This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, March 26
Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies, written by & starring Jessica Sherr, begins streaming on Broadway OnDemand.
Scaramouche Jones or the Seven White Masks solo show, by Justin Butcher, directed by Ian Talbot, starring Shane Richie, begins streaming here.
This Bitter Earth, by Harrison David Rivers, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, featuring Matthew Hancock (Jesse) and Chase Cargill (Neil). begins livestreaming at North Hollywood’s Road Theatre Company.
All We Need Is Us audio play, by Anthony Tyler, directed by Jamil Jude, featuring MaameYaa Boafo, Ronald Emile, and Ari’el Stachel, streams for FREE at 7 PM ET at Off-Broadway Keen Company.
Stars in the House, a Broadway Ragtime reunion, with special guests Audra McDonald, Judy Kaye, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Steven Sutcliffe, Lynn Ahrens, Mark Jacobs, Peter Friedman, and Stephen Flaherty, streams at 8 PM ET here.
Saturday, March 27
“TINA,” a Tina Turner documentary, premieres on HBO.
Rise Up With Arts, the first global variety show, in support of The Actors Fund, featuring Lisa Riley, John Logan, Duncan James, Kevin Clifton, Don Black OBE, Brian May & Kerry Ellis, Pasha Kovalev, Sadeck Waff, Stacey Haynes, Patricia Ward Kelly, Robyn Hurder, Aaron Tveit, Dominic “D-trix” Sandoval, Ricky Rojas, Desi Valentine, Lisa-Marie Holmes, Benny Benck III, Robin Windsor, Jim Caruso, Arlene Phillips, Matt Croke, Dante Culcuy, Paula Duarte, Thomas Duern, Pearce Barron, Luka Bayer, Lukas Piquero, Idriss Kargbo, Carl Mullaney, Rebecca Selley, Anna Kumble, and Anya Garnis, streams at 2:30 PM ET here.
Carrie Hope Fletcher in concert streams at 7 PM ET here.
“Broadway Profiles with Tamsen Fadal,” talk show, with special guests Matthew Broderick, LaChanze, Janet McTeer, Taylor Louderman, Michael Urie, Ryan Spahn, and Jelani Alladin, streams here (and available through tomorrow).
Sunday, March 28
Ashley Spencer in concert, with special guests Kara Lindsay & Jeremy Jordan, livestreams at 3 & 8 PM ET here.
Kritzerland at Home Again: All the Weill concert, directed by Bruce Kimmel, featuring Brittney Bertier, Gregory Jbara, Judy Kaye, Maegan McConnell, Kerry O’Malley, Adrienne Stiefel, Mackenzie Wrap, and Robert Yacko, streams for FREE at 5 PM PT here.
The Night of the Iguana full production, directed by Emily Mann, featuring Dylan McDermott, Phylicia Rashad, Roberta Maxwell, Austin Pendleton, Jean Lichty, and Keith Randolph Smith, concludes streaming here.
The Last Five Years, directed by Jason Michael Webb, featuring Nasia Thomas and Nicholas Edwards, concludes streaming here.
Katie Roche (2013 filmed production), by Teresa Deevy, directed by Jonathan Bank, featuring Margaret Daly, Patrick Fitzgerald, Jon Fletcher, David Friedlander, Jamie Jackson, John O’Creagh, Wrenn Schmidt, and Fiana Toibin, concludes FREE streaming at Off-Broadway’s Mint Theatre.
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Video: Stars in the House, spotlighting Asian-Americans in the theatre, with special guests Ruthie Ann Miles, David Henry Hwang, Ann Harada, Jose Llana, and Pearl Sun. (1:30:00)
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“A Wonderful Guy: Conversations with the Great Men of Musical Theater” will be released Apr. 1 in Hardcover and Kindle here.
Joel Grey, Michael Cerveris, John Collum, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Ben Vereen, Raúl Esparza, Christian Borle, Len Cariou, Michael Rupert, Terrence Mann, Howard McGillin, Marc Kubisch, Norm Lewis, Will Chase, Christopher Sieber, Norbert Leo Butz, Gavin Creel, Cheyenne Jackson, and Jonathan Groff.
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RIP: Jessica Walter died March 24 at the age of 80.
Born in Brooklyn, she graduated from NYC’s High School of Performing Arts. Her early career was filled with TV shows and films during the ’70’s, including “Play Misty for Me,” “Amy Prentiss (1975 Emmy Award), “Trapper John M.D.,” “Streets of San Francisco,” and “Arrested Development” (Emmy Award).
Walters made her Broadway debut as a replacement in Advise and Consent, and then went on to appear in Night Life, A Severed Head, and Photo Finish, Rumors, and Anything Goes (2011 revival)
In 1968 Jessica appeared in the TV Movie of “Kiss Me Kate” as Lois Lane/Bianca.
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CT’s Goodspeed Musicals has announced changes for its 2021 season, since learning they will not be able to get back into the theatre, as planned, in June.
Goodspeed By the River (dates and events TBA)
South Pacific will be delayed (new dates TBA), and is expected top open Sept. The production will be directed by Rob Ruggiero
Anne of Green Gables has been moved to the 2022 season.
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Night of Covenant House Stars will stream May 17 at 8 PM ET here, co-hosted by Audra McDonald and John Dickerson.
