Episode # 502
Our panel of theater experts, Jesse Green of New York Magazine, Michael Musto of the Village Voice and Patrick Pacheco of the LA Times, look ahead to the new Broadway season. Among the shows they discuss are Follies, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Bonnie & Clyde, Lysistrata Jones, The Mountaintop, Stick Fly, Chinglish and the controversy surrounding The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 401
Our panel of theater experts, Jesse Green of New York Magazine, Michael Musto of the Village Voice and Patrick Pacheco of the LA Times, look ahead to the new Broadway season with their insightful and witty banter that has made their group appearances some of our most popular episodes. Among the shows they discussed are Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Driving Miss Daisy, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, The Scottsboro Boys, La Bete, and Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 503
Peter Gelb, General Manager of The Metropolitan Opera, discusses coordinating this massive cultural organization and his initiative to revitalize the company's repertory with new productions of classic operas, many staged by the most prominent theater directors of today.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 504
Actors Patrick Page, Isabel Keating and Michael Mulheren, members of the cast of the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, discuss what was really going on behind the scenes during the longest preview period for a show in Broadway history. They talk about working with the musical's original director, Julie Taymor, and how, after 183 previews, (and despite injuries, cast rebellion and mean-spirited press coverage) this production has become a fan favorite and one of the best-selling shows now on Broadway.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 519
Broadway Spring Season Preview 2012, with journalists: Jesse Green of New York Magazine, Michael Musto of The Village Voice, and Patrick Pacheco of The L.A. Times.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 505
Actors Elaine Paige and Ron Raines discuss their roles in the spectacular Broadway revival of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's Follies, now a hit at the Marquis Theatre. Also on the show, New York Times critic Charles Isherwood explains his responsibilities, as he sees them, as one of the most powerful theater critics in the world, and why he has decided to no longer review the plays of the celebrated writer Adam Rapp.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 506
Actor Frank Langella, now appearing in Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy at The Roundabout Theatre Company. The master performer discusses playing a sinister financier, the central character of this drama. Although Rattigan wrote this play in 1963, it resonates with modern audiences, evoking the shock of the Madoff scandal, among others. Langella also talks about his upcoming book, Dropped Names, in which he reminisces about many of the interesting eminent people whom he got to know throughout his lengthy career in show business.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 507
We welcome cast of The Book of Mormon: Josh Gad, Rory O'Malley, Andrew Rannells and Tony-winning Best Featured Actress, Nikki M. James, who detail their participation in the process of creating this Broadway blockbuster. Also on the show, Casey Nicholaw, The Book of Mormon's Tony-winning co-director, and choreographer, who is credited with giving this hit musical "the Broadway magic" it needed.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 508
Our guests are writers Moises Kaufman, Jose Rivera and Paul Rudnick, all contributors to Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, which just opened in New York City at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Also on the program, playwright David Henry Hwang who's critically acclaimed new comedy/drama, Chinglish, about the linguistic and cultural difficulties of Americans visiting China, is now on Broadway.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 520
A discussion of the new Broadway play, Seminar with its writer Theresa Rebeck, and actors Alan Rickman, Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater who play an arch writing coach and two of the students struggling to learn from him.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 509
We welcome the great Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who together and separately have had long careers in all aspects of show business. The couple talks about their early career when they first came to national attention as a comedy team on TV's Ed Sullivan Show before moving into successful "legit" careers on stage.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 510
Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara talk more about their 57 years together in show business, as well as their separate acting careers in theater. Ms. Meara remembers writing her successful Off-Broadway dramatic comedy, After-Play and Stiller recalls his resistance to creating the character of the bad guy in David Rabe's Hurly Burly on Broadway.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 511
Writer Douglas Carter Beane and composer Lewis Flinn discuss their new Broadway show Lysistrata Jones, a cheeky musical based on the Aristophanes classic. Also, drama critic Jason Zinoman of The New York Times talks about "new horror" films, the subject of his book Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 512
Forget those premium Broadway ticket prices! We've got Hugh Jackman, Broadway's biggest star. We spend a half-hour with the versatile and popular entertainer. Jackman talks about his love for Broadway, his sellout show, Hugh Jackman -- Back on Broadway and its meaning for him now and in the future. He also discusses his upbringing in a single-parent home in Australia and his beginnings in musical theater.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 501
Critics John Heilpern (Vanity Fair) and John Simon, along with British actor Edward Hibbert, discuss and debate the artistry and significance of Terence Rattigan (1911-1977), one of the most prolific and important British playwrights of the 20th century. Rattigan's centenary has been celebrated all year in the UK, and is about to be observed in New York City with the revival of his 1963 play Man and Boy, starring Frank Langella.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 518
We interview Kevin Spacey about his portrayal of Richard III in the internationally-acclaimed production, now at BAM. The celebrated actor explains how he devised his stunning way of portraying Shakespeare's evil protagonist. Spacey also discusses his role as Artistic Director of the Old Vic Theatre in London and why, in the midst of a successful Hollywood career, he took on this responsibility.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 441
Legendary lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello!) recounts experiences from his 50-year career in the theater. He also performs one of his most famous songs with singer/actress Kate Baldwin.
