ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY
Star, legend, force of nature! Whatever you call Elaine Stritch, it applies, and it’s never more apparent than in her deeply personal one-woman show, At Liberty. With only an oversize shirt, black tights, and a chair, Stritch mesmerizes a full house at London’s Old Vic Theatre with tales of her 50-plus-year career on stage and screen. At Liberty is more of a monologue than a musical performance, though she does perform some of her signature songs like “Zip” and “The Ladies Who Lunch.” At Liberty won a Tony Award in June 2002 for Special Theatrical Event.
A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN
Like a comet that burns far too brightly to last, Janis Joplin exploded onto the music scene in 1967 and, almost overnight, became the queen of rock and roll. The unmistakable voice, filled with raw emotion, made her a must-see headliner from Monterey to Woodstock. From Broadway to your screen, you’re invited to share an evening with the woman and her influences in A Night with Janis Joplin. Fueled by such unforgettable songs as “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Piece of My Heart,” “Mercedes Benz,” “Cry Baby” and “Summertime,” a remarkable cast and breakout performances, A Night With Janis Joplin is a musical journey celebrating Janis and her biggest musical influences.
JULIUS CAESAR
Dame Harriet Walter stunned the world with her gender-bent performance of one of Shakespeare’s best-known protagonists. Phyllida Lloyd directs an all-female cast in Shakespeare’s great political drama as part of the Donmar Warehouse’s all-female Shakespeare Trilogy. Set in the present day in the world of a women’s prison, Julius Caesar could not be timelier as it depicts the catastrophic consequences of a political leader’s extension of his powers beyond the remit of the constitution. As Brutus (Harriet Walter) wrestles with a moral conscience over the assassination of Julius Caesar (Jackie Clune), Mark Antony (Jade Anouka) manipulates the crowd through subtle and incendiary rhetoric to frenzied mob violence.
INDECENT
Indecent, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, is inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance—a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. The play charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it.
ROSE
In this compelling one-woman play, British theatre legend Dame Maureen Lipman reprises her award-winning performance as Rose, a woman whose tumultuous journey through anarchic times takes her from the devastation of Nazi-occupied Europe to the allure of the American dream. Through the life of one woman, Rose tells the story of a century where everything changed except the violence of the strong against the weak. Filmed from Hope Mill Theatre’s 2020 production is available to stream worldwide.
A DOLL’S HOUSE
Based on the life of Laura Kieler, a close friend of playwright Henrik Ibsen’s, and first performed in 1879, A Doll’s House was initially met with controversy over the way it criticized nineteenth-century marital norms and advanced little-known feminist ideas. Ibsen’s play confronts the problems with an exclusively male society, and a woman’s place within that. Nora Helmer commits fraud in order to obtain the money with which to save her husband’s life. Over the course of the play, her dealings are discovered, and she ends up making an enormous life decision that goes against the societal grain. This production is directed by Carrie Cracknell and was described as “the best production of Ibsen I’ve ever seen!” by BBC Radio.