Meryl Streep, Vanessa Williams, Ariana DeBose, Kelli O’Hara, Sara Bareilles, Dolly Parton, Ryan Reynolds, Robin Roberts, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Brosnahan, Capathia Jenkins, Jo Ellen Pellman, John Dickerson, Darius De Haas, Daniel Yearwood, Ames Mcnamara, Laurie Metcalf, and more TBA.
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This weekend on Broadway On Demand:
Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies (premieres today at 8 PM ET), starring Jessica Sherr. 
On the night of the 1939 Oscars, Bette Davis returns home knowing she’s to love the Oscar because the press has leaked the winners. Davis takes us on a bumpy ride of her tumultuous rise, as the actress fights her way to the top. Witness Bette triumph over misogyny to win roles & compensation on par with her male counterparts. See what happens when someone who always wins…loses.
Pirates of Penzance (premieres today at 8 PM ET), directed by Sasha Regan, with an all-male cast.
“Olympia” documentary (available through Apr. 1). A sublimely intimate fly-on-the-wall verité documentary tells a heart-wrenching story of Olympia Djukakis, a woman finding her own voice on her own terms to assert a gigantic creative force into the world. Olympia model how to live life with blazing courage.
Kay Ballard: The Show Goes On! (available through Apr. 1). Kaye recalls her remarkable life in show business, accentuated with extensive rare footage & photographs offering an entertaining glimpse of her rich & varied talents.
The Girls in the Band (available through Apr. 1). The poignant, untold stories of female jazz & big band instrumentalists & their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late ’30s to the present day.
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Video: Rachelle Rak & Steven Jamail’s Electric Island, directed by Cady Huffman, featuring Jerusha Cavazos, Stephanie Gibson, Marissa Rosen, Felicia Finley, Joy Hidalgo, and Angie Schworer. (43:59)
This developmental project tells the real stories of women working on Broadway: those working hard to go from show to show and aren’t the recognized stars above the marquee. Shining light on women of all ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientations, Electric Island illuminates how these performers have navigated the highs and lows of a life in the theater — on stage and off.
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New York City is taking steps to revive the theater industry.
Mayor Bill de Blasio reported that a dedicated COVID-19 vaccination site on Broadway will be made available to theater industry workers. There will also be a mobile vaccination unit for Off-Broadway employees.
The city is also implementing pop-up coronavirus testing sites by Broadway theaters and are developing protocols to manage crowds before and after shows.
Stay tuned for further updates.
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North Hollywood’s Group Rep presents Revenge, a new thriller written & directed by Bruce Kimmel, on Sat. Apr. 3 at 5 PM PT here,
Linda Alznauer, Rox Carney, Clayton Conroy, Larry Eisenberg, Kait Hare, Doug Haverty, Clara Rodriguez, and Harley Walker.
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A newly filmed production of Laura I. Kramer, Ellen M. Schwartz, Cheryl Stern & Jerry James’ A Letter to Harvey Milk (originally performed in 2018), in support of The Actors Fund, will stream Apr. 22-25 here, directed by Evan Pappas, with music direction by Jeffrey Lodin.
(reuniting original cast) Adam Heller, Julia Knitel, Cheryl Stern, Michael Bartoli, Jeremy Greenbaum, Aury Krebs, and Ravi Roth.
Set in San Francisco in the 1980s, the story follows two unlikely people brought together by a letter penned to Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected politician in California. Heller plays a widower and retired kosher butcher who finds an unexpected alliance with Barbara, a young lesbian teacher at the senior center.
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RIP: Paul Foster, a playwright and founding member of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, died Mar. 5 at the age of 89 after a battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
Mr. Foster was the author of 18 plays, including Elizabeth 1, Tom Paine, and Satyricon, as well as the libretto and lyrics for the musical Silver Queen Saloon. Fourteen books of his works have been published internationally, and his plays have been translated into 52 languages.
Outside of La MaMa, the playwright was represented on Broadway with Elizabeth I in 1972 at the Lyceum Theatre. He was also on the opening bill of Albarwild Theatre Arts’ first New Playwrights Series night at the Cherry Lane Theatre alongside Lanford Wilson and Sam Shepard. Mr. Forster’s works left a global impact, too, with productions of his plays mounted at venues like Paris’ Theatre National de Chaillot, Bucharest’s Bulandra Theatre, and London’s Royal Court. The theatre artist also won numerous awards, including Rockefeller and Guggenheim Fellowships, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a British Arts Council Award.
A memorial will be planned post-pandemic. Donations to La MaMa are requested for anyone wishing to make a tribute in his honor here.
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A concert production of Dave Malloy’s Preludes will livestream for May 7-8 at Southwark Playhouse, directed by Alex Sutton.
Rebecca Caine, Norton James, Georgia Louise, Tom Noyes, Keith Ramsay and Steven Serlin.
Sergei Rachmaninoff has it all; world-wide fame from a single composition by the age of 19, commissioned to write his first symphony at 20 and engaged to the love of his life, Natalya. But at 21 he is crippled with a depressive paranoia and anxiety. His world has imploded, his work has stopped, he cannot even lift a pencil to compose a simple melody. Such is the power of the men who sought to destroy him, who haunt his waking nightmares and poison his dreams. And when those men happen to be the greatest artists of their day, how do you come back, how do you escape the darkness and come into the light?