Beverly Sills Gala – Mary Martin/Ethel Merman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb2VldYNj3A At a time when all our theatres are closed and we don’t know when or whether we’ll ever see their like again, I thought we needed to be reminded of what a real star looks and sounds like. In 1981, the great soprano, Beverly Sills, retired from singing with a tribute gala attended by many of the other great ladies of the musical stage. It was a fabulous party, everyone was there and nobody lucky enough to have been there ever forgot it. And then, for the last time, the two greatest stars of the musicals each sang her most famous song. And, please note, without microphones. What an evening, what a memory. This is what the musical theatre can do to raise your spirits. Don’t forget. Homer’s Odyssey – Jermyn St. Theatre @LRBbookshop Youtube: https://youtu.be/vpvj0UHS6xE @JSTheatre Youtube: https://youtu.be/0jXjq2in8PI This week the tiny Jermyn Street Theatre, together with the London Review Bookshop are embarking on an epic theatrical journey, initiating a venture so ambitious that all we can do is gasp and applaud. On Oct 9th, this Friday, they are planning a 12-hour live performance of Homer’s Odyssey. 72 actors are performing all 24 books, in Emily Wilson’s translation, without a break, from 9am to noon on the LRB YouTube channel, and then on the Jermyn Street YouTube Channel from noon until late that night, however long it takes. The entire undertaking will then be available on both YouTube channels for a further week. For those of us who don’t study Homer’s epic poem on a daily basis, the Odyssey is the story of Odysseus’ adventures as he tries to get home after the Trojan War, alongside his wife Penelope’s struggles to keep their island kingdom from civil war, and his son Telemachus’ search to find his lost father. There’s a lot going on, at least enough to fill 12 hours. You have to admire the ambition, the purpose of which is to reawaken an oral tradition that hails from the eighth century BCE, when the work was first performed by bards across the Mediterranean. Good luck to them and all who sail in them. Adding Machine: A Musical – Finborough Theatre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIFH_mlEJ0o&feature=youtu.be&dm_i=4N6P,XBRY,2ZAHG6,44TS2,1 Adding Machine: A Musical won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical and Outstanding New Score in 2008, and made its London debut at the Finborough in 2016. It’s a musical adaptation of the 1923 play by Elmer Rice with music by Joshua Schmidt, and lyrics by Jason Loewith, a score inspired by gospel, opera, jazz and rock and roll. It’s the story of Mr Zero who, after a lifetime of adding figures in the same soul-crushing job, suddenly finds himself replaced by a machine. For the first time in his life, he takes his destiny into his own hands. The consequences set him on a path through this world and beyond, offering him one last chance for love, life and redemption. Adding Machine: A Musical is now available until Nov 12th on the Finborough Theatre’s YouTube channel. Sir Bryn Terfel and Britten Sinfonia: www.barbican.org.uk The Barbican Concert Hall comes back to life with this lovely recital by our finest bass-baritone, perhaps the finest bass-baritone in the world, Sir Bryn Terfel, in a livestream with oboeist Nicholas Daniel and the Britten Sinfonia. It’s a light and easily accessible programme of everything from Bach to Ivor Novello. Of course, you have to love Terfel. I do, and, for me, he could sing the telephone directory and I’d hang on every note. The concert was live on Sunday, Oct 4 but the livestream is available from the Barbican until next Sunday. Tickets £12.50. The programme is: Johann Sebastian Bach Cantata No 82, Ich habe genug William Shakespeare Five Songs Ivor Novello I can give you the starlight, arr Iain Farrington Ar hyd y nos, Welsh Traditional Song arr Chris Hazel My dearest dear, arr Iain Farrington Ar lan y môr, Welsh Traditional Song arr Bryan Davies, orch Chris Hazell Keep the home fires burning, arr Iain Farrington (livestream) Time to Act - Simon Annand https://timetoactphotos.com/ For 35 years, theatre photographer Simon Annand has been hanging around backstage in theatres, photographing those moments before the curtain goes up, and now he’s collected those images in a new book and virtual exhibition called Time to Act, Stars of Stage and Screen Backstage. Amongst more than 230 images are portraits of Gillian Anderson, Glenn Close, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sharon D Clarke, Paapa Essiedu, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lenny Henry, Anthony Hopkins, Andrew Scott, Josette Simon and Judi Dench, as they prepare to take to the stage. Christine Goerke – Fidelio – RBG http://lincolncenter.org/lincoln-center-at-home/show/tribute-to-ginsburg-608 There have been many fine tributes to the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, not least right here, but I had to include this one. Soprano Christine Goerke recently sang Brünnhilde in the Met's latest Wagner "Ring" cycle, as well as the title role in Puccini's Turandot. She's slated to reprise the latter when the Met resumes performances in the 2021–2022 season. She was a close friend of the judge for much of their lives and she paid tribute as only she could, by standing outside Lincoln Center, where the judge spent so many happy evenings, singing from RBG’s favourite opera, Beethoven’s Fidelio. Her love for her friend shines through every note. How I Miss Broadway – New York Times Events https://timesevents.nytimes.com/nyt-offstage-theater/dnl?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=offstage3&utm_content=dnl_0929 This is one of those well-meaning Zoom events which, for me, go nowhere towards replacing what we’re missing. This one begins with a half-hour chat with Hillary Clinton about what she misses about the theatre, followed by several actors – Audra Macdonald, Danielle Brooks, Neil Patrick Harris and Jessie Mueller – talking about what they’re missing about the theatre. As usual, the only one with something to say is Audra Macdonald, but this pleasant and pointless exercise proves what I’ve always believed, which is that interviewing actors is, with very few exceptions, a waste of time. What they have to say, they can say best by exercising their talents in their artform. Ask them what they think about anything, from the end of the world to the price of bananas, and they will reveal themselves to be just ordinary people who can do something we can’t, very well. But if you want to hear what they have to say, the event is available on the New York Times YouTube and NYT Article Page. Metropolitan Opera – Wagner - Week 30 https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/ For those legions of Wagner fans, here’s your chance to wallow. The Met is providing the entire ‘89/’90 Ring Cycle, plus Parsifal, Tannhauser, and Tristan und Isolde. What more could you possibly want? Jack Was Kind
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jack-was-kind-by-tracy-thorne-tickets-117018927763 There have been rave reviews for this one-woman play written and performed by Tracy Thorne. A wife of a powerful official who is caught in a national scandal “stands by her man.” Her compelling but all too public unravelling will reveals the cost. Jack Was Kind gives an imagined but painfully human backstory to an actual American event. Performances live on Zoom, Wednesdays through Saturdays until Oct. 10.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
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