IWTA, Episode 7: JD Messinger

Broadway icon Chita Rivera is a two-time Tony Award winner, has recieved a total of 10 Tony nominations and is the first Hispanic woman and the first Latino American ever to receive the Kennedy Center honors. Her first major role on Broadway was Anita in the original Broadway cast of West Side Story. She's also well known for starring as Rosie in the original Broadway cast of Bye Bye Birdie with Dick van Dyke, and as Velma Kelly in the original Broadway cast of Chicago opposite Gwen Verdon. Chita won her first Tony in 1983 for her performance in The Rink opposite Liza Minnelli. Ten years later, she won her second Tony for her starring role in Kiss of the Spider Woman on Broadway. Chita was also cast in the film version of Sweet Charity, in which she played Nicky opposite Shirley MacLaine. Chita's critically-acclaimed concert dates continued to play to ovations from packed houses around the world.

Seth Sikes is a performer and director. His directing credits include BUNKED! (Outstanding Musical at the New York Fringe Festival) and The 7th Annual Broadway Beauty Pageant.  He was the Assistant Director of The Nance (Broadway), Tribes (Off-Broadway), Pageant (Off-Broadway), and Sondheim: The Birthday Concert (at Lincoln Center).  As a performer he appeared in Fame on 42ND Street (Off-Broadway). He made his Feinstein’s/54 Below debut with his acclaimed show Seth Sikes Sings Judy Garland enjoyed a sold-out run and was named  Broadway World’s Best Tribute Show. His new show: Seth Sikes Sings Liza Minnelli will continue at Feinstein’s/54 Below on May 2 at 9:30 and June 8th at 7:00PM. For tickets, visit 54below.com

Heart's Ann Wilson gets real with WBAZ'S Walker Vreeland ahead of her March 25th performance at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center. Purchase tickets online at www.whbpac.org

Emmy Award winning film producer and director Marc Levin, along with his documentary film partner Daphne Pinkerson, has produced 11 films for HBO's documentary film division, most recently: Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, and Hard Times: Lost on Long Island. His new film Class Divide, a look into the modern effects of gentrification in the New York neighborhood of West Chelsea is making its world premiere at this year's Hamptons International Film Festival.

Levin is best known for the docu-series Brick City, about the city of Newark, New Jersey, its mayor, Cory Booker, and the people on the frontlines of a city struggling to change. The series won the 2010 Peabody award and was nominated for an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking. It aired on the Sundance channel. Levin's dramatic feature film, SLAM, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Camera D'Or at Cannes in 1998.

Artist Andrea Kowch has been described as “a powerful voice emerging, demonstrating a highly sensitive consciousness that informs a culturally-laced symbolism.” Her paintings are rich in mood, allegory, and precision of medium, reflecting a wealth of influences from Northern Renaissance and American art to the rural landscapes and vernacular architecture of her native Michigan. Andrea has receive numerous Best of Show awards in various juried exhibitions, and her work has been showcased at the Muskegon Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, ArtPrize, Art Basel Miami, the Los Angeles Art Show, ArtHamptons, SCOPE NYC, and Sag Harbor’s RJD Gallery.  Kowch resides and works in Michigan where she paints full-time, and serves as an adjunct professor at the College for Creative Studies. She is represented exclusively by RJD Gallery in Sag Harbor, New York.

Comedian Rita Rudner talk dancing, end-of-summer sales in Westhampton Beach, her love of dresses, men, Botox in Las Vegas, and how an in-flight meeting with Ben Stein lead her to adopt a child- all while delivering one zinger after another. If you need a good laugh, (or twenty), listen to this episode. You won't be disappointed. *Rita will be performing at 54 Below this weekend! For tickets, visit http://54below.com*

Joy Behar is a comedian, actress, writer and interviewer, best known as a co-host on ABC's The View for 16 seasons. From 2009 to 2011 she hosted The Joy Behar Show on HLN and Joy Behar: Say Anything! on Current TV from 2012 until 2013. This August, she's bring her new one-woman show Me, My Mouth & I to Guild Hall in East Hampton. In this conversation, Joy Behar talks about the times it got personal on The View, the real reason she left the show and why she turned down their offer to come back. Also- the crazy place she met her husband, why big houses in the Hamptons annoy her, Bill O'Reilly, the afterlife, Star Jones, piercings, death and the reasons it doesn't look good for God. Plus, Joy teaches Walker what the word "shkeaved" means. It's an action-packed 45 minutes.

Betty Buckley is a Tony award winning singer and actress. Best known to theatergoers for playing Grizabella in the original Broadway cast of Cats (for which she won the Tony in 1983) and for starring as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard both in London and New York, she's also appeared on Broadway in 1776, Pippin, Carrie, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Triumph of Love. She made her big screen debut in the Brian de Palma film Carrie before going to star in Eight is Enough for four seasons on ABC. Other film and TV roles include: Tender Mercies, Roman Polanski's Frantic, Woody Allen's Another Woman and a reoccurring role in the HBO series Oz. To date, Betty has recorded 16 solo albums. Her most recent Ghostlight was produced by T. Bone Burnett. In 2012, she was inducted in to the American Theater Hall of Fame.

In this conversation, Betty looks back at her film and theater career, revealing the moment she knew she could act, the nights she felt most embraced by an audience, and how she always knew she would do her best work in her later years. She talks about what she learned from the late Dick Van Patten while shooting Eight is Enough, dealing with the shock of his death and how the challenges and losses we endure in life prove to be profound lessons in disguise that are designed to help us grow.

Plus-- what was like working on her most recent album Ghostlight with T. Bone Burnett, how she's preparing for the Hamptons' first production of Grey Gardens: The Musical at Bay Street Theater, and why a recent riding accident means she won't have to act when she plays Big Edie.

Sue Costello is an actress, comedian, writer and producer. She's appeared in the Academy Award winning film The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, (directed by David. O Russell), and on countless television shows including NYPD Blue, Comedy Central's Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, NBC’s Last Comic Standing, (where she made it to the finals) and on the Fox sitcom Costello which she co-created and produced. She's been featured twice on Marc Maron’s podcast WTF and hosts her own podcast: The Kadoozie Kast.

In this conversation, Sue talks about her journey from the streets of Dorchester to Hollywood, and how she found herself along the way. She talks about working with David O. Russell and Christina Bale on The Fighter, how her experience in Hollywood taught her to trust that she was enough, what she does when she has the instinct to throw a punch and how she always knew that love was more powerful than fear.