Tim Rice to Make Appearance on Theatre Talk, 3/23

Sir Tim Rice, lyricist for the upcoming Broadway revivals of Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar – both written with composer Andrew Lloyd Webber – as well as New York's long-running The Lion King, returns to THEATER TALK for an all-new interview premiering Friday, March 23 (2012) at 1 a.m. on Thirteen, followed by airings on CUNY TV Saturday (3/24; 8:30 PM), Sunday (3/25; 12:30 PM) and Monday (3/26; 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM). 

Co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins, THEATER TALK's interview with Sir Tim – the long-running series' "favorite knight" and frequent guest – discusses his new show, a musical adaptation of James Jones' World War II novel, From Here To Eternity, with a "brilliant new composer," Stuart Brazen.

Rice also talks of Evita's first major New York revival since its Broadway premiere in 1979, when the lyricist was 33 years old – particularly about the accusations at the time that the authors had "glamorized" Fascists. The point of the show, he says, is that Evita Peron "glamorized herself … that's the story. Anything more dangerous than a dictator … is a glamorous dictator."

Rice, also the librettist for Evita as well as King David and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, speaks wryly of Lloyd Webber's fondness for using TV reality shows to cast his United Kingdom productions, including an upcoming stadium tour there of Jesus Christ Superstar. "I wish they had asked me first," he tells Riedel and Haskins.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by 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 60+ 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.