THEATER TALK to Feature THE LANDING & MACBETH this Weekend

This week, Theater Talk focuses on The Vineyard Theatre's acclaimed production of The Landing, the newest work by Tony Award-winning composer John Kander - and his first full collaboration without his late songwriting partner Fred Ebb. In addition to Kander, the guests are the show's librettist/lyricist Greg Pierce, director Walter Bobbie, and star David Hyde Pierce (who is also Greg Pierce's uncle), who talk to Theater Talk co hosts Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins about creating this production. The Landing is an evening of three one-act chamber musicals, each with a twist, and in this interview Theater Talk's guests each share about his role in bringing the inventive show, that Ben Brantley called "an elegantly slender production," to life.

Next up, Susan Haskins and journalist Suzy Evans of Backstage attend a press preview of the new Lincoln Center production of Shakespeare's Macbeth. They explore the perils, pitfalls and rewards of staging the gruesome Shakespeare tragedy with director Jack O'Brien and members of his cast, including Ethan Hawke, Richard Easton, Anne-Marie Duff, Daniel Sunjata, Bianca Amato and - almost in time for Halloween - three unorthodox witches: Malcolm Gets, Byron Jennings and John Glover.

The Landing and Macbeth episode of THEATER TALK premieres in the New York metropolitan area Friday, November 1 (2013) at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and continues on CUNY TV* Saturday 11/2 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 11/3 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 11/4 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 (Time Warner and Cablevision/Optimum), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). The show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes podcasts. CUNY TV is also live-streamed for mobile, tablet and desktop viewing on www.Aereo.com.

Photo Courtesy of Theater Talk/CUNY TV