Today’s Highlights:
* The Comeback, written by & starring Ben Ashenden & Alex Owen, directed by Emily Burns, opens live at London’s Noël Coward Theatre.
* Under One Moon: Voices United benefit concert, in support of SAY (the Stuttering Association for the Young) featuring Everett Bradley, Brandon Victor Dixon, James Monroe Iglehart, Helen Mirren, and Kelli O’Hara, livestreams at 7 PM ET here.
* Hurt Village FREE virtual benefit reading, in support of The Actors Fund, by Katori Hall, directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, featuring Snoop Dogg (Tony C.), r Loretta Devine (Big Mama), Joaquina Kalukango (Crank), Priah Ferguson (Cookie), Alphonse Nicholson (Buggy), Stori Ayers (Narrator), Gail Bean (Toiya), Cecil Blutcher (Skillet), Eric B. Robinson Jr. (Cornbread), and Bertram Williams (Ebony), concludes streaming here.
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Video: “Plays in the House,” offering a reading of Wade Dooley’s The Prompter, directed by Scott Schwartz, featuring Wade Dooley, Julia Motyka, Adam Petherbridge, and Brenda Vaccaro. (1:56:44)
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It’s A Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play will be available on-demand Dec. 19 – Jan. 1 at Laguna Playhouse, adapted by Joe Landry, and filmed & edited by Michael Kushner.
Lauren Molina, Nick Cearley, and Debbie Christine Tjong.
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Home for the Holidays, in support of BC/BFA, will stream Tues. Dec. 15 at 8 PM here, hosted by Jelani Remy.
André De Shields, Lena Hall, Heather Headley, Karen Olivo and more.
Each performer will sing songs based on their own traditions.
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Video: Jim Caruso’s Cast Party variety show, with music direction by Billy Stritch, and featuring James Harkness, Debbie Wileman, Erin Kinsey, Victoria Shaw, and John Bucchino. (1:47:14)
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Cyndi Lauper‘s benefit concert, Home for the Holidays will stream on TikTok on Dec. 11, with additional broadcasts Dec. 13 on YouTube and Facebook. The concert will support True Colors United, which strives to prevent and end homelessness. 
here.
Bette Midler, Taylor Swift, Cher, Dolly Parton, Whoopi Goldberg, Harvey Fierstein, the musical Kinky Boots, and more TBA.
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Kenny Leon, who most recently directed Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of A Soldier’s Play, which has been nominated for 7 Tony Awards, has joined Roundabout Theatre Company as Senior Resident Director.
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Evening Plays, by Richard Maxwell, has been released in paperback.
Order here.
Three new dramas, which are a response to Divine Comedy, by Dante… The Evening centers around three archetypal barflies who together form an elegy of universal loss…. Samara is a mythic tale of redemption that follows a messenger through a bleak frontier in his quest to collect a debt, though the human coast of the journey may be more than he bargained for… Paradiso take place in the not-too-distant future, and describes three great loves: family, country and God.
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George Orwell’s Animal Farm is in development for a new book-to-stage treatment, by Alan Menken, Glenn Slater, and James Graham.
A Spring 2021 workshop is planned.
A decision of what form the animals will take is still under consideration, but apparently the producer is firm on not using puppets. Stay tuned…
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The Metropolitan Opera has announced its schedule for this week’s operas, all at 7:30 PM ET.
Dec. 8: Doctor Atomic (2008), by John Adams, starring Sasha Cooke, Thomas Glenn, Gerald Finley, Richard Paul Fink, and Eric Owens
Dec. 9: Peter Grimes (2008), by Benjamin Britten, starring Patricia Racette, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Anthony Michaels-Moore.
Dec. 10: The Extermination Angel (2017), by Thomas Adès, starring Audrey Luna, Amanda Echalaz, Sally Matthews, Sophie Bevan, Alice Coote, Christine Rice, Iestyn Davies, Joseph Kaiser, Frédéric Antoun, David Portillo, David Adam Moore, Rod Gilfry, Kevin Burdette, Christian Van Horn, and John Tomlinson.
