Theater Opening Today: Homages to Shirley Chisholm, Greek Tragedy about Covid, a Musical about a Transgender Superhero, a Play about Incels

Today is a Wednesday so full of theater openings  that it signals a Fall season, albeit an unconventional one,  is in full swing.

Theater of War for front-line medical providers
Theater of War Productions
Launches at noon
Dramatic readings of Sophocles’ Philoctetes and Women of Trachis as a catalyst for a discussion about the impact of Covid-19. Best-known for Antigone in Ferguson, the company founded by Bryan Doerries performs classical plays to prompt community discussions about urgent issues. This edition features performances by Amy Ryan, Marjolaine Goldsmith, Frankie Faison, and David Zayas.

Alls Well That Ends Well
The Show Must Go Online
2 p.m.
A Zoom reading of Shakespeare’s comedy about a one-sided romance, based on a tale from Boccaccio’s The Decameron, and set in Italy and France. It’ll be followed by guest speaker Dathan B. Williams, the Associate Artistic Director and dramaturge of The Harlem Shakespeare Festival.The company has been performing a different Shakespeare play each week, in the order in which they were presumably written, since March 19th, all of them still available on director Rob Myles’ YouTube channel.

Faith Healer
Old Vic
£10-£40
2:30 p.m. ET
Michael Sheen stars in Brian Friel’s play about a man who goes on the road trying to heal people, bringing along his wife Grace (Indira Varma) and manager Teddy (David Threlfall) Faith Healer is the third in the Old Vic: In Camera live streamed performances, and will be streamed live directly from the iconic Old Vic stage with the empty auditorium as a backdrop for five performances only.

Close Encounters
The Moth
6:30 p.m.
$15
Storyteller regulars Dion Flynn, Flash Rosenberg, Devan Sandiford, Angela Derecas Taylor and Devin Elise Wilson tell their tales in Green-Wood Cemetery, livestreamed onto your computer screens.

The Incels
Urban Stages
7 p.m. available until September 20
In this play by Ruth Zamoyta, two depressed, bitter men can’t find girlfriends. Can a third man convince them to put down their guns?

Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England
Two River Theater
7 p.m.
$25
A reading of Madeleine George’s sex comedy (which premiered at the theater in 2011): Dean Wreen’s college is in dire financial straits, and a plan to close its on-campus natural history museum is sending unexpected shock waves in every direction—just as the Dean’s ex-girlfriend has come back into her life.Act I is tonight, Act II tomorrow.

Love Rosie and Thunderboy
NY Theatre Barn
7 p.m.
This week’s 45 minute show excerpts a musical in progress by Peter Duchan and Zack Zadek about 18-year-olds Rosie and Alex who are from different worlds but share a passion for music, a the first transgender superhero musical, by Jaime Jarret

Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment
Metropolitan Opera
7:30 p.m. available for 23 hours
A comedy about a headstrong young woman who has been raised among a French army regiment and falls in love with a villager, much to the dismay of the overprotective soldiers.

“All Adventurous Women Do” | Serbia
International Voices Project
8 p.m.
A play about the necessity of going elsewhere to fully realize one’s sexuality,

Jack Was Kind
All for One Theater
8 p.m. Through October 10
Tracy Thorne wrote and performs this “intimate, confessional play examines long-seated issues of privilege and complicity.” The production will be presented live on Zoom, four times a week, Wednesday-Saturday through October 10 for limited audiences.

Unbought and Unbossed: Reclaiming Our Vote
National Black Theatre
Available through October 28
“Micro-commissions from Black women artists including Ngozi Anyanwu, Hope Boykin and Mahogany L. Browne, grounded in the dynamic legacy of Shirley Chisholm. A new commission will be unveiled every Wednesday through October 28 on the National Black Theatre website

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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