National Theatre Live: Rockets and Blue Lights (2021)

A Little Life

Following four college friends in New York City: aspiring actor Willem, successful architect Malcolm, struggling artist JB, and prodigious lawyer Jude. As ambition, addiction, and pride threaten to pull the group apart, they always find themselves bound by their love for Jude and the mysteries of his past. But when those secrets come to light, they finally learn that to know Jude St Francis is to understand the limitless potential of love in the face of life.

National Theatre Live: Jane Eyre

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meet the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

National Theatre Live: Cyrano de Bergerac

Fierce with a pen and notorious in combat, Cyrano almost has it all - if only he could win the heart of his true love Roxane. There’s just one big problem: he has a nose as huge as his heart. Will a society engulfed by narcissism get the better of Cyrano - or can his mastery of language set Roxane’s world alight?

Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale

A jealous king jeopardizes his family, friendships and succession.

National Theatre Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Marquise de Merteuil, former lover of Vicomte de Valmont, incites him to corrupt the innocent Cécile de Volanges before her wedding night, but Valmont has targeted the peerlessly virtuous and beautiful Madame de Tourvel.

National Theatre Live: The Audience

For sixty years, Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace, a meeting like no other in British public life, it is private.

Revue Starlight ―The STAGE Junior High― Rebellion

Seisho Music Academy, Siegfeld Institute of Music, and Seiran General Art Institute are to put on a play as part of an exchange program between the three schools. With Yachiyo supervising Siegfeld, she and the five middle schoolers meet with Claudine, Futaba, and Suzu. The play they will be performing is Seisho's popular program "The Wartime of Farewells". As it had been previously revived with Kaoruko and Maya in the lead roles, Claudine and Futaba participate with an extraordinary resolve; meanwhile, Suzu gains a keen interest in Siegfeld's newborn raw gems. Following Regalia, each of them has taken a step forward as a Stage Girl, but Shiro alone remains without a reason to stand on stage. Shiro has been a servant of the Siegfeld family since childhood, and has lived her life solely for Stella's sake, giving everything up for her. However, her reason of being is shaken up once a camaraderie between Stella and Ryoko starts to develop after their revue.

RiffTrax Live: RAD

Teens! Bikes! Feathered Hair! Love and revenge! Leotards and acid-washed denim! It’s all here in the legendary Eighties BMX-racing action-drama-romance RAD! Join Mike, Bill and Kevin as they spin, flip and slow-bike-dance their way into your hearts, LIVE in theaters nationwide on August 17th! Don’t miss it, if you want to be RAD!

Stratford Festival: King John

When the King of France demands that John relinquish his crown in favor of his nephew, the young Prince Arthur, war is the inevitable result. Excommunication, attempted atrocity, rebellion, and assassination all contribute to political turmoil and personal grief for a mother who has lost her son.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano has a prominent nose but also a gift with words by which he helps handsome Christian to conquer Roxane. Also in love with the girl he chooses not to reveal to her that every word of Christian comes out of his own heart. In cinema, this ROSTAND classic filmed live from the Comédie Française.

National Theatre Live: The Habit of Art

National Theatre Live’s 2010 broadcast of Alan Bennett’s acclaimed play The Habit of Art, with Richard Griffiths, Alex Jennings and Frances de la Tour, returns to cinemas as part of the National Theatre's 50th anniversary celebrations. Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, Death in Venice, seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. Alan Bennett’s play is as much about the theatre as it is about poetry or music. It looks at the unsettling desires of two difficult men, and at the ethics of biography. It reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, and on persisting when all passion’s spent: ultimately, on the habit of art.

National Theater Live: The Crucible

A witch hunt is beginning in Arthur Miller's captivating parable of power with Erin Doherty (The Crown) and Brendan Cowell (Yerma). Raised to be seen but not heard, a group of young women in Salem suddenly find their words have an almighty power. As a climate of fear, vendetta and accusation spreads through the community, no one is safe from trial. Lindsey Turner (Hamlet) directs this contemporary new staging, design by Tony award winner Es Devlin. Captured live from the Olivier stage of the national theater.

National Theatre Live: Antony & Cleopatra

Caesar and his assassins are dead. General Mark Antony now rules alongside his fellow defenders of Rome. But at the fringes of a war-torn empire the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony have fallen fiercely in love. In a tragic fight between devotion and duty, obsession becomes a catalyst for war.

