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.
Monday, April 02, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 526
Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan discuss their careers bringing musical theater to film and television. They also discuss their innovative new NBC TV series Smash, a show about the making of a Broadway musical.
Friday, April 06, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Monday, April 09, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 423
The great raconteeur and TV talk pioneer Dick Cavett returns with more stories from the days of his late-night talk show.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 527
Actors Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy discuss their roles in David Ives' play Venus in Fur. They talk about working with director Walter Bobbie to stage this drama, which was inspired by the 19th-century novel, Venus in Furs, by Leopold von Sacher-Mason. Also, a conversation with composer Michael Gore and librettist Lawrence D. Cohen, creators of the notorious musical Carrie, another show based on a classic novel, in this case by Stephen King. Joining them is 3-time-Tony nominee Marin Mazzie, star of the current Off-Broadway revival of the show.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 528
Reporter Patrick Healy of The New York Times drops by for a "Broadway Update." We then pay tribute to the late producer Theodore Mann with an encore presentation of our 2010 interview with the Off-Broadway pioneer and founder of the Circle in the Square Theatre.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 529
Our guest is the revered cabaret performer Marilyn Maye, who reminisces about her lengthy career as one of the most sought-after jazz singers and interpreters of popular song. Beginning as a pre-teen vocalist in Iowa, Maye eventually appeared 76 times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (his most frequent guest), and she continues to dazzle audiences even now (playing this week at Feinstein's at Loew's Regency in New York City). Ms. Maye is accompanied on piano by Don Rebic.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 530
In a classic Theater Talk encore, writer Gore Vidal talks about The Best Man, his timeless political drama, currently being revived on Broadway. The play speaks as relevantly about politics today as it did when it was first produced in 1960. Vidal also discusses his close acquaintance with other political figures ranging from J.F.K. to his "Cousin Albert" (who was about to lose the election when we did this interview with Vidal in 2000).
Friday, May 04, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Monday, May 07, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 531
Our guests are playwright Richard Bean, Tony-nominated director Nicholas Hytner and Tony-nominated actor James Corden - the writer, director and star respectively of the new hit comedy, One Man, Two Guvnors. Based on the Eighteenth Century Goldoni farce, The Servant of Two Masters, Bean's freewheeling adaptation is set in 1960's Brighton. In an interview taped just two days after the British import's triumphant New York opening, the trio discusses the work that made the show a success and share the enthusiasm that comes with being out-of-town artists who have scored on Broadway.
Friday, May 11, 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.
Saturday, May 12, 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.
Monday, May 14, 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.
Tuesday, May 15, 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.
Wednesday, May 16, 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.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 532
Critics Ben Brantley of The New York Times, Peter Marks of The Washington Post, and Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal join us to evaluate some of the most notable shows that have recently opened on Broadway, including One Man, Two Guvnors; Death of a Salesman; The Best Man; Newsies; and Once.
Friday, May 18, 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.
Saturday, May 19, 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.
Monday, May 21, 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.
Tuesday, May 22, 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.
Wednesday, May 23, 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.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 533
Our focus is Newsies, the crowd-pleasing musical nominated for 8 Tony Awards. Joining us at our grand piano are the show's composer Alan Menken, and librettist Harvey Fierstein, who describe the popular show's incubation period, and perform several of the show's best songs, plus a couple of others that didn't make the cut. Menken also shares a tune from the score of the original 1992 movie of Newsies, which won him that year's "Razzie "Award for Worst Song.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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).
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
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.
Saturday, June 02, 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.
Monday, June 04, 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.
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 521
A conversation about Wit, the searing drama about a woman's struggle with maintaining her self-awareness and sense of humor while grappling with a mortal illness. Playwright Margaret Edson discusses the revival of her 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, along with the current production's director Lynne Meadow, the Artistic Director of The Manhattan Theatre Club.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 522
The Academy Award-winning actor joined us to discuss his revealing and entertaining memoir In Spite of Myself. Also on board to review Plummer's critically-acclaimed autobiography, was our regular critic and commentator John Simon.
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 523
We pay tribute to our beloved colleague, the late critic Howard Kissel with a rebroadcast of our award-winning 2009 program, "A Walk through The Players Club." On this show Kissel, a writer, actor and frequent contributor to our program, guided us through The Players Club, a landmark of the American theater and shared stories with us about the people and events connected with it.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 524
Critic and columnist John Heilpern (Vanity Fair) discusses the life and work of the groundbreaking British playwright John Osborne (1929-1994), the subject of Heilpern's outstanding and critically-acclaimed biography, John Osborne: The Many Lives of the Angry Young Man. Osborne transformed the British theater with his 1956 play Look Back in Anger (now being revived in NYC at The Roundabout Theatre). He became one of England's most revered and successful writers, all the while suffering from bouts of depression, self-destructive drinking and hidden anguish. Heilpern shares his insights on the writer's profound influence, as well as his troubled, and sometimes cruel, personality.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 525
Our favorite knight, the lyricist and librettist Sir Tim Rice joins us to discuss his celebrated shows Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, both of which are currently being revived on Broadway. Rice also talks about his new show, From Here to Eternity, a musical adaptation of James Jones' World War II novel, and shares a few dry observations about Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's new reality TV show in Britain, on which the public will pick "Jesus" for an upcoming UK stadium tour of Superstar (not to be confused with the critically celebrated version directed by Des McAnuff, playing in NYC now).
