Theater Talk Will Feature CINDERELLA With Victoria Clark, Ann Harada and More, 3/29-4/1

Cinderella, the only musical written by the legendary team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II especially for television, is now on Broadway for the first time. In "A New Take on Cinderella," librettist Douglas Carter Beane, actors Victoria Clark and Ann Harada (the Fairy Godmother and stepsister Charlotte), and producer Robyn Goodman trace the show's long journey from its inception in 1957 to today in an all-new THEATER TALK, premiering at 1 a.m. on Friday, March 29 (2013; early Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, and continues in New York City on CUNY TV* Saturday at 8:30 PM, Sunday at 12:30 PM, and Monday at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

THEATER TALK is co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and executive producer Susan Haskins. The program will be posted online beginning April 2 at http://www.cuny.tv/show/theatertalk/PR2001724.

Beane takes the conversation back to Charles Perrault's "fantastic" 1691 account of the Cinderella tale. Before crafting a new book for the show, he also read many other versions. As the father of a daughter, he wanted to make the story more contemporary, about two young people searching for themselves, with a de-emphasis on the stepsisters being "ugly" and now more "delusional." Then each of the guests tell the co-hosts when they first fell in love with Broadway and how their own dreams have manifested today. Clark came to New York to be a director, but was cast in Sunday in the Park with George; Harada was an assistant to a Broadway producer before landing a part in Avenue Q. Beane says, "I loved theater and Broadway without ever seeing a show," but the affair was sealed when in one weekend he saw A Chorus Line, Chicago, andPacific Overtures. Goodman worked for the legendary Joseph Papp at The Public Theatre, who one day said to her, "You're a producer." She became co-founder of Second Stage. The Fairy Godmother's wand has waved over all of THEATER TALK's guests this week.

THEATER TALK is the weekly series dedicated to the world of the stage. The program is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. It 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 markets 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.