Broadway argued with memory and nerve.
CUNY TV's Theater Talk treats New York theater as a living argument, not a list of recommendations. Critics, actors, writers, and recurring co-hosts test productions against craft, history, casting, politics, and taste.
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CUNY TV's Theater Talk is a critic-rich forum for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and the theatrical culture around them. It has the shape of a talk show, but the energy of a table that has already started arguing before the cameras rolled. Susan Haskins appears again and again as the steady center, joined by rotating co-hosts and guests who bring strong opinions rather than neutral summaries. The result is fast, specific, and full of theatrical memory. Episodes move easily between performance gossip, craft analysis, casting history, and the politics of taste. Renée Taylor's visit becomes a story about comedy, body image, show-business typecasting, The Nanny, and My Life on a Diet. Ethan Mordden's appearance turns Carousel and Chicago into arguments about psychology, audience response, and musical-theater legacy. Critics forums weigh Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, SpongeBob SquarePants, My Fair Lady, Three Tall Women, Angels in America, and other productions with the kind of confidence that invites pushback. Tony prediction episodes add another pleasure: informed guessing, ballot etiquette, category logic, and the small absurdities of awards season. The show is at its strongest when disagreement is allowed to breathe. A panelist can admire a production's ambition while another questions its commercial packaging, moral framing, or televised presentation. The conversations are informed but not sealed off. They assume some appetite for Broadway history, then offer enough context to keep the pace moving. Performers such as Kate Baldwin, Gavin Creel, Charlie Stemp, Gideon Glick, Richard Kind, and Renée Taylor bring rehearsal-room and career detail into the same space where critics assess the finished work. That mixture gives the show its character. It is not simply promotional, and it is not coldly academic. It is a record of theater people thinking in public: affectionate, skeptical, sometimes dry, and repeatedly pulled back toward structure, performance, and legacy. For PlayNext users, it offers a compact way into the arguments that surround the New York stage.
Made for: Best for theatergoers who enjoy Broadway history, critic roundtables, Tony-season speculation, and detailed talk about performance choices. It especially suits listeners who want conversation with edge rather than simple recommendations.
What sets it apart: The show pairs artist interviews with critic-heavy panels that are comfortable disagreeing in real time. Its strength is the movement from a concrete production detail to a larger argument about theatrical craft, reputation, commerce, and legacy.
Theater Talk focuses on the exciting world of the New York stage. Hosted by series producer Susan Haskins and a revolving team of co-hosts including Jesse Green of The New York Times, Elisabeth Vincentelli of The New Yorker, Adam Feldman of Time Out New York, Donna Hanover of Arts in The City, Michael Musto of NewNowNext.com, Jan Simpson of Broadway and Me and Jason Zinoman of The New York Times, the series (produced at CUNY TV and airing across the country on stations in over 60 urban markets) features interviews with the most interesting artists working in the theater, plus provocative "round tables" with the theater world's most influential critics and reporters discussing what's going on…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
A sharp record of Broadway arguments, with critics and practitioners making artistic taste answerable to theatrical detail.
CUNY TV's Theater Talk makes New York theater criticism sound like a crowded table where judgments are tested and teased in public. Susan Haskins guides interviews and critic roundtables with enough control to keep disagreements legible, even when the conversation jumps from…
SpongeBob gets a serious defense, and your Broadway snobbery may have to take a seat.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Renee Taylor turns career mishaps into a warm, funny account of nerves, weight, and being discovered.
Renee Taylor gives this Theatre Talk episode its easy spark, carrying the conversation through stories of nerves, timing, weight, and the strange turns that can get a performer hired.
A brisk Broadway discussion of Carousel's troubled moral psychology and Chicago's charged stage history.
Ethan Morden looks at Carousel with a historian's patience, drawing out how Billy's violence, the stolen star, and the musical's interest in social aspiration keep pressing against one another.
A Tony wrap-up where televised performance sparks a lively argument about craft, politics, and what the stage can lose.
Tony Awards coverage lands less like a recap than a working argument. Theatre Talk's panel starts with Carousel's televised number, then turns to the larger question of what television can and cannot carry from the stage.
A sharp critics forum on Harry Potter, SpongeBob, and the stage life of familiar properties.
The spring season frames a lively argument about Broadway's highs, lows, and crowded center. Susan Haskins and Jesse Green are joined by Peter Marks, Terry Teachout, and Ben Brantley for a critic's roundtable on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, SpongeBob SquarePants the…
A spring Broadway preview powered by sharp panel banter, skeptical predictions, and a few spirited defenses of underdogs.
The spring Broadway and off-Broadway season comes across as a lively argument about taste, long odds, and the fun of being proved wrong. Susan Haskins and Michael Riedel guide Patrick Pacheco and Michael Musto through Bloody Irish, Tuck Everlasting, Disaster, and the larger…
A Broadway producer's job comes into focus through taste, money, investors, and the stamina the work demands.
Broadway producing comes across as a practical art: part taste, part nerve, part financial discipline. Instead of staying with the old cigar-and-corruption image, the discussion reframes the producer as someone who has to understand why a show costs what it costs, how money is…
Kaitlin Prest blends personal reenactment and Gaza war testimony across serialized documentary seasons.
Broadway producing loses the cigar myth fast.
Broadway spring gets roasted early.
Hosts Susan Haskins and Michael Riedel discuss the return of the musical Miss Saigon to Broadway with its original creators.
A panel of theater critics and writers preview the upcoming theater season, discussing shows like My Fair Lady.
A panel of theater critics discuss the highlights and low points of the fall theater season in New York.
What would theater be without critics?
Carousel starts the argument.
Bruce Springsteen is the argument.
Critics turn up to size up the spring season.
Do Tony voters follow taste or momentum?
Hosts discuss the 24-hour plays benefit event with guests Gideon Glick, Richard Kind, and Jill Raffson.
Hosts interview cast members of the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!
A panel of theater critics and journalists preview the upcoming theater season, discussing shows like My Fair Lady and industry trends.
Hosts discuss the new musical 'K-pop' with its creative team, exploring the phenomenon of Korean pop music and its theatrical adaptation.
An interview with the director and writer of the new musical Groundhog Day, discussing its development and casting.