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 526
Producers Neil Meron and Craig Zadan discuss their careers bringing musical theater to film and television. They also discuss their innovative new NBC TV series Smash, a show about the making of a Broadway musical.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 527
Actors Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy discuss their roles in David Ives' play Venus in Fur. They talk about working with director Walter Bobbie to stage this drama, which was inspired by the 19th-century novel, Venus in Furs, by Leopold von Sacher-Mason. Also, a conversation with composer Michael Gore and librettist Lawrence D. Cohen, creators of the notorious musical Carrie, another show based on a classic novel, in this case by Stephen King. Joining them is 3-time-Tony nominee Marin Mazzie, star of the current Off-Broadway revival of the show.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 528
Reporter Patrick Healy of The New York Times drops by for a "Broadway Update." We then pay tribute to the late producer Theodore Mann with an encore presentation of our 2010 interview with the Off-Broadway pioneer and founder of the Circle in the Square Theatre.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 529
Our guest is the revered cabaret performer Marilyn Maye, who reminisces about her lengthy career as one of the most sought-after jazz singers and interpreters of popular song. Beginning as a pre-teen vocalist in Iowa, Maye eventually appeared 76 times on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (his most frequent guest), and she continues to dazzle audiences even now (playing this week at Feinstein's at Loew's Regency in New York City). Ms. Maye is accompanied on piano by Don Rebic.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 530
In a classic Theater Talk encore, writer Gore Vidal talks about The Best Man, his timeless political drama, currently being revived on Broadway. The play speaks as relevantly about politics today as it did when it was first produced in 1960. Vidal also discusses his close acquaintance with other political figures ranging from J.F.K. to his "Cousin Albert" (who was about to lose the election when we did this interview with Vidal in 2000).
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 531
Our guests are playwright Richard Bean, Tony-nominated director Nicholas Hytner and Tony-nominated actor James Corden - the writer, director and star respectively of the new hit comedy, One Man, Two Guvnors. Based on the Eighteenth Century Goldoni farce, The Servant of Two Masters, Bean's freewheeling adaptation is set in 1960's Brighton. In an interview taped just two days after the British import's triumphant New York opening, the trio discusses the work that made the show a success and share the enthusiasm that comes with being out-of-town artists who have scored on Broadway.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 532
Critics Ben Brantley of The New York Times, Peter Marks of The Washington Post, and Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal join us to evaluate some of the most notable shows that have recently opened on Broadway, including One Man, Two Guvnors; Death of a Salesman; The Best Man; Newsies; and Once.
Thursday, June 21, 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.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 402
A conversation with the great Elaine Stritch, now starring on Broadway in the hit revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. The outspoken eighty something actress, raconteur (and Emmy Winner for 30 Rock) provides us with another half-hour (her fifth on Theater Talk) of not-to-be-missed television.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 403
Playwright/actor Charles Busch discusses his new Off-Brodway hit The Divine Sister, about a highly unconventional group of nuns. Joining him are his costars Alison Fraser and Julie Halston.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 404
Lee Hall (award-winning librettist for Billy Elliot) discusses his new play The Pitmen Painters, the true story of a group of British miners whose artwork became a sensation. He is joined by actor Deka Walmsley, who helped create the production with Hall at the Live Theatre of Newcastle in England, and is now appearing in the show on Broadway. Next up, we take a look at Brief Encounter, the beloved 1945 David Lean film, which is now also a show on Broadway. Film historian Jerry Carlson analyzes both this new stage adaptation and the classic motion picture that inspired it.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 405
We are joined by actors Cherry Jones and Edward Hibbert, now appearing in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. They discuss this classic play, which in its day was considered so scandalous that when it premiered in New York in 1905, it was shut down by the police after one performance and the cast was arrested.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Episode # 406
We pay tribute to actress Jill Clayburgh, who died on November 5, with excerpts of an interview we did with her in 2005.Taped while she was appearing in the Roundabout Theater Company's A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, Clayburgh talks about her return to Broadway after a hiatus from the stage of many years, as well as the emerging career of her daughter, Lily Rabe (who is playing Portia opposite Al Pacino as Shylock in the current Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice).
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Length : 26 min
MPT2
Previous Episodes Not Found
