This Weekend’s Culture at Home Best Bets April 10th-12th

Regardless of whether you are interested in a Broadway musical, a West End play, a cabaret performance or some classical music, there are some excellent options for you this weekend. Here are This Weekend’s Culture at Home Best Bets for April 10th – April 12th.

The Broad Stage Music Mornings – The Broad Stage Facebook Page – April 12th

This is the third consecutive Music Mornings from The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. The Reverend Shawn Amos, whose jubilant approach to the blues is completely a pleasure to hear, will be joined by bassist Jennifer Leitham and saxophonist Mindi Abair. (One assumes they will perform from their own social-distanced homes.)

Amos is the curator of a series called blackbox which highlights emerging artists in the fields of jazz and blues music. He has an album coming out next week entitled Blue Sky.

Leitham has performed with a veritable who’s who of jazz including Peggy Lee, Woody Herman, Mel Tormé and countless others.

Abair has collaborated with artists ranging from Max Weinberg (of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band), Trombone Shorty, Lalah Hathaway and dozens more.

Jane Eyre – National Theatre Live at Home (available through Thursday, April 16th)

This Old Vic production is part of National Theatre Live’s At Home Series that began last week with the week-long availability of One Man, Two Guvnors.

Sally Cookson directed this 2014 production that garnered rave reviews for its inventive way of telling Charlotte Brontë’s story of a young orphan who suffers years of abuse before becoming a governess for Edward Rochester. She discovers a secret he’s been hiding which propels the final act of the story.

Madeleine Worrall earned rave reviews for her portrayal of the title character. Felix Hayes plays “Rochester.” Expect this production to take an unorthodox approach to telling Jane Eyre.

Jeremy Denk: The Well-Tempered Clavier on YouTube

One of classical music’s finest pianists and best thinkers, Jeremy Denk, takes viewers on a deep dive into Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. Direct from his barn in the Catskills, Denk discusses and performs music from Book 1 of Bach’s composition. This event was originally scheduled to be performed live at The Greene Space in New York City, but like many events, it was reconfigured in light of the pandemic.

Jesus Christ Superstar – The Shows Must Go On on YouTube

This is the first of two productions of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical available for you this weekend. This production dates back to 2012 and began its life as a reality show competition to find someone to play the role of Jesus.

In the competition Ben Forster was selected and he co-stars with Tim Minchin (composer of the musicals Matilda and Groundhog Day) as “Judas,” Melanie C as “Mary Magdalene” and Chris Moyles as “King Herod.” This was an arena tour production, so expect it to be big.

This production will only be available for 48 hours Friday at 2 PM EDT/11 AM PDT.

Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert – NBC – April 12th at 7:00 PM EDT/PDT

NBC is re-running their 2018 live production of the musical on Easter Sunday. John Legend stars as “Jesus,” with Brandon Victor Dixon as “Judas,” Sara Bareilles as “Mary Magdalene” and Alice Cooper as “King Herod.”

Live from Feinstein’s/54 Below – Just a reminder that Liz Callaway performs The Beat Goes On starting at 12:30 PM on Friday. This concert will only be available for one day.

If you’d like to see what operas are available for streaming from the Metropolitan Opera this weekend, go here.

If you’d like to see the shows WNET is making available from Great Performances go here.

Main photo: The company of Jane Eyre (Photo by Manuel Harlan/Courtesy of National Theatre Live)