The film covers Broadway shows from 1959 to the early 1980s and features interviews with Bea Arthur, Elizabeth Ashley, Alec Baldwin, Candy Brown, Carol Burnett, Glenn Close, André De Shields, Jane Fonda, Robert Goulet, Robert Guillaume, Cherry Jones, Baayork Lee, Donna McKechnie, Liza Minnelli, Robert Morse, Jerry Orbach, Robert Redford, Debbie Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Eva Marie Saint, Liev Schreiber, Elaine Stritch, Dick Van Dyke, Ben Vereen and Lesley Ann Warren.

Almost exactly two years later the man who made those films, Rick McKay, passed away suddenly. Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age was left unfinished and unreleased.

This weekend Great Performances on PBS will begin airing the documentary which was completed by friends and colleagues of McKay. [Check your local PBS listings for details.]

Two of the most important people who helped complete Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age were producers Jamie deRoy and Jane Klain. Last week I spoke by phone with both women to get the details on how they were able to finish McKay’s film and how they hope it brings to fruition everything McKay wanted the film to be.

What follows are excerpts from those conversations that have been edited for length and clarity.

How did you get involved with finishing Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age?

DeRoy: It sort of became this natural thing that we ended up doing to see that his wishes were carried out. Everybody had been asking for years about the film because the film had been going on for years.

Klain: Four of his producers and friends obviously realized what Rick would want is for the film to get out there. We all worked towards what Rick wanted. Since the first film was a theatrical release and it was so unlikely to get another, being on television was the ideal home for it. I know his first choice was PBS.

How far along had Rick gotten with the film before he passed away?

DeRoy: He had gotten pretty far, but it was not a finished film. It was way too long.

Klain: When Rick died I connected with a brilliant editor who would work on it pro bono, but that fell through. Another producer/director wanted to unravel it and make a different film and I said no. Rick was really a visionary. He had a unique way of storytelling. The way he edited was amazing.

He seemed to get almost everyone he ever wanted for these films. How did he do that?

DeRoy: Everybody that met him and he would interview would end up adoring him. He really charmed people. He loved the theater so much. He could talk to anybody.

Klain: He had somewhere between 100-150 interviews with these legends. Some were one to one-and-a-half hours, some were five hours.

Rick told me how thrilled he was to have found footage of Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli performing together in the original production of Chicago when Gwen Verdon had to miss several performances.*

Klain: Candy Brown was a Fosse dancer. I had seen footage she had taken with her 8mm camera. I’m very good at tracking down people. They became such close friends. She let him have the footage – amongst it was footage with Chita and Liza which Liza had not seen before. Rick’s film has John Kander talking about it and Liza talking about it.

Rick was kind of a one-man band doing it all with his films, but the new film has 11 producers.

DeRoy: He pretty much was a one-man band. But listen, all of us were out there raising money and making introductions and helping. If I was in the room when he was doing an interview or showing the film I got acknowledged. If I wasn’t in the room, I wouldn’t have gotten acknowledged. Maybe it made a much better story.

Klain: If Rick had lived one of the big hurdles he was going to have to face was raising money for the post-production and all the licensing. That was a big deal for the first film. WNET 13 has done a lot of that. We’ve been in the decision making seat and PBS has been amazing.

Jamie I want to ask you a question I asked Rick five years ago. In an era where younger people don’t care about history because it was “before their time,” what would you tell them is the reason to care about Broadway and the people in this film?

DeRoy: It’s like the building blocks of everything. I’m always appalled at actors or singers who don’t know the history. When I was involved in the cabaret community and mentioned Margaret Whiting they would go, “who?” I don’t get it. It’s part of your learning process. These films could be shown in schools and you can learn a hell of a lot from it. We all learned by watching Ethel Merman. These were my idols. Even though they were before my time, so to speak, they are the ones who laid the groundwork for everyone to come up afterwards.

Jonathan Groff, who introduces the movie, wrote Rick a fan letter saying how much the film meant to him. Shortly before Rick died I took him to see Jonathan at the 92nd Street Y doing a show. They were talking afterwards about doing a follow-up interview because Jonathan was so young when he did his and he had some experiences since that first interview.

It’s just been a passion for all of us and it was certainly a passion of Rick’s. I’m only sorry he’s not here to see it come to life. And everybody can now enjoy it. Not only enjoy it, but learn from it. It’s all there and these films were meant to be seen.

*Liza Minnelli took on the role of Roxie Hart from August 8th to September 13th, 1975. There was announcement over the PA system that Gwen Verdon would be out at the performance. Audiences would grumble. The announcement continued to reveal that Minnelli was performing in her place. There were no press releases and no inserts in the Playbills.

Photo of Rick McKay courtesy WNET/PBS

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Our top pick this weekend is the voice of playwright Adrienne Kennedy whose play Ohio State Murders stars one of the greatest voices of our time: Audra McDonald.

The music of Adam Guettel, new experiments with voice, the voice of jazz’s future, the history-making voices of male ballerinas, Broadway stars galore and more are all available for your enjoyment.

So let’s get to it. Here are the Top Ten Best Bets: June 4th – June 7th:

*TOP PICK* PLAY READING: Ohio State Murders – Spotlight on Plays – Now – June 7th

Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders is this week’s offering from the Spotlight on Plays series from Broadway’s Best Shows.

The play is set at Ohio State University where Suzanne Alexander, an African-American writer, was a student in 1949. She returns to discuss the themes of violence in her writing.

The stories she tells and the violence she’s examining take viewers down a shocking path as the mystery slow reveals itself.

This reading will star six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, Warner Miller, Lizan Mitchell and Ben Rappaport. Kenny Leon, who directed the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, directs this reading. Of note, both he and McDonald won Tony Awards for work on that production.

Ohio State Murders had its world premiere in 1992 at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. In 2007 the play opened off-Broadway at The Duke on 42nd Street.

Charles Isherwood, writing for the New York Times, said of the play:

“Like all truly scary horror stories, the tale told in Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders leaves a lasting chill in the bones. Hours after seeing this short, sharp, quietly hypnotic play about an infanticide that ruptures a Midwestern winter in the 1950s, you might find yourself looking anxiously over your shoulder or starting awake with an unsettling thought or image in your head.”

Tickets are $19 with proceeds benefitting The Actors Fund. Tickets allow for on-demand streaming through Monday, June 7th at 6:00 PM ET/3:00 PM PT.

CHORAL/VOCAL: Myths and Hymns: Chapter 4: FAITH – Now – June 30th

The fourth and final chapter of Adam Guettel’s Myths and Hymns from MasterVoices is now streaming.

In this last part of the series, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Jennifer Holliday, Mikael Kilgore, Theresa McCarthy, Miles Mykkanen, Kelli O’Hara, Larry Owens and Nicholas Phan give voice to the final five songs in this song cycle.

Costanzo also directed The Great Highway (which also features O’Hara and Phan). Ted Sperling, the artistic director of MasterVoices directed two of the segments and Tony Award nominated director Trip Cullman directed the final segment, Saturn Returns: The Return.

Joining them are, of course, the MasterVoices singers.

This episode and the entire series are available for viewing on MasterVoices’ YouTube Channel. I love all four chapters of this series. You will, too. Take a look.

There’s no charge to watch Myths and Hymns. Donations are encouraged.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Victoria Clark – Broadway Stories & Songs with Ted Sperling – June 4th – June 5th

As long as we’re on the subject of Ted Sperling, his guest for this weekend’s Broadway Stories & Songs is the Tony Award-winning Victoria Clark. She was named Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Margaret Johnson in Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza.

Her performance in that musical was extraordinary.

Clark’s additional Broadway credits include the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls, the 1995 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Titanic, Urinetown, Sister Act, Cinderella and more.

She and Sperling have been friends since college. Their personal and professional familiarity will make this a show that’s a must-see for all fans of Broadway.

Victoria Clark will be live on June 4th at 5:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT. Tickets are $25 and allow for a second viewing (or a first viewing if you can’t watch the show live on June 4th) on Saturday, June 5th at 2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Tchaikovsky Serenade – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Debuts June 4th – 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT

The wildly ambitious and very successful series Close Quarters concludes what I hope will just be its first season with this final episode. Throughout all 14 episodes, James Darrah and LACO have redefined how classical music can be presented.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, composed in 1880, is being performed in this film.

Grant Gershon, Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, leads LACO in the performance. There are four movements in Tchaikovsky’s composition and in this particular film/performance, the running time is 30 minutes.

Darrah told me recently that this final episode reflects a summation of the entire series and a look at how Los Angeles weathered the pandemic.

You probably don’t need to have watched all previous thirteen episodes. But I can assure you if you just watch this one, you’ll be likely to want to watch all fourteen.

DANCE DOCUMENTARY: Ballerina Boys – American Masters on PBS – June 4th (check local listings)

This fascinating, amusing and moving documentary takes a look at Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (The Trocks). They are an ensemble of male ballet dancers who take their dance seriously and present it with whopping doses of humor.

As the British might say, they take the piss out of the art form. But they do it with a absolute respect for the work.

Filmmakers Chana Gazit and Martha Barylick take a look at the 45-year history of The Trocks. Ballerina Boys features interviews with founding members and also current members as it charts its way through over four decades of entertaining audiences. And as their trailer says, “Changing the world one pirouette at a time.”

I’ve seen this film and it is wildly entertaining and, at times, deeply moving.

JAZZ: Immanuel Wilkins Quartet – Vermont Jazz Center – June 5th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

I’ve written several times about Immanuel Wilkins and how amazing he is. This Saturday is the best chance for you to see precisely what critics have been talking about.

Wilkins will be joined by Daryl Johns on bass; Kweku Sumbry on drums and Micah Thomas on piano.

This Tiny Desk concert for NPR should give you a good idea.

When I interviewed Wilkins last August as his album Omega was about to be released, he told me that he wrestled with releasing an album during the pandemic and not being able to tour behind it. Amongst the things he told me was:

“People need to hear it live. The band is a live band. It’s definitely something that should be played live and it would have been nice to have a proper release concert.”

Saturday’s concert will be a big step forward for Wilkins and for all of us to hear how dynamic this music is live.

There’s no charge to watch the concert; however, donations are encouraged.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Bang on a Can Marathon of Song – June 6th – 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT

Fans of contemporary classical music, particularly those works that showcase the human voice, will be keenly interested in this Sunday’s Bang on a Can Marathon of Song. Expect multiple uses of the human voice to be employed here.

There are eleven world premieres scheduled.

This streaming marathon runs for four hours. Here is the line-up:

1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT

Arlen Hulsko performs the world premiere of and there was by Mary Kouyoumdjian. Composer Peni Candra Rini gives the world premiere of her new work. Ken Thomson gives the world premiere performance of Zero at the Bone by Anna Clyne. Composer Albert Kuvezin gives the world premiere of Eremchick (The Spider).

2:00 PM ET/11:00 AM PT

Julian Otis performs Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc by Julius Eastman. Composer Fred Frith gives the world premiere performance of his new work. Kyle Brenn’s Still/Exist will be performed. Taja Cheek, performing as L’Rain will perform. David Cossin will give the world premiere performance of RYB by Florent Ghys.

3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT

This hour opens with the world premiere of witness by Matana Roberts. Mark Stewart will perform the world premiere of a new work by Trevor Watson. Composer Eddy Kwan gives the world premiere of his new work. The final performance is by Allison Russell.

4:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT

Vicky Chow gives the world premiere of a new work by Sophie Cash. Robert Black gives the world premiere of Audible Autopsy by Charles Amirkhanian.

There is no charge to watch the marathon. Donations are encouraged.

CABARET: Alex Newell – The Seth Concert Series – June 6th – 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT

You might know Alex Newell from Glee. You might have seen Newell in the 2017 Broadway production of Once on This Island.

Or you might have seen as Mo on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. (If you haven’t watched this NBC series, you’ll definitely need to make up for lost time.)

However you know Newell, there’s one thing you know for sure, he can sing!

Newell and Rudetsky will of course share plenty of music along with the kind of stories that only Broadway insiders know and fans of musical theater will want to hear. As June is Pride Month, what better way to spend some time this weekend than with Alex Newell and Seth Rudetsky.

If you are unable to watch the show at 3:00 PM ET, there is an encore showing at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. Tickets for either show are $25.

TRIBUTE TO BROADWAY: Curtain Up, Light the Lights – Roundabout Theatre Company – June 7th – 7:45 PM ET/4:45 PM PT

If you live in New York, you can join this 2021 Roundabout Theatre Company Gala live in Central Park. Luckily for those who don’t you can stream it live. Either way, here’s what you’ll get:

Tony Winner Jane Krakowski will perform live from Rumsey Playfield with the New York Pops.

Joining her for part of the concert will be Tituss Burgess (her co-star from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). Just for good measure there are a few special guests: Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), EGOT Whoopi Goldberg, Oscar winner Emma Stone (La La Land), Grammy and Emmy Award winner Blair Underwood and Tony Award-nominee Vanessa Williams. Those are the announced special guests. There is word of even more stars to be participating.

As the ghost lights will soon be relieved of 24-hour a day duty and the marquees of Broadway relit in anticipation of theaters re-opening, Curtain Up, Light the Lights will be a great way to welcome the return of Broadway.

Virtual tickets start at $25.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Pajama Cast Party – June 7th – 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT

If I only said Kristin Chenoweth would that be enough? Certainly she’s popular enough. And maybe she’ll be wearing pajamas.

Yes, the three-time Tony Award nominee (and winner for You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown) and star of Wicked is joining Jim Caruso on Monday for the 61st episode of Pajama Cast Party.

In addition to singing, she’ll be sharing some of the young talented performers who are participating in Broadway Bootcamp of which she is one of the directors.

Also joining is Ryan Silverman who appeared in the 2013 Classic Stage Company production of Passion and appeared on Broadway in the 2014 revival of Side Show.

There is no charge to watch the show. Donations are encouraged with a portion of the proceeds going to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The Actors Fund.

Those are our Top Ten Best Bets: June 4th – June 7th. Just a few reminders and on other note before we finish.

A few weeks ago we highlighted We Have to Hurry by Dorothy Lyman. It’s a moving play about two neighbors at a retirement community who fear time is not on their side during a quarantine. The play was so popular that a second live performance of the play is taking place this weekend with the playwright as Margaret and the enormously talented Alfred Molina as Gil. They have two performances (one Saturday and one on Sunday.) You can find details here.

Metropolitan Opera’s programming this weekend features the 2019-2020 season production of Porgy and Bess on Friday (highly recommended); the 2014-2015 season production of Macbeth on Saturday and the 2019-2020 season production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten on Sunday (also highly recommended).

On Monday the Met presents classic operas told in new ways. Monday’s offering is the 2012-2013 production of Rigoletto. We’ll have full details in Monday’s preview of the entire week.

That officially concludes all the offerings I have for you in our Top Ten Best Bets: June 4th – June 7th. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the performing arts!

Main Photo: Audra McDonald (Courtesy her website)

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In addition to our top pick, Ballet Hispánico, which we announced yesterday, we have a few plays, some jazz, classical, Broadway music and opera for you.

Here are this Memorial Day Weekend’s Best Bets: May 28th – May 31st:

*TOP PICK*: DANCE – Ballet Hispánico 50th Celebration – May 28th – June 10th

Latin dance company Ballet Hispánico celebrates their Diamond Anniversary with the streaming presentation of three new works by Lauren Anderson, Ana “Rokafella” Garcia and Belén Maya and classic works from their repertoire by Graciela Daniele, Nacho Duato, the late Geoffrey Holder, Ann Reinking, Pedro Ruiz and Gustavo Ramirez Sansano.

The show willl feature several special guests.

Amongst them will be Tony Award-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) and Academy Award nominee Rosie Perez (Fearless).

The show debuts at 6:30 PM ET/3:30 PM PT on May 28th and will remain available for two weeks. There’s no charge to watch this wonderful celebration.

PLAY: The LATRELL Show – IAMA Theatre Company – Now – June 20th

Brandon Kyle Goodman stars in and wrote this play about a talk show host, Latrell Jackson, whose perhaps best known for saying whatever he wants on any subject. He’s quick with the jokes and even quicker to share his opinions.

As a gay Black man, he’s been around the block a few times. As he embarks on filming a very special episode, Latrell is forced to reveal there’s more to his public persona than easy laughs and quick criticism.

