Staff Reporter | On 05, Nov 2020

The UK’s theatres are shutting doors for the foreseeable future amid safety concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. With more and more people self-isolating or working from home to minimise the spread of the virus, theatregoers will be missing the thrill of live entertainment while theatre companies will be struggling to support artists and employees. Streaming platforms, though, provide a way for you to get your culture fix and support theatrical venues during these troubled times.

In today’s VOD age, you can rent and buy recordings of a huge variety of theatre plays online to watch in your living room, as well as subscribe to all-you-can-stream collections of people treading the boards,From Broadway shows and West End plays to RSC productions, hit musicals and opera favourites, this is your digital theatre guide:

Old Vic In Camera: Live Streams

The Old Vic is staging socially distanced and coronavirus-safe productions from its empty auditorium and streaming them live on Zoom – with the number of tickets for each performance limited to the theatre’s usual seating capacity, priced from £10 to £65 to allow for a range of financial contributions. Up next is A Christmas Carol, its annual production written by Jack Thorne and, for 2020, starring Andrew Lincoln. Find out more here. Previously, Lungs was streamed live online, starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith, plus Three Kings, starring Andrew Scott, and Faith Healer, starring Michael Sheen. Playing from 12th to 24th December.

Cost
£10 to £65

Notable Productions
Lungs, Three Kings, Faith Healer

Ways to watch
Zoom

The Shows Must Go On!

The Shows Must Go On is the new official YouTube channel that is streaming musicals for free each week. New productions will be released on Fridays and then typically be available for 48 hours. Read more here.

Cost
Free

Notable productions
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, starring Donny Osmond
Jesus Chris Superstar, starring Tim Minchin
Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds

Ways to watch
YouTube

Emilia

400 years ago Emilia Bassano wanted her voice to be heard. It wasn’t. Could she have been the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets? What of her own poems? Why was her story erased from history? Emilia and her sisters reach out to us across the centuries with passion, fury, laughter and song. Recorded at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2019, this inspiring, funny, award-winning and ground-breaking production is available to stream until 2nd December on a pay-what-you-want basis.

Cost
Voluntary

Ways to watch
Official website

What a Carve Up!

January 1991. Six people are dead. Murdered. One thing in common – they are members of one of the most corrupt, powerful and toxic families in the country. One prime suspect – the celebrated writer in the middle of compiling a history of the family. A simple open and shut case? Anything but. Jonathan Coe’s satirical murder-mystery gets a playful adaptation ideal for a dark winter’s night in. Available daily until 29th November for £12 a ticket.

Cost
£12

Ways to watch
Official website

Tabletop Shakespeare

A salt and pepper pot for the king and queen. A vase for the prince. A matchbox for the servant. A toilet roll tube for the Innkeeper. A water bottle for the messenger. A kitchen table for a stage. Conceived and devised by Forced Entertainment, this inspired domestic take on Shakespeare’s plays has been running since September and will wrap up its tour on 15th November, with new productions airing almost nightly. All videos will be available until 30th November.

Cost
Free

Ways to watch
YouTube

Voila! Europe

This annual theatre showcase goes online for 2020, shining a digital spotlight on British and European theatre makers with a focus on multicultural, multilingual and multidisciplinary performances. Running from 9th to 21st November, there are interactive shows on Zoom and pre-recorded shows with watch parties and live discussions. All tickets at £10. Here’s the brochure.

Cost
£10

Ways to watch
Official website

Watching Rosie

Veritable national treasure Miriam Margolyes stars in this short lockdown production exploring family, dementia and possibly even a hint of hopeful romance. Written by Louise Coulthard, who co-stars along with the always-excellent Amit Shah, the result is a charming gem that was so popular it’s now been re-released online until 26th November by the Original Theatre Company.

Cost
Free

Ways to watch
OriginalTheatre.com

Falling Stars

Peter Polycarpou (Man of La Mancha, City of Angels) and Sally Ann Triplett’s (Finding Neverland) play was halted by the coronavirus pandemic, but they’ve filmed an adaptation of their one-hour musical showcase, which takes us back to the 1920s and follows a lost songbook hidden away in an antique shop on the East Finchley High Road. Once discovered, it unlocks the refrains of a bygone era, featuring the music of Charlie Chaplin, Irving Berlin, Buddy De-Silva and more. It’s available to watch on Stream.Theatre from Sunday 22nd to 29th November.

