THEATER TALK Welcomes SHUFFLE ALONG's Adrienne Warren, George C. Wolfe & Brandon Victor Dixon This Weekend

An all-new edition of THEATER TALK shines the spotlight on Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, nominated for 10 TONY AWARDS (including Best Musical) at the Music Box Theatre - librettist/director George C. Wolfe (nominated for Best Book and Best Director of a Musical), Adrienne Warren (nominated as Best Featured Actress in a Musical in dual roles as Gertrude Saunders and Florence Mills) and Brandon Victor Dixon (nominated as Best Featured Actor in a Musical as composer Eubie Blake).

Although the original Shuffle Along's considerable charms soon were overshadowed in 1925 by Show Boat, Wolfe says the 1921 show was "monumentally significant," a show produced, written and performed by African Americans. With 504 performances and three touring companies, it eventually earned a profit of $9 million. It also had the first-ever jazz score on Broadway- by Noble Sissle and Blake - that featured the hit, "I'm Just Wild About Harry." Culturally and theatrically innovative, it was a show embraced by Uptown and Downtown audiences. Imperfect revivals in 1933 and 1952, with eliminated and added material, subsequently dimmed its memory. As Wolfe tells co-hosts Michael Riedel of the New York Post and Susan Haskins, the "best of Shuffle Along got eaten by more famous shows."

It was Wolfe's idea to make a show about the making of this show, with something added: "I wanted to live inside that energy I had when I first came to New York of 'Gee kids, let's put on a show.'" Warren and Dixon affirm that Wolfe's was a charmed rehearsal process that made creating the show a joy.

This latest edition of THEATER TALK premieres in the New York area on Thirteen/PBS, Friday, May 27 (2016) at 1:30 AM (early Saturday) and Sunday, May 29 at 11:30 AM. It re-airs on CUNY TV* Saturday 5/28 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 5/29 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 5/30 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM; as well as on WLIW/21 on Monday 5/30 at 5:30 PM - 8 showings this week.

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). The show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes.

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