Stefanie Black and Devere Rogers co-directed The LATRELL Show. This is definitely a show for those not afraid of frank talk, explicit language and the presentation of ideas that don’t remotely fall into the world of political correctness. In other words, recommended for mature audiences.

Tickets range from $15 to $100 depending on your ability to pay.

PLAY: Georgie: My Adventures With George Rose – TheaterMania – Now – July 18th

You don’t need to know who George Rose was to enjoy this one-man show. But it doesn’t hurt to have a few facts about this very likable and charismatic performer.

Rose was nominated for five Tony Awards: Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Coco; Best Featured Actor in a Play for My Fat Friend and Best Actor in a Musical for The Pirates of Penzance.

His two other nominations resulted in wins for the actor: Best Actor in a Musical for My Fair Lady (1976 revival) and for The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Ed Dixon, who as a young actor was cast in a production of The Student Prince with Rose, became friends with the older actor. Dixon was gay, but had never experienced someone who was as vocal about being gay as was Rose.

This is the starting point for Dixon’s one-man show that was named Best Solo Performance by the Drama Desk Awards. Throughout the 90-minute show, Dixon tells stories, impersonates not just Rose, but his famous friends like Richard Burton and Katharine Hepburn and offers up some song and dance.

This clip above is not from this film, but from promotional materials from the Signature Theatre.

Tickets are $25.

PLAY: Alice in Wonderland – A Noise Within – May 27th – June 20th

Enough of the adult material, here’s a play for the whole family. Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was adapted by Eva Le Gallienne & Florida Friebus for the stage. The show first opened on Broadway for a very short-lived run in 1982 (18 previews and 21 performances.)

Stephanie Shroyer originally conceived and directed this production. Erika Soto plays the title character.

The rest of the cast plays multiple characters with Susan Angelo as the White Queen; Rafael Goldstein as the Mad Hatter; Julanne Chidi Hill as the Cheshire Cat and Justin Lawrence Barns as The Queen of Hearts.

This is an 85-minute film staged by Julia Rodriguez-Elliot. Josh Grondin wrote the original score.

Tickets are $25 – $40. Unlike other productions where you can stream at your leisure, there are set times each day to watch Alice in Wonderland.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Resilience: Destiny Muhammad – San Francisco Symphony – Now Playing

Harpist/vocalist Destiny Muhammad has curated this episode of San Francisco Symphony’s Sound Box series. On her website she is described as representing a genre that ranges from Celtic to Coltrane. She’s well-known in the Bay Area which makes this collaboration with the SF Symphony an obvious fit.

The theme for her Sound Box is Resilience.

She came up with the theme after seeing all her professional engagements get cancelled due to the pandemic. As with most of us, it took both personal and professional resilience to navigate her way through it all.

Muhammad has put together a very impressive program for this filmed concert. The pieces being performed include Confessions to My Unborn Daughter by Ambrose Akinmusire; Tell Him Not to Talk Too Long by Mary Lou Williams; Serenade by William Grant Still and her own composition Hope on the Horizon.

What makes this program of particular note is that the harp is rarely a featured instrument. This won’t be like any other filmed concert you’ve seen recently.

Tickets are $15.

BROADWAY VOCALS: One Voice: The Songs We Share – PBS – May 28th (check local listings)

In this new PBS series, Luke Frazier leads the American Pops Orchestra in a celebration of the songs that have come from Broadway. Whether you know the songs because you saw the musicals themselves or heard them performed by popular singers and bands, you know the songs. By the way, did you know The Beatles recorded a song from The Music Man?

In this episode Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller is one of the performers. She originated the role of Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Also on this show are Amber Iman (Shuffle Along, or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All that Followed); tap dancer Luke Hawkins; RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 top 5 finisher Alexis Michelle and Sam Simahk (2018 revival of Carousel).

These artists will be performing songs from Carousel, Damn Yankees, Funny Girl, Hello Dolly!, La Cage Aux Folles, The Roar of the Greasepaint The Smell of the Crowd and The Wiz.

A second episode, which immediately follows on most stations, will featured sacred music and includes Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child; American Idol’s Justin Guarini; soprano Maureen McKay and more.

DANCE: 21st Century Choreographers – Royal Ballet – May 28th – June 27th

Kyle Abraham, Crystal Pite and Christopher Wheeldon are the choreographers whose work is showcased in this program from The Royal Ballet in the United Kingdom.

Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, created for the San Francisco Ballet is up first. Abraham’s duet, a precursor to a longer work that was commissioned by the Royal Ballet for their 2021-2022 season follows.

The program concludes with Pite’s Statement and Solo Echo. The latter piece set to the music of Johannes Brahms.

Tickets are £16, which is being billed out as $18.50 on The Royal Ballet website.

OPERA: Gallup (Na’nízhoozhí) – LA Opera – Debuts May 28th

Gallup, New Mexico, is called Na’nízhoozhí in the Navajo language. It’s also the location of this digital short from LA Opera. What stands out about this particular piece is that it features new music composed by Matthew Aucoin. He is the composer of the opera Eurydice which had its world premiere at LA Opera in February of 2020.

Singing in this piece are Anthony Roth Costanzo and Davóne Tines. (Two other terrific reasons to watch Gallup).

Two men from the Navajo Nation are also involved: director Blackhorse Lowe and Jake Skeets whose poetry was set to music by Aucoin.

This isn’t a perspective we commonly get to see in the performing arts. I, for one, can’t wait to see and hear this work.

JAZZ: Curtis Taylor Quartet – Jazz at LACMA – Debuts May 28th – 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT

As restrictions start to get lifted, programming like Friday Jazz on the plaza at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art might return. Until that time, LACMA continues debuting filmed performances. This week’s features trumpeter Curtis Taylor.

Taylor, who originates from Ohio but calls Los Angeles home, is a bandleader and an in-demand musician. Amongst the artists with whom he has recorded and/or toured are Cyrus Chestnut, Billy Childs, Gregory Porter and Patrice Rushen. He’s also toured with the legendary James Carter as a member of his quintet.

His most recent album, Snapshot, was released in 2019.

This concert will also include an interview with Taylor. This concert will be available for viewing after its debut on LACMA’s YouTube Channel.

BROADWAY VOCALS: George Salazar – Seth Concert Series – May 30th – 3:00 PM ET/12:00 PM PT

The first show I saw George Salazar in was Here Lies Love at the Public Theater in New York. The other show I saw him in was Pasadena Playhouse’s Little Shop of Horrors in the fall of 2019. Between those two productions he made his Broadway debut in the 2011 revival of Godspell and starred in the musical Be More Chill.

I’m sure he’ll have plenty to talk about with Seth Rudetsky in this weekend’s Seth Concert Series. He’s also a good singer, which makes him a great guest.

I’m sure he’ll have plenty to talk about with Seth Rudetsky in this weekend’s Seth Concert Series. He’s also a good singer, which makes him a great guest.

If you can’t catch this show as it streams live on Sunday afternoon, there will be a rerun on Sunday at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. Tickets for either showing are $25.

There are no significant performing arts events on Monday’s holiday. So that completes this week’s Best Bets: May 28th – May 31st. But you know there are always going to be a few reminders:

JAZZ: Saturday is your last chance to watch the worldwide International Jazz Day 2021 Concert with performances by Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gerald Clayton, Andra Day, Herbie Hancock, Stefon Harris, Dianne Reeves and more.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Monday is your last day to catch Sutton Foster’s Bring Me to Light concert with special guests Raúl Esparza, Joaquina Kalukango, Kelli O’Hara and Wren Rivera.

OPERA: Last weekend’s Met Stars Live in Concert performance by Isabel Leonard, Ailyn Pérez and Nadine Sierra is available on demand through June 4th.

VARIOUS: Monday is the final day to catch a multitude of performances that were part of the Voices of Hope Festival from Carnegie Hall. This includes performances by The Kronos Quartet, Ute Lemper, Jason Moran, Davóne Tines with Jennifer Koh and more.

PLAY: Christine Quintana’s Clean starts its week of streaming as part of South Coast Repertory’s Pacific Playwrights Festival.

OPERA: The operas available this week from the Metropolitan Opera are the 1996-1997 season production of Giordano’s Fedora on Friday; the 2010-2011 production of Strauss’s Capriccio on Saturday and Rossini’s Le Comte Ory from the same season on Saturday. Monday is the start of Aria Code: The Operas Behind the Podcast (the Met’s collaboration with WQXR) and will feature the 2019-2020 season production of Puccini’s Turandot.

That should keep you pretty well occupied this weekend. With this much to see, who has time for a barbecue?

Enjoy your weekend! Enjoy the performing arts!

Photo: Ballet Hispánico in Línea Recta (Photo by Paula Lobo/Courtesy Ballet Hispánico)

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Indirectly celebrating this natal day are multiple options that fall under the category of a line from Hamlet, “The play’s the thing.” Beyond the Shakespeare options are five other plays.

If you want funky jazz, contemporary classical music, operas from Europe or modern dance, I’ve got that for you as well. They’re all so good, I can’t make one of them the top pick.

In As You Like It, these famous words are said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.” So in this spirit of this weekend’s Academy Awards, the nominees for great players in Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th are:

THEATER: Neat – Manhattan Theatre Club – Now – April 25th

Charlayne Woodard’s one-person show Neat opened at New York City Center in a Manhattan Theatre Club production in 1997.

Lawrence Van Gelder, writing for the New York Times, said of Woodard’s play, “Ms. Woodard sings, she dances, but most of all she tells good stories, bringing them to life in ways that are poignant.”

Woodard revisits the work in this prevention as part of MTC’s Curtain Call series. The great thing is you can see this wonderful play and performance for free. All you have to do is register. But act quickly, the run ends on Sunday, April 25th.

DANCE: Digital Program 5 – San Francisco Ballet – Now – May 12th

Three archival performances make up this program from San Francisco Ballet. They include 7 for Eight from 2016 and Anima Animus and Snowblind from 2018.

Helgi Tomasson is the creator of 7 for Eight which is set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. David Dawson is the choreographer of Anima Animus which is set to music by Ezio Bosso. Cathy Marston is the choreographer of Snowblind which uses music by Amy Beach, Philip Feeney, Arthur Foote, and Arvo Pärt.

Tickets are $29 and allow for 72 hours of access to the program.

PLAY READING: Two Sisters and a Piano – New Normal Rep – Now – May 23rd ART IN AN EMAIL

Playwright Nilo Cruz is best-known for his Pulitzer Prize winning play Anna in the Tropics from 2002. Three years prior to that success he premiered Two Sisters and a Piano.

The play tells the story of two sisters under house arrest in Cuba in 1991. One sister is an author and the lieutenant keeping track of their case has fallen in love with her. The other is a pianist who finds her piano tuner falling head over heels for his client.

Cruz has directed a new reading of Two Sisters and a Piano with Jimmy Smits (Anna in the Tropics); Florencia Lozano (Rinse, Repeat), Gary Perez and Daphne Rubin-Vega (both of whom appeared in Two Sisters and a Piano at The Public Theater.)

In A.D. Amorosi‘s review of this reading for Variety, he says, “Cruz’s playful poetic language, even at its most harshly politicized, and his easy direction allow his actors a delicious freedom. Even when its characters are not free, enclosed in one cramped apartment with nothing but mangoes, rice and the occasional rum shot (and despite the virtual limitations of a laptop’s viewing screen), Two Sisters and a Piano is as open as a Havana landscape, with all of its flavors, scents and sensory overloads at full tilt.”

Tickets are $25 with $10 tickets available for students.

PLAY: The Royale – Private Reels: From the LCT Archives on Broadway on Demand – Now – May 16th

Real life boxer Jack Jackson (the first African-American world heavyweight champion) serves as the inspiration for the story of Jay “The Sport” Jackson in Marco Ramirez’s 2016 play The Royale. (He was also the inspiration for The Great White Hope).

The story is told in six rounds.

Rachel Chavkin, Tony Award-winner for Hadestown, directed this production. Starring are McKinley Belcher III (the 2020 revival of A Soldier’s Play), Khris Davis (Sweat), Montego Glover (Tony nominee for Memphis), John Lavelle (Catch-22) and Clarke Peters (Five Guys Named Moe).

As Ben Brantley said in his rave New York Times review, “…the great subject of The Royale, which has been given such original and graceful theatrical form, is the selfish single-mindedness required of champions, and the repercussions such a focus has when it’s exercised by a black man in a white man’s world.” 

There is no charge to watch The Royale, but you will have to register with Broadway on Demand.

THEATER: An Iliad – A Noise Within – Now – May 16th

Easily one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I’ve had seeing a play was when I attended Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson’s An Iliad at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. It’s a powerful work that is inspired by Homer’s Iliad.

This play, specifically called An Iliad because it isn’t the Iliad, calls for just one actor and a cellist and that actor has to be completely on top of his/her game.

A Noise Within is offering streaming performances of An Iliad with co-founder Geoff Elliott and actress Deborah Strang alternating performances. Joining them as both composer and cellist is Karen Hall. Julia Rodriguez-Elliott directs.

The link in the title will take you to the website so you can see which actor is performing in each performance. Tickets, which are $25 for an individual and $40 for a family, must be reserved a minimum of two hours before each performance.

To see what Denis O’Hare had to say about the show, check out my 2014 interview with him here.

OPERA: Jules Massenet’s Manon – Wiener Staatsoper – April 22nd – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM

Conducted by Frédéric Chaslin; starring Nina Machaidze, Juan Diego Flórez and Adrian Eröd. This Andrei Serban production is from 2019.

Massenet’s opera was composed in 1883 and had its world premiere in January of 1884 in Paris. The libretto is by  Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille.

They based the opera on the 1731 Abbé Prévost novel, L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut.

A young woman from a small town has an intense desire to lavish herself with all the riches and pleasures life has to offer her. But life doesn’t always work out the way we want. Sounds like a story that could be written today.

This is the first of Vienna State Opera’s productions I’ve included in our listings. Very much like the Metropolitan Opera, they offer a different production each day. There is no charge to watch the productions, but you do need to register on their website. Each production will be available for 24 hours.

MUSICAL: A Letter to Harvey Milk – Now – April 25th

The creators of this musical, Jerry James, Laura I. Kramer, Ellen M. Schwartz and Cheryl Stern were inspired by a short story of the same name by Lesléa Newman. A Letter to Harvey Milk opened off-Broadway in 2018 at the Acorn Theatre in New York.

The setting is San Francisco in the mid 1980s. Harry, a kosher butcher who has retired and is also a widower, is given an assignment to write a letter to someone who is dead. He chooses California politician Harvey Milk – the first openly gay politician elected in California who was later assassinated by Dan White in 1978. But why?

Members of the original cast has reunited for this streaming production. They include Adam Heller, Julia Knitel, Cheryl Stern who are joined by Michael Bartoli, Jeremy Greenbaum, Aury Krebs and Ravi Roth. Evan Pappas directs.

Tickets range from $10 – $50 with proceeds going to The Actors Fund and HIAS. All tickets purchased will allow viewing of the musical through Sunday, April 25th at 11:59 PM EDT/8:59 PDT.

SHAKESPEARE: Shakespeare Sonnet Slam – Gingold Theatrical Group – April 23rd – 6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare. You don’t look a day over 450. The Gingold Theatrical Group is celebrating by holding a virtual open mic where Shakespeare’s sonnets or other material based on or inspired by the Sonnets will be performed. Everyone is invited to participate and you have three minutes to give it your all.

Joining in this celebration are Stephen Brown-Fried, Robert Cuccioli, Tyne Daly, George Dvorsky, Melissa Errico, Alison Fraser, Tom Hewitt, Daniel Jenkins, John-Andrew Morrison, Patrick Page, Maryann Plunkett, Tonya Pinkins, Laila Robins, Jay O. Sanders, Renee Taylor, Jon Patrick Walker and more.

You’ll have to come up with your own take on the Sonnets, but this is a free party! You can find the Shakespeare Sonnet Slam on Gingold Theatrical Group’s Facebook page.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Sonic Shift – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Premieres April 23rd at 9:30 PM EDT/6:30 PM PDT

Composer Jessie Montgomery has curated this new episode of LA Chamber Orchestra’s Close Quarters series. On the program are works by composers Marcos Balter, Anna Meredith and Alyssa Weinberg. Each work explores the progression from acoustic music to electronic and electro-acoustic music with an emphasis on the wind section.

Will Kim provides the visuals that accompany the performance which is lead by Christopher Rountree of Wild Up! Nadia Sirota is the music producer.