Cost
TBC

Ways to watch
Stream.Theatre

Rent

Hope Mill Theatre now have tickets for limited online performances of the electric musical, , with songs, lyrics, and book by Jonathan Larson, loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème. It runs from 27th November to 20th December. Don’t miss it.

Cost
£25

Ways to watch
Hope Mill Theatre

Fibres

Frances Poet’s bittersweet play about the impact of asbestosis on a Glasgow family toured to communities across Scotland last year to great acclaim. The team has reunited to create a digital theatre experience for you to enjoy at home, which runs for 80 minutes and is available to stream for free – starting from 25th November. See more here.

Cost
Free

Ways to watch
Official website

Little Wars

Bringing together six exceptional women, Little Wars unites literary figureheads Gertrude Stein (Linda Bassett), her girlfriend Alice Toklas (Catherine Russell), Dorothy Parker (Debbie Chazen), Lillian Hellman (Juliet Stevenson) and Agatha Christie (Sophie Thompson), with anti-fascist freedom fighter Muriel Gardiner (Sarah Solemani), in the most fantastical what-if dinner party imaginable. Tensions are high and secrecy lingers in the air, but with libations flowing and the threat of World War II looming the guests are close to boiling point. Streaming until 3rd December, with a 24-hour streaming pass costing £12.

Cost
£12

Ways to watch
StreamTheatreNow.com

Rose

Who doesn’t want to watch Maureen Lipman on stage? Taking on the role made famous by Olympia Dukakis, Lipman is Rose, a woman shaped by her history. She offers an intimate and, at times, humorous account of the 20th century, and the ultimate triumph of humanity. This thought-provoking production acts as a caution, highlighting the importance of unity in the face of adversity, and the need to recognise and empathise with the suffering of others. In collaboration with the Hope Mill Theatre, the production was filmed on-stage to an empty auditorium and is available to download and stream until 13th December. Tickets are £17.

Cost
£12

Ways to watch
StreamTheatreNow.com

South Devon Players

The theatre group is putting on two productions this autumn and winter for online streaming. Viewers will be able to access the stream live or watch on-demand for two days post-broadcast.

Sir Walter’s Women – 28th November

This is a one-act drama about the life of Sir Walter Raleigh as he manoeuvres his status as a favourite of Elizabeth I to satisfy his political ambitions.

William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew – 12th December

A project by some of the team members, this adaptation of the full, original text splits the play between two actors to explore the idea of creating digital performance and new techniques of expressing characters.

Southwark Playhouse

The theatre is streaming a range of productions online throughout the winter. Philip Ridley’s darkly comic new play The Poltergeist is about art, family, memory, and being haunted by the life we never lived. It runs from 20th to 21st November. The Fabulist Fox Sister, loosely inspired by the loosely true story of Kate Fox, plays on 4th and 4th December. Public Domain, made entirely from the words of YouTube vloggers, Instagram influencers, Facebook’s tech giants, and everyday internet users, runs from 11th to 12th December. Early bird tickets are £10, then raise to £15. Book tickets here.

Cost
£10/£15

Notable productions
The Poltergeist

Ways to watch
Southwark Playhouse website

Royal Opera House: Live from Covent Garden

The Royal Opera House is streaming special performances live from the Royal Opera House. The line-up has included Dance of the Blessed Spirits, performed by Vadim Muntagirov, Das Lied von der Erde, performed by the Royal Opera House Orchestra and J.S. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor. Next up is Flight Pattern (2019), a poignant response to one of the biggest humanitarian crises facing current society – a large-scale ensemble dance piece that takes a sombre look at the ongoing refugee crisis. Playing from 6th November to 5th December. Also streaming is Jukebox 2, from 30th October to 29th November, which sees artists perform live the concert that online audiences curated, based on the votes made on excerpts performed in Jukebox 1 on Monday 26th October.

Cost
Various

Notable Productions
Gounod’s Faust
The Sleeping Beauty (Royal Ballet)

Ways to watch
Roh.org.uk

London Symphony Orchestra

Live music has returned to LSO St Luke’s, even with the doors officially closed. These concerts will be streamed live on the LSO website and available on-demand for 48 hours. Next up is Winters, Maderna, Haydn & Shostakovich on 17th November. And, on Fridays, lunchtime recitals are streamed live on YouTube for free and available for a week after the broadcast. Visit the LSO site for more information.

