Rudnick will discuss his newest play Valhalla, which features direction by Ashley. The comedy is currently in previews at The New York Theatre Workshop on East 4th Street and will officially open Feb. 5. According to production notes, Valhalla is "an uproarious examination of passionate and highly strung individuals incapable of censoring their more hallucinatory urges." The cast includes Scott Barrow, Candy Buckley, Sean Dugan, Peter Frechette, Samantha Soule and Jack Willis. The Jan. 30 broadcast will also pay tribute to the late Uta Hagen. New York Times cultural writer Mel Gussow will be on hand to discuss the famed actress and teacher's legacy. Hagen was the recipient of three Tony Awards: In 1951 she won a Best Actress in a Play Tony for her performance in The Country Girl; she again won in 1963 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; and in 1999, she was presented with a Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. She began her career on the Broadway stage in 1938 in a revival of The Seagull. Her Broadway work continued through 1986 when she appeared in a revival of You Never Can Tell. In between Hagen was seen on The Great White Way in The Happiest Days, Key Largo, Vickie, Othello, The Whole World Over, A Streetcar Named Desire, Saint Joan, In Any Language, The Magic and the Loss, Island of Goats, The Cherry Orchard and Charlotte.
Hosted by New York Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel and producer Susan Haskins, "Theatre Talk" airs late Friday nights at midnight on WNET/Thirteen.