Streaming selections from BPN, Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater, and Club44 Records

If the cold weather and COVID are keeping you inside, here are three star-studded streaming selections for listening and viewing this month that will keep you entertained in the warmth and safety of your own home.

Among the latest in Broadway Podcast Network’s all-star audio-plays is Twits – a new five-part steampunk rom-com parody by writer/creator Tom Alan Robbins. Directed by Robbins and Dori Berinstein, the retro-futuristic work conjures an alternative Victorian sci-fi world of hydrogen, steam-powered servants, and factory-made food, in which the privileged few, like Cyril Chippington-Smythe, whose every wish is instantly gratified, have nothing to live for but pleasure, fashion, and love. But is it real? The cast features luminaries Michael Urie, Christian Borle, Mary Testa, James Monroe Iglehart, Lillias White, Kiera Allen, Ann Harada, Dakin Matthews, and Stephen DeRosa, along with a fantastic ensemble.

All five episodes of the podcast are now available for individual or binge listening free of charge on the BPN website. You can also access Twits on the BPN APP, Apple/iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart, TuneIn, Deezer, Player.FM, Pocket Cast, Podcast Addict, and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Off-Broadway’s award-winning Red Bull Theater continues its free online offerings with a livestream RemarkaBULL Podversation: Much Ado About Benedick with Grantham Coleman on Wednesday, January 19, beginning at 7:30 pm. The star of stage and screen (The Great Society; Choir Boy; FX’s The Americans) will join Red Bull Associate Artistic Director and Host Nathan Winkelstein for an informal online conversation focused on the character of Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing – a role he played to great acclaim for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park in 2019, which was subsequently broadcast by PBS in its Great Performances series. He will read an excerpt from the play, discuss the challenges of that particular speech (Act 2: Scene 3) and the rewards of playing one of Shakespeare’s most charismatic leading men, and will take questions from viewers.

All of Red Bull Theater’s current online offerings are free, but advance reservations are recommended and tax-deductible donations are encouraged to support the company and to invest in the vitality of classical theater for a contemporary audience.

Club44 Records, highlighting the Broadway, cabaret, and jazz genres, and preserving the timeless music of the Great American Songbook, will release The Sunday Set – a new album by singer, dancer, and impresario Jim Caruso and singer-pianist Billy Stritch on Friday, January 21. After launching the record label in 2019, with Christmas at Birdland (which Stritch and Caruso recorded with Klea Blackhurst), then following up last year with Stritch’s solo Billy’s Place, the long-time friends and collaborators have reunited to present a selection of American standards, jazz favorites, and comedy numbers.

Recorded live at their home-away-from-home at The Birdland Theater, where they host the weekly Monday-night open-mic Cast Party, the upcoming release features vocals by Stritch and Caruso, Stritch on piano, and Steve Doyle on bass. The track list includes such popular numbers as “Whistle While You Work” and “Give a Little Whistle,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and “42nd Street,” along with a “Sinatra Saloon Medley.”

Jim Caruso, Billy Stritch, and Wayne Haun. Photo courtesy of the artists.

Wayne Haun, Co-Founder of Club44 Records, noted, “The old saying ‘you can’t make old friends’ is clearly evident when I listen to this album. The chemistry, response, and overall musicality between Jim and Billy cannot be taught. Years of experience and true brotherhood are at work here.”

To stream or to download the album, click here.

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