Today’s Highlights:
* Death of England: Delroy, by Clint Dyer & Roy Williams, directed by Dyer, starring Michal Balogun, opens at London’s Olivier Theatre (with an in-the-round, socially distant configuration, and numerous public safety protocols).
* Heroes of the Fourth Turning FREE benefit streamed production, by Will Arbery, directed by Danya Taymor, featuring (original Off-Broadway cast) Zoe Winters, Julia McDermott, John Zdrojeski, Jeb Kreager, and Michele Pawk, begins its run here.
* Broadway’s Death of a Salesman (1999) benefit presentation, directed by Robert Falls, starring Brian Dennehy, Elizabeth Franz, Ted Koch, and Ron Eldard, streams at 8 PM ET only on Playbill.com (and continues through Oct. 25).
* In Our America: A Concert for the Soul of the Nation FREE benefit presentation in support of the Biden Victory Fund, featuring more than 75 artists, including Derrick Baskin, Laura Benanti, Victoria Clark, Glenn Close, Chuck Cooper, Darren Criss, André De Shields, Renée Elise Goldsberry, John Goodman, Jayne Houdyshell, Jennifer Hudson, James Monroe Iglehart, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, Norman Lear, Norm Lewis, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Rita Moreno, Karen Olivo, Ashley Park, Steven Pasquale, Carrie Preston, Kelani Queypo, Chita Rivera, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Phillipa Soo, Ephraim Sykes, BD Wong, the Broadway Dreams Foundation Choir, and the casts of SIX and KPOP, streams at 8 PM ET here.
* House Seats: Women of Color on Broadway virtual benefit concert, directed by Ann Benjamin, honoring LaChanze and Melba Moore, featuring Celia Rose Gooding (La Chanze’s daughter), Kuhoo Verma, Kimberly Marable, Kayla Davion, Aléna Watters, Darlesia Cearcy, Linah Sta. Ana, Genesis Collado, Barbara Douglas, and Vanisha Gould, streams at 8 PM ET here.
* Awake at Night livestream reading, adapted by Will Pomerantz, featuring Ari Brand, Daniel Gerroll, Loren Lester, Michael Levi Harris, Kevin Orton, and Teal Wicks, at 8 PM ET at Long Island’s Bay Street Theatre.
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Video: “Stars in the House” featuring “Artists in Residence Album Release!,“ with Victoria Huston-Elm & Eli Zoller, Jonathan Tunick, Carmel Dean, Christian Noll, Stephen Flaherty, Will Reynolds, Eric Price, Andrew Gerle, Laura Osnes, Alan Menken and David Zippel. (1:07:30)
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Manhattan Theatre Club has announced a new virtual theatre channel:
Reading Series (Tuesdays at 2 PM ET:
Nov. 10: Long, by Charles Oh
Nov. 17: An Audio Guide For Unsung Snails and Heroes, by Julia Izumi
Dec. 1: Ball Change, by Brittan K. Allen
Dec. 8: As Is: Conversations with Big Black Women in Confined Spaces, by Stacy Rose
Dec. 15: Friendly Monsters, by Penelope Skinner
Virtual Theatre, offering a monthly lookback (dates & times TBA)
* The Show Goes On
* Artists in Conversation
* Student Monologue Challenge
* Virtual Gala
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Jim Brickman for Broadway Christmas Live, in support of The Actors Fund, streams Sat. Nov. 28 at 8 PM ET here.
Adrienne Warren, Kelli O’Hara, Norm Lewis, Matt Doyle, Max von Essen, Shoshana Bean, Megan Hilty, Wayne Brady, and more.
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National Black Theatre will stream Tracey Conyer Lee’s Retreat Nov. 19-22, directed by Zhailon Levingston.
Brittany Bellizeare, Patricia R. Floyd, Jennifer Fouché, Kevin R. Free, Russell G. Jones, Lee, Erick Lockley, and Art McFarland.
Based on a true story, the play centers on a man whose life sentence and struggles for appeals and exoneration affects his entire community, from childhood friends to complete strangers.
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Video: Broadway’s Ain’t Too Proud performs I’m Losing You,” in support of Black Lives Matter.
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Roundabout Theatre Company has announced its upcoming Play Per View events:
Oct. 30: Shiner livestream (8 PM ET), virtual production, by Christian Durso, directed by Knud Adams, featuring Susannah Perkins and Paul Pontrelli. A grunge rock love story set in Spring 1994, as two teens make a pact to die happy.
Nov. 8: Sundogs reading (7:30 PM), by Howard Emmanuel, directed by Heather Arnson, featuring Jenn Gambatese and Tobias Segal. U. S. Army Seargeant Joe Garnier wakes up one day to hear the pounding of drums and believes those drums are the key to restoring order to the chaos of his American life.
