SATCHMO AT THE WALDORF's John Douglas Thompson and Terry Teachout to Visit THEATER TALK, 3/28-31

An all-new THEATER TALK features John Douglas Thompson and Terry Teachout, the cast and writer, respectively, of the new off-Broadway play, Satchmo at The Waldorf, now at the Westside Theatre Upstairs. A dramatization of the last years of jazz legend Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), the play was written after Teachout immersed himself in his subject for his 2009 biography, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong.

Although Armstrong was unfairly characterized by some as an "Uncle Tom" figure, he was a brilliant horn player and vocalist, and revolutionized jazz by bringing it into millions of homes on recordings and on TV. (His 1964 recording of "Hello, Dolly!" knocked The Beatles off the top-of-the-charts, and Teachout recalls himself being musically galvanized as a child seeing Armstrong sing it on The Ed Sullivan Show.) Armstrong was featured in a number of major films (Pennies from Heaven with Bing Crosby [1936], High Society with Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly [1956], and Hello, Dolly! with Barbra Streisand [1969], spanning decades of American entertainment.

Thompson has received acclaim in Shakespeare plays (the title roles in Macbeth and Othello among them), as well O'Neill's The Emperor Jones (winning a 2010 Joe A. Callaway Award and a Drama Desk nomination), and on Broadway in John Grisham's A Time to Kill. In Satchmo at The Waldorf, the challenge is to portray not only Armstrong, a character whose style and mannerisms are so well-known to generations of Americans, but also Satchmo's manager Joe Glaser, as well as Miles Davis, a younger jazz legend who held Armstrong in contempt for his ever-sunny demeanor and the M.O.R. musical choices of his later career. Thompson explains his approach to these roles and discusses the evolution of his respect for the giant talent in American music who inspired the play.

Hosted by Michael Riedel and Susan Haskins, this THEATER TALK episode premieres in the New York City area Friday, March 28 (2014) at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and continues on CUNY TV* Saturday 3/29 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 3/30 at 12:30 PM and Monday 3/31 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 TV station, is broadcast in the New York City area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in all five boroughs 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 in the NY area on www.Aereo.com.

Pictured: John Douglas Thompson in "Satchmo at The Waldorf" (photo by T. Charles Erickson) and Louis Armstrong with manager Joe Glaser (courtesy of The Louis Armstrong House Museum).

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