Streaming Theatre

[scenicdesign71]

From the folks who brought you Russian Troll Farm, among other (pre-Covid) delights:

https://thecivilians.org/upcoming/black-feminist-video-game/

And of course Broadway's Best Shows has a new "Spotlight On Plays" series of seven star-studded play readings coming up, starting with The Thanksgiving Play (livestream tonight, or stream-on-demand through next Monday).  Subscriptions to all seven go for $59, otherwise they're $15 apiece.

[scenicdesign71]

From April 12-18, All For One Theater will be streaming an archival video of Monsoon Season recorded at Rattlestick in 2019:

https://www.afo.nyc/monsoonseason

Watch to see, in its full theatrical context, the weather-beaten, faded-postcard view of Phoenix, AZ I painted for designer You-Shin Chen a year and a half ago.  And stay to enjoy the razor-sharp writing, pitch-perfect performances and shrewd direction!

November 2019 seems like several lifetimes ago, but if I can remember back that far: I recall the show as running around 75 minutes, without intermission.
It could be described as a pitch-black "he said/she said" romantic comedy with surreal Western-noir undertones and a dollop of horror.  Impressively, the play (blessed by a first-rate production and cast) manages to juggle all these elements with no visible strain, creating and sustaining an atmosphere that is both unsettling and darkly amusing with Hitchcockian aplomb.

A donation is required, but it's pay-what-you-can, so name your own ticket price and enjoy!

[scenicdesign71]

After sadly missing The Sound Inside at Studio 54 not too long before Broadway shut down, I'm intrigued to see the new Hartford Theater Works filmed-to-stream production, on demand April 11-30.  Tickets are $25.

https://twhartford.org/events/the-sound-inside-2

[scenicdesign71]

The York Theatre is hosting a virtual benefit reading of The Musical of Musicals (the Musical!) on Sunday evening April 18 (click on the link for details), featuring appearances by almost three dozen B'way luminaries -- the list is pretty astounding.

[scenicdesign71]

ANOTHER Last Five Years, this one from a site-specific theatre company called Out Of The Box Theatrics -- complete with a rave from the Times and a 2021 Drama League Award nomination for Best Digital Theater (Individual Production).

https://www.ootbtheatrics.com/l5y

Streams now through May 9.  Tickets are $32.50 for livestream-only (a single viewing at an appointed time) or $47.50 for a bit more on-demand flexibility (same schedule, but with unlimited viewing for 48 hours after the nominal ticketed showtime -- plus a behind-the-scenes featurette).  Not cheap by streaming theatre standards, though certainly more so than the $72 asking price for ACT of CT's good-not-great, live-livestreamed TL5Y last fall -- but the NYT review sells this production awfully well (the apartment-bound "quarantine staging" sounds pretty wonderful), and these two preview videos suggest a truly irresistible pair of performances:

If you scroll way down the show page on OOTB's website (linked above), there's a substantial "Press" section which I haven't checked out yet, but will try to do so at some point.

[scenicdesign71]

UPDATE:  The Musical of Musicals, The Musical streams through this Thursday April 22 at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSZh93Daum8

A highlight of the evening is Christine Pedi carrying the "Cell Block Tango" parody "Just Don't Pay" singlehandedly -- as Stritch, Channing, Rivers and Minnelli.

And the "Ladies Who Lunch" sendup (with dollops of "Now You Know" seamlessly folded in), "We're All Gonna Die," is performed by Alexandra Billings with expert comic timing and musicianship.

I'd forgotten just how clever AND funny Joanne Bogart's lyric are; there may be one or two misfires, but remarkably few, and they get easily lost amid the hailstorm of smart, drolly tweaked references and genuine hilarity.  (Plus a light sprinkling of slyly awful puns, for good measure).

[scenicdesign71]

From Berkeley Rep, beginning April 29:

The Waves In Quarantine, "a theatrical experiment in 6 movements, inspired by a [musical] stage adaptation of Virginia Woolf's The Waves" -- got all that?

Free to stream, RSVP at  https://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/2021/15964.asp

[scenicdesign71]

https://breathemusical.com/

[scenicdesign71]

Berkeley Rep has recorded, and posted on YouTube, the hourlong opening-night Zoom panel introducing their experimental series of six short films The Waves in Quarantine:

The project itself can be watched for free on Berkeley Rep's own website through May 28, RSVP required.  The show page there also includes a tab of interesting dramaturgical extras, including a link to the complete text of Woolf's novel.

This won't be everyone's cup of tea; I'm just grateful that, even remotely (the Zoom panel includes some discussion of the complications of coordinating vocal and orchestral tracks from afar), a decent chunk of David Bucknam's score has now been recorded, gorgeously, with voices that do it justice.

There will be another Zoom conversation this Thursday, May 6 at 5:30pm PST, featuring most of the cast.  I expect they'll probably record and post that one on YouTube afterwards as well, but if you want to join the live webinar (where you can ask questions in the Q&A chatbox) that evening, there's a separate RSVP link for that on the show page.