This is the first of two Close Quarters episodes curated by Montgomery. I recently interviewed her about working with LACO. You can read that interview here.

There’s no charge to watch this performance. Donations are encouraged.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Neave Trio – Asheville Chamber Music Series – April 23rd – April 25th – Art in an EMAIL

Pianist Eri Nakamura, cellist Mikhail Veselov and violinist Anna Williams are the members in Neave Trio. Following on the heels of their 2019 album Her Voice, which featured female composers, their concert this weekend as part of the Asheville Chamber Music Series will also showcase female composers.

On the program is the Trio No. 1, Op. 33 by Louise Farrench; Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio and Cécile Chaminade’s Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 11.

Perhaps none of these composers is familiar to you. They aren’t to me. But Neave Trio’s passion for this lesser-known music makes this concert utterly compelling.

There are three performances: Friday, April 23rd at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT; Saturday at 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT and Sunday at 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT.

You can watch this concert for free, but donations are encouraged.

JAZZ: Sun Ra Arkestra – SFJAZZ – April 23rd – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

The name Herman Poole Blount probably doesn’t mean anything to you. But if told that was the birth name of Le Sony’r Ra who would later become known as Sun Ra, you might have a better idea who he was.

Experimental, free and avant-garde jazz was his specialty. It was always performed best by the Sun Ra Arkestra.

After Sun Ra’s death in 1993, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen starting leading the ensemble. As he does in this concert at SFJAZZ from 2017.

To get a sense of what might be in store for you in this Fridays at Five concert, here are some of the songs being performed: Space Loneliness, Saturn, Angels and Demons at Play and Space is the Place. It’s going to be trippy.

And you can take that trip for $5 (which offers one full month of digital membership or $60 (which includes a one year digital membership.)

There is an encore showing on April 24th at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet – Great Performances on PBS – April 23rd – Check Local Listings

You don’t expect just some stand-up sonnets for Shakespeare’s birthday, do you? Of course not. Let’s throw in some tragedy. As in the tragic love story of them all – Romeo and Juliet.

The National Theatre created this film which maneuvers its way from rehearsal into and around the Lyttleton Theatre. The cast are stuck in a theater that has shut down and act out the story of the Capulets and the Montagues.

Starring as the title characters are Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. The cast also includes Fisayo Akinade, Ella Dacres, Deborah Findlay, Tamsin Greig, Ellis Howard, Lloyd Hutchinson, David Judge, Adrian Lester, Lucian Msamati, Alex Mugnaioni, Shubham Saraf and Colin Tierney. Simon Godwin is the director.

As with any show on PBS, I’d advise checking your local listings for exact airdate and time in your part of the country.

OPERA: Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte – Wiener Staatsoper – April 24th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Adam Fischer; starring Benjamin Bruns, Olga Bezsmertna, Íride Martínez, Markus Werba and Annika Gerhards. This Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier production is from 2015.

Mozart’s opera premiered in September 1791 in Vienna a mere two months before the composer died. It features a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder.

Prince Tamino is asked by the Queen of the Night to free her daughter Pamina from Sarastro. Tamino, however, is impressed with Sarastro and the way his community lives in the world and wants to be a part of it. Both alone and together Tamino and Pamina endure multiple tests. If they succeed, what will happen to them? To the Queen of the Night?

MONOLOGUES: Whispers International – April 24th – 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT

As you know, there was a massive blast in Lebanon on August 4th of last year. Almost 200 people were killed and over 6,000 people were injured.

Whispers International was created to raise money for the victims and to help in the rebuilding of the area around the blast site.

British playwrights Geraldine Breenna, Mike Elliston, Kim Hardy, Angela Harvey, John Jesper and Kate Webster have made their writing available to a company of Lebanese actors to perform.

Those actors are Nadine Labaki, Georges Khabbaz, Nada Abou Farhat, Talal El Jurdi, Bernadette Houdeib, Rita Hayek, Badih Abou Chacra, Dory Al-Samarany, Bshara Atallah, Sany Abdul Baki, Josyane Boulos, Agatha Ezzedine and Hagop Der Ghougassian 

Tickets are £13.52 which at press time equals approximately $18.75.

OPERA: Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel – Weiner Staatsoper – April 25th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Christian Thielemann; starring Ileana Tosca, Daniela Sindram, Adrian Eröd, Janina Baechle, Michaela Schuster, Annika Gerhards

The Grimm brother’s fairly tale about a brother and sister who are lured to a house with sweets and candies only to find a witch who wants to eat the duo is the basis for this opera that had its debut in 1893 in Weimar. Richard Strauss conducted the premiere. A second production the next year in Hamburg was conducted by Gustav Mahler. Adelheid Wette, Humpderdink’s sister, wrote the libretto.

Hansel and Gretel has the distinction of finding much of its popularity not just through opera houses, but on the radio. It was the first opera broadcast on the radio in Europe when a 1923 Covent Garden production was heard over the airwaves. Eight years later in 1931, it became the first ever opera broadcast in its entirety by the Metropolitan Opera.

The opera is commonly seen and heard during the Christmas season. An odd choice, but librettist Adelheid Wette did soften some of the harsher elements found in the original Grimm tales for her brother’s opera.

CABARET: Mandy Gonzalez – Seth Concert Series – April 25th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

With the upcoming film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, it’s a great time to check in on one of the musical’s original cast members: Mandy Gonzalez, who originated the role of Nina.

Gonazalez is an insanely talented singer and actress.

I saw her in In the Heights. She’s also appeared in Wicked, Lennon, Dance of the Vampires and as Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton.

I’ve also seen her perform her cabaret act and it is impossible to express the amount of pure joy that comes out of her when she’s singing. (And she does a killer version of Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen.)

She is Seth Rudetsky’s guest in his concert series this weekend.

Tickets are $25 and you can watch the live performance at 3:00 PM EDT or the replay of the concert at 8:00 PM EDT. Whichever you choose, you will certainly have a good time.

IN PERSON: DANCE: Uniting in Movement – American Ballet Theatre – Segerstrom Center for the Arts – April 25th – 1:30 PM PDT

You could be ambivalent about the Academy Awards and go see a rare live performance of ballet in Costa Mesa. ABT has been creating a program of three different works that were filmed this week. On Sunday, they are opening up Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a limited number of people to see the performance live.

The works are Let Me Sing Forever More by choreographer Jessica Lang and set to the recordings of Tony Bennett (clearly the title comes from Fly Me to the Moon); La Follia Variations by Lauren Lovette set to music of the same name by composer Francesco Geminiani and Indestructible Light by Darrell Grand Moultrie which is set to music by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Neal Hefti and Billy Strayhorn.

Hefti, by the way, composed the theme for the television series Batman.

At press time the only available tickets were $80 each. There are Covid-protocols in place for this performance.

For those willing to wait, Uniting in Movement will be available for streaming through Segerstrom Center for the Arts from May 12th – May 26th for $25.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Argus Quartet: noise/Silence – Five Boroughs Music Festival and The Noguchi Museum – April 25th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT (Art in an email)

Cellist Audrey Chen, violinists Clara Kim and Gioncarlo Latta and violist Maren Rothfritz make up the Argus Quartet. Though they perform music from across all eras of classical music, they seem to excel in contemporary works.

This concert was filmed at one of my favorite museums in New York, The Noguchi Museum. It is being presented by the Five Boroughs Music Festival. The Argus Quartet will perform works by composers John Cage (String Quartet in Four Parts); Dorothy Rudd More (Modes for String Quartet), Rolf Wallin (several selections from Curiosity Cabinet) and Paul Wiancko (Vox Petra).

The concert will be available for free streaming on the Five Boroughs Music Festival YouTube channel through December 31st.

OPERA: Bizet’s Carmen – Weiner Staatsoper – April 26th – 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT

Conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada; starring Anita Rachvelishvili, Piotr Beczala, Erwin Schrott and Vera-Lotte Boecker. This Calixto Bieito production is from 2021.

Georges Bizet collaborated with librettists Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy on this immensely popular opera. It was based on Propser Mérimée’s novella of the same name. 

When Carmen was first performed in Paris in 1875 it was considered both shocking and scandalous. 

Set in Seville, Spain, Carmen is a gypsy who has caught everyone’s eye. A soldier, Don José, plays coy and gives her no attention. Her flirtation causes troubles for both when Don José’s girlfriend, Micaëla arrives. Tensions escalate between the two women and after a knight fight, José must arrest Carmen. When she seduces him it sets off a series of events that will not end well for the gypsy woman.

PLAY: Measure for Measure – Goodman Theatre – April 26th – May 9th

Here’s another opportunity to celebrate the bard. But this isn’t going to be your standard production of a Shakespearean play.

Director Robert Falls has transported this play from Vienna to New YOrk City circa the late 1970s (or as I like to describe it, before Disney moved into Broadway).

The story is still the same. Claudio is sentenced to death under an arcane law invoked by Angelo who has taken over for the Duke who has left rather than have to deal with morality issues in (originally Vienna). Claudio’s crime? Getting his girlfriend, Juliet, pregnant.

The Duke returns in disguise and becomes aware of the decisions Angelo has been making. Deception, bargains, bartering, love and death are all on the table in this fairly convoluted play.

Justin Hayford, in his review for the Chicago Reader, had mixed feelings about the production:

“It’s rare for one of Shakespeare’s plays to be ripped from its original setting, transplanted across centuries and continents—and still end up feeling vital, urgent, and utterly contemporary. At least for a while. If Falls and his stellar cast could maintain that vitality past intermission, they’d have a masterpiece on their hands.”

Nonetheless, I think the concept sounds interesting and worth checking out. What else are you going to do on a Monday night? (Of course, I have another option for you…)

Tickets are free, but require registration.

AUDIO PLAY: Brother, Brother – New York Theatre Workshop – Live Premiere April 26th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT Art in an email

New York Theater Workshop is offering up a twist on audio plays. This will feature visuals, but not of the performers. Rather, artists Ibrahim Rayintakath​ and Liang-Hsin Huang have created imagery that will accompany Aleshea Harris’ play.

Brother, Brother tells the story of two brothers sharing a bicycle while making their way through Appalachia. They are actors headed to Tennessee. They start getting followed by a mysterious man in a maroon suit. At this moment the dreams they have for their future are confronted by the acts from their past.

Starring in this audio play are Amari Cheathom (terrific in August Wilson’s Jitney), André De Shields (Tony Award-winner for Hadestown), Gbenga Akinnagbe (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Owen Tabaka (Ratatouille: The Tik Tok Musical). Shayok Misha Chowdhury directs.

Tickets are $10. Brother, Brother will remain available for streaming through July 25th.

Those are my Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th. But a few reminders (and a preview):

MasterVoices has debuted the 3rd part of Myths and Hymns, a series of short films set to Adam Guettel’s song cycle. For details about the series, go here. For my interview with MasterVoices Artistic Director Ted Sperling, go here.

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Gala 2021 is available for streaming through Sunday. For details about the program and how to get tickets, go here.

Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope series continues with multiple new shows available for free viewing. For details go here.

The Metropolitan Opera streams Philip Glass’ Satyagraha on Friday (highly recommended); Beethoven’s Fidelio on Saturday and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites on Sunday (also highly recommended). For details and previews go here.

Here’s a preview of next week at the Met where the theme is City of Light (all the operas take place in Paris). Monday’s opera is, what else, La Bohème by Puccini.

That truly is the full and complete list of Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th. Enjoy your weekend!

Photo: William Shakespeare (By BatyrAshirbayev98/Courtesy Wikipedia Commons)

The post Best Bets: April 23rd – April 26th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Topping this week’s list is AMPLIFY a gala fundraiser event by and for Maestra, an organization that supports and helps develop women composers, writers and musicians working in musical theatre. This is a great organization and they have an excellent event planned.

So here are my Four Days of Best Bets: March 26th – March 29th:

*TOP PICK* BROADWAY VOCALS: Amplify 2021 – Maestra – March 29th – 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Maestra is an organization founded by songwriter/composer Georgia Stitt. On Monday night they are having a gala featuring Ashley Park, Nikki M. James, Brandon Victor Dixon, Tanya Birl, Kenita Miller, Shelley Thomas, Eva Noblezada and Reeve Carney, along with appearances from Anaïs Mitchell (Tony Award-winning creator of Hadestown), Kirsten Childs (OBIE Award-winning creator of Bubbly Black Girl), Helen Park (Lortel Award-winning creator of KPOP), Rona Siddiqui (Larson Award-winning creator of Salaam Medina: Tales of a Halfghan), Britt Bonney, Kristy Norter, Dionne McClain-Freeney, Meg Zervoulis, Kat Sherrell, Nicole Rebolledo, Stitt, and a special appearance by Bernadette Peters. Shoshana Bean will sing an original song with music, lyrics and orchestrations by Maestra member Lynne Shankel (Allegiance) for the finale of the event.

The event will be hosted by Brooks Ashmanskas (The Prom) and Andrea Burns (In the Heights). The event is produced and directed by Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!). Baldwin appears on Stitt’s 2020 album A Quiet Revolution. You should check out her song, The Water Is Wide, and the entire album.

Tickets range from free to $500. Those who are able to pay for the higher-priced tickets will have access to post-show events with Gavin Creel & Celia Keenan-Bolger; “Chers” Stephanie J. Block, Teal Wicks & Micaela Diamond; Chaplin co-stars Jenn Colella & Rob McClure; Book of Mormon original stars Nikki M. James & Michael James Scott; Mean Girls Ashley Park & Erika Henningsen; and The Prom stars Caitlin Kinnunen & Isabelle McCalla. If you are interested in purchasing one of those tickets, you must do so by 5:00 PM EDT/2:00 PM PDT on Sunday, March 28th.

MUSICAL: BKLYN – The Musical – Stream.theatre – Now – April 4th

Mark Schoenfeld and Barri McPherson collaborated on this musical based on his own experiences as a street musician. From personal experience to Broadway where Brooklyn opened in the fall of 2004.

The musical depicts a group of homeless musicians performing a show about a girl from Paris searching for her father. She gets discovered when performing with the group under the Brooklyn Bridge and becomes a big star, but one still trying to find her dad. It’s actually structured as a play-within-a-play.

Sejal Keshwala, Emma Kingston, Newton Matthews, Jamie Muscato and Marisha Wallace staged in this filmed production from Ugly Duck, London Bridge in England.

You’ll have a choice of either a specific showtime or an on-demand purchase to watch the musical. Tickets are £18 which includes service charges. That’s approximately $25.

VOCALS: Giles Terera in Black Matter – Now – March 31st

Just as Leslie Odom Jr. won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, Giles Terera won the British equivalent, The Olivier, for his performance in the same role in London.

During the pandemic, Terera took to expressing his feelings and experiences during the pandemic and with all the social upheaval by writing songs. He performs that song cycle, Black Matter, in a concert filmed at Crazy Coqs in the Soho area of London.

Terera received rave reviews for Black Matter. Tickets are £13 (which includes service charges) which equals approximately $18.

PLAY: The Thanksgiving Play – Spotlight on Plays on Broadway’s Best Shows – Now – March 29th

Native American playwright Larissa FastHorse received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2020 and it was largely due to her well-received and often performed The Thanksgiving Play. As part of their Spotlight on Plays series, Broadway’s Best shows is streaming a reading of the play with Bobby Cannavale, Keanu Reeves, Heidi Schreck and Alia Shawkat.

The premise finds four white people trying to put together a culturally-sensitive Thanksgiving play to be performed in schools.

Jesse Green, in his New York Times review, said of FastHorse’s play:

“Just because a target’s too easy doesn’t mean it won’t make a satisfying meal. Take turkeys, or the holiday they stand for. In Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, which opened on Monday at Playwrights Horizons, the familiar, whitewashed story of Pilgrims and Native Americans chowing down together gets a delicious roasting from expert farceurs.”

Tickets are $15. This play will only be available through Monday at 6:00 PM EDT.

MUSICAL/DANCE: Tango the Musical – Center Theatre Group – Now – March 28th

The music of Astor Piazzolla serves as the foundation for this show from Argentina. Eleven dancers perform Argentina’s most famous dance while accompanied by a 10-piece live orchestra. Tango the Musical is set during Argentina’s Guerra sucia (“Dirty War”).

This was a period of enormous conflict from 1976-1984 that found crackdowns on anyone considered or rumored to be a socialist or dissident. As many as 30,000 people went missing during this time.

