THEATER TALK to Welcome 'MATTRESS' & 'KING CHARLES' Casts This Weekend

Celebrate the Holidays with THE ROYALS - on an all-new episode of THEATER TALK, featuring interviews with a plucky princess, a mean queen and a smitten prince from The Princess and The Pea-based musical One Upon A Mattress, as well as a trio of woebegone Windsors - Charles, "Wills," and Harry - from Broadway's King Charles III.

From off-Broadway's Transport Group, actors Jackie Hoffman, John "Lypsinka" Epperson, and Jason SweetTooth Williams discuss their production of composer Mary Rodgers' musical hit, which originally made a star of Carol Burnett in 1959. Hoffman, who plays the same role, Princess Winnifred, in the current revival at the Abrons Art Center, admits she is the only one in the cast who has never appeared in the show "in school or in camp." The performers also share their earliest theatrical sources of inspiration with co-hosts Michael Riedel of the New York Post and Susan Haskins.

Also on the program are principal cast members of playwright Mike Bartlett's play King Charles III, a celebrated production from London, which posits what will happen to England's Royal Family after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We welcome Tim Pigott-Smith who plays the newly crowned King Charles, Oliver Chris, appearing as Prince William and Richard Goulding, the embodiment of Prince Harry. Calling the play not possible, but plausible, Pigott-Smith describes his character as "a man of principle overtaken by time and events." The actors discuss finding the essence of real-life public figures without resorting to impersonation. This segment is co-hosted by Susan Haskins and guest co-host Nancy Giles of CBS Sunday Morning. This episode premieres in the New York metropolitan area beginning Friday, December 25 (2015) at 1:30 AM (early Saturday morning) on THIRTEEN/PBS; Saturday 12/26 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 12/27 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 12/28 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM on CUNY TV*, and Monday 12/28 at 5:30 PM on WLIW/21.

The not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV jointly produce THEATER TALK. 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 CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK. *CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast throughout the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3, and cablecast in THE FIVE boroughs of New York City 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 podcasts.

Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg

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