Playing on Air: How My Grandparents Fell in Love By Playing on Air by Cary Gitter(EST’s Youngblood, The Sabbath Girl).

It’s 1933, and a young Jewish immigrant has returned to his Polish hometown in search of a wife. On a snowy afternoon, he sets his sights on Chava, a savvy, sarcastic shopgirl in a local hat store.  

Directed by Colette Robert (Stew, Behind the Sheet), How My Grandparents Fell in Love features Eli Gelb (Skintight) and Lucy DeVito (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). After this short play, host Claudia Catania moderates a conversation with the artists.

The New York Pops Up Festival a thousand in-person performances throughout the state from now through June. Most events associated with NY PopsUp will be unannounced (and unticketed) and will be designed so that New Yorkers happen upon them in their everyday lives. (Since we can’t have large gatherings right now, we want to bring a lot of small things to the public where they are) NY PopsUp is a surprise that you happen upon, rather than an event or concert you are alerted to via a notification or a schedule.

12pm soundcheck with an 3pm and 8pm concert: Brian Stokes Mitchell Dubbed “the last leading man” by The New York Times, two-time Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell continues to enjoy a 40-year career that spans Broadway, television, film, and concert appearances. He received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. Stokes also has Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, August Wilson’s King Hedley II, and Ragtime, and he was recently inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. Other notable Broadway shows include Kiss of the Spider Woman, Jelly’s Last Jam, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. In 2016, Stokes made a long-awaited return to Broadway in Shuffle Along and received his most recent Tony Award that year for his work as Chairman of the Board of the Actor’s Fund. An extremely versatile singer, he has performed nationally at venues spanning jazz, opera, pops, country, and musical theater worlds including two performances at the White House. Stokes has appeared on more than 20 albums and his musical creativity as a vocalist has been extended to include producer, arranger, and orchestrator on all 3 of his solo albums, including his new release, Plays With Music.

12pm: Artist Talk with Battery Dance By Battery Dance. Each week, artists from around the world join BatteryDanceTV for a 30-minute talk.

5:30pm: Timothy Graphenreed Virtual Memorial with Lillias White, Phylicia Rashad, George Faison, and More Emmy winner S. Epatha Merkerson and others to celebrate Broadway’s Timothy Graphenreed (The Wiz) in a virtual memorial.

The virtual celebration will be hosted by Lee Summers, directed by Jeffrey Thompson, and stage managed by Gwen Gilliam and Norman Anthony Small. The evening will include virtual remembrances from around the globe, including Terry Burrell, Zane Mark, Jermaine Rowe, Virginia Woodruff, Randy Flood, composers Yuma Sung and Tinatin Japaridze, with vocalists Clayton Bryant, Michael Salat and Army Veteran/Educator Julio Peterson.

The live streamed concert will include ASL interpretation and live captioning. 

 7pm: Sweat The Seeing Place. A new virtual production of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play about the residents of Reading, Pa at the end of their rope.

7:30pm: Verdi’s Il Trovatore Leonora, the young noblewoman at the center of the story, is in love with the troubadour of the title but also pursued by Count di Luna. Starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Sir David McVicar. From October 3, 2015.

8pm: The Undertaking Labyrinth Theater. Chris McGarry’s play about Tom, who every year buries a few hundred of his fellow townspeople

Smithtown The Studios of Key West $20 through Feb 27
In this play by Drew Larimore starring Michael Urie, Ann Harada, Colby Lewis and Constance Shulman, a single text message overturns life in a small Midwestern university town, a riff on the effects of social media.

 Upon These Shoulders By PlaybillBlack Theatre Coalition  Current Tony nominee Daniel J. Watts (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical), Tony and Emmy nominee Brandon Victor Dixon (Hamilton), Amber Iman (Shuffle Along…), Carly Hughes (Pippin), gospel star Bebe Winans, and more will take part in the upcoming Black History Month concert special Upon These Shoulders. The digital concert, co-presented by Black Theatre United and Playbill, honors Black creative artists past, present, and future.

Using performances, interviews, and video messages from Broadway stars and arts workers, the show will highlight the history of Black artistry, magnify the work of today’s Black creatives, and shed a light on the future of Broadway and theatres across America. The concert will also highlight the work of the Black Theatre Coalition, emphasizing its leadership as the community moves the needle towards equity.

