Welcome to the weekend and our Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th. If you saw our preview yesterday, you already know our top pick is A Tribute to John Williams by the Boston Pops. But there are nine other shows you shouldn’t miss this weekend.
They include Jim Parsons in Harvey, jazz pianist Chano Domínguez (if you don’t know him, you should!), the pentulimate episode of Close Quarters from Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and For the Record Live’s Brat Pack.
Here is the full list of our Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th:
*TOP PICK* – A Tribute to John Williams – Boston Pops – Now – June 19th
We showcased this concert in yesterday’s preview of our Best Bets. Here is the the top line. Composer John Williams and his music are celebrated in this concert by his one-time home, The Boston Pops. Keith Lockhart will be on the podium for this program of Williams’ film scores ranging from the well-known (Star Wars) to lesser-known tracks.
A special part of this program is the inclusion of interviews with Williams about many of these scores and his memories of creating them with filmmakers such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
A 7-day pass is required to watch A Tribute to John Williams. Those passes are $9
PLAY: Harvey – Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway on Demand – Now – June 13th
Mary Chase’s play about a man’s friendship with an invisible rabbit (who gives the play its name) first opened on Broadway in 1944 with Frank Fay in the role of Elwood P. Dowd. (Trivia note for theater buffs: Antoinette Perry, the woman for whom the Tony Award is named, was the director.)
A 1970 revival of the play starred James Stewart who starred as Elwood in the 1950 film classic.
It would be 42 years before Harvey would find its way back to Broadway. Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) starred as Elwood with Jessica Hecht and Charles Kimbrough co-starring. This Roundabout Theatre Company production from 2012 is streaming for free on Broadway on Demand.
Charles Isherwood, in his New York Times review, hailed Parsons’ performance:
“The breakout star of the popular sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” the soft-spoken Mr. Parsons makes an ideal Elwood, the drinker and dreamer who passes his days in the company of Harvey, doing little more than sitting around saloons making friendly conversation with whoever happens by. Mr. Parsons possesses in abundance the crucial ability to project an ageless innocence without any visible effort: no small achievement for an actor in these knowing times.
You will need to register to stream the play. After you do so you’ll receive streaming instructions.
BALLET: Swan Lake – San Francisco Ballet – Now – June 9th
When San Francisco Ballet debuted Helgi Tomasson’s new Swan Lake ballet, it was a runaway hit. Interest in this production was so intense that they sold out nearly every performance.
In the ballet, Odette is a princess turned into a swan by a sorcerer. Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette. At night she turns back into her human form and it was upon seeing this transformation that the romance begins. Other spells and deception awaits the leads in Swan Lake. While love triumphs, it isn’t necessarily the happiest of endings, but it is certainly romantic.
Tchaikovsky’s music is still present, but it is Tomasson’s vision that was different after he updated the choreography by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa.
The cast for this streaming performance features Yuan Yuan Tan in the dual roles of Odette and Odile. Tiit Helimets dances the role of Prince Siegfried. Alexander Reneff-Olson dances the role of Von Rothbart and the Pas de Trois is performed by Dores André, Taras Domitro and Sasha De Sola. Martin West conducts.
Tickets are $29 which allows for 72 hours of access to Swan Lake.
PLAY READING: The Sisters Rosensweig – Spotlight on Plays on Broadway’s Best Shows – Now – May 24th
Jason Alexander, John Behlmann, Lisa Edelstein, Kathryn Hahn, Kathryn Newton, Tracee Chimo Pallero, Chris Perfetti and James Urbaniak star in a reading of Wendy Wasserstein’s play. The reading is directed by Anna D. Shapiro (Tony Award-winner for her direction of August: Osage County).
The Sisters Rosensweig opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1993. This was her first Broadway play since wining the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize for The Heidi Chronicles.
The play depicts a reunion of three sisters who haven’t seen each other in years. Through the course of the play they come to understand that the bond of being sisters is more important than any of the reasons they’ve stayed apart.
Mel Gussow, in his review for the New York Times said of the play:
“Ms. Wasserstein’s generous group portrait is not only a comedy but also a play of character and shared reflection as the author confronts the question of why the sisters behave as they do. The immediate answer is that they are Rosensweigs and are only doing what is expected of them. The play offers sharp truths about what can divide relatives and what can draw them together.”
