Subscription/Streaming Services Venues Playmakers Audio Material Immersive/Interactive Theatre Videos on Vimeo Videos on You Tube BBC Iplayer/Sounds
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Live theatre has made a return but many venues are hedging their bets by live streaming concurrently with socially distanced peformances. And, of course, there’s already the wealth of stuff which has built up over the last sixteen months. So here’s a handy list of current opportunities. OK, so it’s not quite the same as sharing the communal experience with others but beggars, as they say ….. And there are advantages – no tedious travel and you can have an interval whenever you want. There’s more material being added all the time (although by its very nature some stuff doesn’t hang around for long) but this should be enough to keep you going for a while. Increasingly its being realized that such material can be charged for but much of it is still free to view. It would be nice, though, if you could donate a few coppers to the artists, companies and theatres that bring us this bonanza of goodies; times have been rather hard for them at the moment. For updates to this list – follow @johnchapman398 on Twitter or @2ndFromBottom on Facebook. With decreased activity online, from September 1st updates will be regular but not necessarily daily Jump to: subscription/streaming services Venues Playmakers Audio material Immersive/interactive theatre Videos on Vimeo Videos on You Tube BBC iPlayer/Sounds Subscription/streaming services Scenesaver Devised long before lockdown, this is a site which curates shows from smaller venues and has an eclectic and expanding list of material. Nominations for and winners of OnComms (commendations for online productions) are particularly highlighted. Shows seen and reviewed include: About 500 (here), The Delights Of Dogs And The Problems Of People (here), Goodbye: The After Life Of Cook and Moore (here), John Hinton's Scientrilogy (here and here), David Benson's one man shows about Kenneth Williams (here), Samuel Johnson and Lockerbie (review here) and the Cato Street conspiracy (review here), Shakespeare's Star Wars (here), An Idea Come To Me (review here), Breathe (review here), Night (review here), Frighteners (reviews here and here), This Evil Thing (review here), Cupid's Corner (review here), SpaceXPat (review here), Mrs Noah Fights Back (review here), Bored Of Knives (review here), Denial (review here) and several of the Finborough Theatre shows (see below). Other shows mentioned in this listing also appear on Scenesaver Online Fringe Festival (OFF) This website is dedicated to streaming shows from new and emerging theatre artists. The actual festival has ended (review of a trio of shows here and of another here). The site has now morphed into another guise with a permanent small collection Online@TheSpaceUK One of the mainstays of the Edinburgh Fringe Online is this platform which now has four complete seasons of new work and over 100 shows available to view. Surely, something for all tastes then (reviews of various shows here, here, here , here, here and here) Living Record The festival provider's latest season tied into the Brighton Fringe Festival with its usual mix of eclectic product including immersive VR hit Petrichor (review here) and a one man version of King Lear National Theatre At Home The National’s streaming service has a number of classy productions and more added each month. Currently available Amadeus (review here), Coriolanus (review here), Phèdre (review here), The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, Yerma (review here), Medea (review here), Mosquitoes (review here), Dara (review here), Othello, I Want My Hat Back (review here), Julie (review here), Angels In America (review here), Antigone, Behind The Beautiful Forevers (review here), Consent (review here), Julius Caesar and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (review here). Latest additions are The Deep Blue Sea (review here), The Comedy Of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream (review here), All My Sons (review here), A View From The Bridge (review here), Chewing Gum Dreams (review here), Everyman (review here), Treasure Island (review here) and Hansard. Various rental and subscription options available Marquee TV A healthy selection of theatre, dance and opera performances including many very recent Shakespeare productions from the RSC, a smaller selection of other Shakespeare plays from the Donmar and the Globe, 4 Oscar Wilde plays, 50 operas, a similar number of ballets and contemporary dance performances and a range of backstage documentaries. Reviews: Lady Windermere's Fan (here), A Woman Of No Importance (here), An Ideal Husband (here), The Importance Of Being Earnest (here), Love's Labour's Lost (here), Love's Labour's Won (here), The Taming Of the Shrew (here), As You Like It (here), Measure For Measure (here), Henry IV Parts One and Two (here and here), Henry V (review here), Cymbeline (review here) and Timon Of Athens (here). Most recently they have added the OTC's productions of Apollo 13 (review here)and The Haunting Of Alice Bowles (review here). A subscription service but offers a free trial. Broadway HD Good for musicals - there's about 40 of them - including Trevor Nunn’s version of Oklahoma (review here), Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's Into The Woods (review here), Miss Saigon (review here), 42nd Street (review here), Kinky Boots (review here), Billy Elliot (review here), Porgy & Bess (review here), Show Boat (review here), First Date (review here) and Jerry Springer: The Opera (review here). Other highlights include recent award winner Rose with Maureen Lipman (review here), Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson in Look Back In Anger (review here), Simon Callow's one man show The Mystery Of Charles Dickens (review here), the complete RSC version of Nicholas Nickleby (review here), Kevin Kline in Cyrano de Bergerac (review here), Ian McKellen’s RSC King Lear (review here) and his legendary turn as Macbeth (with Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth), Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song (review here) and a pair of Sam Shephard plays, Buried Child (review here) and True West (review here). There is also a family friendly section. A subscription service but offers a free trial Digital Theatre A new improved website has recently been launched retaining all sorts of goodies as ongoing content. There is David Tenant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing, a number of RSC Shakespeare productions, including the rarely performed Two Gentlemen Of Verona (review here), Cymbeline (review here) and Troilus And Cressida (review here), Sheridan Smith in Funny Girl (review here), Regent’s Park’s production of Into The Woods (review here), Soho Theatre's Lift (review here), Maxine Peake in Hamlet, Lesley Manville in Ibsen’s Ghosts (review here), Kathryn Hunter in Kafka's Monkey (review here), the Treadaway twins in Over There (review here), Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing (review here), Noel Coward's Private Lives (review here), Jez Butterworth's Parlour Song (review here) Steven Berkoff's East (review here) and Arthur Miller's The Crucible (review here) and All My Sons and a pair from Frantic Assembly Lovesong (review here) and Things I Know To Be True (review here) - and that’s just for starters. Offers individual rental or a monthly subscription Stage 2 View A limited streaming service with musicals such as Kinky Boots (review here), 42nd Street (review here) and An American In Paris (review here). One piece of exclusive content is Alfred Molina in Red – a play about artist Mark Rothko (review here) Broadway On Demand A streaming platform offering a mix of livestream events, a library of video on demand content and educational resources. Notable content includes musicals based on classic novels Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina and several titles from a collection of Shakespeare’s work premiered at Stratford in Canada. Currently premiering the new musical Burning Man stream.theatre Featuring a constantly evolving programme of both live streamed and recorded shows (NB The latter are shown at specific times and dates). Has featured shows such as Potted Panto (review here), the excellent Cruise (review here), the sensational The Poltergeist (review here), Little Wars (review here) and magical musical The Sorcerer's Apprentice (review here). Current picks are the musical Ride and the song cycle The Distance You have Come Stellar Primarily a ticketing website but has a rolling programme of livestreamed and on demand events some of which are theatre based Globe Player There are about 75 productions available (so, basically the entire Shakespeare canon plus), some of which are from worldwide visiting companies. Hunker down for the long haul and do the "Complete Works"(reviews of Henry VI here, All's Well That Ends Well here, The Comedy Of Errors here, Titus Andronicus here, Two Noble Kinsmen here & Henry VIII here) Globe Player is a subscription service, though there is some free material too (See also Globe Theatre under “Venues” below) On The Boards TV A highly eclectic mix of international performance art is the mark of this website. On The Boards TV is a subscription service for buying or renting Kanopy An international streaming service – all you need is a valid public library card. Among the theatre treats on offer there’s lots of Shakespeare, plenty of Chekov (Russian with subtitles), material from America’s avant garde Wooster Group and many more. Pick of the bunch is Patrick Stewart in Rupert Goold’s production of Macbeth and Monty Python doing Not The Messiah at The Royal Albert Hall (review here) Britbox Although the streaming site is mostly about television, you can have a “Bard fest” with 26 titles from the Royal Shakespeare Company and 3 more from the Donmar Warehouse. Subscription required after a week’s free trial Great British Theatre Amazon Prime’s short series of recent big productions has two lots of Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet and Frankenstein (review here), Phoebe Waller Bridge in the stage version of Fleabag (review here) all rounded off with Ian McKellen On Stage (review here) LIVR The USP of this theatre streaming site is that everything comes recorded in 3600 virtual reality; they will send you a free VR headset when you subscribe.