This Weekend’s Highlights:
Friday, September 18
* “Ratched,” starring Sarah Paulson, premieres on Netflix.
* “A Chorus Crime,” interactive digital murder mystery experience, featuring Jennifer Babiak, Samantha Blain, Lynn Craig, Kim Morgan Dean, Michael Indeglio, Michael Pilato, Mary Stout, and Olivia White, with Jacob Thompson as the MC. The work is written by Kevin Hammonds, Drew Paryzer, Caroline Prugh, and Jacob Thompson, streams at 8 PM ET here (also Sept. 24).
Saturday, September 19
* Anna Karenina, by Colin Graham, Roman Ignatyev & Yuliy Kim, streams from the Moscow Operetta Theatre (2018) at 7 PM ET on BroadwayOnDemand. 
Video: Trailer
* A Song, world premiere by Taylor Fagins, directed by Chris Butler, featuring Preston Butler III, Greta Oglesby, Krystle Rose Simmons, and Joe Spano, streams fro FREE at 7 PM PT at CA’s Rubicon Theatre (also Sept. 20 at 2 PM PT)
Sunday, September 20
* Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction benefit, in support of BC/EFA, streams for FREE at 5 PM ET here.
* A Marvelous Party FREE benefit centennial celebration, by Noël Coward, featuring Judi Dench, Cush Jumbo, Giles Terera, Kate Burton, Stephen Fry, Montego Glover, Derek Jacobi, Josh James, Robert Lindsay, Kristine Nielsen, Bebe Neuwirth, Julian Ovenden, Patricia Routledge, Kate Royal, Emma Thompson, Indira Varma, and Lia Williams, streams at 2:30 PM ET here.
* Broadway Treats: A Canine and Kitty Rescue Production benefit, featuring Eva Noblezada, James Monroe Iglehart, Mare Winningham, Ashley Park, Solea Pfeiffer, Ryan Vasquez, Colton Ryan, Austin Scott, Aaron Alcaraz, Kathryn Allison, Isa Briones, Jordan Brown, Chaundre Hall-Broomfield, Julia Harriman, Dorcas Leung, and Jonalyn Saxer, streams at 8 PM ET here.
* A Song, world premiere by Taylor Fagins, directed by Chris Butler, featuring Preston Butler III, Greta Oglesby, Krystle Rose Simmons, and Joe Spano, streams fro FREE at 2 PM PT at CA’s Rubicon Theatre
* Godspell, outdoor production, directed by Alan Filderman, featuring Nicholas Edwards (Jesus), with Tim Jones (Judas) and Hanna Koczela (Host), with Alex Getlin, Najah Hetsberger, Kimberly Immanuel, Isabel Jordan, Emily Koch, Brandon Lee, Dan Rosales, Michael Wartella, and Zach Williams, closes at MA’s Berkshire Theatre Group.
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Video: “Stars in the House,” celebrating 200 episodes, Part 3. (1:28:04)
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CA’s Berkeley Rep has announced 2020-21 season (some productions streamed, others live):
* Romantics Anonymous (streams Sept. 26 at 1 PM PT), by Emma Rice, Christopher Dimond & Michael Kooman, and directed by Rice, livestreamed from the UK’s Old Vic.
* It Can’t Happen Here (streamed Oct. 13 at 5 PM PT), by Tony Taccone & Bennett S. Cohen, directed by Lisa Peterson, featuring David Kelly, David Strathairn, and Doremus Jessup. 
Written in 1935 during the rise of fascism in Europe, this darkly satirical piece follows the ascent of a demagogue who becomes president of the United States by promising to return the country to greatness.
* Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story (streams Nov. 22-29), directed by Stefano de’ Carli.
* The Waves (dates TBA), by Lisa Peterson, David Bucknam & Adam Gwon, directed by Peterson, starring Raúl Esparza. The story follows the lives of six friends from first memory to the end of life, while also tracking the progress of the sun through one glorious day.
* Goddess (dates TBA), world premiere by Jocelyn Bioh, Michael Thurber & Saheem Ali. A young man returns home to the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya to marry his fiancée and step into his family’s political dynasty. But when he visits Moto Moto – a steamy afro-jazz club and the stomping ground of his youth – he finds himself drawn to a mysterious new singer.
* Octet (dates TBA), world premiere by Dave Malloy. Eight internet addicts gather IRL to share their stories via a transcendent score for an a cappella chamber choir and an original libretto inspired by online comment boards, scientific debates, religious texts, and Sufi poetry
* The Ripple, The Wave That Carried Me Home (dates TBA) world premiere by Christina Anderson. Janice’s parents are prominent activists fighting for the integration of public swimming pools in 1960s Kansas. As injustice penetrates the warm bubble of her childhood, Janice grows apart from her family and starts a new life far away. When she receives a call asking her to speak at a ceremony honoring her father, she must decide whether she’s ready to reckon with her political inheritance and a past she has tried to forget.
* DREAMers (dates TBA), by Martyna Majok. An urgent story about the power of perseverance, the promise of safety, and the question of who is entitled to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.
* Swept Away (dates TBA) world premiere by John Logan & The Avett Brothers, starring John Gallagher and Stark Sands. 1888, off the coast of New Bedford, MA. When a violent storm sinks their whaling ship, the four surviving souls—a young man in search of adventure, his older brother who has sworn to protect him, a captain at the end of a long career at sea, and a worldly first mate who has fallen from grace—each face a reckoning: How far will I go to stay alive? And can I live with the consequences?