The event will be ticketed, with all proceeds going to support BTC. Additional information, including purchasing instructions and further casting, will be announced in the coming days. To make a donation to Black Theatre Coalition now, click here.

The Things Are Against Us Susan Soon He Stanton’s The Things Are Against Us will be the next production in MCC’s LiveLab one-act digital reading series. Ellie Heyman directs the cast, which includes Juan Castano, Emily Davis, Susannah Flood, Babak Tafti, and Danny Wolohan, in tthe play set in a mysterious house with a mind of its own. The production will stream on MCC’s YouTube Channel February 25 at 6:30 PM ET.

John Lithgow, Daniel Breaker, More Sing Adam Guettel’s Myths & Hymns (Episode 2) By MasterVoices The central project of MasterVoices’ 2020-2021 season will be a virtual rollout of award-winning composer Adam Guettel’s theatrical song cycle, Myths and Hymns, in an online staging conceived by Ted Sperling. 

The Typists By Play-PerView Stage and screen actors (and real life spouses) Annette O’Toole (A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur) and Michael McKean (The Little Foxes) will star in a reading of the 1963 Off-Broadway play by Murray Schisgal, The Typists.

The one-act chronicles the developing romance between new co-workers—a married man and his unmarried supervisor.

The reading streams through March 2, and follows with a live talk back with O’Toole and McKean, and the production’s director, Austin Pendleton. Proceeds will benefit Williamstown Theatre Festival.

SoHo Playhouse Presents Typical Soho Theatre and Nouveau Riche present the world premiere of Typical, the film version of the stage play, released exclusively on Soho Theatre On Demand February 24. 

Written by Ryan Calais Cameron and directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, Typical uncovers the man and the humanity behind the tragic true-life events of Black British ex-serviceman Christopher Alder and the injustice that still remains twenty years since his story emerged. 

Bad Dates George Street Playhouse through March 14. Andrea Burns stars in Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman comedy about a single mom in search of cute shoes, the perfect dress, and a romantic table for two 

The Belle’s Stratagem Tootsie stars Lilli Cooper and Santino Fontana will reunite for Red Bull Theater’s upcoming benefit reading of Hannah Cowley’s The Belle’s Stratagem.

Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, the virtual reading will be presented February 22 at 7:30 PM ET. A recording of the live stream will be available through February 26 at 7 PM ET.

Joining Tony nominee Cooper and Tony winner Fontana will be Cecil Baldwin, Jasmine Batchelor, Mark Bedard, Neal Bledsoe, Peter Jay Fernandez, Tony Jenkins, Lauren Karaman, Aaron Krohn, Heather Alicia Simms, and Chauncy Thomas.

Widows New Federal Theater through March 1. This drama by Mfundi Vundla, originally presented by New Federal Theater in 1981, is about the struggle of three African women to overcome oppressive conditions in South Africa.

8pm: Chicken and Biscuits through March 3. A virtual reading of Douglas Lyons’s family comedy, Chicken and Biscuits. Janet Hubert, best known to television audiences as Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, will star as Baneatta Mabry. Michael Urie and Carly Hughes also star.

All proceeds from the reading will directly benefit Lyons’s Next Wave Initiative, a new developmental branch of The Directors Company committed to amplifying future Black voices in The American Theatre through scholarships and community engagement. 

Produced in partnership with 59E9 Theaters  and The Directors Company, the evening will be directed Zhailon Levingston (Tina).

In Chicken and Biscuits, Baneatta and Beverly attempt to put their sisterly differences aside to bury their father, Bernard. All is well at the funeral until it’s revealed that Bernard had not just two daughters, but three. Wig pins loosen, as truths emerge, leaving this African-American family to confront their skeletons head on; naturally with lots of love, shade, and prayer along the way. The world premiere of Chicken and Biscuits opened at Queens Theatre on March 6, 2020, closing early due to the COVID-19.

Julius Caesar, Starring Patrick Page By Shakespeare@ Tony nominee Patrick Page (Hadestown) stars in the title role with Jordan Barbour (The Inheritance) as Brutus and Keith Hamilton Cobb (American Moor) as Cassius. West End Harry Potter and the Cursed Child performers Jamie Ballard and James Howard co-star as Mark Antony and Metellus Cimber, respectively. 

The production is also be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.

Produced by Jersey City’s Shakespeare@, this audio production is the third installment of the season, produced and adapted by Artistic Director Sean Hagerty.