Nov. 10: Toni Stone reading (7 PM ET), by Lydia R. Diamond, directed by Pam MacKinnon, featuring the cast of the theatre’s 2019 production — April Matthis Eric Berryman, Harvy Blanks, Phillip James Brannon, Daniel J. Bryant, Jonathan Burke, Toney Goins, Kenn E. Head, and Ezra Knight. A play about the first female player to go pro in the baseball’s Negro League.
Nov. 21: The Burdens livestream production (7 PM ET), by Matt Schatz, featuring Ali Ahn and William Jackson Harper. Mordy is a struggling musician, and his older sister Jane is a successful attorney. When their widowed mother’s life becomes taxed by her terrible, centenarian father, the two adult siblings are drawn into an elaborate plot to relieve her burden… and their own.
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The long-awaited studio cast album of Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents’ Anyone Can Whistle (1964) will finally be released Dec. 4 on Jay Records.
Recorded 17 years ago, it is the first-ever complete recording of the musical, containing the entire score, including playoffs, interludes, and exit music. John Owen Edwards conducts the National Symphony Orchestra on the album.
Julia McKenzie (Cora Hoover Hooper), Maria Friedman (Fay Apple/ Dr. Jane Borden Osgood), John Barrowman (J. Bowden Hapgood), and Arthur Laurents, (Narrator).
The story of a town in an economic depression and the fake miracle cooked up by the corrupt mayor in an attempt to draw tourists.
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Video: The 24-Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, featuring Rachel Dratch, Andy Karl & Orfeh, Jordan Temple, Jessica Hecht, Elizabeth Marvel, Larry Owens, Joe Firestone, Emma Ramos, Jon Rudnitsky, Eve Lindlye, Anna Suzuki, Tracee Chimo Pallero, Corin Wells, Reed Birney, Noah Robbins, Artemis Pebdani, and Frankie J. Alvarez.
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VA’s Signature Theatre presents Signature Vinyl, a professionally filmed experience featuring 26 local singers and musicians, safely filmed at several outdoor locations across the DC area, will be available to stream on Nov. 5, conceived & directed by Matthew Gardiner, with music direction by Mark G. Meadows.
Shayna Blass, Natascia Diaz, Christian Douglas, Jade Jones, Rayshun Lamarr, Mark G. Meadows, Kevin McAllister, Crystal Mosser, Katie Mariko Murray, Inès Nassara, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Solomon Parker III, Nova Y. Payton, Maria Rizzo, Robber Schaefer, Awa Sal Secka, Shayla S. Simmons, Kanysha Williams, and Rachel Zampelli.
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Broadway on Demand will present John Moore’s Waiting for Obama on Sat. Oct. 24 at 8 PM ET, directed by Brian Freeland.
Laurence Curry (Barak Obama), Drew Horwitz (Peter Welby), Chris Kendall (Hank Welby), Leslie O’Carroll (Martha Welby), Jenna Moll Reyes (Jenna), Jessica Robblee (Katie Welby), Luke Sorge (Benny Bunny), and Marc Trevathan (Voice of God).
A topical story about divisiveness within America, and with the American family. A Colorado family is convinced that President Barack Obama is coming for their guns… and they might well be right.
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The Geffen Playouse has announced its Geffen Stayhouse Lineup, a series of live, virtual and interactive world premiere productions:
* Citizen Detective (Nov. 10 – Dec. 20, world premiere written & directed by Chelsea Marcantel. In this virtual show based on an unsolved 1920s Hollywood murder, audience members become the detectives in a case that mixes theater, mystery, and collaborative code-breaking. Guided by best-selling true crime author Mickie McKittrick, the home audiences will uncovers the evidence and follow the clues, altering the course of the show every night.
* The Future (Dec. 4 – Jan. 31, 2021), world premiere, written & performed by Helder Guimarães, directed by Frank Marshall. Interactive at-home illusions are taken into the future. With a magician, perspective is everything — and in this show, participants will decide which version of events they prefer to see on this personal journey including stops at a high-stakes poker game and a pub in the south of France, as it explores the seedy underbelly of the gambling world.
* Bollywood Kitchen (Jan. 15 – Feb. 21), world premiere written & performed by Sri Rao, directed by Arpita Mukherjee. In this interactive production, filmmaker and cookbook author Sri Rao invites us to prepare a homemade Indian meal along with him, drawing on the recipes that were staples at his family’s table. As we join him in cooking these delicious dishes in our own kitchens, Sri interweaves the story of his parents immigrating to America, the joy and the culinary traditions they shared.
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Upcoming The Seth Concert Series. Each concert premieres Sundays at 8 PM ET, with a second showing on Mondays at 3 PM ET here (scroll down):
* La Chanze (Oct. 25-26)
* Beth Malone (Nov. 1-2)
* Wayne Brady (Nov. 8-9)
* Lillias White (Nov. 15-16)
* Adam Pascale (Nov. 22-23)
* Patti Murin & Colin Donnell (Nov. 29-30)