Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be limited theatre news for the foreseeable future. I will continue to search for anything meaningful and/or fun to report. Stay safe and healthy.
Today’s Highlights:
* 54 Sings One Direction FREE livestreamed concert, at 6:30 PM ET here.
* The Show Must Go On Show variety show, featuring Christiani Pitts, livestreamed at 7 PM ET here.
* “Trivia Tuesday Happy Hour” game show, with Caitlin Kinnunen, in support of BC/EFA, at 5 PM ET here.
* Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill concert & conversation, featuring the Broadway cast and creative team, livestreamed at 8 PM ET here.
* Michael Lavine’s FREE Zoominar: “Broadway Songs about the Jewish Experience You May Not Know” at 4:30 PM ET here.
* “The Ballad Songbirds and Snakes” audiobook, by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Santino Fontana, released here.
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Video: “Stars in the House,” with guest host Laura Benanti, featuring Stephanie Epstein, Sean Deiter, and Julia Bedeian, (1:01:14)
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Disney Theatrical Productions has announced updates to its upcoming projects:
* Hercules: The stage adaptation continues to evolve after last summer’s Central Park staging. Lear deBessonet will return to direct the next iteration, and Robert Horn will join Alan Menken and David Zippel on the creative team.
* The Jungle Book: With a book by Rajiv Joseph and a score by Richard M. Sherman, the musical will be directed & choreographed by Christopher Gattelli.
* Bedknobs and Broomsticks: With new material by Brian Hill & Neil Bartram (in addition to the Sherman Brothers’ songs), a world premiere will take place in Germany, co-directed by Candice Edmunds & Jamie Harrison (following the passing of Rachel Rockwell).
* Aida revival: A new production of Elton John, Tim Rice & David Henry Hwang’s musical is expected to premiere in Germany in Spring 2022, directed by Schele Williams.
* The Princess Bride: by David Yazek, Bob Martin & Rick Elice, is still in the works.
* Beauty and the Beast: An international revival of the musical is still in the works.
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Liz Callaway sings…. magnificently
Video: “A Place Called Home.” Simply stunning.
Video: “Once Upon A December”/Journey to the Past”
Video: “Journey to the Past,” with Christy Altomare
Video: “Meadowlark”
Audio: “Once Upon a December”
Audio: “The Story Goes On”
Audio: “Far Longer Than Forever”
Video: “I Still Believe,” with Lea Salonga
Video: “Another Hundred People”
Video: “Grown-Up Christmas List”
Video: “The Prayer,” with Nicholas Callaway Foster
Video: “You’ve Got a Friend,” with Ann Hampton Callway
Video: “Like it Was”
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A 10-part video series of Benj Pasek, Justin Paul & Timothy Allen McDonald’s James and the Peach, in support of Partners In Health, debuted yesterday here, directed by Taika Waititi. The series will continue every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and will benefit Partners In Health (founded by Roald Dahl’s daughter Ophelia), which will match donations up to a total of $1 million.
Cynthia Erivo, Billy Porter, Eddie Redmayne, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Lupita Nyong’o, Ruth Wilson, Josh Gad, Sarah Paulson, Liam Hemsworth, Chris Hemsworth, Nick Kross, Beanie Feldstein, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Jamie Cullum, Roman Griffin Davis, Cara Delevingne, Mindy Kaling, Kumail Nanjiani, Gordon Ramsay, Ryan Reynolds, Ben Schwartz, Tessa Thompson, Olivia Wilde, and Archie Yates.
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Video: A Night of Covenant House Stars benefit concert, which will provide housing, food, and healthcare to children and youth facing homelessness in 31 cities across 6 countries. (2:01:45)
Audra McDonald, Jon Bon Jovi, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Rachel Brosnahan, Stephen Colbert, Martin Short, Dolly Parton, Dionne Warwick, Stephanie J. Block, Tony Shalhoub, Charlie Day, Chris O’Dowd, Zachary Levi, Zachary Quinto, Morgan Freeman, Deborah Cox, Quentin Earl Darrington, Ariana DeBose, Darius de Haas, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Eden Espinosa, Jordan Fisher, Stephanie Hsu, Randy Jackson, Capathia Jenkins, Jeremy Jordan, Ramona Keller, Alex Newell, Karen Olivo, Dawn O’Porter, Laura Osnes, Benj Pasek, Jodi Picoult, Shereen Pimentel, Andrew Rannells, Keala Settle, Jake David Smith, Will Swenson, Bobby Conte Thornton, Ana Villafane, Frank Wildhorn, Broadway Inspirational Voices, Covenant House Youth, and more!
