Today’s Highlights:
* The New Group‘s benefit reading of The Spoils, by Jesse Eisenberg, featuring the original cast — Eisenberg, Michael Zegen, Kunal Nayyar, Erin Darke, and Annapurna Sriram, streams at 7 PM ET (available through Aug. 2).
* North Hollywood’s Road Theatre‘s Summer Playwrights Festival 11, offering readings of 26 new plays, begins streaming.
* Alvin Ailey’s Awakening ballet, by Robert Battle, begins streams at 7 PM ET here.(available through Aug. 6)
* Michael Lavine’s Moment Matinee Presents Songs of the Decade: The Fabulous Forties benefit zoominar concert, featuring Alice Ripley, Debra Walton, Barbara Minkus, Jon Peterson, Barbara Minkus, Michele Ragusa, Arbender Robinson, and Steve Ross, streamed at 3:30 PM ET here.
* “Stars in the House,” a “One Day at a Time” reunion, featuring Norman Lear, with original cast members Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips; Michael Lembeck (Max Horvath), and Glenn Scarpelli, streams at 8 PM ET here.
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Video: “Stars in the House,” a “Scandal” reunion, featuring Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn, Bellamy Young, Jeff Perry, Kate Burton, Dan Bucatinsky, Norm Lewis, Katie Lowes, Guillermo Díaz, Cornelius Smith, George Newburn, Joe Morton, and Executive Producer-Director Tom Verica. (1:23:40)
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Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre has announced it’s 2020-21 season: A Season in 3 Acts:
ACT ONE: JOY
* A Very Terry Christmas (Nov. 2020), world premiere written by & starring Terry Burrell.
* A Christmas Carol (Dec. 2020), a re-imagined drive-in version, staged as a radio play. 
A cast of eight actors will play all the roles accompanied by a Foley sound effects artist giving audiences a peek into the play-making magic.
ACT TWO: DIALOGUE
* Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments (Feb. 2021), co-directed by Keith Arthur Bolden & Alexis Woodard. The play depicts the realities of Black America from the perspective of varying genders, sexual orientations, skin tones, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
ACT THREE: HEROES
* Accidental Heroes: The Real Life Adventures of Roy Rogers and Dales Evans (April 2021), world premiere by Marshall Brickman & T Bone Burnett, directed by Des McAnuff. The musical follows the extraordinary rise of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, who are remembered as authentic American heroes, yet their paths to stardom were anything but straightforward.
* Toni Stone (June 2021), by Lydia R. Diamond, directed by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden. The inspiring story of baseball’s “female Jackie Robinson,” a woman whose ambition, courage, and raw talent propelled her from ragtag teams barnstorming across the Dakotas to playing in front of large crowds at Yankee Stadium.
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The next episode of The Muny 2020 Summer Variety Hour Live! will be streamed on Mon. Aug. 3 at 8:15 PM CT here.
* Scenes from The Muny’s vault productions of All Shook Up, Les Misérables, Newsies, and South Pacific
* Beth Leavel & Adam Heller perform “You’ll Never Get Away From Me” (Gyspy)
* Julie Hanson will perform “Think of Me” (The Phantom of the Opera)
* “Tomorrow” performed by the Muny’s 2018 cast of Annie
* Bach to the Future,” an all-female tap number
* “undefeat,” a dance performance by Jon Rua to “Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major”
* Mashup of “Not While I’m Around”/”Climb Every Mountain”
* Michael James Scott performs “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries”
* “Munywood Squares” game show, hosted by Gordon Greenberg, featuring E. Faye Butler, J. Harrison Ghee, Ann Harada, Raymond J. Lee, Vicki Lewis, Steve Rosen, Jeffrey Schecter, John Scherer, and Christopher Sieber.
…and much more…
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Video: Mandy Patinkin, “Children Will Listen” (1995)
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Hartford Stage has cancelled all onstage performances through June 2021. However, the theatre has announced its Virtual Fall 2020 season:
* The Not-So-Complete History of Comedy (Sept. 17), offering a virtual evening of stories and material from the theatre’s canceled production of A Complete History of Comedy (Abridged).
* A Broadway Evening with Hartford Stage (Oct. 9), an exclusive ticket donor event, featuring Adam Heller, Beth Leavel, and Melia Bensussen.
* New Works Festival (dates TBA), offering virtual workshop productions of 3 plays over 3 weeks.
* A Community Carol (Dec. dates TBA), a collaborative performance created by Hartford Stage, artists, and local community partners.