National Theatre Live: I'm Not Running

Pauline Gibson has spent her life as a doctor, the inspiring leader of a local health campaign. When she crosses paths with her old boyfriend, a stalwart loyalist in Labour Party politics, she’s faced with an agonising decision. What’s involved in sacrificing your private life and your piece of mind for something more than a single issue? Does she dare?

National Theatre Live: Hamlet

As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father's death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.

The King and I

Widowed Welsh mother Anna Loenowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.

National Theatre Live: Phaedra

After years of fierce focus on her political career, a politician turns her attention to her personal life. The reappearance of a figure from her past shakes the foundations of her house and the beliefs that have underpinned her power. As buried lust and loneliness surge to the surface, her actions threaten to destroy everything she has built.

Cabaret

Filmed live from the 1993 revival, Sam Mendes' directorial debut takes place at the Donmar Warehouse in London's West End. Jane Horrocks stars as cabaret girl Sally Bowles, Adam Godley as the bicurious Cliff, and Alan Cumming as the eccentric Emcee. Inside the Kit Kat Club of 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally and the impish Emcee sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside, a notorious political party grows into a brutal force.

Good Night, and Good Luck

Livestreamed from the penultimate show at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City, this stage adaptation of George Clooney's 2005 film follows the story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.

National Theatre Live: Coriolanus

When an old adversary threatens Rome, the city calls once more on her hero and defender: Coriolanus. But he has enemies at home too. Famine threatens the city, the citizens’ hunger swells to an appetite for change, and on returning from the field Coriolanus must confront the march of realpolitik and the voice of an angry people.

True West

A screenwriter gets conned out of selling a script to a Hollywood producer by his brother, who pitches his own idea for a movie. This video recording of the 1982 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production was later broadcast by PBS.

Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― #2 Transition

After the events of Revue Starlight ―The LIVE― #1 revival, Seiran General Arts Institute challenges Seisho Music Academy to a revue with the right to perform the play "Starlight" at stakes. Who will win this Cultural Exchange Program?

National Theatre Live: Antigone

In the unstable aftermath of a civil war, Creon, the new King of Thebes, asserts his authority by forbidding anyone from honouring the death of the traitor Polyneices. But Antigone, Polyneices' sister, will not obey. When Creon's authority is challenged, a gripping conflict emerges between the power of an individual and the state. Polly Findlay's electric 2012 production brings Sophocles' tragedy into the modern world as a gripping political thriller.

Almeida Theatre Live: Richard III

The Almeida Theatre makes its live screening debut with an explosive new adaptation of Richard III, directed by Almeida Artistic Director Rupert Goold with Ralph Fiennes as Shakespeare’s most notorious villain and Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Margaret. War-torn England is reeling after years of bitter conflict. King Edward is ailing, and as political unrest begins to stir once more, Edward’s brother Richard – vicious in war, despised in peacetime – awaits the opportunity to seize his brother’s crown. Through the malevolent Richard, Shakespeare examines the all-consuming nature of the desire for power amid a society riddled by conflict. Olivier-winning director Rupert Goold’s (Macbeth, King Charles III) searing new production hones a microscopic focus on the mythology surrounding a monarch whose machinations are inextricably woven into the fabric of British history.

Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet

Live theatre presentation of Shakespeare's classic play about two teenagers from warring families whose love affair ends in tragedy.

Into the Woods

In a woods filled with magic and fairy tale characters, a baker and his wife set out to end the curse put on them by their neighbor, a spiteful witch.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage

A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family. The film version of the stage production was shot during the play’s 2022 run at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo.

National Theatre Live: The Seagull

Emilia Clarke makes her West End debut as Nina in Anya Reiss’ unique 21st century modernisation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, with direction by Jamie Lloyd.

National Theatre Collection: Translations

Owen, the prodigal son, returns to rural Donegal from Dublin. With him are two British army officers. Their ambition is to create a map of the area, replacing the Gaelic names with English. It is an administrative act with radical consequences.

National Theatre Live: Consent

Why is Justice blind? Is she impartial? Or is she blinkered? Friends take opposing briefs in a rape case. The key witness is a woman whose life seems a world away from theirs. At home, their own lives begin to unravel as every version of the truth is challenged. Nina Raine’s powerful, painful, funny play sifts the evidence from every side and puts justice herself in the dock. Consent received its world premiere in a co-production with Out of Joint at the National Theatre in April 2017. This archive recording was captured on 9th May, 2017.

