Pat Sajak is moving on from Wheel of Fortune to community theater. Per Variety, Sajak’s next gig after finishing his 41-season run as host of the game show will be a role in the Columbo play Prescription: Murder.
Sajak will star opposite his old friend Joe Moore, a news anchor for KHON-TV in Hawaii and also an actor, in the stage production at Honolulu’s Hawaii Theatre next summer from July 31st through August 10th, 2025. Tickets are available here.
Penned by Richard Levinson and William Link, the 1962 play Prescription: Murder was adapted as a made-for-TV movie in 1968 that became a pilot episode for the Peter Falk-starring series Columbo.
In the Hawaii Theatre’s production, Sajak will play Roy Flemming, a “brilliant psychiatrist” who “hatches a plot with a perfect alibi to murder his neurotic and possessive wife.” Moore will portray Columbo himself, “the seemingly bumbling detective who engages the psychiatrist in a cat-and-mouse battle of wits right up to the play’s surprising climax.”
Prescription: Murder will mark the ninth play Sajak and Moore have performed in together. Previous productions include The Odd Couple, The Honeymooners, Dial M for Murder, and last year’s The Sunshine Boys.
They’ve known each other since serving together in the Vietnam War at the US military’s American Forces Network radio station in Saigon.
Sajak’s final run of Wheel of Fortune episodes has certainly been interesting, with one contestant going viral after blurting out “right in the butt” as a completely incorrect answer. We’ve immortalized the moment with a T-shirt available now at the Consequence Shop or by clicking “Add to Cart” below.
His final episode of Wheel of Fortune airs this Friday (June 6th), with Ryan Seacrest taking over as host this fall.