Wasserstein passed away in 2006 at the age of 55 due to complications of lymphoma.
Tickets are $18 which allows for repeated viewings through May 24th at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT. Proceeds benefit The Actors Funds, TDF Wendy Wasserstein Project and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
JAZZ: Chano Domínguez – SFJAZZ – May 21st – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT
Spanish born pianist Chano Domínguez has long put postbop, flamenco and fusion influences together to create a wholly original approach to jazz music. In this concert from 2018, Domínguez celebrates the work of Miles Davis.
Joined by bassist Alexis Cuadrado, drummer Henry Cole, flamenco singer Blas Córdoba and dancer Daniel Navarro, Domínguez will offer his take on such classic Davis tracks such as So What, All Blues and Freddie the Freeloader from Davis’ 1959 classic album Kind of Blue.
The concert is streaming right around dinner time on the East Coast (8:00 PM) and happy hour on the West Coast (5:00 PM). As a wine pairing for this concert I suggest a crisp Albariño for those who prefer white wine and a dry Rioja for those who prefer red.
If you can’t make the Fridays at Five showing, there will be an encore presentation on Saturday, May 22nd at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT.
Tickets are $5 which includes a one month digital membership.
BROADWAY VOCALS: Elizabeth Stanley – Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling – May 21st – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT
I first saw Elizabeth Stanley in the 2006 revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company. Since then she’s appeared on Broadway in Cry-Baby, Million Dollar Quartet, the 2014 revival of On the Town and she was starring in Jagged Little Pill when the pandemic hit. That show, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, will re-open on October 21st.
Stanley is an amazing singer and one who performs songs in the truest sense of the word. She doesn’t just sing, she imbues them with whatever the song calls for: comedy, drama, pathos, etc..
She joins Ted Sperling for this weekend’s Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling. The show will first air at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT on Friday. It will also be rerun on Saturday at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT. The $25 ticket price allows you to view both showings.
CLASSICAL MUSIC: Shin, Reid + Britten – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Debuts May 21st – 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT
In this penultimate episode of LA Chamber Orchestra’s Close Quarters series, the music of Benjamin Britten and Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Reid is performed along with the world premiere of Hyo by Peter S. Shin.
Shin was the recipient of the 2020/2021 Sound Investment Honor which finds donors investing in the creation of a new work and following its progress leading up to its premiere.
Les Illuminations by Britten is a 16-minute song cycle that had its world premiere in 1940. Joining LACO for this performance is soprano Nicole Cabell. She’s performed in opera houses around the world in Porgy and Bess, La Traviata, Don Giovanni and more.
Lumee’s Dream from Reid’s opera p r i s m is the last work on the program.
Dance is included in this episode with choreography by Rebecca Steinberg performed by Layne Paradis Willis and Joe Davis.
Visuals are by Jian Lee and the LACO is lead by Grant Gershon.
There is no charge to watch this show. If you haven’t look at the other 12 episodes in this ambitious and very satisfying series, I urge you to do so.
MUSICAL: Brat Pack – The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts – May 21st – May 23rd
Don’t you forget about films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and more. You won’t be able to if you stream Brat Pack this weekend.
For the Record Live created a cottage industry of shows dedicated to the soundtracks from various films centered around individual directors. Amongst the most popular was their show celebrating John Hughes. That show serves as the inspiration for Brat Pack which tells the story of the high school experiences of the archetypal Basket Case, Geek, Jock, Mister and Rebel. Does that sound like a club with whom you might like to have breakfast?
Brat Pack was filmed live on stage at The Wallis with James Byous, Emily Lopez, Parissa Koh, Patrick Ortiz, Doug Kreeger and Kenton Chen. As with any For the Record Live production, they are accompanied by a killer band.
Tickets are $20 which allows for viewing all weekend long. One note of caution: the show does contain adult subject matter and language.
OPERA: Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen – Glyndebourne – May 23rd – June 6th
Vladimir Jurowski conducts; starring Emma Bell; Lucy Crowe, Sergei Leiferkus and Mischa Shelomainaksi. This Melly Still production is from the 2011-2012 season.
