Zoom in to Bedford’s Virtual Playhouse: With it’s doors shuttered due to COVID-19 restrictions, The Bedford Playhouse is going virtual with their interactive Classic Tuesdays with John Farr and Laugh Out Loud Thursday Comedy Series. Each movie is available for streaming on a variety of services such as Amazon Prime, iTunes and Showtime on Demand. Stream it at your leisure then Zoom in on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 pm for a Zoom Conversation with John Farr, Playhouse programmers and your fiends and neighbors. Here’s the April lineup.

Trading Places + Zoom Conversation, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Series, Thursday, April 9: 7:30pm: Screen this 1983 John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers) comedy starring Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy. Loosely based on Mark Twain’s The Prince and The Pauper, Trading Places follows the Duke brothers, owners of a large commodity brokerage, who conduct an experiment (through a clever manipulation) by switching the lives of their Managing Director and future in-law with a street hustler. Screen it on your time and then zoom in for a lively conversation led by Theater and Programming Directors Bijhan Clarke and Dan Friedman — think Siskel & Ebert … (or perhaps Ernie & Bert??)

His Girl Friday + Zoom Conversation, Classic Tuesdays with John Farr, Tuesday, April 14: 7:30pm: Director Howard Hawkes’ 1940 screwball comedy, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, is ranked #19 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years… 100 Laughs list. It was selected for preservation in the United States Film Registry of the

Based on the play The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, His Girl Friday, delivers a prescient display of all the gender war themes of the first, second and third wave of the Women’s Movement, without the jargon. The story famously twists the complications of human emotions as they relate to love, marriage, career and jealousy. As newspaper editor Cary Grant attempts to lure his star reporter and ex-wife Rosalind Russell back from the brink of giving up her career (and marrying an insurance man) for one last story. One of the smartest funny movies ever.

All About Eve + Zoom Conversation, Classic Tuesdays with John Farr, Tuesday, April 21: 7:30pm: “Don’t miss this sharp, caustic take on the theatre world and the wide assortment of parasites, barracudas, and hangers-on that populate it.” -bestmoviesbyfarr.com  All About Eve, the best cat fight every captured on film, tells the story of aspiring actress Eve Harrington and mega-star Margo Channing. After Margo takes Eve under her wing, it doesn’t take long for Eve to emerge as a schemer with her eyes on the prize, namely Margo’s career and then Margo’s man. That’s when the claws come out! Ranked #16 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Best American Films, All About Eve received 14 Oscar nominations and won 6 including Best Film. It is the only film to receive four Best Actress/Best Supporting Actress nominations.

Airplane! + Zoom Conversation, Laugh Out Loud Comedy Film Series,Thursday, April 23, 7:30pm: This spoof comedy takes shots at the slew of disaster movies that were released in the 70s. When the passengers and crew of a jet are incapacitated due to food poisoning, a rogue pilot with a drinking problem must cooperate with his ex-girlfriend turned stewardess to bring the plane to a safe landing.” Voted “one of the 10 funniest movies ever made” by the American Film Institute, Airplane! is a comedic masterpiece starring Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, Kareem and Abdul-Jabbar. Zoom in with Theater and Programming Directors Bijhan Clarke and Dan Friedman — think Siskel & Ebert …(or perhaps Ernie & Bert??) after you have streamed the movie.

Tunes of Glory + Zoom Conversation, Classic Tuesdays with John Farr: Thursday April 28: 7:30pm: After World War II, a Highland Regiment’s acting Commanding Officer, who rose from the ranks, is replaced by a peace-time Oxford-educated Commanding Officer, leading to a dramatic conflict between the two.  Starring Alec Guinness, John Mills & Susannah York. This dark psychological 1960 British bagpiper, starring Alec Guiness and John Mills, follows events in the winter after World War II in a Scottish Highland regimental barracks.