HEDWIG's Taye Diggs & Rebecca Naomi Jones Visit THEATER TALK This Weekend

An all-new THEATER TALK looks at a major cast change for a hit Broadway musical plus a new illustrated history of Black performers and shows on Broadway. This week's episode boasts a cast of famous names that includes actors Taye Diggs and Rebecca Naomi Jones - the new leads in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway - in addition to producer Stewart Lane, author of the new book Black Broadway, accompanied by director Kenny Leon and performer Melba Moore, all with rich Broadway histories.

In the first segment, Taye Diggs - taped prior to rehearsing for his debut in Hedwig - confides that he's getting in touch with his "internal flaming homosexual" in search of his inner Hedwig. He remembers seeing the original production with creator John Cameron Mitchell, Off Broadway, but confesses that he never considered doing the part till he saw Neil Patrick Harris in the Broadway revival. Co-star Rebecca Naomi Jones shares how she secured the part of Yitzhak, a male character in the show. Diggs and Jones are the first African American coupling for the hit musical.

The show's focus then turns to Stewart Lane's new book, Black Broadway, a comprehensive look back at the careers of African American performers on Broadway throughout its history. Melba Moore, the first African-American female lead in both Hair and Les Miz and who also won a Tony Award for Purlie, remembers seeing Diahann Carroll's ground-breaking performance in Richard Rodgers' No Strings in 1962, but says of the time, "There were no stories about us. There were no black people in the audience." Leon (who wrote the book's foreward) had never heard of Broadway when growing up in Florida. Now, however, he has 11 Broadway credits. "I love being in the Broadway community," he says. "But let's not kid ourselves. We can go further."

Co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins, this THEATER TALK episode premieres in the New York metropolitan area Friday, July 24 (2015) at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and continues on CUNY TV* Saturday 7/25 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 7/26 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 7/27 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 CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

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