A “Hamlet” entirely inside his head…and in your ear. The Broadway cast of “The Gilded Age” in person. A documentary about actress Marlee Matlin, a feature film starring Kyra Sedwick and Kevin Bacon, and a short inspired by the real lives of another married couple, Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody. Among the hundreds of offerings at the 24th annual Tribeca Festival, running from June 4 to 15, those dozen or so listed below are likely of interest to theater lovers – either because of the subject or the characters or the cast, or because it’s a live in-person performance, which can be called theater: yes, experimental, sometimes using cutting-edge technology, but coming closer to theater than any of the official programs at the festival, which has been renamed the Tribeca Festival (rather than the Tribeca Film Festival) because it’s expanded beyond films to feature music, games, TV, audio, immersive programming. and something called Tribeca X, “ (“brand storytelling at the intersection of entertainment and marketing.”), as well as panels and podcasts.
The shows are listed more or less chronologically, their titles linked to the appropriate festival webpage.
Hamlet
Using only Shakespeare’s words, this adaptation, sound-designed by Mikhail Fiksel (Tony winning sound designer for Dana H), brings listeners inside Hamlet’s head—hearing only what he hears as the world shatters around him. Theatergoers get headphones to listen to the first 30 minutes of the project. A discussion about it follows. afterwards.
Thursday June 5, 8 p.m. at the Public Theater
The Best You Can
Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon perform together on screen for the first time in twenty years as two halves of an unlikely friendship between a security guard and a urologist whose chance encounter blooms into something deeper.
Sat June 7 BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, June 8, 9 Village East, June 15, SVA Theater
Seasoned
One of the four short films in the NOW Showcase: Based on the real lives of Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, Seasoned follows the delightfully tumultuous relationship and life of this successful, gregarious, deeply committed, slightly insane married couple.. As they navigate a society that feels as if it’s crumbling around them, will they remain standing?
June 8, 11, 15 (Springs Studios, Village East, AMC 19th respectively.)
Everything’s Going to Be Great
Allison Janney and Bryan Cranston portray theater managers who struggle to support their two sons — a hunky football star (Jack Champion) and his flamboyant, theater-loving younger brother – when unexpected circumstances compel them to move in with Janney’s estranged brother (Chris Cooper.)
June 9 (BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center), June 10, 12, 15 (Village East by Angelika)
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
A documentary portrait of the most prominent Deaf actor of her generation, who won an Academy award at age 19 for her performance in Children of a Lesser God, yet struggled with a career that never seemed on sure footing and painful secrets in her personal life. (Matlin made her Broadway debut in Spring Awakening.)
June 9 SVA Theater, June 11 AMC 19, June 12 Village East by Angelika
Fior di Latte
Mark (Tim Heidecker), a frustrated playwright grappling with creative stagnation, discovers an unusual escape from his current reality — huffing perfume to evoke vivid memories of his Italian summer vacation. Spiraling into obsession, he enlists an eccentric perfumer (Kevin Kline)
6/9, 6/10 Village East by Angelika
In The Dark: A Live Variety Show
Talia Augustidis’s live performance showcases the “funny sounds” she has been collecting for years – a joyful mix of audio documentaries, old radio sketches, and never-before-heard sound art that will chase the blues away
Tuesday, June 10, 5:30 pm AMC 19th Street
The Gilded Age
The premiere of the first episode of the third season of this HBO series, which rivals Law and Order in employing Broadway veterans in its cast. After the screening, conversation with several of those Broadway veteran cast members — Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, and Denée Benton — as well as Louisa Jacobson (who’s an Off-Broadway veteran) and series creator Julian Fellowes (who wrote the book for the Broadway musicals Mary Poppins and School of Rock.)
Thu June 12, 5:30 PM BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center
The Memory Palace Live
Carrie Coon and Lili Taylor read from Nate DiMeo’s book, based on his podcast recounting singular stories about America’s past
Fri June 13 – 8:30 PM SVA Theater
Other theater or theater-adjacent offerings
Theater Producing
Free June 5 at 2 p.m.
Panel with Lawryn LaCroix and Melissa Haizlip
One of the six shorts in the Showtime program is “The Wrath of Othell-Yo,” a 14-minute comic erotic backstage comedy about Shakespeare’s tragedy. June 5, 13, 14
A Tree Fell in the Woods
Mitch (Josh Gad) and Debs (Alexandra Daddario) are childhood friends who go on a New Year’s Eve trip to a cabin in the woods with their respective spouses (Ashley Park and Daveed Diggs), but things are clearly not all great for both couple. June 8,9,10,13
The Innocence of Unknowing
Part of the Tribeca Immersive 2025: In Search of Us exhibition alongside 10 other works, the forty-minute installation is “an AI archival project, four-channel essay film, and live performance examining news media coverage of mass shootings in the U.S. since the 1960s.”
Performance times are: Fri – Sun, June 6 – 8, 12:15 PM & 5:00 PM, Monday – Sunday, June 7 – 15 5:30 PM.
