If you’re anything like us, you’ve already devoured the offerings on our list of 15 Broadway Plays and Musicals to Watch On Stage From Home. But wait! There’s more!
From acclaimed West End revivals to Off-Broadway stages, from Broadway to houses in Texas and Louisiana, here are more titles to keep your appetite for theatre satisfied:
The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage!
Absorbent and yellow and porous, SpongeBob SquarePants officially opened on Broadway December 4, 2017 at the Palace Theatre in an explosion of color, innovation, craftiness, and joy. Inspired by the Nickelodeon cartoon from Stephen Hillenburg, SpongeBob SquarePants The Broadway Musical—as it was first called—offered a completely original storyline (from director Tina Landau’s concept and Kyle Jarrow’s book) with all of the memorable characters of Bikini Bottom, including SpongeBob, his snail Gary, his best friends Patrick Star and Sandy Cheeks, his curmudgeonly neighbor Squidward J. Tentacles, his boss Mr. Krabs (and his daughter Pearl), the evil Plankton, as well as bit characters like Mrs. Puff, the driver’s ed teacher.
The musical featured a patchwork score with multiple Grammy-nominated and Grammy-winning recording artists and songwriters contributing individual tunes. Among them: Plain White Ts, Yolanda Adams, Sara Bareilles, John Legend, and David Bowie. David Zinn’s jaw-dropping costume and scenic designs, Kevin Adam’s lighting design, and Peter Nigrini’s projection design created the world of Bikini Bottom, which was under threat of demise as Mount Humungous threatened to erupt unless SpongeBob and his friends could save the day. The musical featured choreography by Christopher Gattelli, with orchestrations and arrangements by Tom Kitt. Members of the original cast (including Ethan Slater as SpongeBob, Danny Skinner as Patrick, and Gavin Lee as Squidward) reunited for a 2019 live re-staging on Nickelodeon. But if you missed the live broadcast, you can still watch it!
Available on: Amazon Prime
The New One
Mike Birbiglia was one of the first comedians to cross the threshold to theatre with the creation of his first solo show Sleepwalk With Me. This time, Birbiglia takes his humor to Broadway with The New One. The solo show bowed at the Cort Theatre October 25, 2018, and hit Netflix in 2019. A comic meditation on all the reasons he did not want to become a father—and how most of those reasons came true when his daughter came into the world—Birbiglia’s show, directed on stage and film by Seth Barrish, reveals with startling honesty the challenges of new parenthood and what makes it all worth it anyway. (The scenic design by Tony winner Beowulf Boritt is a particular highlight.)
Available on: Netflix
Oh, Hello on Broadway
John Mulaney and Nick Kroll took Broadway by storm when they brought their altacocker alter egos to the Broadway stage in 2016. Directed by Alex Timbers (who also directs this Netflix capture), Oh, Hello first hit Off-Broadway in 2015 as an expansion of a sketch on Comedy Central’s Kroll Show. Mulaney and Kroll play George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon, respectively, two Upper West Siders obsessed with turtlenecks, raccoons, improperly emphasizing words, and thinking they know more about everything than they do about anything. The Broadway show featured a segment “Too Much Tuna” popularized on YouTube, where George and Gil invited a different celebrity guest to join them onstage at each performance. It’s an hour and 42 minutes of absurdity at its finest.
Available on: Netflix
Indecent
Paula Vogel’s 2017 Tony Award-nominated play has earned a reverence in the theatre community for its story, for its vision by director Rebecca Taichman (who won the Tony for it), for the subtly stunning performances (notable Katrina Lenk), but most of all for its own honoring of artmaking. Both Taichman and Vogel had been taken by Sholom Asch’s 1923 play God of Vengeance, a love story between two women. Considered in violation of obscenity laws, productions of God of Vengeance were shut down. Indecent tracks the history of Asch’s controversial play and the risks a troupe of artists will take to perform it. In an unprecedented move, producer Daryl Roth announced the play’s closing only to rescind the notice and extend the play for more to see.
Available on: PBS Passport
READ: How One Hopeful Cold Call Became Broadway’s Indecent
Holiday Inn
Gordon Greenberg adapted Irving Berlin’s Hollywood film into a more palatable and joyful old-school musical that bowed at Roundabout Theatre Company in 2016. Tony nominee Bryce Pinkham plays Jim, a performer who leave the business behind for the quiet life on a Connecticut farm. But his old pal Ted, played by Corbin Bleu, won’t let him forget his roots. When Jim meets a delightful schoolteacher, played by Lora Lee Gayer, the team turns the farm into an inn that specifically celebrates the holidays.
Available on: PBS Passport and BroadwayHD
An American in Paris
The 1951 Oscar-winning Best Picture musical from Vincent Minnelli, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, came to life onstage in this 2015 Broadway musical from director-choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. With book writer Craig Lucas, Wheeldon was able to transpose all of the sweeping romance from the film to the stage and elevate the level of dance on Broadway. (Wheeldon won the Tony for his choreography.) This was the Broadway breakout moment for New York City Ballet dancer Robert Fairchild as well as Royal Ballet dancer Leanne Cope. Just as in the film, the production features the music of George and Ira Gershwin.
This capture features the London production of the musical, with original stars Fairchild and Cope. Co-directed by Wheeldon and Ross MacGibbon, this is the gold standard of execution of the capture of a stage production.
Available on: PBS Passport and BroadwayHD
42nd Street
The tap extravaganza first came to Broadway in 1981 from director-choreographer Gower Champion, who was assisted by Randy Skinner. Since then, Skinner has mounted the 2001 Broadway revival, as well as national tours, London productions, and regional presentations around the world. The backstage musical follows the making of Julian Marsh’s next musical, Pretty Lady. He hires past-her-prime Dorothy Brock since her beau promises to invest heavily—but Brock is taking risks with an old flame. Meanwhile, doe-eyed Peggy Sawyer is dying to prove herself in the chorus and when an accident befalls Brock, Sawyer gets called up to the big leagues. Watch this recording of one of the final performances of the 2018 West End revival starring Bonnie Langford (EastEnders) as Dorothy Brock, Tom Lister as Julian Marsh, and Clare Halse as Peggy Sawyer.
Available on: PBS Passport
A Night With Janis Joplin
Written and directed by Randy Johnson, Janis Joplin is similar to Lady Day in that it unfolds as a single concert performance (this time set in 1970) to lay bare a greater truth about the artist, who passed away later that year. Mary Bridget Davies earned a Tony nomination for her performance in the title role. This recording was filmed at the Portland Center Stage in Oregon as a preservation of the show, Davies’ performance, and Joplin’s music,
Available on: BroadwayHD
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill
Audra McDonald won her sixth Tony Award for her portrayal as Billie Holiday in Lanie Robertson’s play with music, re-imagining one of Holiday’s last performances in a run-down South Philadelphia nightclub circa 1959, just months before her death. Filmed at the Café Brasil in New Orleans, the taping echoes the aura created on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
Available on: BroadwayHD