[scenicdesign71]

I missed The Year of Magical Thinking when it streamed in March, but the Keen Company is running it again next weekend:

http://www.keencompany.org/yomtbox

I admired Vanessa Redgrave in the 2007 Broadway production (she also recently recorded it for Audible), but the chance to see Kathleen Chalfant perform this role might be worth the $25.

[scenicdesign71]

I'm sorry I didn't post this here in time, but I'm glad I (barely) managed to see it this evening before the streaming period ended.  Perhaps they'll extend, or bring it back?  If so, I'd highly recommend:

https://livestream.broadwayondemand.com/the-secret-garden/

It's a recorded workshop run-through from 2018, in a rehearsal room.  But the voices are impeccable and, even just with piano accompaniment, it's nice to be reminded of what a piercingly lovely score this is.  Indeed, hearing Simon's music stripped-down to its sturdy bones actually made me think better of it than I had before.  And Sierra Boggess's crystalline Lily makes a fitting tribute to that of the late, great Rebecca Luker, in whose memory this livestream was dedicated.

Apart from having seen her name and photo outside the Majestic (as one of the earliest replacement Christines in Phantom) on occasional jaunts uptown to the theatre district in my first couple years at NYU, The Secret Garden was my first exposure to Luker, and her performance in it dazzled me.  Fifteen or so years later, I had the pleasure of working with her on, of all things, a summer-theater No, No, Nanette (she actually played the soubrette role of Lucille -- a rarity at that point in her career, which, along with the chance to spend a July on Cape Cod, may have been what drew her to the project).  In my all-too-brief experience, Ms. Luker was as warm, funny and delightfully down-to-earth as her reputation would suggest; I was, if anything, even more star-struck afterward than I had been before.  So, another decade or so on, I was disappointed to miss -- among my nine or ten viewings of Fun Home on Broadway! -- the brief period in which she filled in for Judy Kuhn as Helen.

[DiveMilw]

https://twhartford.org/events/christiane-noll-coming-alive-again/

Christiane Noll: Coming Alive Again
Streaming on Demand
May 9-30, 2021

Fourteen months of quarantine, a Broadway shut down, a roller coaster of good news and bad news, but Tony-nominee Christiane Noll is optimistic. With a little caution and a lot of hope, she's ventured out of her home to share an intimate cabaret. A thoughtful, moving and funny concert experience exploring themes of motherhood and complex women, through the lens of a Broadway artist navigating a crazy Covid-paralyzed world.

This virtual concert includes songs from Follies, Bridges of Madison County, Company, Fun Home, Grey Gardens, Hello Dolly, Dear Evan Hansen, Jagged Little Pill, Ragtime, Next to Normal, Wicked, Anyone Can Whistle and Sunday in the Park with George.

The proceeds will be split between Theater Works Hartford and Goodspeed Musicals. Christine played Diana in TheaterWork's "Next to Normal" and was Mable in Goodspeed's "Mack and Mable" many, many years ago.  
Tickets are $25 and there is a $3 service charge. 
I've bought my ticket but haven't had a chance to watch it yet.  Once you watch I think you can rewatch for up to 72 hours.  You definitely have 72 to finish in case you get interrupted after you start streaming. 

[DiveMilw]

"Wine in the Wilderness"
May 21–24, 2021


https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/get-tickets/the-refocus-project/wine-in-the-wilderness

Streaming for free.  This is a staged reading.  You can RSVP via the link.

From the Roundabout website:
"Struggling artist Bill Jameson is working on his masterpiece, a triptych representing the different aspects of Black womanhood.

He has completed his first panel illustrating innocent girlhood and his central panel depicting a regal African queen. As he embarks on the final panel—the unappealing, lost, down-on-her luck woman—in walks Tommy Marie, who looks like the perfect model. But once he gets to know Tommy further, Bill starts to wonder: is there more to the feminine ideal than meets the eye?

The first ever performance of Wine in the Wilderness was televised on WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts in 1969 as part of the series "On Being Black." Some networks refused to air the performance across the country, considering it to be too controversial for their viewers due to its depictions of racial issues."

[scenicdesign71]

Myths and Hymns:

Viewable for free on YouTube in four parts -- Flight, Work, Love, and Faith.

The NYT ran an article about this last week.  Despite admiring Guettel's scores for Floyd Collins and The Light in the Piazza since not long after their respective premieres, and despite having worked several times with the director/conceiver of the 2012 dramatization of Myths and Hymns, I've never very known much about M&H beyond its name (having missed both that production and the original 1998 Public Theater concert staging).  So I'm very glad to finally catch up with this.

Through June 30.

[DiveMilw]

Christiane Noll: Coming Alive Again
Streaming on Demand
May 9-30, 2021

I finally watched this.  It was as good as I expected it to be. Christine even sang a couple of duets with herself.  And she sang four Sondheim songs....not that I was counting. 

Before the Parade Passes By - Hello Dolly
Follies Medley/Losing My Mind
Anybody Have a Map - Dear Evan Hanson
To Build a Home - Bridges of Madison County
Getting Married Today
The Revolutionary Costume for Today - Grey Gardens
Days and Days - Fun Home
Smiling - Jagged Little Pill
Everybody Says Don't
For Good - Wicked
Back to Before - Anastasia
Move On
Once Upon a Dream - Jekyll & Hyde