Cost
Various

Notable productions
After Romanticism
Schumann Symphony No. 3

Ways to watch
YouTube / IDAGIO

Mozart’s Requiem

In what promises to be a poignant moment of remembrance, reflection and ultimately hope at a time of national crisis, BBC Two is to broadcast Mozart’s Requiem from English National Opera. It is presented by Danielle De Niese. Performed and recorded specially for a lockdown television audience at the London Coliseum, Mark Wigglesworth makes a welcome return to the podium to conduct the award-winning ENO Chorus and Orchestra and a stellar line up of soloists: Elizabeth Llewellyn, Dame Sarah Connolly, Ed Lyon and Gerald Finley. It airs at 7pm on 14th November.

Cost
Free

Notable productions
Mozart’s Requiem

Ways to watch
BBC iPlayer

Royal Albert Home

The Royal Albert Hall streamed exclusive sets and performances from artists all summer – ranging from music to drawing – from either the empty Albert Hall, the individual artist’s home, or from the venue’s own archive of recordings throughout the lockdown. You can catch all of them on-demand still for free. Here’s the full line-up. British band Architects will also be streaming a concert online on 21st November, with paid tickets available from the RAH website.

Cost
Free

Notable Productions
Kaiser Chiefs
KT Tunstall

Ways to watch
YouTube

DigitalTheatre

DigitalTheatre lives up to its name, leading the way with its impressive catalogue of sleekly recorded productions, which hail from theatres across the UK, including the Old Vic, the Young Vic, Manchester’s Palace Theatre and the RSC. There’s also some opera, dance and classical music on offer. If you’re an academic institution, you can also get free access to the whole lot, plus curriculum-linked resources including backstage insights, practitioner interviews and written analysis.

Cost
£7.99 rentals / £9.99 a month

Notable Productions
The Crucible with Richard Armitage (Old Vic)
Hamlet with Maxine Peake (Royal Exchange Theatre)
King Lear with Jonathan Pryce (Almeida Theatre)
Richard II with David Tennant (Barbican)
Into the Woods (Regent Park Open Air)
All My Sons with David Suchet (Apollo Theatre)

Ways to watch
TV, desktop, tablet and mobile through your web browser. Cast to your TV via Apple TV or Chromecast.

Uncle Vanya

2020’s West End production of the iconic Chekhov play, directed by Ian Rickson, was performed at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre. After its run was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the BBC has stepped in to film a version of the production, which was produced during lockdown without an audience. The impressive cast were present, though, including Toby Jones, Richard Armitage, Rosalind Eleazar, Aimee Lou Wood, Anna Calder-Marshall, Dearbhla Molloy and Peter Wight, with Roger Allam replacing Ciarán Hinds. It will on BBC Four at a date yet to be confirmed.

Cost
Free

Notable productions
Uncle Vanya

Ways to watch
BBC iPlayer

Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet was originally to have played to theatre audiences in the NT’s Olivier auditorium this summer, starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. Now, the project is being reconceived for the screen in a new 90-minute version. Shot over three weeks with a collaborative team of theatre and film experts, the production will turn the National’s Lyttleton Theatre into a film studio, embracing the architecture of the space in telling the story. The 90-minute film will air on Sky Arts in 2021.

Cost
Free

Notable productions
Romeo & Juliet

Ways to watch
Sky Arts (Freeview) / NOW TV

Marquee TV

Marquee TV is subscription platform that offers culture on-demand, serving up a collection of dance, opera, theatre, music and documentaries from around the world. Partners include the Globe Theatre, the RSC and the Royal Opera House. The platform is currently premiering new shows every Saturday, kicking off with the Royal Opera House’s La Traviata, directed by Richard Eyre. There’s also a decent collection of Shakespeare titles.

Cost
£8.99 a month (30-day free trial)

Notable productions
Phylidda Lloyd’s all-female The Tempest, Henry IV and Julius Caesar with Harriet Walter
David Tennant’s Richard II

Ways to watch
iOS, Android, Roku, Fire TV and Apple TV apps are all available

OperaVision

If you like opera, this is the place for you. Organised by Opera Europe, it’s an online hub for video streaming of opera productions, which essentially hosts YouTube recordings that are available for free – both live and for several weeks after on-demand. Expiry dates are clear and easy to spot.

Cost
Free

Notable productions
The Turn of the Screw (Britten)

Ways to watch
YouTube

BritBox

BritBox has bagged a new collection of productions from the Royal Opera, RSC and Donmar Warehouse, with 25 Shakespeare plays, a host of ballet performances and operatic recordings. Some of the RSC titles are also available on BBC iPlayer until September 2020.

