In the BC era (Before Covid-19), theater lovers tended to eye screens warily. Now, we browse the Broadway HD catalog, scout YouTube for obscure European webcasts and text each other the link to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 14-minute musical “21 Chump Street.”
There is a lot of streaming theater these days, even if it’s not always easy to find — the selection below is but a sample of what’s available. Note that while some shows stay online for several days or even weeks, others are appointment events, so mark your calendars.
Discover C.A. Johnson
The playwright C.A. Johnson made an auspicious MCC Theater debut in February with “All The Natalie Portmans” and returns with a reading of “When,” part of the company’s Live Labs series of one-act plays. In the earlier show, a teenage girl was obsessed with the titular star; screen representations also figure in “When,” about a mother-daughter duo played by Kecia Lewis and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy. The webcast is available on the theater’s YouTube site through June 27.
Johnson is also participating in the third edition of the “Homebound Project” (through June 28), which pairs actors and playwrights in a dozen short works. She’s been matched with the Tony Award winner Daveed Diggs. Just as intriguing: Michael R. Jackson and Diane Lane, Bess Wohl and Ashley Park, Korde Arrington Tuttle and Blair Underwood. The effort raises money for the organization No Kid Hungry.
Shakespeare, make way for Molière
For viewers feeling a little Shakespeare’d out, here are a couple of opportunities to engage with the great 17th-century playwright Molière. The upstart Molière in the Park (which in normal times would take place in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park) is streaming a reading of his “Tartuffe,” starring Raúl Esparza as the titular pseudo-devout hypocrite and, in a neat casting twist, Samira Wiley as Orgon, the husband of the woman Tartuffe covets. Show times are June 27 at 2 and 7 p.m.; the stream will remain on Molière in the Park’s YouTube channel through July 1 at 2 p.m. RSVP is required for a link to the livestream — which will offer closed captions in English and French.
On July 2, Joshua William Gelb and Dave McGee are presenting “Hypochondriac 1,” the first portion of an adaptation of the Molière comedy “The Imaginary Invalid,” starring Jessie Shelton. It’s part of Gelb’s “Theater in Quarantine” series, watchable on YouTube, which has developed into an intriguing laboratory exploring the online possibilities of movement and storytelling. (Gelb has turned a closet into a stage.)
A day in the life
On May 22, 10 playwrights, including Annalisa Dias, Psalmayene 24 and Karen Zacarías, set out to interview 10 residents of Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland, on behalf of Arena Stage. The resulting monologues were then performed by local actors and edited into the program “May 22, 2020.” The 55-minute hybrid of theater and filmed documentary is watchable on YouTube.
‘Livin’ La Vida Imelda’
Imelda Marcos had a bit of a theatrical moment in the mid-2010s, when two bio-shows about the former first lady of the Philippines popped up. While the David Byrne and Fatboy Slim musical, “Here Lies Love,” discofied the story, Carlos Celdran took a more intimate approach in his one-man show “Livin’ La Vida Imelda,” which The Times described as a “gleefully gossipy study guide.” Now the Ma-Yi Theater Company has made a recording available until June 30, or until the show reaches 6,986 views, whichever comes first. Welcome to the brave new world of streaming agreements.
Gays of our lives
Lincoln Center Theater has been slow to get into the streaming game but it seems to be finding its sea legs. Right in time to close Pride Month, it is presenting the Broadway revival of William Finn’s “Falsettos” free on Broadway HD until June 27 at 8 p.m. (James Lapine’s 2014 adaptation of the Moss Hart memoir “Act One,” starring Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin and Santino Fontana, streams on LCT’s YouTube channel through July 3.)
We are also getting a chance to revisit “The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me,” David Drake’s popular solo show, from 1992, with a one-night-only broadcast of a 2013 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS event — this time to benefit the Provincetown Theater. Drake himself was on board to help recreate his slices of gay life, with assists from a starry cast including Robin De Jesús, André De Shields, Anthony Rapp, Wesley Taylor and BD Wong, under Robert La Fosse’s direction. The virtual curtain rises June 28 at 7 p.m.
Crossing the Atlantic
If an institution was ready to address confined audiences, it was Britain’s National Theater, with its catalog of high-quality live captures. Since April, the company has unrolled a new, well, new-old show every week. Up until July 2 we can watch Nicholas Hytner’s take on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a Bridge Theater production with Gwendoline Christie. It will be succeeded by a rare presentation of Lorraine Hansberry’s “Les Blancs” in a staging by Yaël Farber (“Mies Julie”). Each show is available for seven days.
Elsewhere in Britain, the Bush Theater commissioned six black British artists to respond to the killing of George Floyd. The short pieces were gathered under the umbrella “The Protest” and are available on the company’s YouTube channel. (The Bush’s “Monday Monologues” series is worth checking out as well.)
Finally, you rarely see a company pushing “a bootleg capture” on its site but hey, these are uncommon times. The Bristol Old Vic is making available its musical adaptation of a Victor Hugo novel — no, not “Les Misérables” or “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” but “The Grinning Man”— starting June 26 for a week. Watch for puppet action that was described as “miraculous” when the show played the West End.
King Arthur meets K-pop
The musical “Xcalibur” started life as “Artus-Excalibur” and was renamed for its Seoul premiere last year, led by the local star Kai as King Arthur. That is the version the fledgling platform Broadway on Demand will start streaming June 27 at 8 p.m. as part of its new Global Spotlight Series. While the show’s creators, which include the composer Frank Wildhorn (“Jekyll & Hyde”), are American, the production appears to have a glossy K-pop sheen. The premiere stream and an on-demand rental are available for $5.99 until July 6.
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