Tango the Musical is directed by Sergei Tumas and choreographed by Argentinians Iván Leonardo Romero and Silvana Nuñez.

I’m not sure that anyone truly sings, so I’m not sure how much this show is a musical or a dance, but if you love this music, this should be quite entertaining.

There are performances available Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT and 11:00 PM EDT/8:00 PM PDT and on Sunday at 4:00 PM EDT/1:00 PM PDT and 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT. Tickets are $10.

JAZZ: Voices of Freedom – Jazz at Lincoln Center Virtual Season – March 26th – March 31st

Singers Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln and Nina Simone will be celebrated in this concert by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the baton of Chris Crenshaw.

Joining them as guest vocalists are Melanie Charles, Shenel Johns, and Ashley Pezzotti who will perform songs the women wrote and made famous.

All four women were powerhouse singers who left everything they had on the stage. I was lucky enough to see Carter, Lincoln and Simone in concert. These are four women well worth celebrating.

Tickets are $20.

CONVERSATION: Virtual Halston with Lucie Arnaz – March 26th – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST

Lucie Arnaz joins Julie Halston for this Friday’s Virtual Halston on the Cast Party Network. Arnaz has been in the news recently with the start of production on Being the Ricardos, a feature film about the relationship between her parents, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are playing the two television icons.

When fans got upset about the casting, Arnaz, who is an Executive Producer on the movie, took to Facebook and said, in part, “Stop arguing about who should play it – ‘she doesn’t look like her, her nose isn’t the same she isn’t as funny’…Just trust us. It’s going to be a nice film and p.s. the voting is over.”

Now that should make for some great conversation!

JAZZ: Jane Monheit – SFJAZZ – March 26th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

While we’re celebrating great women of jazz with the Voices of Freedom concert listed above, let’s also acknowledge The First Lady of Song Ella Fitzgerald. That’s precisely what singer Jane Monheit does in this concert that is part of SFJAZZ’s Fridays at Five series.

Monheit’s 2016 album, The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald features her performing such songs as Somebody Loves Me, Ill Wind and This Time the Dream’s on Me. Will Mack the Knife be part of this concert? I don’t know, but as good as Monheit is, nobody could swing that song (or screw it up) quite like Fitzgerald.

Seriously Monheit is terrific. It would be impossible not to enjoy this show. Joining Monheit for this concert are Andy Langham on piano; Rick Montalbano on drums; Dave Robaire on bass and Jamey Tate on percussion.

Tickets are $5 for a one-month digital membership or $60 for an annual digital membership.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Gil Shaham Plays Boulogne – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Debuts March 26th – 9:30 PM EDT/6:30 PM PDT

Violinist Gil Shaham joins the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for their Close Quarters series. In this film he will perform Arvo Pärt’s Fratres and Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ Violin Concerto No. 9.

If you are accustomed to seeing classical music performances with the camera on the periphery of the orchestra, this will be different. According to Shaham the cameramen were working their way in and around all the musicians during the performance. It’s certain to give a more up-close look at performance than we usually get to see.

Margaret Batjer leads the LACO in an approximately 33 minute film. There’s no charge and the film will be available for viewing at any time.

DANCE DOCUMENTARY: Twyla Moves – American Masters on PBS – March 26th (check local listings)

Whether you love or hate what choreographer Twyla Tharp does (and I know people in both camps), she is arguably one of the most independent and intriguing figures in modern dance. Which probably is what interested filmmaker Steven Cantor to create this documentary on Tharp.

Her work has been performed on stages around the world and includes ballet, modern dance and Broadway musicals. She’s also choreographed for feature films including Hair, Ragtime and Amadeus.

The documentary includes interviews and never-before-seen footage of Tharp at work and in performance. As with all PBS programming, check your local listings for exact airdate and time.

WORLD MUSIC: Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion – CAP UCLA – March 26th – 10:00 PM EDT/7:00 PM PDT

Zakir Hussain is a master table musician. Tabla is a pair of hand drums indigenous to India and Pakistan. He has performed with a diverse range of artists that includes George Harrison, Charles Lloyd, Yo-Yo Ma, Van Morrison and Pharoah Sanders.

For this filmed concert he will be joined by Pezhham Akhavass on tombak and Iranian percussion; Marcus Gilmore on drums and Abbos Kosimov on doyra and Uzbek percussion with special guests.

Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion was immensely popular when this program was performed at UCLA during the 2018-2019 season. There’s no charge to watch this concert.

OPERA: Götterdämmerung – San Francisco Opera – March 27th – March 28th

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Daniel Brenna, Iréne Theorin, Greer Grimsley, Andrea Silvestrelli, Melissa Citro, Brian Mulligan and Falk Struckmann. This revival of Francesca Zambello’s 2011 production is from the 2017-2018 season.

The final opera in Der Ring des Nibelungen had its world premiere in 1876 in Bayreuth as part of the first-ever performance of The Ring Cycle.

Alberich’s curse placed on the ring and its owners comes to haunt the characters in this final opera in the Ring Cycle. Siegfried, having fallen in love with Brunnhilde, is convinced to consume a potion that renders him without memory. That lack of remembering finds him proposing to another woman, Gutrune. Her brother consents as long as Siegfried will allow him to marry Brunnhilde. The ring changes hands and with Alberich’s son, Hagen, manipulating the action, ruin comes to all, including the gods whose glory has come to an end leaving Valhalla in flames.

For this production, Zambello has set the story in the American West. The cycle began during the gold rush and ends with Götterdämmerung in present-day America.

Lisa Hirsch, writing for Classical Voice San Francisco, raved about the orchestra’s performance under the baton of Runnicles:

“No Ring production can succeed without a fine orchestra and strong leadership, and as long-time operagoers know, Donald Runnicles and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra make a splendid team. Runnicles, a great conductor of long and complex works, led a performance of breadth, subtlety, and beauty, full of telling detail. The orchestra played tirelessly and beautifully, with a warmly blended and layered sound, over the many hours of the cycle. The brass sections were especially impressive, given the demands Wagner makes on them, playing with unforced power.”

JAZZ: Delfeayo Marsalis Quintet – Snug Harbor Jazz Revival – March 28th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

If you can have a show with one Marsalis brother this week, why not have two? Trombonist/composer/producer Delfeayo Marsalis is performing from Snug Harbor in New Orleans in this concert on Sunday.

In addition to performing with his brothers, his late father, Ellis, and countless other musicians, Delfeayo Marsalis has produced recordings by such artist as Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick, Jr., the Preservation Jazz Hall Band and has worked with filmmaker Spike Lee.

Tickets to watch his concert are $15.

PLAY READING: SQUEAKY – Guild Hall – March 28th – 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

Jessica Hecht, Marc Kudisch, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Ben Shenkman and Harris Yulin are lined-up for this reading of SQUEAKY by playwright Jeff Cohen.

The play is an autobiographical comedy that stars Kudish and Shenkman having a hard time agreeing on the best course of action for their father (Yulin) who is nearing the end of his life.

Throw in a caretaker (Jackson) and Squeaky’s estranged wife (Hecht) and you’ve got the makings for plenty of familial conflict and loads of opportunities for humor.

Bob Balaban directs. Tickets are free, but donations are encouraged.

PLAY: Pedro Páramo – Goodman Theatre – March 29th – April 11th

Juan Rulfo’s 1955 novel of the same name is the inspiration for this play by Raquel Carrió that was part of the Goodman Theatre’s Latino Theatre Festival in 2013. Pedro Páramo is performed by Cuba’s Teatro Buendía and directed by Flora Lauten.

As in the book, Juan Preciado returns home to honor his dying mother’s wishes of settling old scores with his father, Pedro. What Juan soon realizes is everyone in the town he has returned to is a ghost. It is through this realization that the full story of Pedro Páramo (both the character and the play) becomes fully revealed.

Tony Adler, in his review for the Chicago Reader, said of the play:

“Rulfo’s story is like Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol without the redemption, and like Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology—a collection of poems written from the points of view of people buried in a small Illinois cemetery—without the nice distinction between life and afterlife. Rulfo’s reality allows for a free conflation of bodies and souls, places and times. It isn’t magic, but a simple apprehension of the resonances that wait in all things.”

Tickets are free, but registration is required.

CABARET/CONVERSATION: Pajama Cast Party One Year Anniversary Show – March 29th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Two weeks ago I highlighted Jim Caruso’s 50th Pajama Cast Party show. But this week is the real anniversary: one year of doing online shows. Caruso is pulling out all the stops for this celebration. But I don’t know who or what that will be.

All I know is the VIP guest list is being kept very hush hush. But between his stellar guests for both the live version at Birdland and this full year of shows, this is going to be one swellegant party.

Those are my official Four Days of Best Bets: March 26th – March 29th. A couple reminders before I close out this weekend’s listings.

OPERA: The Metropolitan Opera is streaming two productions this weekend for the first time. On Friday they are streaming Mozart’s Idomeneo from the 1982-1983 season. That production stars Hildegard Behrens, Frederica von Stade and Luciano Pavarotti. This was the first-ever production of that opera at the Met. On Saturday Mozart’s Don Giovanni from their 2000-2001 season with Bryn Terfel and Renée Fleming is being streamed. On Sunday they are showing their 2019-2020 season production of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer.

And here’s a preview of next week’s streaming operas: love triangles is the theme and the week opens with the 2017-2018 season production of Bellini’s Norma with Sondra Radvanovsky and Joyce DiDonato. Check back on Monday for our preview of the full week of programming.

Finally, it’s always a good idea to check back at the last two or three weeks of Best Bets as some of the programming I write about is available for longer than just the weekend. If you don’t find something you like here, perhaps the most recent two or three weekend lists will have something you’ll like.

That does it for my Best Bets: March 26th – March 29th. Have a great weekend and enjoy whatever you watch!

Photo: Georgia Stitt and Kate Baldwin (Photo by Kristin Pulido/Courtesy Maestra)

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But that’s not all! There are operas both old and new; dance both modern and ballet; vocalists singing standards and show tunes; several jazz concert options; contemporary classical music and witty banter to start your weekend off just right. We have nearly two dozen options for you!

With so many plays available, one of them was destined to be my Top Pick this week. It’s almost as if it had been written in the stars. Topping this week’s list is the Public Theater’s radio play and bilingual version of Shakespeare’s Romeo y Julieta with Juan Castano as Romeo and Lupita Nyong’o as Julieta.

So here are the Four Days of Best Bets: March 19th – March 22nd. The list begins with my Top Pick and is followed by events in the order in which they become available.

*TOP PICK* RADIO PLAY: Romeo y Julieta – Public Theater – Now Available

William Shakespeare’s best-known play is certainly Romeo and Juliet. In this radio play version you’ll get to hone in on exactly what makes this play so riveting: the story and the words. But there’s going to be a difference: this is a bilingual version called Romeo y Julieta.

Director Saheem Ali and Ricardo Pérez González have adapted Alfredo Michel Modenessi’s Spanish-language translation for this audio only production.

Starring as the title characters are Juan Castano as Romeo and Lupita Nyong’o as Julieta. Ivonne Coll plays the Nurse, Hiram Delgado is Tybalt, Irene Sofia Lucia is Mercutio, Julio Monge is Friar Lawrence and Javier Muñoz is Paris.

The rest of the cast includes Carlo Albán, Karina Arroyave, Erick Betancourt, Michael Braugher, Carlos Carrasco, John J. Concado, Guillermo Diaz , Sarah Nina Hayon, Kevin Herrera, Modesto Lacen, Florencia Lozano,  Keren Lugo, Benjamin Luis McCracken, Tony Plana and David Zayas.

The Public is making closed-captioning available in both English and Spanish and are also providing a script to use to follow along for those who might want that. Just be prepared for a tragic story that ends with these words:

“For never was a story more of woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

There is no charge to listen to Romeo y Julieta, but donations are encouraged.

PLAY: The Picture of Dorian Gray – now – March 31st

Oscar Wilde’s classic story of a man who sells his soul in order that his good looks don’t fade gets a contemporary spin in this new version of the story by Henry Filloux-Bennett. This updated approach has Dorian as a social media influencer who doesn’t want to see his fame fade. It’s just as much a Faustian deal here as in Wilde’s original.

Starring in this production are Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Alfred Enoch (seven of the Harry Potter films), Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Emma McDonald (Hamlet), Russell Tovey (Angels in America) and Stephen Fry (Wilde).

Tickets are £12 which at press time was equal to just under $17. There is a warning that there is strong language and references to mental illness and suicide. The production is recommended for audiences age 16 and higher.

PLAY: Women Without Men – Mint Theater Company – Now – March 21st

This is the first of several plays that New York’s Mint Theater Company has started streaming. Set in Ireland in the 1930s, Hazel Ellis’ play depicts the unmarried teachers at an all-girls school. It is their interactions with one another that reveals petty jealousies and very different personalities.

This production was staged in 2016 and was directed by Jean Thompson. Appearing in Women Without Men are Mary Bacon, Joyce Cohen, Shannon Harrington, Kate Middleton, Aedin Moloney, Alexa Shae Niziak, Kellie Overbey, Dee Pelletier, Beatrice Tulchin, Emily Walton and Amelia White.

There is no fee to watch the play. Registration; however, is required.

PLAY: Katie Roche – Mint Theater Company – Now – March 28th

Also from Mint Theater Company is this 2013 production of Teresa Devey’s 1936 play. Katie Roche tells the story of a servant girl who has big dreams and finds herself torn between two men.

The play had its premiere with Ireland’s Abbey Theatre and made its first appearance in the United States in 1937.

Starring are Margaret Daly, Patrick Fitzgerald, Jon Fletcher, David Friedlander, Jamie Jackson, John O’Creagh, Wrenn Schmidt, Diana Toibin. Jonathan Bank directs.

There is no fee to watch the play. Registration; however, is required.

PLAY: How to Catch Creation – Goodman Theatre – Now – March 28th

Half a century after a young woman’s girlfriend hits her with some very surprising news, four artists are coming to grips with the ramifications of that fateful day. That’s the premise of Christina Anderson’s How to Catch Creation which Chicago’s Goodman Theatre will be streaming on demand for two weeks.

This is not a reading of the play. Rather it is a capture of their 2019 production directed by Niegel Smith. The cast features Karen Aldridge, Ayanna Bria Bakari, Jasmine Bracey, Bernard Gilbert, Maya Vinice Prentiss and Keith Randolph Smith.

How to Catch Creation runs 2 hours and 15 minutes. There’s no charge to stream the production.

PLAY: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike – Broadway on Demand – Now – April 18th

You might think you need to know a lot about the work of Anton Chekhov to appreciate Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. While it certainly helps, it’s absolutely not essential. While the play does take place near a cherry orchard, there is familial conflict about what to do with a cherished home and the three siblings depicted all have names taken from Chekhov’s work, this comedy has proven popular around the world.

Durang had a rather circuitous route to Broadway with this play. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike had its world premiere at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton in 2012. One month after closing there it went off-Broadway to Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre. Two months after closing there it opened on Broadway and ultimately was named the Best Play at the Tony Awards.

One thing this play was able to do was keep its cast intact for all those moves. So the film that Lincoln Center is making available for free on Broadway on Demand features David Hyde Pierce, Billy Magnussen, Kristine Nielsen, and Sigourney Weaver.

I’ve seen this play two times and strongly recommend you allow yourself the time to relax, sit back and enjoy yourself.  In 2014 I interviewed David Hyde Pierce about the play and his direction of it when it played the Mark Taper Forum. You can read that interview here.

OPERA: Breaking the Waves – Los Angeles Opera – March 19th – April 12th

The 1996 Lars von Trier film Breaking the Waves told the dark story of a husband, who is recovering from an accident at work, who encourages his wife to have sex with other men during his recovery. It was a bold film that featured a shattering performance by Emily Watson.

Composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek created an opera based on this film. Their work had its world premiere at Opera Philadelphia in 2016.

The work won universal acclaim including these comments by Alex Ross in The New Yorker:

“The opera created a world: it had a tone, a profile. There was an uncommonly strong relationship between libretto and music: the work felt urgent, driven by conviction, essential.”

Los Angeles Opera had scheduled a live production of Breaking the Waves, but the pandemic got in the way. In its place they are making a film of the opera directed by James Darrah available for free streaming (registration is required).

The original cast returns: Kiera Duffy, John Moore, Eve Gigliotti, David Portillo, Zachary James and Marcus DeLoach.

