Jennifer Holliday Chats THE COLOR PURPLE, DREAMGIRLS on THEATER TALK Today

Tony Award winner Jennifer Holliday makes her first appearance on THEATER TALK in a revelatory conversation about the creation of her career-making Broadway role as "Effie" in the now-legendary Michael Bennett's production of Dreamgirls (1981-83), as well as her more recent "major acting class" - the month-long rehearsal period with director John Doyle as he prepared her to take over the role of "Shug Avery" in the current Broadway revival of The Color Purple.

Holliday's rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," from the 1982 TONY AWARDS telecast, the night she won the Best Actress award for Dreamgirls, remains one of YouTube's most-viewed Broadway videos - but it's one Jennifer herself doesn't like to watch. She weighed close to 300 pounds then and having been slim now for 20 years, she doesn't like to look back at herself in those days. Jennifer, who was barely out of her teens when Dreamgirls opened, confesses that the show and stardom "took a toll" on her, leading to depression and the weight gain.

With these problems now behind her, Holliday is charming, witty and glamorous in this interview on THEATER TALK. Her anecdotes about Michael Bennett and how Ethel Merman "told me off" are destined to make their own Youtube history.

Co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and Susan Haskins, the Jennifer Holliday episode of THEATER TALK premieres today, Nov. 18 (2016) on PBS station Thirteen/WNET at 1:30 AM (Saturday morning) and repeats there on Sunday 11/20 at 11:30 AM; it reairs on CUNY TV* Saturday 11/19 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 11/20 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 11/21 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM; and also airs on WLIW/21 on Monday 11/21 at 5:30 PM and on NYCLife/25 on Thursday 11/24 at 11 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 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 five 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.