The best theatre to stream this month: Starlight Express, Nye, Beat the Devil and more
Starlight Express
“Tonight is the most important night in the history of the world!” That announcement in the overture might be a lot of hot air, but director Luke Sheppard’s souped-up Wembley Park revival of the railroad-race musical is a lot of fun even without the skates on. The cast recording, featuring new rap Hydrogen, redefined characters and fresh orchestrations by Matthew Brind and Andrew Lloyd Webber, is released on 15 November. Highlights include Jeevan Braich, who makes his professional acting debut as Rusty, giving a shining version of Crazy.
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway
Renée Elise Goldsberry is starring in one of this winter’s most eye-catching Broadway shows, a musical comedy inspired by the Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs. Happily, her magnetic turn as Mimi in Rent was filmed in 2008, which means you can howl along with her show-stopping performance of Out Tonight. From PrimeVideo.
Picasso Dance
As befits a painter who also created sets and costumes for ballet, the European broadcaster Arte invited choreographers to make short tributes to Picasso, filmed in striking locations. Nora Chipaumire and Germaine Acogny reframe Les Demoiselles d’Avignon while Olivier Dubois gives us Dora and the Minotaur. Full series.
Nye
Tim Price’s play about the birth of the NHS returns to the National Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre next summer but Rufus Norris’s production, filmed earlier this year, will also be streamed for free on YouTube from 7–11 November. Michael Sheen dons pyjamas to play Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, reflecting on life from his hospital bed.
Little Piece of You – An Atypical Musical
Seventeen-year-old singer Kjersti Long has built such a huge following online that the concert version of this mother-daughter relationship musical (which she co-wrote with Melissa Leilani Larson and Jeremy Long) was given its European premiere at the huge Theatre Royal Drury Lane. A US recording starring Long, Jane Beeson and Malia Mackay is out now.
Beat the Devil
In one of the first Covid-era dramas, staged at that strange time of masked and socially distanced audiences in the Bridge theatre, Ralph Fiennes delivered David Hare’s autobiographical script about catching coronavirus. Now, the playwright – who has form in performing his own work – has recorded it himself for Audible.
Guards at the Taj
Few British theatres have been as steadfast about regularly streaming their new productions as Richmond’s reliable Orange Tree. Rajiv Joseph’s two-hander, about imperial guards at the newly built Taj Mahal in 1648, is revived by Adam Karim. Available 19-22 November.
Metamorphoses
Staged three years ago at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, this retelling of Ovid’s myths was hailed as “a gallivanting piece of storytelling” by the Guardian’s Kate Wyver. Written by Sami Ibrahim, Laura Lomas and Sabrina Mahfouz, it’s available on the GlobePlayer.
Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook
Something Wicked this way comes: the first part of Elphaba and Glinda’s story is released in cinemas on 22 November. Here’s a primer on its composer, the musical wizard Stephen Schwartz. This drama, created by David Stern and Michael Scheman, features songs from Schwartz’s musicals including Pippin, Godspell and The Baker’s Wife. On BroadwayHD.
Nureyev: Swan Lake
Sixty years on, here’s a chance to see Swan Lake choreographed by Rudolf Nureyev who also plays Prince Siegfried – and offers a deeper dive into that character’s psychology – in a 1964 Viennese production co-starring Margot Fonteyn. From MarqueeTV.
