The Tony Awards weekend, which will culminate with the 56th Annual Tony Awards telecast on June 2, begins Friday, May 31 with a special edition of "Theatre Talk," the acclaimed PBS talk show that features interviews with top theatre celebrities and critics. The Tony Predictions Special will include interviews with two theatre journalists, Jesse McKinley of The New York Times and Patrick Pacheco of Newsday. McKinley, who writes the weekly On Stage and Off column for the Times, and Pacheco, who will leave his weekly Newsday column to edit the new quarterly theatre magazine Show People, will handicap this year's Tony races. The theatre scribes will also discuss the politics involved in Broadway's most prestigious award.

Hosted by New York Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel and producer Susan Haskins, this special edition of "Theatre Talk" will air at 10:30 PM on May 31. The program will also be rebroadcast later that evening at midnight.

—By Andrew Gans