Today’s Highlights:
None.
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Video: “Stars in the House” with guest host Brenda Braxton, and special guests Valarie Pettiford and Allison Williams-Foster. (58.10)
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Sis, Antonio Lasanta & Gage Tarlton’s Our Offering will stream on Sun. Aug. 23 at 8 PM ET on Zoom.
Jai’Len Josey, Andrew Barth Feldman, Reneé Rapp, Samantha Williams, Anthony Lee Medina, Kiaya Scott, Sharon Catherine Brown, Julia Santana, Bernard Murray, Kathryn Allison, Kerrinton Thomas, Ashton Muñiz, Nikki Knupp, Sierra Sterling, Jasmine Rogers, Suzanne Tidwell, Camille Thomas, Brianna Odo-Boms, Chalia L-Tour, Terrence Spencer, Kat Griffin, Jacob Santos, Destiny Mosely, Kyle Ward, Ciara Anderson, Sierra Nicole, Anna Maria, Hunter Burke, Gavin Calais, Jacob Smith, Kerstin Vaughn, and Yasmyn Sumiyoshi.
The show explores the truths of existence, identity, ancestry, and community. Through Zoom calls and recorded videos, audiences will meet the townsfolk of Rivera Falls as The Guide takes them through time and space.
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“Talent Show,“ directed by Gandja Monteiro, is currently in pre-production.
The film stars Cynthia Erivo, who will play a failed songwriter who returns to her hometown of Chicago to lead a group of at-risk youth in their annual talent show.
Additional casting and timeline TBA.
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Michael Lavine’s Zoominar benefit, Moment Matinee Presents Songs of the Decade: The Fabulous Forties will take place Thurs. July 30 at 3:30 PM ET. Register here.
Steven Brinberg, Barbara Minkus, Jon Peterson, Michele Ragusa, Arbender Robinson, and Steve Ross.
The program will explore the varied musical styles and the most popular entertainers of the decade, including Judy Garland, Bob Hope, and Lucille Ball. Like the 20’s and 30’s, many songs of the 1940’s are still being sung today.
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Video: “For the Longest Time” parody, by Vancouver’s Phoenix Chamber Choir.
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Broadway On Demand has announced the launch of The Artists Channels, a new section of the platform devoted to musical theatre composers and lyricists. The channels provide a digital space for theatre fans to explore the incredible talent of the musical theatre songwriters who are creating today’s new musicals.
With over 350 videos, The Artist Channels offer the opportunity to hear fan-favorite songs, as well as discover new writers, new songs, and new shows. Additional composer and lyricist Artist Channels will be released in the coming weeks, with a continuation of exciting new content to come.
Composers & Lyricists (featured in the initial launch): Ari Afsar, Preston Max Allen, Christopher Anselmo, Masi Asare, Christie Baugher, Eli Bolin, Charles Vincent Burwell & James D. Sasser, Andrea Daly, Carmel Dean, Drew Gasparini, Adam Gwon, Timothy Huang, Anna K. Jacobs, Britta Johnson, Sukari Jones, Min Kahng, Kait Kerrigan & Brian Lowdermilk, Melissa Li & Kit Yan, Dan Lipton & David Rossmer, Teresa Lotz, Grace McLean, Chris Miller & Nathan Tysen, Thomas Mizer & Curtis Moore, Cheeyang Ng, Noisemaker (Scott Gilmour & Claire McKenzie), Ryan Scott Oliver, Heath Saunders, Angela Sclafani, Rona Siddiqui, Tidtaya Sinutoke & Isabella Dawis, Will Van Dyke & Jeff Talbott, Jillian Walker, Douglas Waterbury-Tieman, Brandon Webster, Ben Wexler, and Zack Zadek. Click here to learn more about these composers & lyricists.
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The Kindness of Strangers, honoring Tennessee Williams, will stream Fri. July 31 at 8 PM ET/7 PM CT here, hosted by Bryan Batt.
Betty Buckley, Michael Cerveris, Patricia Clarkson, Wendell Pierce, Kathleen Turner, Brenda Currin, Alison Fraser, John Goodman, Rodney Hicks, Corey Johnson, Ti Martin, and Harry Shearer.
After premiering, the event will be available to stream for two weeks.
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“Love in the Time of Corona” is an upcoming limited series from Freeform (link TBA), which will air Aug. 22 & 23.
Broadway couple Leslie Odom Jr. and Nicolette Robinson
James, who is normally on the road for work, is now in quarantine with his partner Sade. Now under the same roof, the pair must re-evaluate their relationship while raising their daughter. The production took place remotely in the performers’ homes.