Rebroadcast
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 440
We interview composer Alan Menken at the piano. He details the development of his musical career and performs some of his key compositions including songs from his new show Sister Act.
Rebroadcast
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 439
We interview composer Alan Menken at the piano. He details the development of his musical career and performs some of his key compositions including songs from his new Tony-nominated show Sister Act.
Rebroadcast
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 438
With Spider-Man having finally opened at the Foxwoods Theatre, producers Michael David and Emanuel Azenberg discuss the difficulties of shepherding a show that "doesn't work" to Broadway. The two veteran impresarios (with many hits to each of their names) also weigh in on what they would have done had they been given the opportunity to be in the Spider-Man producers' shoes.
Rebroadcast
Monday, February 06, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 437
Critics Adam Feldman of Time Out/New York, Jacques le Sourd of WCBS Radio, Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal and Elisabeth Vincentelli of the New York Post review new productions on Broadway. They also discuss the Tony-winning performances by Frances McDormand in Good People and Sutton Foster in the Best Musical Revival of Anything Goes.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, February 04, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 517
Critics Scott Brown (New York Magazine), Jacques le Sourd (WCBS Radio) , David Richardson (WOR), and Elisabeth Vincentelli (New York Post) evaluate the current Broadway season. Among the shows they discuss are: The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Road to Mecca and Seminar.
Friday, February 03, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 436
On the day after the Tony Awards, we will convene with our predictions panel, Jesse Green of New York Magazine, Michael Musto of The Village Voice, and Patrick Pacheco of the Los Angeles Times, to discuss the Tonys and evaluate any impact they might have. Also, with Spider-Man opening on June 14th, they will review the new (improved) Taymor-less version of this long-awaited musical.
Rebroadcast
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 435
Actor and writer John Leguizamo tells us how he transcended writers block to create his latest one-man show on Broadway, Ghetto Klown. Also we present an encore of our 2004 interview with writer Larry Kramer on the art and politics behind his classic play about the AIDS crisis The Normal Heart, now being revived in a Tony-nominated production at the John Golden Theatre in NYC.
Rebroadcast
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 434
We welcome the Tony-nominated cast of The Book of Mormon (Josh Gad, Nikki M. James, Rory O'Malley, and Andrew Rannells). They detail their lengthy participation in helping to create this Broadway blockbuster. Also on the show, Casey Nickolaw, The Book of Mormon's Tony-nominated co-director and choreographer, who is credited with giving this hit musical "the Broadway magic" it needed.
Rebroadcast
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 433
At the end of an outstanding year on Broadway, our panel of theater experts, Patrick Pacheco of the LA Times, Michael Musto of The Village Voice, and Jesse Green of New York Magazine, sift through all the hype, data and gossip to predict which of the candidates (the politics of the theater world notwithstanding) will win a TONY, Broadway's most coveted theater award.
