THEATER TALK Celebrates 2016 Tony Awards with Pair of Shows This Weekend

Two new editions of THEATER TALK bookend a TONY Award Weekend that also features a marathon of encore THEATER TALK programs dedicated to this season's TONY nominees. Celebrating the end of the successful 2015-16 theater season and the upcoming TONY AWARDS ceremony on June 12 are TONY Predictions with journalists Jesse Green (New York Magazine), Michael Musto (Out.com) and Patrick Pacheco (Los Angeles Times); and The Critics, Spring 2016 with Ben Brantley (The New York Times), Peter Marks (The Washington Post) and Elisabeth Vincentelli (New York Post).

Both shows feature enjoyably raucous appraisals of the concluding season, considered by all to be one of the best in recent memory. Although Hamilton has dominated attention with its runaway success, both THEATER TALK programs cite other extraordinary plays and performances that have contributed to the season's strength.

Certain to appeal to theater fans are varied observations and disagreements about the number of TONY AWARDS Hamilton will win, if Langella + Alzheimer's = TONY, Jessica Lange's stagecraft, the families of The Humans and Long Day's Journey Into Night, the end of naturalism on Broadway, and what show Elisabeth dubs a musical "mess-terpiece."

TONY Predictions airs on Thirteen Friday 6/10 at 1:30 AM (early Saturday) and Sunday 6/12 at 11:30 AM. It re-airs on CUNY TV* Saturday 6/11 at 8:30 PM and Sunday 6/12 at 12:30 PM & 7:30 PM, kicking off and closing Theater Talk's TONY-Sunday Marathon, encore presentations of interviews with the season's top talent from Blackbird, The Color Purple, The Crucible, Eclipsed, The Father, Fiddler on the Roof, The Humans, and Noises Off.

The Critics, Spring 2016 episode premieres as part of the Marathon Sunday 6/12 at 7PM and repeats on Monday 6/13 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM and 7:30 PM.

Hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and Susan Haskins, 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 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 in the NYC metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3 and cablecast in the city's 5 boroughs on Ch. 75 (Time Warner & Optimum Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). THEATER TALK episodes are available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes.

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