What To Watch July 12th To Take Away The Blues

Tartuffe, starring Raúl Esparza and Samira Wiley Molière in the Park presents a free live stream of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Wilbur’s translation of Molière’s Tartuffe. The cast includes four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza (CompanySeared), Emmy winner Samira Wiley (The Handmaid’s TaleOrange Is the New Black), Kaliswa Brewster (Billions), Naomi Lorrain (Orange Is the New Black), Jared McNeill (Battlefield), Jennifer Mudge (The Irishman), Rosemary Prinz (Tribute), and Carter Redwood (When January Feels Like Summer). Extended until July 12th.

Molière in the Park Founding Artistic Director Lucie Tiberghien helms the reading. Reservations are required.

Ann Great Performances. Enjoy a powerful and revealing look at legendary, larger-than-life Texas governor Ann Richards who enriched the lives of her followers, friends and family in this critically acclaimed play written by and starring Emmy Award-winner Holland Taylor.

Holland Taylor

2pm: Plays in the House Teen Edition: Winter Break by Joe Calarco. Benefitting Red Eagle Soaring. The cast includes Klarke Armstrong, Sachi Dieker, Lex Garcia, Charlotte Gimlin, Avery Michael Johnson, Imahni King and Lucy Martin. 

3pm: Here We Go: 24 Hour Zoom Fest short plays created by using ZOOM as the backdrop of the plays. This aims to highlight all of the innovative art that can be made through this troubling time. Each playwright will find out how large of a cast they must write for as well as meet their director all at the top of the 24 hours. After working through the night, the plays will be performed a full 24 hours later on ZOOM.

3pm: Sunday Tea With John McD. John McDaniel serenades audiences and shares stories from his life and career on Broadway, concert tours, and his days as Rosie O’Donnell’s band leader on The Rosie O’Donnell Show. He has previously collaborated with artists such as Carol Burnett, Cab Calloway, Kristin Chenoweth, Paul Newman, Madonna, Patti LuPone, and Bette Midler.

4pm–9:30pm: Marie’s Crisis Virtual Piano Bar scheduled pianists are Adam Michael Tilford (@Adam-Tilford-1) and Dan Daly (@DanDalyMusic). 

7pm: John & Jen: A Virtual Production By Short North Stage. From composer Andrew Lippa and lyricist Tom Greenwald this musical stream on Vimeo July 5–12.  Filmed at the Garden Theater in Columbus, Ohio, John & Jen: A Virtual Production stars Hunter Minor and Dionysia Williams. Short North Stage Artistic Director Edward Carignan directs with musical direction by Lori Kay Harvey. With a book by Lippa and Greenwald, the two-hander follows Jen and her relationships with the two Johns of her life: her younger brother, who was killed in Vietnam, and his namesake, the son who is trying to find his way in a confusing world. On-demand for $15 at ShortNorthStage.org, with a special opening night Zoom party set for July 5th at 7 PM ET with composer Andrew Lippa. 

Renée Fleming

7:30pm: Viewers’ Choice: Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde  Inspired by Wagner’s own tortured affair with the wife of his patron, this searing masterwork is based on Arthurian legend and tells of an illicit romance between a Breton nobleman and the Irish princess betrothed to his uncle and king. The composer’s larger-than-life sensibilities are on full display throughout the score: Along with intoxicating orchestral music that surges in tandem with the couple’s burgeoning passion and a chord left symbolically unresolved until the last moments of the opera, the opera also features one of the repertory’s most soaring and ecstatic final climaxes, as Isolde surrenders to a love so powerful that she transcends life itself.

7:30: Guild Hall: Same Time, Next Year a virtual staged reading directed by Bob Balaban. To Benefit Guild Hall of East Hampton, with Julianne Moore and Alec Baldwin. Tickets $100.