Rebroadcast
Monday, January 30, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 432
The brilliant Arthur Laurents died last Thursday at age 93. In tribute to the writer/director who co-created West Side Story, Gypsy and La Cage Aux Folles, we are repeating one our favorite Theater Talk interviews with him. Taped in 2001, shortly after Laurents had written his memoir, Original Story By, this conversation (along with virtually every conversation we had with him) will remind viewers why Laurents will be revered as a great genius of the theater for years to come.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 516
Actors Patrick Page, Isabel Keating and Michael Mulheren, members of the cast of the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, discuss what was really going on behind the scenes during the longest preview period for a show in Broadway history. They talk about working with the musical's original director, Julie Taymor, and how, after 183 previews, (and despite injuries, cast rebellion and mean-spirited press coverage) this production has become a fan favorite and one of the best-selling shows now on Broadway.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 431
Tony nominees, playwright Jez Butterworth and actor Mark Rylance, discuss Jerusalem, Butterworth's new play in which Rylance plays one of the most outrageous characters ever to cross a Broadway stage. The work also explores the decline of human sensibilities and sensitivity in England's post-industrial age.
Rebroadcast
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 430
Actors Chris Rock, Bobby Cannavale and playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis discuss Guirgis' hit play The Mother With the Hat, about a struggling addict's fraught relationship with his AA sponsor.
Rebroadcast
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 429
The brilliant Alan Arkin discusses his early development as a performer, working at Chicago's Second City during that company's inception, and why -- now a successful Academy Award-winning star -- he prefers leading improvisational workshops to appearing on the Broadway stage.
Rebroadcast
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 428
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, composer and co-lyricists respectively of the new musical Catch Me If You Can, based on the hit (2002) Steven Spielberg movie.
Rebroadcast
Monday, January 23, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 427
Actor Tate Donovan and playwright David Lindsay-Abaire discuss Abaire's celebrated new work Good People, now on Broadway. In it, Donovan plays an affluent doctor who has succeeded in turning his back on his working class roots in South Boston until he's confronted by a former classmate (played by Frances McDormand). Also on the program, writer Timothy Crouse, co-librettist of Anything Goes, the splashy new revival of the 1934 musical classic by Cole Porter.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 515
We discuss the life of the British playwright/wit and performer Noel Coward as seen through his correspondence, with Coward scholar Barry Day, critic John Simon and actress Elaine Stritch (for whom Coward wrote the musical Sail Away).
Friday, January 20, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 426
We welcome one of our all-time favorite guests Harvey Fierstein. Fierstein is currently starring on Broadway in the revival of the hit musical, La Cage Aux Folles, a show for which he wrote the Tony-winning libretto in 1983. Fierstein remembers creating the show with composer Jerry Herman and its original director Arthur Laurents. He discusses his interpretation of his role as drag diva, Albin, a part he wrote, but had never himself expected to play.
Rebroadcast
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 425
Peter Gelb, General Manager of The Metropolitan Opera, discusses coordinating this massive cultural organization and his initiative to revitalize the company's repertory with new productions of classic operas, many of them staged by the most prominent theater directors of today.
Rebroadcast
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 424
Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park), plus Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), creators of the new Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon, are our guests. The trio discusses how they worked together to create this irreverent and outrageous hit show about the unlikely topic of missionaries from the Church of Latter Day Saints in poverty-stricken Uganda.
Rebroadcast
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 423
The great raconteeur and TV talk pioneer Dick Cavett returns with more stories from the days of his late-night talk show.
