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Even though in-person theatre and dance are back in full swing, in the name of accessibility, we're continuing to round up performances to watch online from the comfort of home. Our carefully curated list spotlights the five best options to stream this weekend, Friday, January 6 to Sunday, January 8, for free or at low cost.
Live-streaming on Saturday, January 7 at 1 p.m. ET for FREE but you must reserve your spot to receive the Zoom link
Theater of War Productions, a company that uses classical texts to examine contemporary issues, presents a reading of scenes from Philoctetes followed by a town hall-style discussion with the audience. Military veterans and professional actors, including four-time Oscar nominee and experimental theatre stalwart Willem Dafoe, will perform sequences from Sophocles' tragedy, and then director-adapter Bryan Doerries will facilitate a conversation about how the play's themes relate to the trauma soldiers experience.
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Live-streaming on Saturday, January 7 at 9:30 p.m. ET for $26
Broadway vet (Kinky Boots, Legally Blonde), cabaret star and original Bare: A Pop Opera showstopper Natalie Joy Johnson blows into NYC with a blustery soiree. Accompanied by her longtime pianist Brian Nash, Johnson will share songs and outrageous stories about everything she's been up to, including performing in the Broadway-aimed musical Lempicka. Live-streaming directly from The Green Room 42 in Midtown. If you prefer to attend in person, click here for info.
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Streaming on YouTube indefinitely for $7
Audiences and artists cheered when the curtain rose on Broadway in September 2021 after an unprecedented 18-month shutdown. But the revival wasn't an overnight success. This new documentary, coproduced by Tony-winning Take Me Out star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, chronicles the long road to reopening, as three-time Tony winner Patti LuPone, producer Tom Kirdahy (playwright Terrence McNally's widow), two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and other theatrical movers and shakers document everything it took to get the industry going again.
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Streaming indefinitely for FREE
Here's a gem from the vaults: All Arts is streaming a 1974 mounting of King Lear headlined by James Earl Jones! Filmed live on stage at the Delacorte Theater for the New York Shakespeare Festival (now known as Shakespeare in the Park), the production also features Raul Julia, Rosalind Cash and Paul Sorvino. A thrilling reminder of why this acting icon deserves to have a Broadway theatre named after him!
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Streaming indefinitely for FREE
All Arts presents Julie Taymor's critically acclaimed mounting of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was recorded live on stage at Brooklyn's Theatre for a New Audience. Stage stalwarts Tina Benko, David Harewood and Max Casella lead the cast of this enchanting romantic comedy about young lovers and magical sprites crossing paths in the woods. Taymor puts her creative stamp on the Shakespeare classic, which features projections, puppets and more than a dozen children as fairies.
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Top image: Willem Dafoe, who's participating in a live-stream reading of Philoctetes on Saturday evening.
Raven Snook is the Editor of TDF Stages. Follow her on Facebook at @Raven.Snook. Follow TDF on Facebook at @TDFNYC.
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