As you might imagine with this subject matter, a word of caution. This production includes explicit language, nudity and sexual content, some of a violent nature. Recommended for mature audiences only.

CONVERSATION: Virtual Halston – Cast Party Network – March 19th – 5:00 PM EDT/2:00 PM PDT

If you’re going to have an afternoon salon filled with ribald conversation and witty repartee, it helps to have two masters participating. In this week’s edition of Virtual Halston with Julie Halston, she’s got a great guest: playwright/author/screenwriter Paul Rudnick.

His plays include I Hate Hamlet, Jeffrey, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and the upcoming book for the musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada. His screenplays include The Addams Family, The First Wives Club and In and Out.

Actor Peter Bartlett, who received a Drama Desk nomination for his performance in The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, will also be joining.

JAZZ: A Night in New Orleans – Derek Douget – Lobero Theatre – March 19th

When winter turns to spring and Lent is approaching many people immediately think of New Orleans and its grand tradition of Mardi Gras. Even later in spring thoughts turn to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Mardi Gras didn’t happen this year and JazzFest is postponed until the fall.

So what’s a fan of that glorious music supposed to do?

Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara is riding to your rescue this weekend. Saxophonist Derek Douget and his band will bring all that wonderful music into your home beginning Friday evening with A Night in New Orleans.

Joining Douget are Victor Atkins on piano; Ashlin Parker on trumpet; Herlin Riley on drums and vocals; Jason Stewart on bass and Don Vappie on banjo/guitar and vocals.

Tickets are $15, but you’ll have to provide your own beads!

JAZZ: Cindy Blackman Santana and Guests – SFJAZZ – March 19th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM EDT

Drummer Cindy Blackman Santana is well connected. She’s recorded and toured with Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Joss Stone, Cassandra Wilson and more. She spent many years on the road as the drummer for Lenny Kravitz. She also toured with Santana and in 2010 Carlos Santana proposed to her.

But those aren’t the friends or guests that are part of this weekend’s Fridays at Five concert from SFJAZZ. She has recent Oscar-nominated composer/musician Terence Blanchard (Da 5 Bloods), guitarist Bill Frisell, the Kronos Quartet, saxophonist Joe Lovano and members of the SFJAZZ Collective joining for this concert from 2017.

There will be an encore presentation of this concert on Saturday, March 20th at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT. Tickets are available with a monthly digital membership ($5) or an annual membership ($60).

OPERA: Renée Fleming Live from the Met – PBS (check local listings) – March 19th from 2021

If you are a regular reader of Cultural Attaché you know that Renée Fleming is one of the most beloved sopranos in opera. Whether seen and heard in productions or recitals, she is regularly a fan favorite.

PBS is airing a recital Fleming gave from Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. last August.

The program includes works by George Frideric Handel, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Jules Massenet, Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss. Robert Ainsley serves as her accompanist.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Andrew Rannells Live from Lincoln Center – PBS (check local listings) – March 19th from 2018

In December of 2017 Andrew Rannells performed in The Appel Room at Lincoln Center. The concert was filmed and first broadcast on PBS in 2018. The show returns to PBS this weekend.

Rannells is best known for his Tony Award-nominated performance in The Book of Mormon and for his appearance on the HBO series Girls. He was recently seen as Whizzer in Falsettos (his second Tony Award nomination) and in Ryan Murphy’s stage production and the subsequent film of The Boys in the Band.

This is a fun concert that shows the boy can sing more than just show tunes! Fans will want to check it out.

BALLET: The Red Shoes – Ahmanson Theatre – March 19th – March 21st $10

As part of their continuing Digital Series and their relationship with Matthew Bourne, Center Theatre Group and the Ahmanson Theatre are offering up a filmed performance of Bourne’s ballet The Red Shoes.

The ballet is inspired by the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger film from 1948 (which in itself was inspired by a story by Hans Christian Anderson).

Bourne uses the music of legendary film composer Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane, Psycho) for this ballet.

Ashley Shaw stars as a ballerina torn between her love for the composer who wrote her a ballet and the impresario who runs the ballet company and controls her career.

There will be five opportunities to stream The Red Shoes. Friday, March 19th at 8:00 PM PDT/11:00 PM EDT; Saturday March 20th at 5:00 PM PDT/8:00 EDT and 8:00 PM PDT/11:00 PM PDT and Sunday, March 21st at 1:00 PM PDT/4:00 PM EDT and 5:00 PM PDT/8:00 PM EDT.

Tickets are $10. This program will not be available for streaming outside the United States.

OPERA: Siegfried – San Francisco Opera – March 20th – March 21st

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Daniel Brenna, Greer Grimsley, Iréne Theorin, Ronnita Miller and David Cangelosi. This revival of Francesa Zambello’s 2011 production is from the 2017-2018 season.

This third opera in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen had its premiere in Bayreuth in 1876 where it was seen at the first-ever performance of The Ring Cycle.

The title character is front and center in the third opera in the Ring Cycle. He matures throughout the opera via the choices he makes. He encounters an enigmatic Wanderer, but doesn’t know this is Wotan in disguise. When Siegfried is able to reassemble pieces of Siegmund’s sword (Siegmund is his father) he uses it to kill Fafner who has the responsibility of protecting the gold that was stolen from the Rhinemadiens in Das Rheingold. He also comes into possession of the ring. But what will he do with it and how will that impact his pre-destined love for Brunnhilde?

Lisa Hirsch, writing for the San Francisco Classical Voice, said of the production:

“…perhaps the greatest strength of the production remains: a splendidly staged and remarkably sympathetic Siegfried that flew by. In 2011, part of its charm was the surprisingly sweet Siegfried of Jay Hunter Morris, a handsome man with a beautiful voice. With the young heroic tenor Daniel Brenna stepping into the role this year, some of the sweetness and charm is lost to a more conventionally brash portrayal of the character. Still, the opera really did come off as a scherzo, a comparatively light moment in the Ring despite the deaths of Mime and Fafner. The encounters between the Wanderer and Mime, Alberich, Erda, and Siegfried retain their tremendous emotional power and depth.”

VOCALS: Songs from the Heart – Ute Lemper – March 20th – 2:00 PM EDT/11:00 AM PDT

Whether in concert halls, recording albums or gracing the stage of a musical, Ute Lemper has easily become of our most passionate and accomplished performers.

That wide range of material she handles will be on display in Songs from the Heart on Saturday. The concert will be streaming from Europe and includes songs from the musicals Cabaret and Chicago; from The Threepenny Opera; songs made famous by Édith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich, a song Lemper composed and also a song by Joni Mitchell.

I’ve seen her in multiple concert performances and also in the Broadway revival of Chicago. She’s absolutely amazing.

Joining Lemper for this concert will be Vana Gierig on piano; Tim Ouimette on trumpet; Matt Parrish on bass and Todd Turkish on drums and percussion.

Ticket are $24.99 and allow for 48 hours of access.

JAZZ: Jeremy Pelt Quintet – Vermont Jazz Center – March 20th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

You’re probably asking yourself how often will I recommend a performance by Jeremy Pelt? As long as he keeps putting out great music like Griot – This Is Important! I will do so as long as possible.

This concert from the Vermont Jazz Center will focus exclusively on music from this new album.

Joining Pelt for this concert are Vicente Archer on bass; Victor Gould on piano; Chien Chien Lu on vibraphone and Allan Mednard on drums.

There is no charge to stream the concert; however donations are encouraged.

ONE PERSON PLAY: Anyone But Me – IAMA Theatre Company – March 21st – April 18th

Sheila Carrasco’s Anyone But Me is the first of two one-person shows by Latinx-American women that Los Angeles’ IAMA Theatre Company will start streaming this weekend. Carrasco stars in this show in which she depicts multiple women struggling to define themselves and realizing that where they are is not where they want to be.

Anyone But Me is directed by Margaux Susi.

Tickets start at $15 (based on your ability to donate to IAMA).

ONE PERSON PLAY: The Oxy Complex – IAMA Theatre Company – March 21st – April 18th

The second play, The Oxy Complex, is written and performed by Anna LaMadrid. The play is set in the not-too-distant future – specifically the 500th day of quarantine. They Oxy of the title is not Oxycontin (source of opioid addictions), but rather Oxytocin.

What is oxytocin? It is defined by Medical News Today as:

“…a neurotransmitter and a hormone that is produced in the hypothalamus. From there, it is transported to and secreted by the pituitary gland, at the base of the brain.

“It plays a role in the female reproductive functions, from sexual activity to childbirth and breast feeding.”

So what is LaMadrid exploring in her show? All the things a woman might miss while being quarantined for so long. There is a reason, after all, that Oxytocin is called the “love hormone.”

Michelle Bossy directs. Tickets begin at $15 (based on your ability to donate).

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL MUSIC: Bang on a Can Marathon Live Online – March 21st – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

For their spring live online marathon, Bang on a Can is showcasing performances from New York and Berlin.

Here’s the line-up:

3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

Daniel Bernard Roumain Why Did They Kill Sandra Bland? performed by Arlen Hlusko; Arnold Dreyblatt; Mazz Swift and Rohan Chander △ or THE TRAGEDY OF HIKKOMORI LOVELESS from FINAL//FANTASY performed by Vicky Chow

4:00 PM EDT/1:00 PM PDT

Kristina Wolfe Listening to the Wind performed by Molly Barth; Miya Masaoka; Aeryn Santillan disconnect. performed by Ken Thomson and Adam Cuthbert

5:00 PM EDT/2:00 PM PDT

Ken Thomson Birds and Ambulances performed by Robert Black; Tomeka Reid Lamenting G.F., A.A., B.T., T.M. performed by Vicky Chow; Steve Reich Vermont Counterpoint performed by Claire Chase; Christina Wheeler and Molly Joyce Purity performed by David Cossin

6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

Tyshawn Sorey; Jeffrey Brooks Santuario performed by Mark Stewart; Moor Mother and Bill Frisell

BROADWAY VOCALS: Jackie Hoffman – March 21st – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Jackie Hoffman in the original companies of Hairspray and Xanadu on Broadway. She’s always a joy to watch. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to see her in The Addams Family, On the Town or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

But you’ll get to see what makes Hoffman such a delightful and witty performer on Sunday.

She is Seth Rudetsky’s guest as part of his Concert Series. I can only imagine what stories she’ll have to tell and what songs she’ll choose to sing. We can all find out either in the live broadcast or in the encore showing (also on Sunday) at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT.

Tickets are $25.

DANCE: Uncharted Territory: Dancers in Isolation – Eryc Taylor Dance – Premieres March 21st – 6:00 PM EDT/3:00 PM PDT

Eryc Taylor has conceived a new work born out of the crisis that has hit us all in the last year. This work, Uncharted Territory: Dancers in Isolation, was created via Zoom, and focuses on New York City dancers.

The company features Nicole Baker, Chris Bell, Taylor Ennen, AJ Guevara, Eryc Taylor and Alex Tenreiro Theis. Each dancer choreographed their own work. The film is revealed in five separate segments which explore themes of death, mental instability, paranoia, sexual frustration and stillness.

The music was composed by Daniel Tobias.

There is no charge to watch the premiere, though donations are encouraged. Uncharted Territory will remain available online through March 28th.

PLAY: Yours Unfaithfully – Mint Theater Company – March 22nd – May 16th

Though written in 1933, Miles Malleson’s Yours Unfaithfully remained unperformed until Mint Theatre Company produced the show in late 2016.

It seems strange that a story about a married couple exploring an open relationship came from 1933. The all-too-virtuous husband (Max von Essen) is a writer seemingly unable to get inspired. His wife (Elisabeth Gray) runs a progressive school. She suggests opening up their relationship.

Alexis Soloski, in her review for the New York Times, said:

“Under the polished direction of Jonathan Bank, and in the hands of a fine team of designers, its arguments remain provocative, while its structure feels familiar, its tone decorous. Maybe that only makes it more unusual. It’s a bit like a sex farce with real sorrow instead of slammed doors, and something like a drawing room comedy with moral conundrums peeking out beneath the cushions. It is often very funny; it is also very nearly a tragedy.

There is no fee to watch the play. Registration; however, is required.

BROADWAY AND JAZZ VOCALS: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – March 22nd – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Jim Caruso celebrates 50 episodes of Pajama Cast Party with this Monday’s edition. Which makes the absence of his usual venue for his weekly in-person Cast Party, Birdland, all that more palpable.

But this is a party and the show will celebrate turning 50. Joining this week are singer/songwriter Ben Clark, Broadway/pop singer Joshua Colley (Les Misérables), singer/artist Jared Wayne Gladly, Broadway’s Jason Kravits (Relatively Speaking), Brazilian singer/songwriter Denise Reis and Braodway’s Dee Roscioli (Fiddler on the Roof).

That’s this weekend’s Four Days of Best Bets: March 19th – March 21st. But a few reminders before we go:

Los Angeles Philharmonic releases a new Sound/Stage episode entitled A Pan-American Musical Feast with special guest Chef José Andrés. The episode features performances of works by Tania León; Paul Desenne and Aaron Copland. For details on this episode and the whole series please go here.

The 92nd Street Y is still streaming last weekend’s performance by violinist Gil Shaham with The Knights. You can read details about their entire series here. Check out my recent interview with Shaham here.

The Metropolitan Opera concludes their Viewer’s Choice week with a 2006-2007 season production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia on Friday; a production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin from the same season (and strongly recommended) and a production of Handel’s Agrippina from the 2019-2020 season on Sunday (also recommended). You can see details and clips from all three productions here.

On Monday the Met begins a weeklong celebration of Myths and Legends with a production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice from the 2008-2009 season. We’ll have full details on Monday with our preview of the the week’s full line-up.

I trust you’ll find something amongst the Four Days of Best Bets: March 19th – March 22nd to keep you entertained! Have a great weekend.

Photo: Artwork of the balcony scene from Romeo y Julieta by Erick Davila (Courtesy The Public Theater)

Correction: The name of Eryc Taylor Dance program is Uncharted Territory and not Unchartered Territory as we originally listed. Cultural Attaché has corrected the post above and regrets the error.

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Topping our list is a special celebration of Liza Minnelli’s 75th birthday. The stars are coming out in droves to celebrate the woman who forever put her mark on Sally Bowles, who famously served as Gwen Verdon’s understudy (look that one up!), captured Arthur’s heart and made us all try singing New York, New York just like she does.

We have an unbelievable 21 different shows for you this week. No one will be left out. Whether you like opera, dance, classical music, Broadway musicals, plays or jazz, there’s something great for you to watch this weekend.

But you’ll have to be careful with your time. You lose an hour this weekend. Sunday marks the return of Daylight Savings Time. So don’t forget to move your clocks one hour forward on Sunday. You don’t want to miss the start of these shows!

Here are your Best Bets: March 12th – March 15th starting with our Top Pick. The rest are in order of availability.

*TOP PICK*: A Love Letter to Liza Minnelli: 75th All-Star Birthday Tribute Celebration – March 12th – March 14th

You know it’s either a monumental birthday or you’re quite beloved if Lea DeLaria, Michael Feinstein, Joel Grey, Ute Lemper, Melissa Manchester, Seth Sikes, Billy Stritch, Haley Swindal, Lily Tomlin, Ben Vereen and more are performing to celebrate you.

It’s actually both for Oscar, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress/singer Liza Minnelli.

The star of Bob Fosse’s Cabaret and the Broadway musicals Flora, the Red Menace, Chicago, The Act and The Rink turns 75 on Friday. And her friends are celebrating the best way they can during a pandemic – with an on-line event.

Offering their own memories of working and being friends with Liza are Jason Alexander, Sandra Bernhard, Charles Busch, Mario Cantone, Jim Caruso, Joan Collins, Craig Ferguson, Kathie Lee Gifford, Kathy Griffin, Jonathan Groff, Tony Hale, Julie Halston, John Kander, Nicholas King, Hoda Kotb, Nathan Lane, Michele Lee, Lorna Luft, Andrea Martin, John Cameron Mitchell, Kathy Najimy, Coco Peru, Parker Posey, Andrew Rannells, Chita Rivera and Michael York.

The show will stream only three times and only at these exact times: Friday, March 12th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Saturday, March 13th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST and Sunday, March 14th at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT. Tickets are $30 with 20% of all proceeds going to The Actors Fund.