Miss Saigon: 25th Anniversary Performance

The epic love story tells the tragic tale of young Vietnamese bar girl Kim, orphaned by war, who falls in love with American GI Chris — but their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon.

National Theatre Live: Barber Shop Chronicles

For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling. Follow along as we leap from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra over the course of a single day.

LOVE

In the communal area of a block of temporary accommodation, the residents go about their day-to-day routines in the run-up to Christmas. The bonds of love that keep people together are put to the test.

National Theatre Live: Allelujah!

Filmed live at London’s Bridge Theatre during its limited run. The Beth, an old fashioned cradle-to-grave hospital serving a town in Yorkshire, is threatened with closure as part of an efficiency drive. A documentary crew, eager to capture its fight for survival, follows the daily struggle to find beds on the Dusty Springfield Geriatric Ward, and the triumphs of the old people’s choir.

Hairspray Live!

A teenage girl living in Baltimore in the early 1960s dreams of appearing on a popular TV dance show.

Hamilton

Presenting the tale of American founding father Alexander Hamilton, this filmed version of the original Broadway smash hit is the story of America then, told by America now.

National Theatre Live: Dixon and Daughters

Mary has just been released from prison. She wants to come home and forget all about it but Briana has other ideas. Over a tumultuous two days a family is forced to confront not just their past but themselves. Because even if you refuse to hear the truth, the truth doesn’t go away. Róisín McBrinn returns to Clean Break (Favour) to direct this powerful story of family and forgiveness by Deborah Bruce (The House They Grew Up In). A co-production from National Theatre and Clean Break.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel: Live from Lincoln Center

Transferring the setting of a brooding Hungarian play, Carousel, to a remote fishing village, shaping their vision around themes of brutality, poverty and disappointment, Rodgers and Hammerstein composed some of the most glorious music ever written for the stage.

Rent

The story of several friends in New York City facing financial poverty, homophobia, AIDS, and, of course, rent.

National Theatre Live: Othello

The Moorish general Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality it is all part of the scheme of a bitter ensign named Iago.

Company: A Musical Comedy

Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.

National Theatre Live: All My Sons

America, 1947. Despite hard choices and even harder knocks, Joe and Kate Keller are a success story. They have built a home, raised two sons and established a thriving business. But nothing lasts forever and their contented lives, already shadowed by the loss of their eldest boy to war, are about to shatter. With the return of a figure from the past, long buried truths are forced to the surface and the price of their American dream is laid bare.

Death of a Salesman

Willy Loman is an over-the-hill salesman who faces a personal turning point when he loses his job and attempts to make peace with his family: Willy's long-suffering wife Linda, and Biff and Happy, his troubled sons and his life.

If I Forget

A play about the stories we choose to believe, the compromises we can't avoid and the hurt only our nearest and dearest can inflict. In the final months before 9/11, a liberal professor has reunited with his two sisters to celebrate their father's 75th birthday. Each having their own version of family history, the siblings clash over everything. Destructive secrets and long-held resentments surface as the three negotiate—with biting humor and razor-sharp insight—how much of the past they’re willing to sacrifice for a chance at a new beginning.

Hemmet

A satire of the welfare society showing the mechanical nature of the elderly care.

National Theatre Live: King Lear

An aged king decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters, according to which of them is most eloquent in praising him. His favourite, Cordelia, says nothing. Simon Russell Beale, whose recent appearances at the National include Timon of Athens and Collaborators, takes the title role in Shakespeare’s tragedy.

National Theatre Live: The Deep Blue Sea

A flat in Ladbroke Grove, West London. 1952. When Hester Collyer is found by her neighbours in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, the story of her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge begins to emerge. With it comes a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion. Behind the fragile veneer of post-war civility burns a brutal sense of loss and longing.

Henry V - Live at Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare’s masterpiece of the turbulence of war and the arts of peace tells the romantic story of Henry’s campaign to recapture the English possessions in France. But the ambitions of this charismatic king are challenged by a host of vivid characters caught up in the real horrors of war. Henry V, which opened the new Globe with the words ‘O for a muse of fire’, celebrates the power of language to summon into life courts, pubs, ships and battlefields within the ‘wooden O’ - and beyond.