Dear Octopus
Lindsay Duncan shines in the National Theatre’s Lyttelton revival of Dodie Smith’s 1938 drama about one family’s tentacles across four generations. Frankie Bradshaw’s teal-dominated set and costume design are similarly rich in detail. On NT at Home.
Edinburgh fringe
If you fancy a hit of festival fever but can’t make it to Edinburgh, there are 18 shows online, including comedy, spoken word, musicals and theatre. In Quicksilver Dance’s half-hour Odyssea, performers use just their hands to dramatise a windswept journey past fantastical flora and fauna.
Waitress: The Musical
Cook up your own couch potato pie and watch Sara Bareilles star in her hit Broadway musical – adapted from Adrienne Shelly’s film – about small-town dreams, despair and, as one song puts it, “what baking can do”. On Amazon Prime.
Chekhov Comedy Shorts
In 2010, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Russian playwright’s birth, comedy stars including Steve Coogan, Johnny Vegas and Julia Davis appeared in a series of new adaptations of Chekhov’s one-act plays. They are newly available from MarqueeTV.
Gypsy: The Musical
At the Palladium, Hello, Dolly! is a five-star hit. Revisit Imelda Staunton’s previous musical triumph, dusting down another classic, as a starstruck matriarch in Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ Gypsy at the Savoy in 2015. On Amazon Prime.
Into the Woods
More Sondheim, this time collaborating with writer James Lapine, on a witty fairytale tapestry filmed at Regent’s Park Open Air theatre in 2010. Directed by Timothy Sheader, it stars Hannah Waddingham, in fine voice as ever, playing a Witch with a jet-black bob. On BroadwayHD.
Iphigenia in Splott
Gary Owen’s searing monologue about austerity is at Cardiff’s Sherman theatre in September, in a Welsh-language adaptation by Branwen Cennard. Back in 2016, Digital Theatre captured Rachel O’Riordan’s superb English-language production, starring Sophie Melville.
Muse of Fire
Before he won an Olivier award as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, Giles Terera co-directed (with Dan Poole) this documentary series about the power of Shakespeare’s plays, featuring insights from illustrious actors including Ian McKellen, John Hurt, Helen McCrory and Alan Rickman. On MarqueeTV.
Sappho in Fragments
Thalissa Teixeira plays Sappho in Hattie Naylor’s short play about the Greek poet’s turbulent relationships with her brothers and her bond with her servant. Featuring music from the cellist Liz Hanks, it’s produced for Drama on 4. On BBC Sounds.
Antony and Cleopatra
Blanche McIntyre’s Globe production of Shakespeare’s tragedy is one of this summer’s hottest tickets. But on GlobePlayer you can watch Jonathan Munby’s 2014 staging, with Clive Wood and Eve Best (who “runs the gamut of emotions in a single line”, wrote Michael Billington).