Dec. 11: Porgy and Bess (2020), starring Angel Blue, Golda Schultz, Latonia Moore, Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, Eric Owens, Alfred Walker, and Donovan Singletary.
Dec. 12: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1979), by Kurt Weill, starring Teresa Stratas, Astrid Varnay, Richard Cassilly, and Cornell MacNeil.
Dec. 13: The Ghosts of Versailles (1992), by John Corigliano, starring Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Gino Quilico, Graham Clark, Marilyn Horne, and Renée Fleming.
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Video: “When Broadway is Back,” by Barbara Bellman & Emiliano Messiez, featuring Syndee Winters, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Dana Aber, and Dale Sampson.
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Betsy Wolfe: A Pants Optional Holiday is now available here through Jan. 3.
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Plays in the House (link TBA) presents Super Shaw: A Scintillating Shavian Scramble, in support of The Actors Fund, will stream Mon. Dec. 14 at 8 PM, directed & narrated by David Staller.
Brenda Braxton, Michael Cerveris, Joel Grey, Marsha Mason, Patrick Page, Tonya Pinkins, Renee Taylor, and Karen Ziemba.
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Broadway On Demand presents special projects this week:
* A West End Christmas (Dec. 11-13), film live from London’s St. Paul’s Church, in support of Theatre MAD Trust, featuring Tom Allen, Samantha Bond, Kerry Ellis, Clive Rowe, Olver Tompsett, Marisha Wallace, Robin Windsor, Anya Barnis, and many more. Details.
* A Season of Hope and Inspiration (Dec. 13 at 7 PM ET), with Broadway Inspirational Voices, and special guests Debbie Allen, Gavin Creel, Montego Glover, Celia Rose Gooding, Angela Grovey, Marva Hicks, LaChanze, Telly Leung, Lisa Lynne Mathis, Audra McDonald, Michael McElroy, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Karen Olivo, John Eric Parker, Phylicia Rashad, Angela Robinson, Jeanine Tesori, Lesie Uggams, Schele Williams, Vanessa Williams, Shoshana Bean, Crystal Monee Hall, Marcus Paul James, Patti LuPone, Leslie Odom Jr., Billy Porter, Daniel J. Watts, and many more. Details.
* #Enough: Plays to End Gun Violence (Dec. 14-20), by Lauren Gunderson, David Henry Hwang, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Robert Schenkkan, and Karen Zacarías. Details. The event calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will sprak critical conversations and incite meaningful action with a mission to promote playwriting as a tool for self expression and social change.
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Darius de Haas: Let Me Carry You This Christmas will stream Thurs. Dec. 10 at 7 PM here.
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Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria has been published. Order here.
An ambitious group of editorial assistants at a prestigious Manhattan-based literary magazine are each chasing the same dream: a life as a successful writer — and to get out of the cubicles before they turn thirty. When a regular day at the office suddenly become anything but, the stakes for who will get to tell the career-making story are higher than ever.
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“Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story,” about Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie, is currently in development, directed by Tara Miele, and will likely be released on Apple TV.
The book and subsequent film will track the ups and downs of Burnett’s life as a working mom, star, and producer, as seen through the lens of her close relationship with daughter Carrie Hamilton. Grappling with a public addiction battle as a teen, Hamilton lived as a sober adult before dying of cancer at age of 38 in 2002.
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A benefit reading of Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play will stream Sun. Dec. 13 at 3 PM ET at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater, directed by Kamilah Forbes. Tickets are available for the reading (80 min.) …. or the reading & talkback (100 min.).
Cynthia Erivo, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Ashleigh Murray, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Storm Reid, Lyric Ross, Gabourey Sidibe, and Lovie Simone.
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Video: 2020 The Musical mashup, with Andrew Rannells and Jimmy Fallon, features songs from Hamilton, Wicked, The Book of Morman, The Sound of Music, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, and West Side Story.
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The Broadway Princess Holiday Party, featuring Laura Osnes, Susan Egan, Courtney Reed, Aisha Jackson, and Adam J. Levy, streams Sat. Dec. 12 at 8 PM ET at 54 Below (and on demand through Dec. 26).