Below are six must-see* theater “opening” this weekend, plus five more still available, two Meet The Tony Nominees events, and another two pro-democracy soirees.
The theater — two recent Broadway hits filmed for streaming services, three one-night only plays by Wendy Wasserstein, and a starry new musical — all taken from my October calendar of theater openings, which includes details on these and other shows opening this weekend and this month.
Celebrating the 2020 Tony Award Nominees
Stars in the House promises interviews with 2020 Tony Award nominees (full list of nominations), part 1 on Friday at 8 p.m. and part 2 on Saturday. at 8 p.m.
Democracy Soirees
Friday Hamilton Town Hall
Saturday Divas For Democracy: United We Slay.
Friday
What the Constitution Means to Me
Amazon Prime Video
A film of the amusing, angry and pointed play by Heidi Schreck about her encounter with the U.S. Constitution, as a young student, and now. (My review when it was Off-Broadway.)
Sticks & Stones
Broadway Cares
8 p.m. Available through October 20
Audra McDonald, Javier Muñoz and George Salazar and an ensemble of more than 100 young performers star in this “concert premiere” of a new musical by John McDaniel and Scott Logsdon adapts the David and Goliath Biblical tale for a story about teen bullying.
Uncommon Women and Others
Playbill.com
8 p.m.
$15
The first of three plays this weekend by Wendy Wasserstein honoring what would have been her 70th birthday, to benefit TDF’s Wendy Wasserstein Project, which brings high school students to theater. In this play, a group of friends—all alumnae of Mount Holyoke College (Wasserstein’s alma mater)—meet for lunch in 1978 (five years after graduation, for most of them). As they reminisce about their time on campus, we travel in time back to 1972-73 in a series as seven seniors and one freshman “discover themselves” in the wake of the feminist movement.
Saturday
Isn’t it Romantic
Playbill.com
8 p.m.
$15
In this play by Wendy Wasserstein, Janie Blumberg and her WASP friend, Harriet Cornwall, have graduated college and are ready to take on the world. But their post-college careers and personal lives are fraught with more problems than prosperity. Both struggle to escape lingering parental domination and to establish their own lives and identities in Manhattan in the early ’80s.
David Byrne’s American Utopia
HBO
8 p.m.
David Byrne’s Broadway show filmed by Spike Lee during its run at Broadway’s Hudson Theater. My review of the concert film.
Sunday
Heidi Chronicles
Playbill.com
7 p.m.
$15
This Tony and Pulitzer-winning play by Wendy Wasserstein, her best known, tracks Heidi Holland from high school in the 1960s to her career as a successful art historian more than 20 years later. From small meetings to mobilize to the feminist cause to lunches with these same ladies years on, The Heidi Chronicles exposed the internal battle many women feel as they balance desires for careers, friendships, and families. (My review of the recent Broadway revival.)
Other Theater Still Available
Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (through October 17) on Broadway’s Best Shows’ Spotlight on Plays
Give Me Your Hand (through October 18) on Irish Rep
That Kindness: Nurses in their Own Words (through October 19) on Brooklyn Academy of Music
Will Eno’s Title and Deed (through October 21) on Play-PerView
Why Would I Dare: The Trial of Crystal Mason (through November 2) on Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
*These are only must-see if you haven’t seen them before, and if you can afford them. It’s worth noting that both HBO and Amazon Prime offer a free trial period.