Rebroadcast
Monday, January 16, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 422
The great raconteeur and TV talk pioneer Dick Cavett discusses how he went from studying theater at Yale to hosting a nationally syndicated series on ABC. The Dick Cavett Show (1968-1973) helped move late-night television talk from just being short promo-based interviews with the show biz personalities-du jour, to a format that featured extended conversations with the intellectual giants of the day mixed-in with the usual star suspects. Cavett remembers discussions from his series with guests including: Katherine Hepburn, Richard Burton, Janis Joplin, Sly Stone, Norman Mailer, and Gore Vidal.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 514
Actors Elaine Paige and Ron Raines discuss their roles in the hit Broadway revival of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's Follies, now a hit at the Marquis Theatre. Also on the show, The New York Times' Charles Isherwood explains why he is refusing to review the plays of the celebrated writer Adam Rapp any longer, and how his decision could be a boon to both the playwright and his newspaper's readers.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 421
Daniel Radcliffe & Richard Griffiths. Our 2008 interview with actors Daniel Radcliffe, best-known as Harry Potter, and Richard Griffiths, taped while they were appearing in Peter Shaffer's Equus. Radcliffe is again starring on Broadway in the 2011 revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Rebroadcast
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 420
Actress Dana Ivey and writer Paul Rudnick discuss the brilliant and once-notorious playwright Oscar Wilde and his classic work The Importance of Being Earnest. Ivey is now appearing in a hit revival of the Victorian comedy at The Roundabout Theatre. Also, a report by roving correspondents AndrewAndrew from a press preview of the lavish new Broadway musical, Priscilla Queen of The Desert.
Rebroadcast
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 419
The Academy Award-winning actor discusses his role as Shylock in The Theatre for a New Audience's production of The Merchant of Venice, soon to be touring the USA. He also talks about his evolution from being a teenage "hoodlum" in an El Paso street gang in to becoming an Academy Award-winning actor.
Rebroadcast
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 418
Comedian and social commentator Colin Quinn (SNL, The Tough Crowd) discusses his one-man Broadway show Colin Quinn Long Story Short. He is followed by master illusionist and magician Todd Robbins, star of the downtown hit, Play Dead, a show he created with Teller of Penn and Teller.
Rebroadcast
Monday, January 09, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 417
Austin Pendleton, one of the theater's most revered artists, gives us a master class in directing and talks about his new production of Chekhov's Three Sisters now playing at Classic Stage Company in New York. Pendleton discusses how he works with actors (in this production, the company includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, and Peter Sarsgaard) to effectively interpret this dramatic masterpiece. Pendleton also reminisces about working as a young actor with directors including Jerome Robbins, Mike Nichols, and Otto Preminger, and he explains how they inspired him to move beyond acting and pursue their craft as well.
Rebroadcast
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 513
Actors Kurt Peterson and Harvey Evans, two company members of the original 1971 cast of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's Follies, are joined by producer Ted Chapin (a "gofer" for the original production), author of When Everything Was Possible: The Birth of The Musical 'Follies.' Follies is now being revived in a smash hit production on Broadway. Next up, we toast the New Year with Jackie Hoffman (of The Addam's Family), who is now starring in the brilliant and SRO Jackie Hoffman's A Chanukah Carol which rivals Hugh Jackman -- Back on Broadway as the best solo show in town.
Friday, January 06, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 416
Spring Season Preview 2011, with guests Jesse Green of New York Magazine, Michael Musto of The Village Voice, and Patrick Pacheco of The L.A. Times. They discuss the spring season's new Broadway shows, including the highly anticipated opening of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
Rebroadcast
Thursday, January 05, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 415
We look at SHYLOCK, one of the theater's most complex "villains," with Professor James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare and the Jews. He discusses how this Merchant of Venice character, now being played on Broadway by Al Pacino, has been portrayed over the past four centuries. Also, we pay tribute to the late Jill Clayburgh, with excerpts of an interview we did with the actress in 2005.
Rebroadcast
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 414
The famed comedy team talks about their 57 years together in show business and their new web series at www.stillerandmeara.com .
Rebroadcast
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
12:00 AM
Episode # 413
We welcome the great Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, who both together and separately have had long careers in all aspects of show business. The couple talks about their early career when they first came to national attention as a comedy team on TV's Ed Sullivan Show. They then moved into successful "legit" careers -- Meara as an well-known actress and playwright; and Stiller as an actor who appeared in many shows on Broadway and created the role of Frank Costanza on Seinfeld.
Rebroadcast
Monday, January 02, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