Cost
£4.99 a month

Notable productions

King Lear, starring Antony Sher
Richard II, starring David Tennant
Macbeth, starring Christopher Eccleston.
Phylidda Lloyd’s all-female The Tempest, Henry IV and Julius Caesar with Harriet Walter
Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty (2017)
Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (2017)

Ways to watch
Britbox.co.uk

Globe Player

The Globe Theatre on London’s Southbank has its own on-demand platform that contains recordings of its own productions, mostly centred on Shakespeare – including, most impressively, every foreign-language production from its 2012 Globe to Globe festival.

Cost
£3.99 to £11.99

Ways to watch
Globeplayer.tv

Royal Court Theatre

In a damaged world, four characters search for the light. Angry, funny, defiant, kind and cruel, Crave is a deeply personal meditation on the meaning of love. From 31 Oct, a new production of Sarah Kane’s seminal play will be live streamed from Chichester Festival Theatre for eight performances, in partnership with the Royal Court Theatre. Performances run from 2nd November to 7th November. Click here for more information.

Cost
£10-£20

Ways to watch
YouTube

Coronavirus Theatre Club

Brian Lonsdale, Sam Neale and Michael Blair – three actors from north-east London – are offering a platform to up-and-coming writers, directors and actors, calling people together to share their monologues and other scripted works. Those involved are given seven days to rehearse their work and be off book in time for the stream, with new work then streaming live at 7pm on Sunday nights through the club’s Twitter account: here.

Cost
Free

Notable Productions
All new productions

Ways to watch
Twitter

Met Opera On Demand

Moe than 700 full-length Met performances are brought together in this online streaming service, which is available worldwide. Titles are broken into chapters for handy viewing, especially for opera newbies.

Cost
$14.99 a month (7-day free trial)

Notable productions
Turandot (Puccini)
Manon (Massenet)

Ways to watch
Fire TV, iOS, Apple TV, Android, Roku

Medici.tv

A platform dedicated entirely to classical music, this is a wonderful collection of concerts and recitals, which lets you watch a decent number of them for free (anything labelled “Replay”). Subscriptions give you full access to the whole lot, with no ads and full HD.

Cost
£9.90 a month

Notable productions
Martha Argerich – Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3
Janine Jansen – Bernstein, Sibelius and Nielsen
Leif Ove Andsnes – Mozart and Strauss

BroadwayHD

This American streaming service is surprisingly available for UK theatre fans too and comprises a strong selection of recorded Broadway productions, ranging from recent revivals of Shakespeare to old musical favourites.

Cost
$10.79 a month (7-day free trial)

Notable productions
Noel Coward’s Present Laughter with Kevin Kline
Romeo & Juliet with Orlando Bloom
Phylidda Lloyd’s all-female The Tempest, Henry IV and Julius Caesar with Harriet Walter
Oklahoma! with Hugh Jackman
An American in Paris (2018)
Holiday Inn (2017)
Jerry Springer The Opera
RSC’s King Lear with Ian McKellen

Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall already has a collection of chamber music recordings from its Edwardian hall uploaded to its YouTube channel for on-demand streaming.

Cost
Free

Notable productions
Beethoven Festival Weekend

Ways to watch
YouTube

LIVR

A curio among the theatre streaming crowd, LIVR is a virtual reality platform that aims to put you on the front row of the theatre – and even lets you turn around to look at the rest of the audience mid-performance. Compatible with Google Cardboard, you can get a free headset sent to you in the post when you sign up, or choose a free credit instead to unlock a show for 30 days.

Cost
£5.99 a month (1-month free trial)

Notable productions
RUST

Ways to watch
iOS, Android, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive

Netflix

Netflix’s planned filmed productions of Broadway’s The Prom and other shows may be on hiatus, but it’s already host to a number of other stage recordings, including Rodney King, Oh, Hello on Broadway, Springsteen on Broadway and a film adaptation of hard-hitting social drama American Son.

Cost
£8.99 a month (1-month free trial)

Radiohead

Radiohead is releasing a gig every Thursday night throughout the lockdown or until they run out of concerts to dig up from their archive recordings.

Cost
Free

Notable Productions
Live at Summer Sonic
Live in Berlin
Live in Buenos Aires

Ways to watch
YouTube

National Theatre at Home – Ended

The National Theatre has finished streaming its selection of NT Live productions for free on YouTube every Thursday. For the full line-up of plays released online, click here.

The Rolling Stones – Ended

The Rolling Stones hosted Sunday streams of past concerts for free on YouTube. Gigs streamed at 8pm every Sunday until 7th June, with each concert available on-demand after.

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