* Cambodian Rock Band (dates TBA), by Lauren Yee. In this darkly funny, electric new play with music, a young woman attempts to piece together her family history and bring a Khmer Rouge war criminal to justice 30 years after her father fled Cambodia.
* Sanctuary City (dates TBA), by Martyna Majok. Two young DREAMers fight like hell to establish a place for themselves in America, the only country they know as home.
* Wintertime (dates TBA), by Charles L. Mee, directed by Les Waters. Jonathan brings Ariel to his family’s summer house in the winter woods and plans to propose. Then his mother Maria arrives with her lover Francois, and his father Frank shows up with his lover Edmund—and soon nothing goes as planned.
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Video: MisCast20 Backstage (31:11)
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RIP: Playwright Steve Carter, who emerged from the Black Arts movement and the Negro Ensemble Company, writing about the Black and Caribbean-American experiences, has died at the age of 90.
Carter’s professional career as a playwright began in 1965 at the American Community Theater with the production of the short play Terraced Apartment, which evolved years later into an expanded version entitled Terraces.
In 1967, Carter’s play One Last Look premiered off-off-Broadway at the Old Reliable Theatre Tavern under the direction of Arthur French. One Last Look is a dark comedy set during the funeral of a family patriarch. The play features the character of Eustace Baylor, a character who would later be found in his play, Eden, the first of a trilogy of plays featuring Caribbean families in New York City.
In 1968, Carter joined the staff of the Negro Ensemble Company where he would become director of the NEC Playwrights Workshop.
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Off-Broadway’s Abingdon Theatre has announced its #IWILL Campaign, which is a series of videos and social media posts bringing their patrons, colleagues, friends and family together in hope for the future. Rather than reflecting on what has been lost as a theatre community, the Company wants to shine a light on their goal of getting back on stage by asking artists to share what they commit to do as soon as it is possible to do so.
Video: The premiere of the #I Will video.
Over the next few weeks, the theatre will release an array of “I Will” statements from performers, writers, producers and other creatives including Chad Austin), Kate Baldwin, Felicia Boswell, Bobby Cronin, Florencia Cuenca), Ruthie Henshall, Judy Kuhn, James Lecesne, Andrew Lippa, Liz Mikel, Bianca Marroquin, Ilda Mason, Frances Ruffelle, Bill Russell, Christina Sajous, Carrie St. Louis, Sally Ann Triplett, and V (Formerly Eve Ensler).
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“Laura Benanti” studio album will be released Oct. 23. 
here.
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LA’s Latino Theatre Company presents a “sneak peek” reading of Karen Zacarias’ Just Like Us, to stream Fri. Sept. 24 – Oct. 4 at , directed by Fidel Gomez.
Richard Zaurdia, Natalie Camunas, Michelle Castillo, Alicia Coca, Peter Mendoza, Elyse Mirto, Lys Perez, Geoffrey Rivas, Lucy Rodriguez, Kenia Romero, and Alexis Santiago.
This documentary-style piece follows 4 Latina teenage girls, only two of who are documented, through young childhood. Their close-knit friendships begin to unravel when immigration status dictates the girls’ opportunities, or lack thereof.
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RIP: Tony Tanner, the Tony nominated directed & choreographer of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, died Sept. 8 in Los Angeles at the age of 88.
Tanner trained at London’s Webber-Douglas School before playing 5 years in British rep companies, which included The Birthday Party, The Last Ally, and Stop the World — I Want to Get Off (as Little Chap, a role he would reprise in the 1966 film version.
Broadway shows include Half a Sixpence, No Sex Please, We’re British, and Sherlock Holmes. Tanner also toured in Where’s Charley?, George M., and Cabaret.
The 1976 musical Something’s Afoot marked Mr. Tanner’s first Broadway outing as a director and choreographer. He later directed Gorey Stories (1978) and A Taste of Honey (1981), and in 1982 he directed and choreographed Joseph…, which starred Tony nominees Bill Hutton in the title role and the late Laurie Beechman as the Narrator. Tanner also directed and choreographed the short-lived 1989 musical Prince of Central Park, his final Broadway credit.
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The First Virtual Cabaret Convention will stream Oct. 19-22 here, hosted by KT Sullivan.
Oct. 19: New York Cabaret: Yesterday and Today, with reminiscences with Ann Hampton Callaway, Andrea Marcovicci, Daryl Sherman, Rex Reed, and more.
Oct. 20: The Future of Cabaret, with fresh voices from Adela & Larry Elow American Songbook High School Competition.
Oct. 21: A World of Cabaret, with Amanda McBroom, Maureen McGovern, Stephanie Blythe, Iris Williams, Avery Sommers, Hans Pieter Herman, and many more.
Oct. 22: Cabaret Classics, with Karen Akers, Christine Andreas, Eric Comstock, Natalie Douglas, Barbara Fasano, Jeff Harnar, Karen Mason, Steve Ross, and Billy Stritch.
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Video: “Love Don’t Answer to No One,” from David Buskin & Jake Holmes’ Victory Train.
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What the Constitution Means to Me will premiere Oct. 16 on Amazon Prime Video, written by & starring Heidi Schreck.
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Video: Karen Olivo sings “It Won’t Be Long Now,” from In the Heights.