PLAY: Three Days of Rain – Manhattan Theatre Club – Now – March 21st

In 2006 Richard Greenberg’s play Three Days of Rain was performed on Broadway by Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd. But that was not its first appearance in New York. In 1997, Manhattan Theatre Club offered the first production with Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery and Bradley Whitford.

That cast, along with original director Evan Yionoulis, have reunited for an online reading of Three Days of Rain that began on Thursday and will continue being available through Sunday, March 21st.

Three Days of Rain tells the story of a brother and sister who return to settle their father’s affairs after his passing. They are joined by their best friend, Pip. Upon discovering a diary they learn more about their parents than they ever expected to. What they learn helps them understand more about their own lives.

There’s no charge to watch the reading, but you do need to register at Manhattan Theatre Club’s website.

DANCE: After It Happened – Invertigo Dance Theatre – Now available

Laura Karlin choreographed this work for nine dancers that was performed at The Ford Theatre in 2016. Two musicians perform the score by composers Toby Karlin, Diana Lynn and Hyosun Choi.

The “it” that happened is a natural disaster in this work created in 2014. What the dancers discover, performing as the community dealing with the aftermath if the event, is that they must forge together to overcome the tragedy that has befallen them.

There’s no charge to watch After It Happened. You will find it on The Ford’s website and also on their YouTube channel and Facebook page. It will remain available for viewing for one year.

PLAY/DISCUSSION: Another Day’s Begun: Exploring Our Town – Pasadena Playhouse – Now available

Thorton Wilder’s Our Town is one of the most often-produced plays. Wilder won the Pulitzer Prize for this deceptively simple play in which the lives of the citizens of Grover’s Corners are shared and depicted. Along the way there are guest lecturers and even questions from the audience. Leading the whole show is the role of the Stage Manager. This is a spare show and a powerfully moving one.

Jane Kaczmarek will perform scenes from Our Town and lead a discussion with author Howard Sherman. His book gives this program its name. Also participating in performance are Youssef Kerkour, Keith Randolph Smith and Alexandria Wailes.

For trivia buffs, Frank Craven originated the role of the Stage Manager when the play debuted on Broadway in 1938. Marc Connelly played the part in a 1944 revival (that also featured Montgomery Clift as George Gibbs). In 1969 Henry Fonda headlined a production as the Stage Manager. Spalding Gray took on the part in a 1988 revival. Paul Newman played the part in a 2002 revival.

There’s no charge to watch this show.

RADIO PLAY: Moby Dick … in the Dark – Theatre in the Dark – Now – April 10th

If like many of us you’ve found it a big of a slog to get through Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and the thought of listening to a full book on tape is also daunting, but you still want to know what all the fuss is about, Chicago’s Theatre in the Dark is presenting a radio play version that’s much shorter.

If you don’t know the story it is, at least on the surface, about one man’s relentless effort to capture the white whale that gives this story its title. He will stop at nothing with little concern of what it costs.

Corey Bradberry, who also directs, adapted Melville’s story. This will be a true radio play. There are no visuals. An original score by Nick Montopoli will be married with recorded sound, live foley effects and the performances of the cast.

Elizabeth McCoy plays Ishmael (and some other characters). Mack Gordon plays Starbuck, Stubb and other characters. Robinson J. Cyprian plays Captain Ahab and others.

All tickets are Pay-what-you-can. There is a $20-$30 suggested donation. Performances are available Thursday-Sunday until the last week where the performance schedule is Wednesday-Saturday. Tickets can be purchased here.

BALLET: Elite Syncopations – Royal Ballet – March 12th – April 11th

In October of 2020, when things were looking up for England during the pandemic, The Royal Ballet held a special performance called Back on Stage. While they were only briefly back on stage, one highlight from that evening will be available for streaming beginning this weekend.

Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations is set to the music of Scott Joplin (best known for the use of his music in the film The Sting). MacMillan debuted the 35-minute work in 1974. Even critics who weren’t as fond of it as others said it was impossible to watch this work and not have a smile on your face.

Tickets to stream Elite Syncopations are £3 which equates to approximately $3.60.

FAMILY FARE: The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children – The Belfast Ensemble – March 12th – March 14th

If I were a parent I might be scratching my head at a title that claims to be “A Horror Opera for Children.” The story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the inspiration for this world premiere work by Conor Mitchell. He is the composer, librettist and stage director of The Musician.

This is a film of a live performance for the Belfast Children’s Festival. It features a 16-piece orchestra and a four-person cast (Matthew Cavan, Paul Carey Jones, Rebecca Murphy and Sarah Richmond).

This work is recommended for kids ages 6 and above. Tickets are £5 which equates to approximately $6.00 (without service charges) and can be purchased here.

JAZZ: Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington & Esperanza Spalding – SFJAZZ – March 12th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Three mightily talented women take to the stage for this 2018 concert from SFJAZZ. Pianist Geri Allen, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Esperanza Spalding perform the music of Wayne Shorter, Bob Dorough and an Allen original in this Fridays at Five concert.

SFJAZZ has added a rebroadcast of these shows to their schedule. So if you can’t see the concert on Friday, you’ll have a second chance to see it on Saturday, March 13th at 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST.

A gentle reminder that you need to sign up for either a one-month digital membership ($5) or an annual membership ($60) to view these weekly concerts.

JAZZ: Jane Monheit Come What May Album Release Concert – Feinstein’s at Vitello’s – March 12th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Vocalist Jane Monheit has released her 12th album, Come What May, and she will be celebrating with a live concert streaming from Feinstein’s at Vitello’s in Los Angeles.

On the album she performs the standards Let’s Face the Music and Dance, The Nearness of You and my personal favorite song, Lush Life.

For those who want even more of Monheit, there’s an Encore After Show where she will join Brad Roen for a post-performance conversation.

Tickets for the concert are $36.75. Tickets for Encore After Show are $26.75. (Prices include service charges).

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale – Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra – Debuts March 12th – 9:30 PM EST/6:30 PM PST

On paper this appears to be the most ambitious of LACO’s Close Quarters series. Igor Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale is over an hour in length. Based on a Russian folk tale, the work tells the story of a a soldier who makes a deal with the devil. The devil offers him wealth in exchange for the soldier’s fiddle. As written The Soldier’s Tale calls for seven musicians, three actors and one or more dancers.

For this film LACO is collaborating with Robey Theatre Company. Ben Guillory will serve as the narrator. Julio Hanson plays the soldier. William Warren plays the devil.

Because this is part of James Darrah‘s exploration of new ways to present classical music, LACO has added another collaborator to this film: artist Huimeng Wang. I’m excited to see her contribution which is described on the website as: “Wang’s work features a grand piano being dramatically and violently destroyed by gunfire before being reborn with stunning deep red velvet flocking.”

For those who want to dive deeper into this work, there is a pre-broadcast talk with the three actors and LACO principal trumpeter David Washburn. The live conversation will happen at 8:30 PM EST/5:30 PM PST on March 12th in advance of the premiere. You must register to see the live conversation as it will be available on Zoom. If you’re unable to catch it live, it will be available for viewing afterwards.

There’s no charge for any of this programming. Donations to LACO are encouraged.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Sutton Foster in Concert – Live From Lincoln Center on PBS – March 12th – Check local listings

BROADWAY VOCALS: Stephanie J. Block in Concert – Live from Lincoln Center on PBS – March 12th – Check local listings

Two Tony Award stars appear in their own Live from Lincoln Center concerts this weekend.

Sutton Foster, who will be starring opposite Hugh Jackman in the upcoming revival of The Music Man, appears in a concert from April 2018. She has appeared in the musicals Thoroughly Modern Millie, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Anything Goes and Violet. She won her Tony Awards for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Anything Goes.

Joining her as a special guest in the concert will be Jonathan Groff (most recently seen on stage in an off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.

Stephanie J. Block won her Tony Award for her performance as “Star” in The Cher Show. She made her Broadway debut as Liza Minnelli in The Boy From Oz (which also starred Jackman). She’s also appeared in Wicked, The Pirate Queen, 9 to 5, Anything Goes (she took over the role of Reno Sweeney when Foster left the production), The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Falsettos.

As with all PBS programming, best to check your local listings for exact airtime and dates.

JAZZ: Jeremy Pelt Quintet – SmallsLive – March 13th – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST and 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Jazz trumpeter Jeremy Pelt just released a new record entitled Griot – This is Important! It’s a combination of spoken word and instrumentals. It’s a stunning album.

Will selections from Griot be on the setlist for these two shows from Smalls in New York?

Whatever he chooses to play it will be with his incredibly beautiful phrasing and emotion.

Joining Pelt for these two shows are Vicente Archer on bass; Victor Gould on piano; Chien Chien Lu on vibraphone and Allan Mednard on drums.

There’s no charge to watch these shows. Those who can donate can make “reservations” for the show.

PLAY: The Year of Magical Thinking – Keen Company – March 13th – 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Writer Joan Didion shared her own experiences and thoughts after suffering several tragedies in her life in her book The Year of Magical Thinking. The emotional book was turned into an one-person show. Vanessa Redgrave starred in the play on Broadway in 2007.

This weekend the equally talented Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America) will take on the role in a live streaming event for Off-Broadway’s Keen Company.

I saw Redgrave perform the show in the months after her own daughter’s (Natasha Richardson) tragic death in 2009. It’s an incredibly moving work. After a year with the pandemic and quarantines, I can only imagine how much more deeply and personally we will all respond to this work on Saturday.

Tickets are $25 and will include a post-show talkback with Chalfant and director Jonathan Silverstein.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: A Bartók Journey – Tesla Quartet – March 13th – 7:30 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

Tesla Quartet musicians Edwin Kaplan (viola); Michelle Lie (violin); Serafim Smigelskiy (cello) and Ross Snyder (violin) are embarking this weekend on a six week series of exploring, rehearsing and performing all six of Béla Bartók’s string quartets.

This weekend beings, for obvious reasons, with the String Quartet No. 1 in A Minor, op. 7. For those interested in watching them rehearse the work, they will be streaming that on March 12th at 1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST.

There’s no charge to watch any of the events of this six-week series. You do, however, need to register. You can do so in the link built into A Bartók Journey. You will also find details for the entire series there.

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Narek Hakhnazaryan and Armine Grigoryan – Shriver Hall Concert Series – Debuts March 14th – 5:30 PM EDT/2:30 PM PDT

Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan made a name for himself by winning the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition. He will be performing as part of the Shriver Hall Concert Series with pianist Armine Grigoryan. She, too, is an award-winning musician.

On Sunday’s program will be Beethoven’s Seven Variations in E-Flat Major on Mozart’s “Dei Männem”; Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70; Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Cello; E. Bagdasaryan’s Nocture and A. Arutyunian’s Impromptu.

Tickets are $15. There will be a post-performance conversation. This concert will remain available through March 21st.

BROADWAY VOCALS: Emily Skinner – Seth Concert Series – March 14th – 3:00 PM EDT/12:00 PM PDT

Broadway fans first became aware of Emily Skinner as one-half of the conjoined Hilton twins in the musical Side Show. Skinner received a shared Tony nomination for Best Actress with co-star Alice Ripley. (After all, how could you separate their performances?)

She continued dazzling audiences with performances in James Joyce’s The Dead, The Full Monty, Prince of Broadway and The Cher Show.

She is Seth Rudetsky’s guest for this weekend’s live streaming concert and conversation show. The program will air live on Sunday at 3:00 PM EDT. If you are unable to watch the show then, there is a rebroadcast on Sunday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT.

MUSICALS: Passing Through – Goodspeed Musicals – March 15th – April 4th

A young man decides he wants to walk from Pennsylvania to California with a sign on his backpack that says, “Walking to Listen.” Wouldn’t it be nice if more people wanted to listen these days? Anyway, along the way he documented his many encounters with people and their stories.

Upon hearing about Andrew Forsthoefel, who took this trip unsure about what to do with his life post-college, composer/lyricist Brett Ryback and book writer Eric Ulloa knew immediately there was a musical in this true story.

Passing Through is the result of their collaboration. Goodspeed Musicals presented a workshop production of the musical in the summer of 2019. A film of that production will be available for streaming on demand starting on March 15th and running through April 4th.

Max Chernin stars as Andrew. The cast includes Joan Almedilla, Reed Armstrong, Ryan Duncan, Linedy Genao, Charles Gray, Garrett Long, Mary Jo Mecca, Celeste Rose, Jim Stanek and the incomparable Jennifer Leigh Warren. Igor Goldin directed and the choreography is by Marcos Santana.

Tickets are $25 and allow for 72 hours of streaming. Your time begins when you first start watching Passing Through.

BROADWAY REUNION: The Bridges of Madison County – The Jesse Walker Show – March 15th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Jesse Walker will celebrate his 20th anniversary of his eponymous talk show with a reunion of the cast and creative team of the musical The Bridges of Madison County. Participating in the reunion are Kelli O’Hara, Steven Pasquale, Hunter Foster, Caitlin Kinnunen and Derek Klena. Composer Jason Robert Brown, librettist Marsha Norman and director Bartlett Sher will also be joining.

Brown won two Tony Awards for his original score and its orchestrations. O’Hara also received one of the show’s four nominations.

The Bridges of Madison County didn’t run as long as it should have, but its legions of fans will definitely want to tune-in to this reunion which will raise funds for The Actors Fund.

OPERA: For the Love of Opera: Celebrating RBG’s 88th Birthday – Lowell Milken Center of American Jewish Experience at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music/National Museum of American Jewish History/Opera Philadelphia – March 15th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

Liza’s not the only one being feted. So is the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It wasn’t just law that she loved, it was also opera. To celebrate what would have been RBG’s 88th birthday, a program of arias from operas that address issues of social justice, equality and more will be performed.

The program is set to include arias from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore; Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mozart’s Le nozze de Figaro and Cosí fan tutte, Verdi’s Falstaff, Menotti’s The Consul and a song from the Flaherty and Aherns musical Ragtime.

Performers are Joshua Blue (tenor), Norman Garrett (baritone), Michelle Rice (soprano) and Ashley Marie Robillard (soprano). Pianists Stephen Karr and Grant Loehnig will accompany on piano.

The event will be presented via Zoom, so you will need to register to see it. The program will become available on demand shortly after its conclusion on the various venues’ social media pages.

VARIETY: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – March 15th – 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM EDT

If you want even more of jazz vocalist Jane Monheit, you’ll want to join this week’s edition of Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party. She’ll be singing songs from Come What May and sharing stories with Caruso. The two are longtime friends. Monheit is a semi-regular performer when Cast Party happens live at Birdland in New York. (I’ve seen here there myself.)

Also joining this week at magician Dana Daniels, actor/singer Shu Q and Broadway actor Michael Winther (the upcoming Flying Over Sunset).

The show is free to watch and is always a delight.

Are you overwhelmed yet? I hope not, because I have a couple reminders before we go:

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Violinist Gil Shaham and The Knights perform works by Beethoven and Boulogne in a concert that began streaming from New York’s 92nd Street Y on Thursday. The concert will remain available through March 18th. (Next week I’ll have an interview with Shaham. Check back for that.)

OPERA: The Metropolitan Opera concludes its week celebrating Verismo Passions with Umberto Giordano’s Fedora on Friday and his Andrea Chénier on Saturday and Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca on Sunday. Monday they will launch Viewer’s Choice week with the 2009 production of Jacques Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann

Liza’s Birthday, RBG’s Birthday…and whole lot in between. Maybe this time you really did get lucky! After all, life is a cabaret old chum! Have a great weekend!

Photo: Liza Minnelli in the film version of “Cabaret” (Courtesy Liza Minnelli’s Facebook page)

The post Four Days of Best Bets: March 12th – March 15th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

One reason for this is our Top Pick this week actually happens on Monday. It’s a reunion of the original off-Broadway cast of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s musical Assassins.

There’s literally something for everyone this week with options for jazz, classical music, opera, dance, ballet and two top Broadway stars perform as well.

Here are the Best Bets: March 5th – March 8th:

*TOP PICK* – Assassins Reunion – Studio Tenn Theatre Company – March 8th – 8:00 EST/5:00 PM PST

On Monday, Studio Tenn Theatre in Franklin, Tennesse will be streaming a reunion of eleven of the original cast members of the Playwrights Horizon production of Assassins including: Victor Garber, Greg Germann, Annie Golden, Lyn Greene, Jonathan Hadary, Eddie Korbich, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, William Parry and Lee Wilkof.

