The new 30-minute segment, to air the first Saturday of each month, is based on NY1's popular "On Stage" series, which debuted in 1998. NY1 theatre reporter Frank DiLella and Playbill Magazine editor Blake Ross co-host the series that will showcase coverage from Broadway, national tours, regional theatre and high school drama programs.
"On Stage Across America" will launch June 1 with a segment featuring interviews with the 2013 Tony Award nominees and "Les Misérables" film star and Catch Me If You Can leading man Aaron Tveit as well as coverage of regional high school musical theatre competitions.
Each month "On Stage Across America" will bring interviews with performers, writers, producers and directors, as well as the latest backstage theatre scoop, to Time Warner subscribers across the U.S. Each show will also include a list of local theatre events relevant to each Time Warner Cable market. The series will also be available on local On Demand channels in TWC markets.
Playbill segments will also feature coverage of high school, college and amateur productions using Playbill's new PlaybillVIP (PlaybillVIP.com) tool that allows these productions to make their own Playbill magazine and share it virtually or distribute it in their theatre—just like on Broadway.
"Playbill has been honored to serve the theatre community for close to 130 years. Over the past 20 years, that reach has extended with Playbill's ever-growing digital footprint, which includes six web and mobile sites and counting. We are thrilled to expand our reach even further to television with this partnership with Time Warner Cable," said Philip Birsh, president and publisher of Playbill. "We are excited to be able to utilize all of our local programming resources from across the country to not only distribute this program but also to generate great theater content each and every month. This show is set to be a great addition to our slate of nationally distributed local programming," added Jeremy Bitz, vice president of local programming and new media for Time Warner Cable.
View a preview of "On Stage Across America" below:
