TV's THEATER TALK Gets Spooky for Halloween Next Week

THEATER TALK, winner of the 2017 Emmy Award for Best Interview/Discussion Show in the NYC area, presents entertainers Murray Hill, Bridget Everett and cabaret producer Daniel Nardicio.

They talk with co-hosts Michael Musto of NewNowNext.com and Theater Talk producer Susan Haskins about developing and bringing their distinctive styles of entertainment to audiences in NYC, as well as those around the world - "hungry," as Everett puts it, for something different.

The panel is preparing for Musto Duets Deux, a benefit for "Gays Against Guns" at Club Cumming, the new hot spot that Nardicio owns with actor Alan Cumming, featuring Musto paired with some of his favorite entertainers for an evening of song.

Next, dramatist/performer/producer Clay McLeod Chapman and writer/director/impresario Timothy Haskell discuss creating Halloween season horror theater with Haskins and guest co-host critic Jason Zinoman of The New York Times.

Now in its 20th year, The Pumpkin Pie Show employs old-fashioned storytelling techniques to engage audiences, whereas Haskell's latest SRO show, This Is Real - publicized as an "intimate and unnerving simulated abduction" - is elaborately staged to terrify audiences limited to eight attendees at a time. The panel explores the questions of what really scares audiences, and why in this era people are drawn to live stage experiences designed to deeply frighten them.

Here is the broadcast/cable schedule for this episode in the New York area:

CUNY TV

Monday, October 23 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, October 28 at 8:30 PM
Sunday, October 29 at 7:00 AM
Monday, October 30 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM

PBS/Thirteen

Friday, October 27 at 1:30 AM (Saturday morning)
Sunday, October 29 at 11:30 AM

WLIW/21

Monday, October 30 at 5:30 PM

NYC LIFE/25

Thursday, November 2 at 11:00 PM
Monday, November 6 at 3:30 AM

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 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 (Spectrum & 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.

Pictured: Michael Musto, Murray Hill, Susan Haskins, Bridget Everett, Daniel Nardicio; a scene from This is Real; and Clay McLeod Chapman in The Pumpkin Pie Show (photos by Myra Wong, M. Sharkey and Antonia Stoyanovich)