If you’re wondering why a theatre in Tennessee is holding this event, Studio Tenn Theatre’s Artistic Director is Patrick Cassidy who originated the role of The Balladeer in that production. He’s participating, of course.

If you aren’t familiar with the Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman musical Assassins, you should be. The show opened in December of 1990 at Playwrights Horizon in New York. It’s a musical that features successful and would-be presidential assassins as its subject matter. Yes, the likes of John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme had their stories musicalized.

Sondheim and Weidman along with director Jerry Zaks, music director Paul Gemignani and orchestrator Michael Starobin will also participate.

The following clip is from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall and features Patrick Cassidy and Victor Garber.

As Frank Rich explained in his New York Times review, “In Assassins, a daring work even by his lights, Mr. Sondheim and his collaborator, the writer John Weidman, say the unthinkable, though they sometimes do so in a deceptively peppy musical-comedy tone. Without exactly asking that the audience sympathize with some of the nation’s most notorious criminals, this show insists on reclaiming them as products, however defective, of the same values and traditions as the men they tried to murder.”

The timing of Assassins‘ opening wasn’t terrific. With the first Gulf War raging, producers didn’t believe audiences would be so interested in the show – even though the off-Broadway performances sold out.

Many consider the addition of the song, Something Just Broke, as a key to the musical’s emotional core. That song was added by Sondheim for the 1992 Donmar Warehouse Production. In a 1994 production in Toronto the characters of Lee Harvey Oswald and The Balladeer began to be played by the same actor.

Theatergoers did finally embrace the show, as did many critics, when the Roundabout Theatre staged the first Broadway production in 2004. That production would go on to win five Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical.

Given recent events in the past year, particularly the riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, this musical will be more topical than ever.

There is no charge to watch this reunion, however donations are certainly encouraged.

DANCE: ‘kwirē/ – REDCAT – Now – March 6th

This solo work by dancer/choreographer Jessica Emmanuel finds the dancer seeking details about her past from her ancestors. ‘kwirē/ takes place in a dystopian world. Most information about public and personal history along with ancestral information has long ago been destroyed. Very few human beings are still alive. Through dance and sound, Emmanuel utilizes natural resources to reconnect with her own memories and her DNA.

Emmanuel is Los Angeles-based and has worked with Poor Dog Group, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre and countless other companies.

There are two performances this weekend available for streaming: Friday at 11:30 PM EST/8:30 PM PST and Saturday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST. Tickets are $15 for general admission; $12 for REDCAT members and students and $8 for CalArts students, faculty and staff.

BALLET: Wooden Dimes World Premiere – San Francisco Ballet – Now – March 24th

As part of their digital programming, San Francisco Ballet is presenting the world premiere of choreographer/director Danielle Rowe’s Wooden Dimes. Joining this work are two archived works: Symphony #9 by Alexei Ratmansky and Swimmer by Yuri Possokhov.

Symphony #9 had its world premiere by American Ballet Theatre in 2012. It is set to composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s 9th Symphony.

Ratmansky is a former dancer who went on to be the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet in 2004. He joined ABT in 2009 as Artist in Residence.

Symphony #9 features a cast of 21 dancers with two couples in the lead and a solo male. Can you dance to Shostakovich?

Wooden Dimes by Rowe features the music of composer James M. Stephenson. Not much is officially known about Wooden Dimes except that it takes place in the roaring 20s, is a backstage story and that it title comes from the expression “Don’t take any wooden nickels.”

On Stephenson’s website, he says the ballet is about Fanny Brice (the actress brought to life by Barbra Streisand in the stage and film musical Funny Girl).

Swimmer as 1960s pop culture in its sightline. Posskhov, is a former dancer with both the Bolshoi Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet. He’s a very popular choreographer with SF Ballet and this work, which dates to 2015, is immensely popular.

His work is set to music by Shinji Eshima, Kathleen Brennan, Gavin Bryars and Tom Waits.

Tickets are $29 and allow for 72 hours of access.

PLAY: Jericho – New Normal Rep – Now – April 4th

In Jack Canfora’s play, Jericho, a family gathers for Thanksgiving in the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy. While that sounds like heavy material, Canfora infuses the play with generous amounts of humor and compassion. The play had its world premiere at the New Jersey Repertory Theatre in 2011.

Appearing in this reading of Jericho are C. K. Allen, Jill Eikenberry, Eleanor Handley, Jason O’Connel, Michael Satow and Carol Todd. Directing is Marsha Mason.

Anita Gates, in her New York Times review of the play said, “Mr. Canfora has delivered a smart, hard-hitting drama filled with biting wit. One character says: ‘It’s an oxymoron. Like jumbo shrimp or Fox News.’ The best jokes consist of wordplay with expletives that are not printable here. But to give you a sense of the tone, one character, Jessica, complains in Act I that her husband considers her occasional viewing of the celebrity-gossip show Access Hollywood ‘the moral equivalent of sodomizing kittens.’

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here.

OPERA: The Marriage of Figaro – Royal Opera House – March 5th – April 4th

Conducted by Ivor Bolton; starring Erwin Schrott, Sophie Bevan, Stéphane Degout, Ellie Dehn, Kate Lindsey and Carlo Lepore. This revival of David McVicar’s 2006 production is from the 2015-2016 season.

Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro is based on the 1784 play La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (translated: “The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”) by Pierre Beaumarchais.

Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto. La Nozze di Figaro had its world premiere in Vienna in 1786.

Figaro and Susanna are getting married. They are in a room made available to them by the Count who plans to seduce the bride-to-be based on an old law that gave permission to lords to have sex with servant girls on their wedding night. When Figaro gets wind of this plan he enlists several people to outwit the Count using disguises, altered identities and more.

Tim Ashley, in his review for The Guardian, said, “At the centre of it all, however, lies a grand confrontation between Erwin Schrott’s Figaro, and Stéphane Degout’s Count. Schrott’s interpretation has also changed somewhat since he last sang the role here. There’s less political anger, more manipulative wit: he sings Se Vuol Ballare with bemused irony rather than scorn, not so much as a manifesto, but as a prelude to a game that turns increasingly dangerous. Degout, a wonderfully patrician singer with a handsome, ringing tone, has an innate charm that can turn to menace in a flash: it’s a superbly accomplished characterisation.

Tickets are £3 which equates to approximately $4.20.

JAZZ/EXPERIMENTAL: Laurie Anderson and Tammy L. Hall – SFJAZZ – March 5th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

In 2018 Laurie Anderson served as Resident Artistic Director for SFJAZZ. Over the course of one week in late November she performed and curated a series of concerts. Amongst them was Songs for Women.

Anderson was inspired to create Songs for Women after hearing Tammy L. Hall’s song For Miss Jones.

From there a musical collaboration was born with songs written for and about women by both artists.

Laurie Anderson is known for her innovative films and recordings including Big Science, Strange Angels and Home of the Brave.

SFJAZZ will stream this concert as part of their Fridays at Five series. You must have either monthly digital membership ($5) or an annual digital membership ($60) to stream this and all other Fridays at Five concerts.

BROADWAY/VOCALS: Leslie Odom Jr. in Concert – PBS – March 5th (Check local listings)

Tony Award winner Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton) performs Live From Lincoln Center in this concert which originally aired in 2018. But don’t expect to hear all of his songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s juggernaut of a musical. This performance showcases Odom’s jazz and soul chops.

As with all PBS programming, best to check your local listings. For instance, in Los Angeles this show is not scheduled to run until March 11th and 12th.

OPERA: Das Rheingold – San Francisco Opera – March 6th – March 7th

San Francisco Opera streams their 2018 production of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle with each of the four operas available in successive weeks. The first opera is, of course, Das Rheingold.

Conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles; starring Greer Grimsley, Jamie Barton, Falk Struckmann, Ronnita Miller and Stefan Margita.

This revival of Francesca Zambello’s 2011 production is from the 2017-2018 season.

This is the first in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen (also known as The Ring Cycle). As with all four of these operas, Wagner wrote the music and the libretto. Das Rheingold had its world premiere in 1869 in Munich. It was premiered as a stand-alone opera. The first performance of the entire cycle was at Bayreuth in 1876.

Alberich is a dwarf who renounces love in his successful effort to take gold from the Rhinemaidens and have possession of a ring bestowing power to the wearer. With this one action, he sets in motion the storyline that runs through all four operas in the Ring Cycle. Fafner and Fasolt are the giants who built Valhalla. The long-suffering Wotan is introduced here as are the challenges the gods face in repaying the architects of Valhalla. When the ring is stolen from Alberich he puts a curse on it and on anyone who takes possession of it.

Zambello sets this production in the American west beginning with the Gold Rush and ending with the tech age.

All four operas in the Ring Cycle will be presented in order on consecutive weekends. There is also a Ring Festival with additional programs. You can find details about that here.

DANCE/CLASSICAL MUSIC: Sasha Waltz & Guests in C – Bang on a Can Website – March 6th – 2:00 PM EST/11:00 AM PST

If you thought dancing to Shostakovich was intriguing, how about dancing to Terry Riley’s In C? It’s a work that has an undefined length. Riley wrote 53 different musical phrases. They are all numbered. It is up to the musicians performing the work to figure out exactly how long they want to play each phrase, in what order and when they start.

Choreographer Sasha Waltz, Co-Director of the Staatsballett Berlin with Johannes Öhman for the 2019-2020 season, is using a recording of In C by Bang on a Can for this live-streaming performance from Berlin. Here’s how she explains what this project is:

“The score of In C consists of fifty-three musical phrases and reads like stage directions for musicians. The thought of translating these detailed instructions into dance through a choreographic exploration of the music appealed to me. The result is an experimental system of fifty-three movement phrases for a structured improvisation with clear rules and laws. The length of the piece remains variable, as does the number of musicians and dancers.”

There is no charge to watch the performance, but donations are encouraged.

DANCE: Israel Galván/Maestro de Barra, Servir el Baile – CapUCLA – March 6th – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST

To get a sense of flamenco dancer/choreographer Israel Galván, let’s turn to an interview he gave Dance Magazine in 2019 where he told them:

“I know it sounds odd, but I think I dance because I don’t like to dance. It’s not logical, but there is something freeing in accepting that. I literally cannot remember a time in my life when I didn’t dance. I’ve danced since I’ve had consciousness. It’s simply in my DNA. And you can’t escape what you are.

“I was always going to be a dancer, but my saving grace as an adult is that I don’t feel any pressure. I feel total freedom when it comes to how I choose to dance. As long as people continue asking me to perform, I will, but it has to be on my terms.”

His terms will be on full display on Saturday when CAP UCLA offers up Maestro de Barra Servir el Baile which roughly translated means Master of the Bar, Serving the Dance. This is Galván’s way of keeping dance alive during the pandemic. He utilizes the concept of music and dance as played out in cafes and bars around the world for this work.

There is no charge to stream this performance, however donations are encouraged.

BROADWAY/VOCALS: Eva Noblezada – Seth Concert Series – March 7th – 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST with an encore at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST $25

If you were lucky enough to see Hadestown on Broadway before theatres closed in New York, you got to experience the wonderfully talented Eva Noblezada. She received her second Tony Award nomination for her performance as Eurydice in the musical.

Her first nomination came for her performance as Kim in the 2017 revival of Miss Saigon.

Noblezada is Seth Rudetsky’s guest for this weekend’s conversation and performance program.

Tickets are $25. Note that the schedule has changed a little for these performances (at least through the month of March.) The live show is in the afternoon on Sunday and the encore stream of the performance is Sunday evening.

JAZZ: Alan Broadbent Trio – Smalls Live – March 7th – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST and 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST

For nearly 50 years, pianist Alan Broadbent has been making great music. He’s worked as a bandleader and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in multiple genres of music. That list would include David Byrne, Kristin Chenoweth, Natalie Cole, Charlie Haden, Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Linda Ronstadt and Barbra Streisand.

If you haven’t heard his solo recording, Heart to Heart from 2013, I suggest you do so. It’s beautiful.

For these two sets at New York’s Smalls Broadbent will be joined by Billy Mintz on drums and Harvie S on bass.

You can make reservations for either streaming show (which includes a donation), or you can wait for the show to just go live at the link above.

That does it for Best Bets: March 5th – March 8th. But I want to remind you of a few other options I’ve already covered this week:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic begins the second season of Sound/Stage on Friday, March 5th with a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals. Yuja Wang and David Fung join Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for this performance filmed on the stage at the Hollywood Bowl.

CaltechLive! has begun streaming Herbert Sigüenza’s A Weekend with Pablo Picasso. You can read our full preview here and my interview with Sigüenza here.

The 25th anniversary celebration of Rent will remain available through 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST on Saturday, March 6th.

This weekend’s offerings from the Metropolitan Opera where they are celebrating Women’s History Month are Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes from the 2007-2008 season on Friday; Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka from the 2013-2014 season on Saturday and Giuseppe Verdi’s La Forza del Destino from the 1983-1984 season on Sunday.

With our new line-up extending to Monday, here’s a preview of next week at the Metropolitan Opera: Monday’s production is Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut from the 1979-1980 season and kicks off Week 52 at the Met with the theme Verismo Passions.

I hope you enjoy your weekend and enjoy whichever of my Best Bets: March 5th – March 8th interest you the most! Have fun!

Main photo: The cast of the Playwright’s Horizon production of Assassins (Photo courtesy Studio Tenn Theatre Company)

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Our top pick this week is Heartbeat Opera’s Breathing Free, a powerful 45-minute film that is having its West Coast debut courtesy of The Broad Stage. Opera, spirituals, movement and imagery combine to explore the challenges Black men have of simply breathing without fear. I saw the film last year and can tell you this is easily one of the strongest works you’ll see all year.

If you are a fan of The Supremes and want to catch quite possibly Mary Wilson’s last performance (she passed away earlier this week), you will want to catch A Catalina Soulful Valentine fundraiser on Friday night.

It’s not all dance and topical issues this week, in fact, our first listing might find you mixing your own cocktails. Get your ice out of the freezer, get your cocktail shaker on standby and dig in!

Here are my Best Bets: February 12th – February 15th (we’re including Monday since it’s also a holiday weekend):

PLAY: Dixie’s Happy Hour – Segerstrom Center for the Arts – Now – February 21st

Dixie Longate hosting a happy hour? That will certainly have heavy emphasis on the happy. And probably on the adult side, too. Dixie, though a Southern girl at heart, has a quick wit and is never shy about sharing her thoughts.

With everything that has gone on the world since Dixie was last selling Tupperware locally, I can only imagine what she’ll have to say.

And what drinks she’ll make. I don’t believe Dixie has been in the Alabama slammer, but I bet she knows how to make a fierce one! Actually, she does have a pre-show margarita recipe to share.

There are performances every night through February 21st at 7:00 PM PST. Tickets are $35.

BALLET: Digital Program 02 – San Francisco Ballet – Now – March 3rd $29 for 72 hour access

The world premiere of Colorforms, a new work by Myles Thatcher, is featured in San Francisco Ballet’s Digital Program 02. The work, set to Variations for Vibes, Pianos and Strings by Steve Reich, seeks to illuminate the parallels between the creation and consumption of art. The film, directed by Ezra Hurwitz, was shot in multiple San Francisco locations including the War Memorial Opera House where the San Francisco Ballet regularly performs.

Opening the program is Dwight Rhoden‘s Let’s Begin at the End which features music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Philip Glass and Michael Nyman. The work was created for SF Ballet’s 2018 Unbound and had its debut on April 26th of that year.

Closing out the program is Sandpaper Ballet by Mark Morris with music by Leroy Anderson. The work was created in 1999 for San Francisco Ballet. Composer Anderson is probably best-known for having written the popular holiday song, Sleigh Ride. Sandpaper Ballet was composed in 1954.

Tickets are $29 and allow for 72 hours of streaming.

BALLET: Raymonda Act III – Royal Opera House – Now – March 14th

Marius Petipa’s ballet, Raymonda, had its world premiere in St. Petersburg in 1898 and is set to the music of Alexander Glazunov. In 1948 the Kirov Ballet revived the ballet with new choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev. This latter choreography is the one most commonly used in performances of the ballet.

Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev dance the ballet with the Kirov. He would later stage a full-length version for the Royal Ballet in 1964. Five years later he tweaked the very popular third act. It is that version that will be seen in this film which comes from a 2003 tribute to Nureyev. (The event took place ten years after his death.)