7:30: Works & Process at the GuggenheimAnnounces WPA Virtual Commissions “Let Myself Freeze to Death Missy Mazzoli

Artist Statement by Missy Mazzoli: ” In these strange and isolating times I am immersed in electronic music, by necessity imagining works that I can create by myself on a laptop in almost any environment. ‘Let Me Freeze Again to Death’ began as a purely synthesized piece, but I soon found myself craving something more, something vocal. I needed a beautiful wail that would not only hint at the drama of the present moment but would offset the boxy math of the electronics with some heart-crushing operatic romance. Enter countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (‘Ahknaten’, ‘Glass Handel’), who recorded, in his apartment, an a cappella version Henry Purcell’s aria ‘What Power Art Thou’ (commonly known as ‘The Cold Song’) from the 1691 opera ‘King Arthur.’ I dismembered, re-assembled, twisted and tweaked this vocal file (with Anthony’s generous blessing), using Purcell’s aria as a kind of sketch from which to create a completely new electronic work. Throughout this process the thought of pandemics past and present was never far away. In 1695 Purcell, then at the height of his career, succumbed to tuberculosis at age 36. In 1983 German countertenor and performance artist Klaus Nomi, whose version of ‘The Cold Song’ is one of the most haunting and memorable out there, died of complications of AIDS at age 39, also at the height of his career. Isolated in my home during the Covid-19 pandemic, I found this aria, it’s history, and in particular this excerpt of the text, all the more powerful: ‘I can scarcely move Or draw my breath I can scarcely move Or draw my breath Let me, let me, Let me freeze again Let me, let me Freeze again to death Let me, let me, let me Freeze again to death…’ ‘Let Me Freeze Again to Death’ was written before the Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd, but the lines ‘I can scarcely move or draw my breath’ take on new resonance amidst the daily chants of ‘I can’t breathe’. This piece has become a sonic portrait of the summer of 2020, a time of both extreme isolation and fast connection, of upheaval and reflection, a time that I hope will lead to positive change in the music industry and beyond.”

8pm: The Cherry Orchard Festival presents Boston’s Arlekin Players Theatre with State vs. Natasha Banina (www.ArlekinPlayers.com), a newly-conceived live Zoom interactive theater art experiment , directed by Igor Golyak and featuring Arlekin company’s leading actress and 2020 Elliot Norton Award winner (Outstanding Actress) Darya Denisova. State vs. Natasha Banina is based on a play by contemporary Russian playwright, Yaroslava Pulinovich’s Natasha’s Dream. For information or to reserve a Zoom spot, visit CherryOrchardFestival.org. Each performance will also offer live post-show discussion.

Audra McDonald

8pm: The Seth Concert Series Audra McDonald starred most recently on-Broadway with Michael Shannon in the revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (NY Times Critics Pick), holds the record for more Tony Best Performance wins than any other actor in history, and is the only person to win all four acting categories. She became a three-time Tony Award winner by the age of 28 for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime. She won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun, a role she reprised for a 2008 television adaptation, earning her a second Emmy Award nomination. On June 10, 2012, McDonald scored her fifth Tony Award win for her portrayal of Bess in Broadway’s The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess tying a record held by Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris for most Tony Awards won by an actor. In the 2014 Broadway season, she made history by winning her sixth Tony Award for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. She won her first Primetime Emmy Award in 2015. That same year she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2015 and received a 2015 National Medal of Arts – America’s highest honor for achievement in the arts – from President Barack Obama. In 2018, she joined the cast of The Good Fight for the second season of the CBS All Access original drama series. Her film roles include Cradle Will Rock, Object of My Affection. Tickets are $25. The show reruns tomorrow at 3pm. 

8pm: Kritzerland: Kritzerland Influencers actor, writer and producer Bruce Kimmel hosts monthly cabaret shows. The cast of this virtual version includes Norm Lewis, Emily Skinner, Jason Graae, Kerry O’Malley, Daniel Bellusci, Hartley Powers, Sami Staitman, Adrienne Stiefel and Robert Yacko. Proceeds benefit NoHo theaters in financial jeopardy.


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