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The Waves in Quarantine: A Theatrical Experiment in 6 Movements Click here to register Here’s something a bit different. Four-time Tony nominee Raúl Esparza leads a starry cast in an online musical adaptation of Virginia Woolf's The Waves. Following six friends from first memory to the end of their lives, the production features Esparza alongside Alice Ripley, Carmen Cusack, Nikki Renée Daniels, Darius de Haas, and Manu Narayan. The Waves in Quarantine was shot at home and outdoors by the six actors and a team of theatre professionals spanning the United States and Europe, working remotely using DSLR cameras and iPhones. The director of photography worked in Sweden, with the technical team spread between Berkeley and New York, the editing team in Arizona and New York, the music team in Upstate New York and Manhattan, the director in Los Angeles, and the actors in Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey, and New York. Will it work? We’ll see. Free to watch but registration is required. April 29-May 28 We Have to Hurry Click here for tickets This is a new play by Dorothy Lyman starring Kathleen Chalfant and Elliott Gould about two 70-year-olds who live in adjacent condos at a Florida retirement community. Gill is in love with Margaret but realises that, if he is to win her, he must use his wit and humour because every moment is precious. All he’s asking is that she come downstairs from her balcony and take a walk on the beach with him. Will she come? May 1 8pm ET and May 2 at 3pm ET $15 A Medieval Garden - Rijksmuseum Click here to watch For the Spring, what could be lovelier than gardens? Matthias Ubl, Curator of Early Netherlandish paintings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, takes us on a personal tour of some paintings, made around 1500, that include gardens. He explains the symbolism of various flowers and garden features such as turf seats that, as a casual visitor, we could never unravel by ourselves on a trip to this great museum, but, once we know them, the paintings have more depth for us and our experience, mine, anyway, is exponentially heightened. Only 5 minutes but so much to see and learn. Jazz at The Ballroom Hosts A Musical Tribute To New York from the Carlyle Hotel Click here for tickets For almost 50 years, the Great American Songbook narrated life in New York and spoke to everyone who had made the city their home. In this new show, many cabaret musicians sing the praises of the city through the American Songbook, from the famous Carlyle Hotel, the spot where the Songbook has always hung its hat. It's a cast of award-winning artists, including Isaac Mizrahi, Catherine Russell, Peter Cincotti, Samara Joy, and Frank DiLella, celebrating New York through words and music. May 2-7 $15 Being Mr Wickham – Adrian Lukis Click here for tickets Here's one for Jane Austen fanatics, of whom there are many and various. You know who you are. Actor/writer Adrian Lukis, Mr Wickham in the much lauded television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, revisits his character and takes him beyond where Miss Austen left him. What really happened with Darcy? What did he feel about Lizzie? What happened at Waterloo? It seems we are going to find out in this live stream from the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds. Apr 30 at 7.30pm BST, May 1 at 3pm & 7.30pm BST. £20 Metropolitan Opera nightly streams – City of Light Click here to watch This week it’s all about Paris. Operas include the obvious ones – La Boheme, La Traviata, Manon, and a few which are not quite so obvious. The treat of the week is The Merry Widow, sung in English by a fabulous cast of Renee Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, Nathan Gunn and Thomas Allen and conducted by Andrew Davis. The sumptuous production is by director/choreographer Susan Stroman and is less an opera, more the most over-the-top Broadway musical imaginable. Little Gem - Irish Rep Click here for reservations Elaine Murphy won many awards for this fascinating play, LIttle Gem, about three generations of Dublin women, played by a terrific cast of Brenda Meaney, Lauren O’Leary, and Marsha Mason. The women find strength in one another and discover the beauty and complexity of family. This new digital production was filmed remotely at the actors’ homes in Connecticut, London, and New York. Reservations are free, but required, to access this digital event. If you’re in Europe, don’t forget to book for a matinee performance as all timings are US Eastern Time. April 27 - May 9 Romeo and Juliet – Polish National Ballet Click here to watch Are you tired of R&J yet? We have seen a lot of it recently so I wouldn’t blame you if you were, but this new production from Poland is a bit different and beautifully shot and performed. It’s a mix of classical and contemporary dance, innovatively integrated with music and projections. Prokoviev's music, conducted by Andriy Yurkevych, is familiar, of course, but has been reordered to fit better with the choreographer, Krzysztof Pastor’s vision of the ballet and he has not attempted to recreate the traditional structure. He’s reset it in 20th century Italy and included overtones of fascism and other political traces if you know where to look for them. While it’s initially a bit jarring to see ballet dancers in modern dress, the eye soon becomes accustomed to the idea and it works. These days, whenever I think they should all be in traditional costumes, I remember that Shakespeare himself always appeared in the modern dress of his time, even if the characters were ancient Romans. The star-crossed lovers in this intelligent Polish National Ballet performance are Yuka Ebihara and Patryk Walczak, both new to me, but lyrical and accomplished. I’d like to see more of them. In Prokoviev’s first version of the score of R&J, he inserted a happy ending. The uproar that greeted this ‘innovation’ nearly killed the composer and, in the process of editing the score, and changing the ending back to the traditional tragedy, a number of changes were made to it that were not Prokoviev’s. Some remain in the official score to this day. He hated the final version but he did reuse much of the material for three orchestral suites. He had also inserted divertissements as part of the happy ending and they have survived more or less as he wrote them, although not as part of the ballet. Fun with the Nuns Click here to watch This is my bit of fun for the week but with a serious motive. Some Irish Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers dared these nuns from an enclosed Dublin order to dance. Yes, dance, “to cheer people up” who are feeling sad because of the lockdown. They regard their dance as a prayer, and, in their sheer exuberance, you can see why. They have all learned the simple dance steps, both nuns and monks, and they’re so proud, and having such a good time, I defy you not to smile with them. The music is ‘Jerusalma’ by two South African musicians.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
March 2024
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