The two acts leading up to the segment being presented depicts the story of two lovers, Raymonda and Jean de Brienne who plan to get married. Unfortunately Abderman shows up at her birthday party and makes his intentions clear. Jean de Brienne does not arrive for one more day. He does arrive just in time (in Act 2) to break up Abderman’s kidnapping attempt of Raymonda. A duel ensues between the two men and Abderman is killed.

So what’s left in Act III? A big celebration. The full ballet isn’t performed as often as is this third act.

Pavel Sorokin conducts with Natalia Osipova as Raymonda and Vadim Muntagirov as Jean de Brienne.

Tickets to stream this performance are £3 which at press time equals approximately $4.15

THEATRE TALK: Virtual Halston – Cast Party Network on YouTube – February 12th – 5:00 PM EST/2:00 PM PST

Fans of the original cast of The Producers will certainly recognize Julie Halston’s guests for this week’s Virtual Halston: Cady Huffman (who originated the role of Ulla and won both the Drama Desk Award and the Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Musical) and Brad Oscar (who originated the role of Franz Liebkind). Oscar would later assume the role of Max Bialystock (the role Nathan Lane created) as the show continued its successful run on Broadway.

The two will be reunited on this Friday’s virtual happy hour with Halston. It’s a holiday weekend, your work is being mostly done by remote, why not mix a drink early and join in the fun?

PLAY: Yorick, La Historia de Hamlet – REDCAT – February 12th – February 14th

Hamlet’s soliloquies form the basis for this one-man show created by and starring Chilean actor Francisco Reyes. Yorick, the late court jester in Shakespeare’s play, is the narrator of Yorick, La Historia de Hamlet. Co-creator Simón Reyes wrote the script.

Joining Reyes in the performance are puppets that he manipulates. The puppets were created by Ismael Reyes.

The film is also uniquely lit by only candlelight. Music was composed by Miguel Miranda with songs by Rocío Reyes.

The work is performed in Spanish with English subtitles. There are only three showings of this highly-acclaimed film by Reyes. Friday, February 12th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST; Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 PM EST/3:00 PM PST. Tickets range from $8 for students up to $15 for general admission.

JAZZ: SF Jazz Collective – SFJAZZ – February 12th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

This weekend’s Fridays at Five concert celebrates the work of two very influential and different artists: Sly and the Family Stone and Miles Davis. As befitting such groundbreaking artists, this concert runs nearly two hours.

The San Francisco Jazz Collective, an octet, performs music from Stand! and Davis’ In a Silent Way. Both albums were released in 1969.

This concert, from November 2019, celebrates the 50th anniversary of both works. Stand! featured the songs I Want to Take You Higher and Everyday People. Davis was more austere with his recording – it only had two tracks, but ran 38 minutes.

The members of the SF Jazz Collective are bassist Matt Brewer; trumpeter Etienne Charles; drummer Obed Calvaire; vocalist Martin Luther McCoy; guitarist Adam Rogers; tenor saxophonist David Sánchez; pianist Edward Simon and vibraphonist Warren Wolf.

There is also a cameo appearance by Family Stone drummer Greg Errico. 

Tickets are $5 (which includes a one-month digital membership) or $60 (which includes an annual digital membership). This concert will stream just once.

JAZZ/CABARET: A Catalina Soulful Valentine – February 12th – 9:00 PM EST/6:00 PM PST

Los Angeles nightclub, Catalina Jazz Club, has been severely impacted by the pandemic. They are doing everything they can to keep the doors open and amongst them is Friday night’s A Catalina Soulful Valentine.

For weeks they have been touting the appearance of Mary Wilson of The Supremes as one of their performers. Of course, she passed away earlier this week. But, her set was filmed in advance and will be seen in its entirety to both support Catalina Jazz Club and to honor her.

Sally Struthers and singer/musician Mr. Chris Norton serve as hosts. The list of performers includes Lucie Arnaz, Carole J. Bufford, Linda Purl, James Snyder, Nita Whitaker and more.

The show will air on Catalina’s Facebook page and Chris Isaacson Presents’ YouTube channel. There is no charge to watch the concert, but donations are definitely encouraged.

JAZZ: Douglas J. Cuomo’s Seven Limbs featuring Nels Cline and Aizuri Quartet – CAP UCLA – February 12th – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST

Composer Douglas J. Cuomo’s Seven Limbs was meant to have its world premiere last year. We all know what happened to preclude that. This digital performance of the work had its world premiere earlier this week from The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech.

UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance is making the film available on Friday with on demand opportunities beginning on Sunday for one week.

What is Seven Limbs? It is a 75-minute work for electric guitar and string quartet. Cuomo composed this specifically for the artists who perform it: Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and the Aizuri Quartet.

But what is it? Best to let the composer describe it for you:

“This piece is inspired by an ancient Buddhist purification ceremony called The Seven Limbs. It’s part of a meditation practice I do every day. The practice has lots of words; the piece has none. The feel of this ceremony is what I kept going to as I composed, and then at some point I realized I was setting text without using words. For me Seven Limbs is a dream-like piece; I can look inward to a new terrain and find out what’s there. Stillness, turmoil, suppleness, euphoria, high drama. I wrote it for Nels Cline and the Aizuri Quartet because, for composers, to write for great players is another kind of dream. Together, we offer you our dream, in the hope it makes some connection with you.”

CAP UCLA is making this performance free to view.

OPERA: Save the Boys – Opera Philadelphia – February 12th

Last week our top pick was musician/composer Tyshawn Sorey’s two-night gig at the Village Vanguard. He returns to our Best Bets this weekend with the debut of his twenty-minute song cycle Save the Boys.

Sorey uses Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s 1887 poem of the same name as the inspiration for this work.

Harper was an Black women’s rights activist and abolitionist.

Performing Save the Boys is the vocalist for whom it was written: countertenor John Holiday. If his name sounds familiar, perhaps you saw him on the most recently concluded season of The Voice. In 2019 I interviewed Holiday. You can read that interview here.

Holiday is accompanied on the piano by Opera Philadelphia’s Grant Loehnig.

Tickets are $10 which allows for a seven-day rental.

OPERA: Cosí fan tutte – San Francisco Opera – February 13th – February 14th

Conducted by Nicola Luisotti; starring Ellie Dehn, Susannah Biller, Marco Vinco, Francesco Demuro and Philippe Sly. This revival of the 2004 John Cox production is from the 2012-2013 season.

Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte had its world premiere in Vienna in 1790. Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote the libertti for The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, wrote the libretto.

Ferrando and Guglielmo are vacationing with their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi. They are sisters. Don Alfonso challenges the men to a bet revolving around the women and their ability to be faithful. Using disguise, deception and a wicked sense of humor, Mozart’s opera ends happily ever after for one and all.

Joshua Kosman, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, raved about Sly’s performance as Guglielmo , “In the ensemble cast of six, the standout performance was the precocious and phenomenally assured company debut of Adler Fellow Philippe Sly as Guglielmo. Adler Fellows don’t often get cast at this level, but then again, Adler Fellows this gifted and accomplished are rare indeed.

“Sly’s singing was at once robust and lyrical, with a beautiful range of tonal colors and the ability to combine virility and tenderness in a single phrase.”

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Anna Clyne’s Stride – Detroit Symphony Orchestra – February 13th – 7:30 PM EST/4:30 PM PST

It must be daunting for a composer to have a world premiere or relatively new work precede one of the stalwart compositions in classical music. Such is the status of British composer Anna Clyne who’s Stride will be performed by members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra prior to their performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat Major, BWV 1051.

But it is Clyne’s composition that is most interesting about this concert. The Australian Chamber Orchestra commissioned Clyde to write a piece as part of their celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s Birth. The Covid-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of many of their performances last year, but they were able to return on November 14th with the world premiere of Stride.

The work weaves themes from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata throughout and also includes nods to other composers, most notably Bernard Herrmann (best known for his film scores for director Alfred Hitchcock).

Tickets are $12 to stream the concert.

DANCE: John Henry – Dance Theatre of Harlem on Stage Access – Debuts February 13th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

Dance Theatre of Harlem gave the world premiere performance of Arthur Mitchell’s John Henry on June 28, 1988. Before getting into her review, Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times reported, “…its premiere at the company’s opening at the City Center Tuesday night roused cheering fans out of their seats during the curtain calls. Mr. Mitchell, the troupe’s founder and artistic director, stayed in the spirit of things by throwing himself into a choreographed clog dance to acknowledge the applause.”

With music by Milton Rosenstock, Dance Theatre of Harlem will make available, via Stage Access, a performance filmed in Denmark at Danmarks Radio. The performance will remain available through February 19th.

Stage Access offers up a 7-day free trial with two subscription options: an annual plan of $69.99 or a monthly plan of $7.99

TOP PICK: OPERA/MOVEMENT: Breathing Free – The Broad Stage – February 13th – 10:00 PM EST/7:00 PM PST

Earlier this week I published an interview with Michael Blakk Powell, a formerly incarcerated man who was a member of the Kuji Mens Chorus at Marion Correctional Institute in Ohio. Through his participation in that chorus, he found himself learning German to perform music from Beethoven’s Fidelio.

One of the two pieces in which that performance can be seen and heard is in Heartbeat Opera’s powerful Breathing Free. This 45-minute film combines movement and opera to explore the challenges Black men in particular face in simply being allowed to breathe freely.

Joining the Beethoven heard in Breathing Free are works by Black composers and lyricists Harry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Langston Hughes, Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis. The project also uses Negro spirituals.

The cast includes bass-baritone Derrell Acon, tenor Curtis Bannister, soprano Kelly Griffin and dancers Randy Castillo, Tamrin Goldberg, Brian HallowDreamz Henry. Breathing Free was directed by Ethan Heard. Music Direction was by Jacob Ashworth and Daniel Schlosberg (who also did the arrangements of the music from Fidelio).

Tickets prices range from $10 – $75 based on what you can afford to pay. I strongly urge you to consider carving out time on Saturday night to see Breathing Free.

CABARET: Laura Osnes – Seth Rudetsky Concert Series – February 14th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

You have to be a pretty versatile performer to believably portray Cinderella in one musical and Bonnie Parker in another. Add to that the ability to be Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Sandy in Grease. Broadway star Laura Osnes has done them all.

She received Tony Award nominations for her performances in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella and also for Frank Wildhorn’s musical about the outlaws Bonnie and Clyde.

Osnes is Seth Rudetsky’s concert guest this week. In addition to Sunday’s live performance there is an encore presentation February 15th at 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST. Tickets are $25 for either showing.

THEATRE: Justin Hicks’ Use Your Head for More – Baryshikov Arts Center – February 15th – March 1st

Looking at composer/creator/performer Justin Hicks’ website, he describes himself as “a multidisciplinary artist, and performer who uses music and sound to investigate themes of presence, identity, and value.” For this digital world premiere, Hicks has created a performance based on a transcript of a conversation he had with his mother. Use Your Head For More is offered up as a series of audiovisual portraits.

His work runs 30 minutes and was filmed at Hicks’ home in Bronx, New York. Two vocalists, Jasmine Enlow and Jade Hicks, collaborated with Hicks on Use Your Head for More.

There is no charge to watch Use Your Heard for More.

For those interesting in digging further into the project, there will be a live-streamed conversation between Hicks and Meshell Ndegeocello on February 24th at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST. You must register to watch the conversation. Registration for that opens up on February 15th.

CABARET/OPERA/JAZZ: Jim Caruso’s Pajama Cast Party – February 15th – 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST

It’s sad that we don’t often have Monday listings, because Pajama Cast Party would be on the list every week. Which means you need to check out Jim Caruso and his fabulous guests. This week they include opera star Zachary James, jazz singer/songwriter Lauren Kinhan, actress/singer Avery Sommers and comedian Gianmarco Soresi. They will share stories, songs, jokes and more during the show.

Cast Party is a weekly ritual for New Yorkers and it takes place at Birdland. This is a modified version, but no less entertaining – just less physically tangible. It’s also the 45th episode Caruso has done…so far. No doubt he’d love to be back at Birdland as much as the rest of us would!

That’s the complete list of my Best Bets: February 12th – February 15th. But you know I’ve got a few reminders for you as well!

Pianist Richard Goode performs works of Bach and Claude Debussy on Saturday in a performance from New York’s 92nd Street Y.

The Metropolitan Opera concludes their second week of Black History Month with performances of Akhnaten by Philip Glass on Friday (strongly recommended); Berlioz’s Les Troyens on Saturday and Wagner’s Die Walküre on Sunday. Plus here’s an early preview of Week 49 at the Met. They will be celebrating Franco Zeffirelli and launch the week with the 2007-2008 season production of Puccini’s La Bohème.

This week’s episode of In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl is called Música sin Fronteras (Music without Borders) and concludes the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s series on PBS. (Check your local listings).

The films.dance festival continues with this week’s Pássaro Distante. They debut a new film, and one of my favorites, Match on Monday, February 15th.

That ends all my Best Bets: February 12th – February 15th. There’s culture to enjoy with the family; culture to enjoy with that special someone and certainly great options for those going solo this year. Whatever you choose, be safe and have a wonderful weekend.

Main Photo: An image from Breathing Free (Courtesy The Broad Stage)

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Last August the Los Angeles Philharmonic launched a series of filmed performances from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Those who lived in the greater Los Angeles area were the only ones who could see In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Now everyone can as the series begins its run on PBS stations around the country.

Each concert is themed and contains multiple performances from the past few years. The artists who appear include Kristin Chenoweth, Misty Copeland, Herbie Hancock, Natalia Lafourcade, Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Katy Perry, Pink Martini, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Carlos Santana, Kamasi Washington and John Williams. Music by Beethoven, Copland, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky are amongst the works performed.

As you can see, a multitude of genres are represented in the six one-hour episodes.

Most shows are scheduled for 9:00 PM in each time zone except as noted below. Best to check your local listings to confirm when your local PBS station is broadcasting In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl.

I’ve seen all six shows and strongly recommend them.

Here’s the full line-up for In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl (please note that schedules are subject to change):

Hecho en Mexico – January 22nd

Dudamel leads the LA Phil with special guests acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela (if you’ve never seen them, wait until you get a look at them in this show), singer/songwriter Natalia Lafourcade. Cumbia sonidera group Los Angeles Azures performs with YOLA (Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles) and multi-genre band La Santa Cecilia performs. Dudamel also leads the orchestra in a performance of Arturo Marquez’s El Nereidas de Dimas.

Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl – January 29th

You can’t ask for a better line-up of jazz artists for this concert: singer Dianne Reeves, singer/songwriter Ivan Lins, bassist Christian McBride, pianist Chucho Valdés, singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, saxophonist/composer Kamasi Washington plus the group Mega Nova which features keyboardist/composer Herbie Hancock, singer/guitarist Carlos Santana and saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

Musicals and the Movies – January 29th – 10:00 PM

It appears you have to have won a Tony Award to make it in this show. Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown) performs with Kevin Stites and the LA Phil. Audra McDonald(you know she has six Tony Awards, right?) performs with Bramwell Tovey and the LA Phil. Brian Stokes Mitchell (Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate) performs with Dudamel and the LA Phil. Sutton Foster (Anything Goes, Violet) also performs.

Gustavo and Friends – February 5th

Dudamel’s friends here include ballet dancer Misty Copeland, cellist Pablo Ferrández, soprano Amanda Majeski, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, tenor Issachah Savage, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

On the program are excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man and the finale to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Fireworks! – February 5th – 10:00 PM

Every Hollywood Bowl season ends with the Fireworks Finale. So it’s appropriate that Katy Perry joins this episode to sing her hit song, Fireworks. Additional performers in this episode include Pink Martini, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, gypsy singer Diego El Cigala, conductor Thomas Wilkins and Dudamel leading the LA Phil in selections from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.

Lest you think the LA Phil forgot about its most popular series of concerts each summer, composer/conductor John Williams leads the orchestra in a performance of music from Star Wars. Get out your lightsabers.

Música Sin Fronteras (“Music Without Borders”) – February 12th

Dudamel leads the LA Phil and special guests Columbian singer/songwriter Carlos Vives, the band Café Tacvba from Mexico and the legendary Vin Scully. Also on the bill is Paolo Bortolameolli leading the LA Phil in a performance with Florida’s Siudy Garrido Flamenco Dance Theatre.

Photo: Herbie Hancock at the Hollywood Bowl (Photo courtesy Dustin Downing and PBS)

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