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Sun., April 15 Directions '62 (ABC, 3-3:30 p.m.). The story of the Jewish quest for religious freedom, symbolized in the Exodus from Egypt and commemorated in the Passover. The Open Door (CBS, 10-11 a.m.). Tenor Jan Peerce, accompanied by Alfredo Antonini and the CBS Orchestra, sings songs marking the observance of Passover. Hallmark Hall of Fame (NBC, 6-7:30 p.m.). Kim Hunter, James Daly and Dennis King in a play based on the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate and the freeing of Barabbas, the thief. Repeat. Color. The Twentieth Century (CBS, 6-6:30 p.m.). The dissolution of the French empire in Southeast Asia, brought on by the defeat of the French by Communist forces in Dienbienphu. Project 20 (NBC, 8:30-9 p.m.). The last days of Christ, leading up to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, are told through close-ups of paintings. Color. Show of the Week (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). Bob Cummings, Audrey Meadows star in a comedy about a New Orleans confidence man who sets out to bilk a lively widow. Jazz musical score improvised by Gerry Mulligan. Color.
Tues., April 17 Rainbow of Stars (NBC, 9-10 p.m.). Robert Goulet hosts a variety show from Manhattan's Rockefeller Center, with Nancy Walker, Dick Button, Carol Lawrence, Al Hirt, Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. Close-Up (ABC, 10:30-11 p.m.). A reappraisal of imperialism on the Indian subcontinent, filmed in Lahore, written and narrated by Novelist John Masters.
THEATER On Broadway The Night of the Iguana, by Tennessee Williams. On a Mexican veranda, four desperate people break out of the cycle of self-concern to achieve self-transcendence. Williams' best play since A Streetcar Named Desire.
Ross, by Terence Rattigan. The puzzle of T. E. Lawrence is pieced together in fascinating, though debatable, fashion in this play. John Mills portrays the hero with lacerating honesty.
A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, might have drawn its theme from Shakespeare's "Every subject's duty is the king's, but every subject's soul is his own." Playing Sir Thomas More, Paul Scofield is flawless.
Gideon, by Paddy Chayefsky, makes God and man all too human, but Fredric March as God and Douglas Campbell as Gideon occasionally approach the sublime.
A Shot in the Dark, adapted from a Paris hit, is tres tres sleek and sassy, with Julie Harris starring as a sleep-around maid.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with a witty mind (Director-Librettist Abe Burrows) and a hero of exuberant guile (Robert Morse) whose rise from window cleaning to executive seat polishing is a joy to behold.
Off Broadway Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, by Arthur Kopit, turns the battle of the sexes into a surrealistic rout. Among the Venus flytraps, Barbara Harris glistens as the most hilariously voracious sexling since Lolita.
Brecht on Brecht generates dramatic excitement from a revue-styled montage of the songs, poems, scenes, and aphorisms of a 20th century master of theater.
BOOKS Best Reading Ship of Fools, by Katherine Anne Porter. The ship is a German passenger-freighter that steams from Veracruz to Bremerhaven in 1931; the allegory is that this and all passages of the world's voyage are dismal; the art is consummate.