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[title of show] Vineyard Virtual Variety Show will take place Sat. May 30 at 8 PM ET here, directed by Michael Berresse, with music direction by Larry Pressgrove. Access to the show is available with a minimum $25 donation here before Noon on Sat. May 30.
Hunter Bell, Susan Blackwell, Heidi Blickenstaff, and Jeff Bowen.
Bill Irwin, Cheyenne Jackson, Linda Lavin, Leslie Odom Jr. & Nicolette Robinson, Steven Pasquale & Phillipa Soo, Zachary Quinto, Brooke Shields, The Lopez Family singers (Bobby Lopez, Kristin Anderson-Lopez, and family), and more…
The show will feature new material, and more…
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Video: “Zoom Block Tango.” Fabulous!
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“Da 5 Bloods” will premiere June 12 on Netflix, written & directed by Spike Lee.
Norm Lewis, Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Whitlock, Jr, Chadwick Boseman, Jonathan Majors, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Van Veronica Ngo, and Jean Reno.
The series follows four African-American veterans who return to Vietnam to search for the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure.
Video: Trailer
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This week’s livestreams at NYCs Metropolitan Opera, all at 7:30 PM ET:
May 19: Wagner’s Lohengrin (1986), conducted by James Levine, starring Eva Marton, Leonie Rysanek, Peter Hofmann, Leif Roar, and John Macurdy.
May 20: Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (2012), conducted by Fabio Luis, starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Kathleen Kim, Stephanie Blythe, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
May 21: Puccini’s Turando (2019), conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Christine Goerke, Eleonora Buratto, Yusif Eyvazov, and James Morris.
May 22: Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1978), conducted by Richard Bonynge, starring Joan Sutherland, James Morris, and Gabriel Bacquier.
May 23: Gounod’s Faust (2011), conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, starring Marina Poplavskaya, Jonas Kaufmann, Russell Braun, and René Pape.
May 24: Massenet’s Manon (2012), conducted by Fabio Luisi, starring Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, and Paulo Szot.
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Del Shores’ Sordid Lives benefit reading will take place Sun. May 31 at 8 PM ET here, hosted by Emerson Collins & Del Shores.
Newell Alexander, Rosemary Alexander, Bonnie Bedelia, Beau Bridges, Emerson Collins, Dale Dickey, David Cowgill, Beth Grant, Debby Holiday, Leslie Jordan, Caroline Rhea, playwright Shores, and Ann Walker, with celebrities from the Sordid Lives franchise, including Carson Kressley, Georgette Jones, Alec Mapa, Aleks Paunovic, David Steen, Levi Kreis, and Olivia Newton-John.
A black comedy about a gay actor who struggles to come out to his eccentric, dysfunctional Texas family. When the family matriarch trips over the two wooden legs of her lover in a seedy motel room, her funeral brings three generations of the family back together in a story about learning to love the family you have as they are.
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Manhattan Theatre Club has announced its 2020 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation recipients:
Kate Attwell, Mia Chung, Noah Diaz, Julia Izumi, Ife Olujobi, and Stacey Rose.
Since 2001, MTC has partnered with the foundation to commission plays that feature science-based themes and characters.
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“Backstage Live with Richard Ridge,” with special guests Michael Urie, Dana Delany, and Tate Donovan, will take place Wed. May 20 at Noon ET here.
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Off-Broadway’s Ars Nova will present The Ars Nova Forever Telethon for 24 hours beginning June 12 at 6 PM ET, in support of the theatre company.
John Early, Sakina Jaffrey, Dave Malloy, Isaac Oliver, Larry Owens, Ashley Park, The Story Pirates, Jason Tam, Natalie Walker, and many more.
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If you would like to support immigrant theatre artists financially impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, please donate here.
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Video: Tina Fey and Jonathan Groff perform “The Courting Song,” from the fictional musical Amish Nights.
Amash Nights is depicted in the fictional Hamlet musical Melancholy Baby, written by the fictional Henzplatt & DeSelza.
In “The Courting Song,” the two Pennsylvania natives play two Amish lovers who prove you don’t need electricity to make sparks fly. Note the ever-sensual, contactless choreography, and Fey somehow managing to make statement earrings and a bonnet match.
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“Grease Sing-A-Long,” starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Didi Conn, and Jeff Conaway, will air Sun. June 8 at 8:30 PM on CBS.