Leoš Janáček’s opera had its world premiere in Prague in 1924. The Cunning Little Vixen has a libretto by the composer based on a serialized novel by Rudolf Těsnohlídek called Liška Bystrouška.
In The Cunning Little Vixen a foster, while taking a nap, is taken by a young vixen to be her pet. Once she gets older she pursues a more independent life. The vixen gets mistaken for a gypsy girl and her life becomes a whirlwind she never expected.
We’ve covered literally hundreds of opera productions here at Cultural Attaché. I can say with absolute certainty that this is the first time we’ve offered up a production of Cunning Little Viven. This is not a commonly performed opera.
Fiona Maddocks, in her review for The Guardian, said of this production:
“Melly Still’s staging, designed with folkloric charm by Tom Pye and atmospherically lit by Paule Constable, wins enough plus points to balance out the minuses. The action is often chaotic and unfocused. There is no allowance made for the speed at which the text moves. Lacking the requisite fluency in Czech – feeble, I know – one had to cling on to the surtitles at the risk of missing the action. The shooting of the Vixen passed almost without notice, though this may be the point: another ordinary day in the genocidal war of man and beast.”
There is no charge to watch Cunning Little Vixen which will be available for streaming through June 6th.
BROADWAY FUNDRAISER: Broadway Barks – May 23rd – 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT
This annual event supports the adoption of shelter animals. Broadway Barks was started by good friends Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters in 1998. Every year they have had in-person events where Broadway stars and shelter pets combine to entertain and find homes for the four-legged friends.
This is the second virtual edition and they have an incredible line-up:
Sebastian Arcelus, Annaleigh Ashford, Alec Baldwin, Christine Baranski, Bill Berloni, Stephanie J. Block, Carol Burnett, David Burtka, Victoria Clark, Glenn Close, Lily Collins, Harry Connick Jr., Sheryl Crow, Jason Danieley, Ted Danson, Ariana DeBose, Daveed Diggs, Gloria Estefan, Harvey Fierstein, Calista Flockhart, Whoopi Goldberg, Josh Groban, Kathryn Grody, Emmylou Harris, Neil Patrick Harris, Megan Hilty, James Monroe Iglehart, Hugh Jackman, Christopher Jackson, Allison Janney, Nathan Lane, Bob Mackie, Audra McDonald, Charlie McDowell, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, Mandy Patinkin, David Hyde Pierce, Randy Rainbow, Kelly Ripa, Chita Rivera, Lea Salonga, Phillipa Soo, and Mary Steenburgen.
Peters will serve as the host.
Broadway Barks will stream on Broadway.com and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ Facebook and YouTube pages.
Those are our Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th. As usual, a few reminders before we conclude:
Tales from the Wings: Celebrating Lincoln Center Theater with Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and others remains available through Sunday, May 23rd only. Don’t miss it.
LA Opera’s Signature Series adds a recital by Julia Bullock on Friday to still available performances by Russell Thomas, Susan Graham and Christine Goerke.
Next week the fourth and final episode of Myths and Hymns from MasterVoices debuts. If you haven’t seen the first three episodes, take a look.
The Romero Quartet launches their 60th anniversary celebration with a streaming concert from Belly Up in Solano Beach on Sunday. For details and our interview with Pepe Romero, please go here.
The Metropolitan Opera productions streaming this weekend are the 2016-2017 season production of Verdi’s Nabucco on Friday; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor from the 1982-1983 season (with Joan Sutherland) on Saturday and the 1995 production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades on Sunday. This will conclude the Unhinged Mad Scenes week.
Monday the Met begins Rare Gems week with a 2008-2009 season production of Massenet’s Thaïs. We’ll have the full line-up on Monday for you.
Lastly if you’ve read our interview with Isabel Leonard (and please do, she has a lot to say), you’ll remember that Saturday the Met streams Three Divas at 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT featuring Leonard with Ailyn Pérez and Nadine Sierra.
That’s truly the end of our Best Bets: May 21st – May 24th.
I hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy the culture!
Photo: Keith Lockhart conducting the Boston Pops (Photo by Stu Rosner/Courtesy Boston Pops)