Hagerty has crafted the production into four weekly parts and partnered with the Emmy-winning team at Sonic Designs to capture the lost art and thrill of radio drama all without leaving the confines of quarantine.

Julius Caesar features original music composed by Joan Melton with sound design by the Emmy-winning team of Dan Gerhard and Ellen Fitton of Sonic Designs. Justin Goldner is the music producer and supervisor, and casting is by Robin Carus. Sydney Steele serves as the associate producer. 

Franz Kafka’s Letter to My Father M-34 through March 28
In 1919, the ailing writer wrote a letter to his father full of intense mixed emotions.

Processing… Theatre East announces another world premiere, Processing…, a play centered around four NYC high school seniors whose lives have been upended by the lockdown and sudden death of a beloved computer science teacher. Until the 27.

Written by 2020 high school graduate, Petra Brusiloff, the story explores the lost and uncertain futures of students coming of age in during a pandemic. 

The cast features Lizzy Jarret, Marshall Louise, Jasmine McLeish and Feisola Soetan under the direction of Theatre East Artistic Director Judson Jones with production broadcast design and engineering by Romo Hallahan. Costume design is by Sherry Martinez, with lighting design by Zach Murphy, and scenic design by Steven Brenman.

7pm: Franz Kafka’s Letter to My Father M-34 through March 28
In 1919, the ailing writer wrote a letter to his father full of intense mixed emotions.

Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer E. Faye Butler stars in the rolling world premiere of Cheryl L. West’s Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer.

The solo show, presented through March 3, is produced by Asolo Rep in association with Goodman Theatre and Seattle Rep.

The Henry Godinez-helmed drama tells the impassioned story of the American Civil Rights activist and hero.

Sin Eaters by Anna Moench South Philadelphia-based theater company Theatre Exile presents the debut of Anna Moench’s Sin Eaters.

Directed by Theatre Exile Resident Artist Matt Pfeiffer, and featuring Philadelphia-based actors Bi Jean Ngo and David M Raine.

Toeing the lines between satire and harsh reality, Sin Eaters is an examination of the human experience and the extremity of what the social media industry puts people through in order for the rest of us to have a positive and sustained online life.

The Outsiders Laguna PLayhouse through February 28 $20
Christopher Sergel’s 1990 stage adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age novel (which Francis Ford Coppola famously adapted into a starry 1983 movie.) It follows the “Greasers,”  narrator Ponyboy Curtis and his friends,  as they navigate teenage angst and class warfare in Tulsa, Oklahoma.https://www.youtube.com/embed/k2BExpxYaXY

Far Away Quantum Theater through March 7 $10 to $50 Caryl Churchill’s surreal portrait of a descent into a hyper-partisan future 

Expirer Wilma Theater Dive into a cyberspace underworld through this interactive website. Demons, both classical and contemporary, lurk among the virtual artifacts, waiting to be purged. Part of this Philadelphia theater’s weekly Hothouse Shorts.

The Night Watcher By Primary Stages 59E59 An encore presentation of The Night Watcher by Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Charlayne Woodard (In Real Life).

The Manic Monologues Current Slave Play Tony nominee Ato Blankson-Wood, Rent Tony winner Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Accidentally Brave playwright Maddie Corman, and more stage favorites will explore mental health this winter in a new digital production from the McCarter Theatre Center.

The Manic Monologues debuts February 18 with 21 true-life monologues that users can explore at their own pace and through an interactive element virtually respond to.

Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue Center Theater Group
through April 4. $10 Kemp Powers’ play tells the story of twins, one who dreamt of space, the other who became a successful attorney, who have lived starkly different lives, because one has dark skin and the other passes as white. The action plays out in 1980s New York and a Minnesota courthouse in 2006.

PIAF… Her Story… Her Songs By Broadway’s Best Shows French singer and recording artist Raquel Bitton stars in the exploration of the life of the late chanteuse Edith Piaf. Part documentary, part stage performance, Bitton becomes Piaf while singing, but then steps back and tells her story—in English—between the mostly French songs.

Snapshots, A Musical Scrapbook by Stephen Schwartz $20 through February 28.

This is an original musical which incorporates over two dozen of Stephen Schwartz’s songs, including numbers from Wicked, Pippin, Godspell, The Baker’s Wife, Rags, Working, Children of Eden, and Enchanted.

