseproductions.com”
The Hombres
Two River Theater
7 p.m.
$25
A look at the complexity and intimacy of male friendship. Set somewhere off the New Jersey Transit line, the play follows Julián, a Latino yoga teacher, as he clashes with the Latino construction workers outside his studio—particularly the older head of the crew, Héctor, who seeks from Julián something he never expected.
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m., available for 23 hours
August 20
Here We Are
Theatre for One
Every Thursday starting today, Christine Jones’ company will offer one-on-one performances of “micro-plays” by the following eight playwrights:Jaclyn Backhaus, Lydia R. Diamond, Lynn Nottage, Stacey Rose, Nikkole Salter, DeLanna Studi, Regina Taylor, and Carmelita Tropicana. Each audience member signs up for a specific date and time and then gets to see at least one play, performed live! You need to sign up here in advance and to learn details. Here also is an AP article that helps explain: “The custom designed digital platform will allow audience members and actors to interact more closely than on traditional online platforms. There will even be a virtual lobby where audience members can gather and chat before and after performances.”
48Hours in…Harlem
Harlem9
7 p.m. Available for four days
The 10th anniversary edition of the annual theatre festival begins August 20.
The new plays were written in 48 hours July 17–19, then rehearsed and recorded during an additional 48-hour period July 24–25.
For this year’s festival, playwrights were inspired by the same six Black plays from 48 Hours in..’s. inaugural year: Zooman and the Sign, The Colored Museum, Day of Absence, Funnyhouse of a Negro, Dutchman, and Black Terror.
The festival brings together six playwrights, six directors, and 18 actors, including A Strange Loop star Larry Owens and its choreographer Raja Feather Kelly. Penning the pieces are playwrights Keith Josef Adkins, Brittany K. Allen, Tracey Conyer Lee, Nadine Mozon, Jeremy O’brian, and L. Trey Wilson. (My article on the ninth annual 48 Hours in Harlem)
Beast Visit
Rubulad’s sculpture garden in Bushwick.
7 p.m.
Live, in-person theater from the theater company The Drunkard’s Wife as part of HERE Arts Center. A sunset encounter with some lonesome creatures currently living in Rubulad’s sculpture garden in Bushwick. This intimate outdoor show by The Drunkard’s Wife incorporates extravagant costumes, song, modular electronics, and a live band.
Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. Available for 23 hours
August 21
Quince
People’s Garden in Bushwick
5:30 and 8 p.m.
Yes, this is live, in-person theater.Camilo Quiroz-Vazquez and Ellpetha Tsivicos create an immersive theatrical experience where we invite audiences to enter a not-so-traditional quinceañera, featuring the story of Cynthia, a 14-year-old Mexican American girl confronting her queer identity on the eve of her special day. The theater company known as The Team turns “necessary precautions against the spread of Covid-19 into an integral part of the celebration, including beautiful custom face masks for the audience.”.
The King and I
PBS Great Performances
Newsies
Playbill
7 p.m.
The one-night-only streaming of the Tony Award-winning musical, captured live at The Hollywood Pantages Theatre in 2016, with Jeremy Jordan as “Jack Kelly,” Kara Lindsay as “Katherine,” Ben Fankhauser as “Davey” and Andrew Keenan-Bolger as “Crutchie,” and North American Tour stars Steve Blanchard as “Joseph Pulitzer,” Aisha de Haas as “Medda Larkin” and Ethan Steiner as “Les.” The film will be followed by a new video with cast members. (My review of Newsies on Broadway in 2012)
Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. Available for 23 hours
August 22
Judgment Day
Barrington Stage
7:30 p.m. Available through Aug 25
$35
Patti LuPone, Jason Alexander, Santino Fontana and Michael McKean star in a virtual reading of Rob Ulin’s comedy about a corrupt lawyer who has a near-death experience with an angel, then seeks out a priest with whom to debate essential questions of morality, faith and goodness.
Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. Available for 23 hours
August 23
College Bound Double Feature
Plays in the House Teen Edition
The Sunday matinee of Stars in the House presents two one-act plays dealing with young people heading to college: 13 Ways To Screw Up Your College Interview by Ian McWethy and Variations on a Theme by Ed Monk. Starring Simone Clotile, Lex Garcia, Nicole Goldstein, Donovan Rogers. Directed by Jacob Daniel Smith
St. Francis Preaches to the Birds
Playing on Air
An audio play by David Ives sarring Carson Elrod, Julie Halston, and Matthew Saldivar with cameos by Lois Smith and Ives
In the middle of the desert, two vultures find their lunch interrupted by a man of faith. Now, they have a bone to pick with Saint Francis of Assisi.
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel
Metropolitan Opera
7:30. Available for 23 hours
August 24
Righteous
Temple Emanu-el Streicker Center
7:30 p.m.
A new play by Jeff Cohen with a starry ten-member cast including Frank Wood, Denis O’Hare, Johanna Day, Jessica Hecht, and Richard Kind.
“What would you do if you learned that your country planned to exterminate an entire race of people? That is the horrible question faced by Eduard Schulte, a captain of German industry and member of Hitler’s inner circle. Righteous is the true story of the man who sounded the alarm of Hitler’s plan to murder all the Jews in Europe. Schulte’s warning reached the desk of President Roosevelt in December 1942.” The reading is free to the public but you must register here in advance.
Eulogy and Notes from the New World
Planet Connections Zoom Fest
7:30 p.m.
1. Written by Barry Lee Sheppard, Directed by Adam Chisnall: Can I say goodbye or am I in an endless turnstile? 2. Written by Patricia Davis Directed by Susan Tenney:
Playwright Olympe de Gouge, executed during the French Revolution, returns to the stage and working with murdered activists from our time—Berta Caceres, Digna Ochoa, and Anna Politkovskaya—builds a world where women can live. To make a reservation, email Kim Jones at PlanetKimJ@gmail.com.
August 25
With Dignity
The Tank
7 p.m.
As part of the theater’s LimeFest, this play by Victoria M. Fragnito focuses on a woman who
is faced with the task of telling her Italian-Catholic family during a Sunday dinner that she is taking advantage of her state’s new Death with Dignity law.
Verdi’s Il Travatore
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 available for 23 hours
In this week devoted to Verdi, Yonghoon Lee as Manrico, the passionate troubadour, Anna Netrebko as his lady love and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as the evil Count di Luna who stands in the way of their happiness
Delivery
Queens Theater
8 p.m. Available through August 28
In this play by Jelisa Jay Robinson, three high school juniors, with the support of their English teacher, use slam poetry to express their views of the world around them. Register to receive the link to the video.
Ain’t (Y)Our History
Azeotrope and Brownbox Theatre
8 p.m.
A new play by Rachel Atkins about race relations in the women’s suffrage movement, featuring original suffrage songs and poems.
Solitude
Latino Theatre Co
10 p.m. ET
In this play by Evelina Fernandez, set on the day of the million-immigrant march, a wealthy lawyer hosts a reception following his mother’s funeral, gathering together the childhood friends he left behind 20 years ago
August 26
Talking Statues
Monumental Women
This nine-minute “dialogue” (or 11 minutes in Spanish) will accompany “Monumental Women,” a 14 foot tall statue being unveiled in Central Park that depicts three pioneers in women’s rights, Sojourner Truth. Susan B. Anthony and Cady Stanton, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the women’s right to vote. The cast: Jane Alexander, Viola Davis, America Ferera, Rita Moreno, Zoe Saldana and Meryl Streep!
There will be an app, and also a Qcode at the site of the monument. Will there also be a website? Stay tuned.
Sunken Cathedral
Here Arts
7 p.m.
Luisa Miller
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 available for 23 hours
In this week devoted to Verdi,
Women in Theater: A Centennial Celebration
Playbill.com
8 pm, available through August 30
Heidi Schreck and Rebecca Naomi Jones serve as hosts of a concert that celebrates the contributions women have made to the theatre in the last 100 years. Sneak peeks at musicals Jeanette and Gun & Powder, debut of a new song by SIX co-writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, performances by Sara Bareilles, Daphne-Rubin Vega, Jessie Mueller, and Nikki M. James, as well as appearances by Pulitzer Prize winners Quiara Alegría Hudes, Lynn Nottage, and Paula Vogel.
