Julio Torres, Jennifer Tilly and More Star in Plays That Are Streaming Now

Other picks include the historical hip-hop musical "Mexodus," an Anne Carson radio play and a century-old play about machines replacing humans. Julio Torres would like to explain a few things. Colors correspond to certain energies, which are rooted in weather patterns, TV personalities and a range of bureaucratic processes. The sound of rain? Green. As is meditation and "sitting in silence with your partner." Airports and anything overly orderly or rules-based? Navy blue. Ellen DeGeneres? Yellow on the surface but red beneath. Torres, a former writer for "Saturday Night Live" -- and the creator of the sketch fantasy series "Fantasmas" and the writer, director and star of the 2024 film "Problemista" -- knows how to hook an audience in his latest comedy special, "Color Theories." Based on his Off Broadway show at Performance Space New York last year, the special is true to Torres's singular, surrealist voice, blending stand-up (while seated) with pop-up-book storytelling, philosophical musing and a whimsical, interactive set. 'I Don't Do Innocents' Stream it at the Paris Review. The poet and essayist Anne Carson's one-act radio play is set during a wedding party where the bride is notably absent. The bride's younger sister, Asta, who muses about family dynamics, is very much present, though -- just not at the dinner table. Asta, curious, brainy and scheming, eavesdrops on the family from the roof by listening through a drainpipe. Oh, and she talks to angels. Produced by the international touring theater company Complicité, this lightly surrealist family drama features a cast of nine actors and the treat of Carson herself reading the stage directions. The play is punchy -- less than 15 minutes -- and preceded by a short conversation between Carson and the production's director, Simon McBurney. 'Mexodus' Stream it on Audible. You've probably heard of the many sophisticated tunnels that make up the Underground Railroad in Northeastern America, but have you heard about the part of the railroad that ran through the South? "Mexodus," a hip-hop musical with live, looping instrumentals, tells the true story of the thousands who escaped slavery by crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico. The playwright Brian Quijada teamed up with the composer Nygel D. Robinson to fuse layers of bass, beat boxing, accordion, piano and vocals in this new musical. Directed by David Mendizábal, the story follows one freedom seeker, Henry (Robinson), a Black man who crosses the border and meets Carlos (Quijada), a former Mexican soldier of the Mexican American War. In her review for The New York Times, Brittani Samuel called the production "a dazzling showcase not just for what music can be, but also for the ecstasy of making it." The streaming, captured live at Audible's Minetta Lane Theater in Manhattan, is available starting April 16, and coincides with a return engagement of "Mexodus" at the Daryl Roth Theater in Manhattan. 'The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington' Stream it at the Wilma Theater. Martha Washington, the first lady, is on her deathbed. Feverish, she is surrounded by the enslaved workers her husband promised to free upon her death (that part is true). In James Ijames's comedic play, "Miz Martha," in her delusional state, confronts a kind of trial in a hallucinatory reckoning: The enslaved people appear as prosecutors and historical figures to hold her accountable for her complicity in the country's cruel system of oppression. Martha's dreams include conversations with Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross and Thomas Jefferson, a game show hosted by a Black King George and Queen Charlotte, and a courtroom trial. Timed to commemorate America's 250th birthday ahead of the many Semiquincentennial festivities, the Philadelphia-based Wilma Theater is making this historical satire available for streaming through May 3. 'The Adding Machine' Stream it at the League of Live Stream Theater. A refresh of Elmer L. Rice's 1923 experimental drama just opened at Theater at St. Clement's in Manhattan. In this expressionist classic about the mechanization of modern life (sound relevant?), Daphne Rubin-Vega stars as Mr. Zero, a worker who feels like just another cog in the machine -- only to be replaced by an actual machine. Outrage ensues, setting him on an existential journey about what it means to be replaceable. Jennifer Tilly plays Mr. Zero's wife; Sarita Choudhury, his colleague; and Michael Cyril Creighton, "everyone else." The 103-year-old play features revised text by Thomas Bradshaw; on May 5, for one night only, the show will be captured live and presented at curtain time for streaming.