Cast of Broadway 'Matilda' chat with an astronaut

NEW YORK (AP) — The cast members of the Tony Award-nominated "Matilda" are arguably all stars. This week, they chatted with a man closer to the actual cosmic ones.

About three dozen cast members — including many children — packed a small room near Times Square on Tuesday to speak to an astronaut aboard the International Space Station via a live satellite hookup provided by NASA.

The questions came rolling in from eager Broadway youngsters: Do you have any animals in space? Can you take a shower in space? Is space food tasty? Tom Marshburn, one of six astronauts on the station some 250 miles above the Earth, was happy to answer.

The unusual Broadway-NASA hookup was made possible because Marshburn's brother-in-law is John Sanders, who plays both Sergei and the Party Entertainer in "Matilda."