Broadway Publicist Josh Ellis, Eric Bentley's 100th Birthday & More Set for THEATER TALK This Week

An all-new episode of THEATER TALK features former Broadway publicist Josh Ellis on his one-man show, Call My Publicist! The Starry Education of A Broadway Press Agent, and an at-home interview with critic-performer-playwright- translator and writer Eric Bentley on the occasion of his 100th birthday.

Josh Ellis, now a minister, regales co-hosts Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins with tales from the Broadway trenches as PR man (classically charged with "getting asses into seats") for such masters of self-promotion as Carol Channing, Yul Brynner and producer David Merrick. He shares backstage anecdotes from his days on Broadway including his work with Merrick on and after the notorious opening night of the musical 42nd Street on the day its director, Gower Champion, died. Ellis also reveals the real challenges a press agent faces when a new theater project is announced.

Also on the program, Riedel goes on location for a discussion with Eric Bentley, the critic, playwright, editor and the foremost English translator of Bertolt Brecht. Bentley, who turns 100 on December 7, 2015, discusses his childhood in England, meeting and working with Brecht, and his views on mortality as he approaches the beginning of his second century. (THEATER TALK co-host Michael Riedel hosts a birthday celebration at Town Hall on December 7th.)

Co-hosted by Michael Riedel, Broadway columnist for the New York Post, and Susan Haskins, this episode premieres in the New York metropolitan area Friday, November 20 at 1:30 AM (Saturday morning) and repeats on Sunday 11/22 at 11:30 AM on Thirteen/PBS; on CUNY TV* Saturday 11/21 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 11/22 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 11/23 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM; and on WLIW/21 on Monday 11/23 at 5:30 PM - a total of 8 times weekly.

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 CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast throughout 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; Optimum/Brooklyn), 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.