Broadway's spring season is kicking into high gear the month, but there's plenty of television and film streams coming out that you'll want to catch—featuring tons of past and present Broadway players.
See new series from theatremakers Mel Brooks, David West Read, and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez—as well as programs starring favorite Tony-nominated and winning performers like Cynthia Erivo and Josh Gad. Check out our March recommendations for new original streaming content.
Hulu
Forty years after the Mel Brooks film History of the World, Part I, which was never intended to have a sequel, comes Part II. The four-episode anthology series from the comic master, along with David Stassen, will explore (as only Brooks can) the lives of Noah (as in Ark), Sigmund Freud, William Shakespeare, Harriet Tubman, Jesus, and more. The trailer is a veritable "I Spy" of celebrity spotting—among them, look for Nick Kroll (Oh, Hello!), Josh Gad (The Book of Mormon), D'Arcy Carden (The Thanksgiving Play), and, of course, Brooks himself. And it looks like we get a little musical number, too! Stream it March 6.
What’s better than a rom-com? A musical rom-com, natch. Well, the Oscar-winning songwriting couple Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (who had their own meet-cute in a musical theatre writing workshop) are giving us just that in the new Hulu series Up Here. Inspired by their 2015 stage musical of the same name, the series, created along with Tony-winning book writer Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen) and top television comedy writer-producer Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, follows an ordinary couple as they fall in love in New York City at the end of the 20th century. Mae Whitman (Good Girls) and Carlos Valdes (The Flash) lend their voices as the lead lovers who might just have a chance if they would listen to their hearts and not the voices in their heads. Look for Tony winner Katie Finneran and theatre vet Andréa Burns in the cast—along with Sophia Hammons, Emilia Suárez, Scott Porter, and John Hodgman. Tony-winning Hamilton director Thomas Kail helms the project. Anderson-Lopez and Lopez have worked together previously on Disney projects such as Frozen and Coco, and separately on Broadway with other collaborators: he on The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q, she on In Transit. Binge all eight episodes March 24.
With a Broadway production of A Christmas Carol just in the rearview and Oliver! on the horizon at New York City Centers Encores, there’s no question that New York theatregoers love a Charles Dickens adaptation. Enter the midseason television series Great Expectations from FX and BBC. Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight serves as executive producer and writer for the coming-of-age period drama about a young orphan—this one called Pip—whose life is changed with the gift from anonymous benefactor. Now a gentleman, Pip pursues the wealthy, but cold-hearted Estella. Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe winner Olivia Colman plays one of literature’s most eccentric characters: Estella’s adopted mother Miss Havisham, who has for decades donned only the white wedding dress she was wearing when jilted at the altar. Fionn Whitehead stars as Pip with Tom Sweet appearing in early episodes as Young Pip. Shalom Brune-Franklin stars as Estella with Chloe Lea appearing in early episodes as Young Estella. Great Expectations begins streaming March 26 exclusively on Hulu in the U.S.
Netflix
Tony winner Cynthia Erivo joins star Idris Elba in the latest movie installment for the award-winning crime series Luther. Elba has earned a Golden Globe and four Emmy nominations as DCI John Luther in the British television series, which dropped five seasons from 2010 to 2019. The story continues with the feature film Luther: The Fallen Sun, finding the titular detective disgraced and behind bars as a serial killer terrorizes London. Erivo stars as DCI Odette Raine, a counter intelligence operative trying to track down Luther after he breaks out of prison. Stream the film March 10.
