THEATER TALK to Welcome Sting, Stars of THE LAST SHIP & TAIL! SPIN! this Week

New. Ranging from a serious new Broadway musical to a cheeky, Off-Broadway revue, the latest THEATER TALK celebrates THE LAST SHIP and Tail! Spin! with key creative talents from both shows, including composer/lyricist Sting, librettist John Logan, and actor Michael Esper from The Last Ship, plus actors Rachel Dratch and Nate Smith and playwright Mario Correa from Tail! Spin!.

First, a trio of the key talents bringing THE LAST SHIP to Broadway discuss the show, which is set in the ship-building town of Wallsend in Northern England, where the livelihoods of the men there are threatened by modernization and a failing economy. The show boasts a libretto by Logan (writer of the Tony-winning play Red) and an original score by Sting, who confesses that, although he grew up (in Wallsend) listening to original cast albums, he never actually saw a musical as a child. Sting and Logan are joined by Esper, who plays the role of Gideon Fletcher, a man who returns to the town and a childhood sweetheart after 15 years on the sea, only to find a community in crisis.

Next up, THEATER TALK moves to the Off-Broadway hit Tail! Spin! in which real-life political sex scandals make up the all-too-real comedy, written by Mario Correa and drawn from public-record speeches, news conferences, and tweets of politicians Larry Craig, Anthony Weiner, Mark Sanford and Mark Foley. Rachel Dratch (Saturday Night Live) plays the wronged wives and other women around the men in question, and Nate Smith portrays the lusty Weiner.

Co-hosted by Michael Riedel of the New York Post and producer Susan Haskins, this latest edition of THEATER TALK premieres in the New York metropolitan area on Friday, October 24 at 1 AM (Saturday morning) on Thirteen/PBS, with repeats on CUNY TV* Saturday 10/25 at 8:30 PM; Sunday 10/26 at 12:30 PM; and Monday 10/27 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM.

THEATER TALK 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 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 TDF/TAP Plus Program, The CUNY TV Foundation and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is cablecast in the five boroughs of New York City on Ch. 75 and (Time Warner & Optimum Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS) and broadcast over-the-air in the New York metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3. The show is available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org, and via iTunes podcasts.