August 27
The Jacksonian
The New Group
$10-$25
7 p.m
Continuing with the company’s reunion reading series, a starry cast (Ed Harris, Jane Krakowski , Amy Madigan, Juliet Brett,Bill Pullman) star in Beth Henley’s play set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964 – a town poisoned by racism – as a dentist Bill Perch (Harris), kicked out by his wife, commences a downward spiral at the Jacksonian Motel. (My 2013 Off-Broadway review)
Goodnight, Tyler
Dumont Millennial Productions
7 p.m. Available through August 31
A reading of a play by B.J. Tindal about Tyler Evans, a Black boy who wants to be remembered for who he was rather than how he died. The cast includes Jelani Alladin (whose new production company is producing the reading), Johanna Braddy, Michele Shay, Danielle Deadwyler, Jack Quaid, and Alex Gibson.
Women Who Changed History
Planet Connections Zoom Fest
7:30 p.m.
Three monologues about real women in history who stood up to systems of injustice.Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay by Dipti Mehta, Directed by Kat Yen. Bridge to Baraka: I Am That Bear written by Yvette Heyliger, Directed by John Scutchins. Selma ’65 written by Catherine Filloux, Directed by Susan Izatt. To make a reservation, email Kim Jones at PlanetKimJ@gmail.com.
Un Ballo in Maschera
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 available for 23 hours
In this week devoted to Verdi,
August 28
La Traviata
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 available for 23 hours
In this week devoted to Verdi,
August 29
Mermaid Parade
Coney Island USA
1 p.m.
Hours of (online) merriment featuring this year’s King Neptune and Queen Mermaid playwrights Lynn Nottage and Jeremy O. Harris, as well as Arlo Guthrie and celebrants from all over.
Pride and Prejudice The Musical
Broadway on Demand
$6
7 p.m.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Seeing Place Theater
$10-$50
7 p.m.
Shakespeare on Zoom, featuring Hermia and Lysander as a lesbian couple and a herd of non-binary fairies
Don Carlo
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 available for 23 hours
In this week devoted to Verdi,
A PLAY ABOUT DOING A PLAY ABOUT JARED KUSHNER ON ZOOM
The Tank
8 p.m.
As part of the theater’s LimeFest, playwright Stephanie Swirsky and director Tasha M. Gordon-Solmon have created a theater piece about the struggles of adapting a live performance full-length play about Jared Kushner for a digital platform.
August 30
The Smell of the Kill
Stars in the House‘s Plays in the House
2 p.m. Available until September 2
In this play by Michele Lowe, Krysta Rodriguez, Courtney Reed and Olivia Puckett portray unhappy housewives who must decide whether to rescue their husbands from a walk-in freezer
Falstaff
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 available for 23 hours
In this week devoted to Verdi,
August 31
SoldierGirls
Rattlestick
7 p.m.
A two-person musical that uses real letters and a collage of found and original text to look at love, liberation, and lesbianism in the Women’s Army Corps in World War II. The starry cast (taking turns portraying the women) features Jenn Colella, Chilina Kennedy, Lilli Cooper, Ezra Menas, Melanie Field, Jessie Shelton, Anna Crivelli, Danielle Chaves, Hannah Van Sciver, and Madeleine Barker.
Away From You
Planet Connections Zoom Fest
7:30 p.m.
In this play written by Tracey Knight Narang, an estranged daughter returns home after a death in the family to confront the ghosts from her past.To make a reservation, email Kim Jones at PlanetKimJ@gmail.com.
Elektra
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours
In 1909, not five years after scandalizing the cultural intelligentsia with his lurid one-act opera Salome, the young Richard Strauss shocked them again with a darkly psychoanalytic take on the Sophocles play about an ancient Mycenaean princess’s wish to avenge the assassination of her father, Agamemnon. Nina Stemme in the title role. Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier, Burkhard Ulrich and Eric Owens costar in this 2016 production.
