Here are the 17 best live musicals you can watch right now
The Tony Awards/Youtube
One day, perhaps “Hamilton” won’t be so hard to see.
Show creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda confirmed that the original cast’s performance of the hit musical will be filmed prior to his departure on July 9. Even Jonathan Groff is returning.
He has no idea what they’ll do with the footage just yet, but we’d bet it will reach the light of day at some point.
Musical fans can’t always make it to a show on Broadway, so they comfort themselves with the soundtracks and wait for Hollywood adaptations, like the upcoming “Wicked.” But some of those movies turn out to be trainwreck’s, like the pitiful Madonna version of “Evita,” the Meryl Streep-led “Mamma Mia!” or Adam Shankman’s almost unmentionable “Rock of Ages.”
The solution? Watch the filmed musical performances from the comfort of your own home, the way they were intended with their staging and sets.
Here are the best musicals, from “Rent” and “Into the Woods” to “Shrek the Musical,” that you can watch right now.
The 2016 revival of “She Loves Me” will be streamed on BroadwayHD on June 30. It will be the first time a Broadway show has been streamed live, a new twist on the idea of preserving live performances.
Roundabout Theatre Company/ YouTube
Watch the live stream on June 30 on BroadwayHD for $9.99.
After a 12-year run, the final performance of Jonathan Larson’s classic “Rent” was filmed live in 2008. “Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway” features recent Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry, Will Chase, Adam Kantor, and Tracie Thoms, who played Joanne in the 2005 film adaptation.
Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway
A DVD is available on Amazon for $9. Amazon Video offers the title for $7.99. It is also available for DVD rental on Netflix.
The incomparable Angela Lansbury’s iconic — and Tony Award-winning — role as Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” was preserved in 1982.
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
A DVD is available on Amazon for about $10. It is also available for DVD rental on Netflix.