* A Community Carol (December, dates TBD),a collaborative virtual celebration created by Hartford Stage, artists and local community partners.
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The next Jim Caruso’s Cast Party will be streamed Mon. Aug. 3 at 8 PM ET here.
Megan Hilty, Brian Gallagher, James Delisco Beeks, Rose Colella, Karen Mason, Julie Garnyé, and Danielle Threet.
Click here for to view many past concerts…
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Video: Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli perform “Time to Say Goodbye” (1977)
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Playing On Air has announced its August series of podcasts:
Aug. 2: Happy, by Alan Zweibel, directed by Fred Berner, starring Frankie Faison and Scot Adsit. A baseball fan shows up at the home of his childhood hero, George “Happy” Halliday. Has the stranger some to pay his respects or to throw a curve ball?
Aug. 9: Anniversary, by Rachel Bonds, directed by Linsay Firman, starring Sarah Sokolovic, Michael Esper, Sue Jean Kim, and Steven Boyer. Through a haze of gin, mediocre roast beef, and horrible apartment parties, a grieving New Yorker finds herself drawn to a quirky, flirtatious friend-of-a-friend.
Aug. 16: Cell, by Cassandra Medley, starring onya Pinkins, Condola Rashad, and Melanie Nicholls-King. When a jaded guard at an immigrant detention center finds jobs for her sister and niece, family tensions erupt into a battle over home and homeland security.
Aug. 23: St. Francis Preaches to the Birds, by David Ives, starring Carson Elrod, Julie Halston, and Matthew Saldivar with cameos by Lois Smith and Ives
In the middle of the desert, two vultures find their lunch interrupted by a man of faith. Now, they have a bone to pick with Saint Francis of Assisi.
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A private reading of Tegan Summer, Gregory Nabours & Colette Freedman’s Steve Aoki’s Mozart² The New Musical will take place this month, prior to a special presentation at Carnegie Hall in 2021, with choreography by Dwight Rhoden & Desmond Richardson, with Ferly Pradol.
Robert Cuccioli (Leopold, Grace Field Aloysia), Yvette Gonzales-Nacer (Constanze), Ruby Lewis (Nan), Anthony Rapp (Salieri), and Justin Matthew Sargent (Mozart), with more TBA.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sister, Nan, is a brilliant composer who struggles to be recognized in the male-dominated 18th century court. When the young virtuosa (who is perhaps even more talented than her prolific younger brother) is silenced and banned from all artistic endeavors, she rebels. In this untold story of the greatest composer of all time, two siblings embark on a journey of love, hate, tragedy, and redemption.
Additional casting and creative team TBA.
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Many artistic organizations are among the recipients of aid from the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund. Created in March to support nonprofit service providers struggling with unprecedented health and economic effects of the coronavirus crisis, it has raised more than $110 million from more than 1,300 donors.
The fund awarded $73,098,950 in grants distributed among 754 nonprofits, 380 of which are arts and culture organizations. While individual amounts to institutions have remained undisclosed, grant amounts range from $5,000 to $250,000.
Recipients: Apollo Theater Foundation, Ars Nova, Artist Relief Fund, Atlantic Theater Company, Ballet Hispanico, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Keen Theatre Company, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, Lambda Literary, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage Theatre, St. Ann’s Warehouse and The Tank.
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Opera Philadelphia has announced it revised 2020-21 season, hosting streams of both past stagings and new content filmed specifically for the platform.
* Lawrence Brownlee in concert (October 2020), with guest artists TBA.
* La Traviata (Fall 2020), the 2015 production, starring Lisette Oropesa
* Cycles of My Being (November 2020), by Tyshawn Sorey.
* Soldier Songs (dates TBA), starring Jonathan McCullough
* El Cimarrón (dates TBA), by Hans Werner
* Oedipus Rex (Jan. 29 & 31, 2021), concert performances
* Tosca (Spring 2021), featuring Ana María Martínez, Piero Pretti, and Quinn Kelsey.
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Musical Theatre West‘s Keep the Lights On benefit concert will take place Fri. July 31 at 7 PM PT.
Brittany Anderson, Dedrick Bonner, Terron Brooks, David Burnham, Mel Collins, David Engel, Eden Espinosa, Richard Gatta, Sam Harris, Rebecca Johnson, Jeffrey Landman, Anna Mintzer, Ryan O’Connell, Larry Raben, and Krystle Simmons.