THEATER TALK Kicks Off 24th Year with DROP DEAD PERFECT and Hirschfeld Exhibit Today

The 2015-16 premiere of THEATER TALK, now in its 24th year, focuses on a campy Off-Broadway hit, DROP DEAD PERFECT, with its star Everett Quinton and director Joe Brancato, plus the ambitious exhibition, THE HIRSCHFELD CENTURY, celebrating THE ART OF the late caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, with Hirschfeld's widow Louise Kerz Hirschfeld and the exhibition's curator and author of its companion book, David Leopold.

Tearing up the stage at the St. Clement's Theatre is a diva reminiscent of Joan Crawford and other strong screen queens, embodied by Everett Quinton as still-life artist Idris Seabright, who's "as handy with a hatchet as a brush" in the play by Erasmus Fenn and directed by Brancato, who is also Artistic Director of the Penguin Rep Theatre, now in its 38th year. When questioned if drag has become more "mainstream" via Broadway shows like Hairspray and Kinky Boots, Quinton responds, "You still can't invite it home to Mother."

Quinton met the late Ridiculous Theatre Company founder, playwright and star Charles Ludlam one February night in 1975 on Christopher Street, and a year later had a featured role as a ballerina in Ludlam's Caprice. The two were partners until Ludlam died of AIDS during the epidemic in 1987. Quinton took over the company and ran it successfully for 10 years.

Next up, Louise Hirschfeld and David Leopold talk about their respective personal and professional relationships with Al Hirschfeld, and what it was like to curate 82 years of remarkable artwork, much of it seen in the New York Times Sunday theater section, on the covers of TV Guide, and in a revealing interview on THEATER TALK. The exhibition continues at the New-York Historical Society through October 12.

Hosted by Michael Riedel, Broadway columnist for the New York Post, and Susan Haskins, this episode premieres in the New York metropolitan area today, October 2 at 1:30 AM (Saturday morning) and repeats on Sunday 10/4 at 11:30 AM (new times) on Thirteen/PBS; on CUNY TV* Saturday 10/3 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 10/4 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 10/5 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM; and on WLIW/21 on Mondays 10/5 at 5:30 PM (new time) - a total of 8 times weekly.

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 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 in 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.

(Photos clockwise from top left) Everett Quinton in "Drop Dead Perfect," photo by Ed McCarthy; Al Hirschfeld self-portrait courtesy of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation; David Leopold and Louise Kerz Hirschfeld, Everett Quinton and Joe Brancato courtesy of Theater Talk Productions/CUNY TV.

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