Today’s Highlights:
* All On Her Own, by Terence Rattigan, directed by Alastair Knights, starring Janie Dee, begins streaming here.
* The Color Purple, filmed concert, directed by Tinuke Craig, featuring T’Shan Williams (Celie), Karen Mavundukure (Sofia), Carly Mercedes Dyer (Shug Avery), Danielle Fiamanya (Nettie), Ako Mitchell (Mister), and Simon Anthony Rohen (Harpo), along with Geoff Aymer, KM Drew Boateng, Owen Chaponda, Perola Congo, Danielle Kassarate, Anelisa Lamola, Rosemary Annabella Nkrumah, Jochebel Ohene MacCarthy, Landi Oshinowo, and Jo Servi, begins streaming at London’s Curve Leicester.
* The Gin Game staged reading, by D.L. Coburn, directed by Jenny Sullivan, starring Joe Spano and JoBeth Williams, concludes streaming at Laguna Playhouse.
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Video: Jim Caruso’s Cast Party variety show, with special guests Avery Sommers, Zachary James, Gianmarco Soresi, and Lauren Kinhan. (1:27:42)
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The Metropolitan Opera has announced this week’s free opera, all which begin at 7:30 PM ET, and available for 23 hours thereafter:
Feb. 16: Falstaff (1992 production), by Verdi, conducted by James Levine, starring Mirella Freni, Barbara Bonney, Marilyn Horne, Bruno Pola, and Paul Plishka,
Feb. 17: Cavalleria Rusticana, by Mascagni, and Pagliacci (1978 production), by Leoncavallo, starring Tatiana Troyanos, Jean Kraft, Plácido Domingo, and Vern Shinall; Teresa Stratas, Plácido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, and Allan Monk.
Feb. 18: Tosca, by Puccini (1985 production), conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli, starring Hildegard Behrens, Plácido Domingo, and Cornell MacNeil.
Feb. 19: Don Giovanni (1990 production), by Mozart, conducted by James Levine, starring Carol Vaness, Karita Mattila, Dawn Upshaw, Jerry Hadley, Samuel Ramey, Ferrucio Furlanetto, and Kurt Moll.
Feb. 20: Carmen (1997 production), by Bizet, conducted by James Levine, starring Angela Gheorghiu, Waltraud Meier, Plácido Domingo, and Sergei Leiferkus.
Feb. 21: Turandot (2009 production), conducted by Andris Nelsons, starring Maria Guleghina, Marina Poplavskaya, Marcello Giordani, and Samuel Ramey.
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Video: Laura Osnes and her husband Nathan Johnson perform “A Whole New World” from Aladdin.
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Chris Bush’ The Band Plays On continues streaming through Mar. 28 here, directed by Robert Hastie & Anthony Lau, with music supervision by Will Stuart.
Anna-Jane Casey, Maimuna Memon, Sandra Marvin, Jocasta Almgill, and Jodie Prenger.
An Olympic hopeful. A political car crash. The fallout from a fictional nuclear winter. Enjoy these stories of solidarity and survival from the Steel City.
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“An Oral History of the Broadway Shutdown,” which offers contributions from a plethora of Broadway folks.
The first 4 are available now, with new stories posted every Monday. Click here to read.
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Video: In the new documentary, “Still Working 9 to 5,” original Broadway cast member Allison Janney talks about respecting the women who came before, who paved the way towards the equal rights conversations we have today. Scroll down.
Click here to learn more about the documentary.
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Due to the pandemic restrictions, Sister Act The Musical, originally scheduled to run in summer 2020, was postponed, and rescheduled to open July 21, 2021. Now the production has again been rescheduled, and is now set to run July 19 – Aug. 28, 2022.
And in more disappointing news, the new 2022 dates will make it impossible for Whoopie Goldberg to star as Deloris Van Cartier. It is unclear if Jennifer Saunders will keep her role as Mother Superior. Stay tuned for ongoing updates.
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A reading of Murray Schisgal’s The Typists will livestream Fri. Feb. 26 at 7 PM ET here, directed by Austin Pendleton.
Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole.
A married law student takes a job as a typist for an ad agency, where he works for his lonely supervisor. Through a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, the play depicts the story of their relationship and the potential for romance.
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RIP: Voice teacher Florence Birdwell, a mentor to Kristin Chenoweth and Kelli O’Hara has died.
An educator, musician, and singer, Birdwell taught musical theater and opera singing for more than seven decades as a professor or voice the Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University.
She was raised in Santa Fe, and studied voice under Inez Silberg. After losing her own voice to a throat infection, Silberg encouraged Birdwell to turn to teaching instead.
Her other notable students include Susan Powell and Lara Teeter.
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Nilo Cruz’s Two Sisters and a Piano will stream on demand Apr. 21 – May 23 at New Normal Rep, directed by Cruz.
Jimmy Smits and more TBA.
Set in 1991, the play follows two sisters — Maria Celia, a novelist, and Sofia, a pianist — serving time under house arrest in Cuba, and the lieutenant assigned to their case. Passion infiltrates politics when a lieutenant assigned to their case become infatuated with Maria Celia, whose literature he has been reading.
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Audio: Jeremy Jordan and Jessica Lowndes sing the new song “Alive.”
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The revival of “In Treatment” (2008)will premiere in May (date TBA) on HBO.
Uzo Aduba, Anthony Ramos, Liza Colón-Zayas, John Benjamin Hickey, Quintessa Swindell, and Joe Kinnaman.
The revival is set in present-day Los Angeles and follows Dr. Brooke Taylor (Aduba) as she helps three patients navigate their mental health amid the global pandemic and several recent major social and cultural shifts.
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A concert version of Zach Adam & Eidan Lipper’s Cursed, in support of BC/EFA, will stream on a date TBA, directed by Dana Iannuzzi.
Asmeret Ghebremicahel, Dvin Ilaw, Bonnie Milligan, Tom Alan Robbins, Donald Webber Jr, and Alex Wyse.
The new musical turns Beauty and the Beast on its head to tell the story of Gabriel, a struggling writer, who embarks on the quest for his great novel, and in the process finds an unexpected beauty, a surprising beast, an unlikely prince charming, and a struggling father just trying to do the best he can with what he’s got.
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Video: Rory O’Malley sings “I Feel So Much Spring” from A New Brain.
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Manhattan Theatre Club presents a streaming production of Richard Wesley’s The Past Is The Past Feb. 18-28, directed by Oz Scott. The play premiered at MTC in 1975.
Jovan Adepo and Ron Cephas Jones.
In a pool hall, a man in his mid-40s shoots a solitary game until a college student he has never met challenges him to play. As their game goes on, it becomes clear that the men recognize each other and have a deep connection. While the truth emerges, so does the fact that the past must remain just that.
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Seth Concert Series presents:
Christy Altomare, continues through Feb. 22 here.
Patti Murin & Colin Donnell continues through Feb. 25 here.
John Krause’s A Bit of Your Time, continues through Feb. 28 here.
Santino Fontana (Feb. 22 at 3 PM ET) here.
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Due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, the upcoming production of Cecil Philp Taylor’s Good, directed by Dominic Cooke, which was to run Apr. 21 – July 17 at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre, has been postponed. New dates TBA. Current ticket holders do not have anything to do right now. Their point of purchase will be in touch directly.
David Tennant, Fenella Woolgar, and Elliot Levey.
A play about the causes rather than the consequences of Nazism, about morality and seduction. It explores how a “good” man gets caught up in the intricate web of personal and social reasons why the average person might be seduced in to what we see as abhorrent.
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Manhattan Theatre Club presents Richard Wesley’s The Past is the Past Feb. 18-28, directed by Oz Scott.
Joyan Adepo and Ron Cephas Jones.
The scene is a pool hall, where a man in his mid-40s shoots a solitary game until a college student he has never met challenges him to play. As their game goes on, it becomes clear that the men recognize each other and have a deep connection. While the truth emerges, so does the fact that the past must remain just that.