Now that the Broadway season is over, TV's Theatre Talk can take an episode to look back at hits of seasons past. For the June 18 episode, the WNET New York theatre show will look at such classics as Carousel, South Pacific and The Pajama Game.
John Raitt, who played Curly in Oklahoma!'s first national tour and, from that, was cast as Billy in the original Broadway Carousel, guests on the episode. He also talks about working with Bob Fosse on The Pajama Game.
Later in the show, Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization president Theodore Chapin and original South Pacific actor Don Fellows discuss the creation and impact of that R&H show.
The show will include rare kinescopes of performances by the original casts of Carousel and South Pacific on "The Rodgers & Hammerstein General Foods Show," originally broadcast live on March 28, 1954, by all three major networks simultaneously.
"Theatre Talk" airs at midnight on Thirteen/WNET and is rebroadcast Saturday, June 19 at 9:30 PM as part of Thirteen MetroArts on Metro Learning cable. Michael Riedel (the New York Post) and Susan Haskins co-host the program, which has recently had such guests as Lea DeLaria, Cy Coleman, John Simon and Jed Bernstein.
Due for the season finale, June 25, is Wit's acclaimed actress, Kathleen Chalfant.
-- By David Lefkowitz