This musical is a touching and authentic look into how we fall in love and the poignant power of trusting our hearts and memories.​ ACT of CT’s Artistic Director, Daniel C. Levine and Music Supervisor, Bryan Perri, in collaboration with Stephen Schwartz have captured this remarkable and heartwarming musical for ACT.

Simply Sondheim Signature Theater of Arlington. Available through March 26. Thirty Sondheim songs performed by a 16-piece orchestra and a dozen singers, including Norm Lewis, Emily Skinner, Solea Pfeiffer and Conrad Ricamora

Playing on Air: Napoleon in Exile By Playing on Air by Daniel Reitz (New Dramatists), a moving, unexpectedly funny portrait of a family on the brink.

Everyday life is a battlefield for single mother Evelyn and her adult son Corey, who has ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). But underneath their sparring over Minecraft and job applications, a game-changing crisis is bubbling.

Directed by Golden Globe winner Marsha Mason, Napoleon in Exile stars Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek and Will Dagger as mother and son. After the performance, the artists join host Claudia Catania to discuss writing for actors and bringing theater chops to the world of sitcom TV.

Today Is My Birthday By Theater Mu A comedy about loneliness in the age of connection written by Susan Soon He Stanton and directed by Lily Tung Crystal. 

Emily, a 29-year-old would-be writer, retreats home to O’ahu after Manhattan finally gets the best of her. But trading one island for another doesn’t help. When she stumbles into a gig as an actor on a shock-jock radio dating show, she falls for her fake love interest and finds herself strangely determined to turn that fantasy into reality. Told through a playful combination of phone calls, voicemails, and live radio spots, Stanton’s quirky show illustrates life with a thousand friends on Facebook, but no one to talk to on a Saturday night.

Hi, Are You Single? By Woolly MammothIAMA Ryan has a higher sex drive than you. He also has cerebral palsy. You can often find him on Grindr or at your local inaccessible gay bar. From encounters with drag queens to platonic lap dances, Ryan will guide you through the gay dating scene with his provocative take on intimacy, rejection, and judgment. His one request? Please bring an attractive male friend with you.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and IAMA present Ryan J. Haddad’s search to find love (or at least a hookup) in his celebrated autobiographical solo show.

The performance is available to stream throughout the month of February. 

Clay Wilma Theater The Philadelphia theater continues its weekly Hothouse Shorts in February, with these intertwining audio tales of one everyday object.

The Haunting of Alice Bowles A new theatrical production streaming online from Original Theatre Company (Apollo 13: The Dark Side of The Moon) debuts.

The Haunting of Alice Bowles by Philip Franks, based on M.R. James’ short story The Experiment, stars Janie Dee, Max Bowden, Stephen Boxer, Jack Archer, Alexandra Guelff, Robert Mountford, Poppy Roe, and Tim Treloar.

In 1918, the recently widowed Alice Bowles is left destitute as she seeks to solve a mystery left by her late husband Francis. Moving to 2020, YouTube urban explorers Matt and Caitlin uncover a mysterious grave in an abandoned churchyard. What starts as harmless entertainment turns darker when their discovery begins to unwrap a mystery which has lain dormant for over a century.

The digital production is co-directed by Philip Franks and Alastair Whatley, designed by Adrian Linford, and edited by Tristan Shepherd, with sound design and original music composed by Max Pappenheim.

Bayard, A Streaming Musical Concert Presentation Richard Allen and Taran Gray’s Bayard streams as a concert version for free on YouTube. The musical tells the story of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and his creation of the March on Washington. He was a silenced voice in history for being openly gay. The production was presented by Temecula Valley Theater.

Gatsby A Musical It’s the Roaring Twenties! The 1920s, that is. A concert staging of Gatsby A Musical will be filmed at London’s Cadogan Hall and be made available for streaming February 26–28.

Adapted by director Linnie Reedman and with a score by Joe Evans, the musical is inspired by the F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age tome, The Great Gatsby. Set seven years after the events of the novel, Daisy Buchanan revisits Jay Gatsby’s mansion after leaving that world behind, set on confronting her past by reliving the dream she shared with Gatsby.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice By Southwark Playhouse The Sorcerer’s Apprentice will now be streamed due to the pandemic and continued lockdown. The pay-per-view stream will be available February 26–March 14.