Not all the fireworks are in the air. These theatrical works blaze as brightly and linger longer.
Hamilton
Disney Plus
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The original Broadway cast, filmed June 2016, including Lin-Manual Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, Daveed Diggs as Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson; Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler; Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr. “The movie soars above its stage-bound origins.”
Les Blancs
by Lorraine Hansberry
National Theatre Live
Free
Now thru July 9
View below or click here
Written eleven years after A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry’s final drama is an unknown masterpiece of the American stage and a highly theatrical search for the soul of post-colonial Africa. This National Theatre production marked the National Theatre debut of the multi-award-winning director Yaël Farber, (Salomé at Shakespeare Theatre, 2015)
Manifesto
Happenstance Theater
$10
Available now
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The setting is the surrealist Cabaret ReVoltaire owned by Madam Proprietor and operated by Middle-Man and the New Girl. It is wartime. The guests are Visionaries. A Futurist and Dadaist walk into the bar. This is not a joke. Art becomes life. Beware of Forgeries! Text is from actual Manifestos. See the Capitalist and Communist tango and watch beauty rise from the absurd. – Happenstance Theater
The Copper Children
by Karen Zakarías
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
$15
July 2- 15
Click to view
The Copper Children by DC playwright Karen Zakarías is based on the true history of “orphan trains” that transported immigrant children (mostly Irish) to homes in the West which led to the sensational “Trial of the Century” custody case that stirred the nation into a frenzied debate about children, law, race, class and religion.
Act One
by Neil Simon
Lincoln Center Theater
Free
View below or view on YouTube
This is the 2014 Lincoln Center Theater production, written and directed James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods) which reimagines the memoir of Broadway legend Moss Hart for the stage. Among the cast are Tony Award-winners Tony Shalhoub, Andrea Martin and Santino Fontana.
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey
Written and performed by James Lecesne
A 92md Street Y release
Free
View here on or on YouTube
In this filmed capture of the 2014 off-Broadway production, James Lecesne portrays every character in a small Jersey shore town as they unravel the story of Leonard Pelkey, a tenaciously optimistic and flamboyant 14 year-old boy who goes missing. A luminous force of nature whose magic is only truly felt once he disappears, Leonard becomes the unexpected inspiration for a town as they question how they live, who they love and what they leave behind. – 92Y. “Absolute Brightness leaves you beaming with joy.” (New York Times).
And So We Come Forth
by Richard Nelson
Free.
View here or click to view on YouTube
The sixth play in Richard Nelson’s Apple family saga, this time they’re having dinner together on Zoom. The pandemic precautions are beginning to take its toll on the family. A benefit for the Actor’s Fund.
Coming up:
The Decameron
from Synetic Theater
PWYC tickets start at $10 for the series
Opens July 10
Details
As the Black Plague ravages their city, ten young Florentines take refuge in a secluded villa, where they amuse themselves by each telling a story a day over the course of ten days—a hundred stories of romance, adventure and twists along the way. Synetic’s adaptation partners 35+ veteran company members and emerging artists from across the globe, each taking turns adapting one of the stories. This experience–told in serial format over 10 days—honors the unfolding of the source material and celebrates the human impulse to connect through storytelling in a time of despair and isolation.
