Summary: Actor Jim Norton, Tony and Olivier Award winner for "The Seafarer" and now on Broadway in the notably sunnier current revival of "Finian's Rainbow", discusses how the Irish view that Irish-inflected musical; how he wasn't entirely unprepared to appear in a musical, even though he's done extremely few in a 50 year career (despite an early appearance as Lt. Cable in "South Pacific"); and why appearing in a Broadway musical is unlike anything he's ever done before. He also takes us through his days as a child actor on radio; his emergence in the Irish theatre community in the 1960s and his subsequent decision to move to London at the decade's end, resulting in an exile from the Irish stage that would last 18 years; his quick discovery in London by noted director Lindsay Anderson; why he worked to keep the English theatre community from thinking of him as an Irish actor; why he made his American stage debut in California; how difficult he found it to perform in "The Pillowman"; what it was like to perform in "The Weir" in a variety of countries and venues; and his extensive work with a group of major playwrights over his career, including David Storey, Alan Ayckbourn, Tom Murphy, Sebastian Barry, Frank McGuinness and most notably, Conor McPherson. Original air date - December 14, 2009.
