Michael Riedel News

CBS has just announced that Tommy Tune, this year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Tony award, will be among the presenters on this year's telecast.

The New York Post's Michael Riedel reports that unlike last year, CBS will broadcast the 'In Memoriam' segment of the 2015 TONY AWARDS.

The New York Post's Michael Riedel reports that Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is about to announce a revival next spring for his record-breaking musical CATS

After visiting a performance of Broadway's FINDING NEVERLAND, six-year-old theatre critic Iain Armitage and his idol, New York Post theater columnist Michael Riedel, hangout at Sardi's restaurant to review the show together.

On TONY Awards Sunday (June 7), CUNY TV will present 8 hours of interviews related to this year's nominated musicals, plays, and individuals - from 12 noon right up till Tony time (8 p.m. on CBS). Included in the mix is the premiere at 7 p.m. of an all-new episode of THEATER TALK, Critics Review the Broadway Season, with Ben Brantley of The New York Times, Peter Marks of The Washington Post, John Simon of the Westchester Guardian, and Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal.

This week's THEATER TALK focuses on two productions beginning the 2015-16 theater season – An Act of God, a new comedy by 13-time Emmy Award winner David Javerbaum with Jim Parsons in the title role, and Cagney, The York Theatre Company's new musical based on the life of the beloved actor James Cagney.

The annual Tony® Awards ceremony celebrating “Broadway's best” will be on June 7, and THEATER TALK, for the 23rd consecutive season, convenes a panel of journalist-critics to give their award predictions. This year, Jesse Green (New York Magazine), entertainment columnist Michael Musto (Out.com), Patrick Pacheco (The Los Angeles Times) and Elisabeth Vincentelli (New York Post), explain who will win the Tonys and why the winning candidates will triumph over all the others.

An all-new THEATER TALK welcomes the key creative artists behind the new musical hit Fun Home – composer Jeanine Tesori, librettist/lyricist Lisa Kron, and author Alison Bechdel, who wrote and drew the bestselling graphic memoir that inspired the production. The show, now selling out at Circle in the Square, deals with the true story of Bechdel's relationship with her demanding father, her coming out in college as a lesbian that led her to learn of her father's closeted homosexuality, and his suicide, which followed this revelation.

In an all-new THEATER TALK, the Tony®-nominated stars of David Hare's romantic drama Skylight - Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan - talk about the acclaimed revival, in which they performed previously on the West End and have followed to Broadway this Spring.  They share Skylight Tony nominations with fellow actor Matthew Beard, as well as playwright Hare, director Stephen Daldry, and Natasha Katz for Best Lighting.

An all-new THEATER TALK welcomes back show favorite and leading lady Helen Mirren, currently starring on Broadway as Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's new play The Audience – now rivaling big musicals for its more-than-million-dollar weekly grosses at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Mirren's latest theatrical triumph returns her to the world of royalty, specifically that of Queen Elizabeth II, one that she previously assumed in her Oscar® winning role in the 2006 film, The Queen, also written by Morgan.

In an all-new THEATER TALK, David Hare and Stephen Daldry - author and director of Skylight - talk about the Broadway revival of Hare's romantic drama. The play, which is about the passionate relationship between a rich businessman and a poor schoolteacher who has consigned herself to public service, first ran on Broadway in 1996 and is considered one of Hare's best and a classic of modern British drama.

FINDING NEVERLAND producer Harvey Weinstein and O&M Public Relations Company press agent Rick Miramontez parted ways in January under less-than-civil circumstances. But now Deadline reveals that Miramontez is back with the musical's team, ready to promote happy thoughts with the best of them.

Michael Riedel's theatre tome is set for release at last!

First The Visit, a haunting musical drama, based on the 1958 play by Friedrich Durrenmatt, which originally starred the legendary acting team of Lynn Fontanne as the world's wealthiest woman and Alfred Lunt as the disloyal former lover on whom she seeks revenge. Broadway favorites Chita Rivera and Roger Rees star in this stirring adaptation and appear on THEATER TALK to discuss their roles in it. Joining them are The Visit's innovative director, John Doyle, and composer, John Kander, who wrote the score with lyricist Fred Ebb (the pair's last collaboration before Ebb's death).

The Guthrie Theater previously announced that its outgoing Director Joe Dowling, the longest tenured artistic director in Guthrie history, will appear for an In Conversation moderated by New York Post theater columnist Michael Riedel tonight, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

THEATER TALK focuses on Wolf Hall, a two-part British theatrical spectacle -- based on the best-selling historical novels by Dame Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies -- about the rise of Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith's son, to become the trusted confidante of King Henry VIII. The plays, a hit in London, just opened on Broadway to critical raves. Appearing with Dame Hilary on THEATER TALK are director Jeremy Herrin and actors Ben Miles (Thomas Cromwell) and Nathaniel Parker (Henry VIII).

'Classic NYC Movies at the Palace' continues with the all-star musical that shows off the Big Apple at its best followed by a mini-concert by members from the cast of 'On the Town' now playing at the Lyric Theatre. New York Post Chief Film Critic Lou Lumenick will introduce the movie with his special guest Michael Riedel, the Post's theater columnist and PBS/radio celebrity.

THEATER TALK focuses on Wolf Hall, a two-part British theatrical spectacle -- based on the best-selling historical novels by Dame Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies -- about the rise of Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith's son, to become the trusted confidante of King Henry VIII. The plays, a hit in London, just opened on Broadway to critical raves. Appearing with Dame Hilary on THEATER TALK are director Jeremy Herrin and actors Ben Miles (Thomas Cromwell) and Nathaniel Parker (Henry VIII).

ASCAP award-winning playwright/director Chip Deffaa will host talkback sessions--in which audience members can ask any questions they wish of the cast or creative team--after the following performances of his new musical comedy 'Mad About the Boy' at the 13th Street Repertory Theater (50 W. 13th Street, NYC).

On May 3, 2015 at 2pm, New York Theatre Barn (Theatre Barn) presents its exclusive Spring Benefit - a one-time only presentation of Gotta Dance: A Choreography Conversation at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street.