The series will weave their story with three others about what navigating love and connection looks like during the pandemic. The cast also includes fellow real-life husband-and-wife Gil Bellows and Rya Kihlstedt and their daughter Ava Bellows, as well as Tommy Dorfman, Rainey Qualley, and L. Scott Caldwell.
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Video: “Broadway’s Calling Lance Roberts,” Episode 1, with special guest Glenn Close. (1:07:00)
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Video: Gavin Lee and J. Michael Finley perform “You Rule My World,” from The Full Monty.
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New Haven’s Long Warf Theatre presents Black Trans Women at the Center: An Evening of Short Plays on Wed. Aug. 5 at 8 PM ET. Casting TBA.
* Things Unknown, by Dezi Bing
* You Will Nevaaa…, by CeCe Suazo
* Sunshine, by Douglas Lyons
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Video: Liza Minnelli performs Chicago’s “Nowadays” on Dinah Shore’s TV show (1975).
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VT’s Weathervane Theatre has announced Speak Up, Sing Out: Voices of Generations United, a drive-in concert (first come first served) on Sat. Aug. 1 at 8:30 PM ET.
Upon arrival vehicles will receive the frequency to tune their car radio to for the concert. Patrons are encouraged to dine next door at the Inn at Whitefield prior to the 8:30 PM start time.
Alice Ripley, Christina Sajous, Chad Burris, J. Nycole Ralph, Kristy Cates, Ben Durocher, Jorge Donoso, Robert H. Fowler, Carrie Greenberg, Shinnerrie Jackson, Marisa Kirby, Ira Kramer, Grace Livingston Kramer, and Ethan Paulini,
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Video: Celebration for Change: 100 Days to Go, in support of Joe Biden. featuring Barbra Streisand, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kristin Chenoweth, John Legend, Jane Krakowski, Ivory Aquino, Sara Bareilles, Dustin Lance Black, Tituss Burgess, Andy Cohen, Andra Day, Lee Daniels, Raúl Esparza, Ellen Greene, Dolores Huerta, Karamo, Billie Jean King, Adam Lambert, Jay Leno, Dave Matthews, Michael McElroy & Friends, Julianne Moore, Rosie Perez, Rob Reiner, Congressman Cedric Richmond, Bamby Salcedo, The War and Treaty, and Rory Wheeler. (1:58:31)
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LA’s Echo Theater Company presents an online reading of Kaira Obolensky’s breakfast lunch dinner, a 3-course play with recipes, directed by Abigail Deser. 
here.
Samantha Cavestani, Brian Henderson, Megan Ketch, and Carol Locatell.
Ingredients: a middle-class Midwestern family, a modest urban kitchen, a larger-than-life mother who visits, a striving woman, a somewhat supportive man, and a daughter named Hurricane. Mix with the world outside, the never-ending attempt to nourish and be nourished, and a 21-year time span filled with changes.
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Video: “Make Them Hear You,” from Ragtime, with 150 Black and mixed race actors from the UK and the US, including Calvin Cornwall, Tommie Earl Jenkins, Emmanuel Kojo, James T. Lane, Ako Mitchell, Cedric Neal, Trevor Dion Nicholas, Clarke Peters, Mykal Rand, Joe Aaron Reid, Clive Rowe, Ray Shell, Tosh Wanogho-Maud, Layton Williams, and Gary Wilmot, along with a 38-piece orchestra.
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This week’s streams from the Metropolitan Opera (all at 7:30 PM ET, and available thereafter for 23 hours):
July 28: Tosca (2009), starring Karita Mattila, Marcelo Álvarez, and George Gagnidze, conducted by Joseph Colaneri.
July 29: Rigoletto (1977), starring Ileana Cotrubas, Plácido Domingo, and Cornell MacNeil.
July 30: Il Trovatore (2011), starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky
July 31: Rusalka (2017), by Dvořák, starring Kristine Opolais, Katarina Dalayman, Jamie Barton, Brandon Jovanovich, and Eric Owens.
Aug. 1: Ernani (1983), by Verdi, starring Starring Leona Mitchell, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, and Ruggero Raimondi.
Aug. 2: Die Walküre (2019), starring Christine Goerke, Eva-Maria Westbroek, Jamie Barton, Stuart Skelton, Greer Grimsley, and Günther Groissböck.
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Video: “Turkey Lurkey Time” from Promises, Promises. on the 1969 Tony Awards.
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Christopher Jackson: Live from the West Side will take place Sat. Aug. 15 at 8 PM ET/7 PM CT here (and will then be available for 72 hours).
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Video: Hudson Stage’s virtual staged reading of Joshua Allen’s short play, Distance, is available through July 29.
Betty Gabriel and Chris Messina.
Lauren logs into Zoom, expecting a long-overdue catch-up with old friends from college. What she doesn’t expect is to confront a complicated, and possibly unresolved, relationship from her past.