well, That's Show Biz, 06-12-2022 11 Fantasy

Fantasy

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

6-12-2022

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• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman and every week I present music from Broadway, Movies, and Entertainers along with some anecdotes, information, and Commentary centered around a theme. This week’s theme is Fantasy.

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• But before we get to the fantastic, the movie version of Dear Evan Hansen is playing on HBO Max. Dear Evan Hansen deals with issues of mental health combined with the awkwardness of our teen years. Evan is an awkward broken teenager who makes a mistake in order to please people and have himself be liked. This mistake snowballs out of his control. The Broadway play won the Tony award but the movie received scathing reviews. I never saw the play so I went into watching the movie with an open mind. Ben Platt recreates his role as the teenage Evan but one criticism is that he is now too old at 28 to successfully play a high school senior. We are primed to suspend our disbelief and the age thing didn’t bother me. And it didn’t seem to bother too many people when they watched the movie version of Grease where the actors were even older. When the songs are good, they are very good and we can relate to them as most of us were awkward and questioning ourselves during adolescence. But other songs sound too similar in tone and could be thought of as boring if one is not invested in the story.  In the end, Evan tries to redeem himself and I will leave it up to you to decide if he was successful.  Overall, the story is tragic and depressing but I am obsessed with some of the music. I recommend a watch of Dear Evan Hansen but I would understand if it leaves you unsatisfied and disappointed.

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• Our theme today is Fantasy, shows and movies based on Fantasy tales. We are going to open with a trio of songs, “A Very Nice Prince / First Midnight / Giants in the Sky” from Sondheim’s Into The Woods, a mashup of several fairytales anchored around an original fairytale. Next up we will hear Og the leprechaun from Finian’s Rainbow. Finian stole Og’s pot of gold and fled to America. Og must get his gold back or he will turn into a human. In the song, “When I’m Not Near The Girl I Love” he sings about being torned between two women. In On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, Daisy Gamble is a woman with esp and former lives. Her psychiatrist falls in love with one of her past lives. Barbara Harris as Daisy sings “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have”.  And finally, we will hear Sammy Davis Jr.’s version of “The Candy Man” about the magical Willy Wonka. Here’s Into The Woods.

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• <PSA>

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on WRUU 107.5FM. Our theme today is fantasy and you just heard “A Very Nice Prince / First Midnight / Giants in the Sky” from Into The Woods, “When I’m Not Near The Girl I Love” from Finian’s Rainbow, “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have” from On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, and Sammy Davis Jr’s version of “The Candy Man” from Willy Wonka.

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• In Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Angela Lansbury plays an apprentice witch who becomes a surrogate mom to three children during the WWII German blitz of England. Here they travel on a magic bed to the bottom of the ocean and she sings “The Beautiful Briny” with co-star David Tomlinson. The final song of this set is the finale “Home” from The Wiz, a 1970s retelling of The Wizard of Oz. Here’s “The Beautiful Briny”.

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• <Underwriting>

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• You just heard “The Beautiful Briny” from Bedknobs and Broomsticks and the finale, “Home”, from The Wiz. And you are listening to a Fantasy edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”

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• We are now going to go on a “Jolly Holiday” with Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews from Mary Poppins. The musical Camelot tells the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table. In the play, the magician Merlin is lured into eternal sleep by a water nymph, Nimue, with the song “Follow Me”.  This version is by the band Blondie with lead singer Deborah Harry. Once Upon a Mattress is a retelling of The Princess and the Pea. Here we have Carol Burnett wishing for her "Happily Ever After".  And lastly, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” from the London production. Here’s “Jolly Holiday”.

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• You just heard “Jolly Holiday” from Mary Poppins, the rock group Blondie’s version of “Follow Me” from Camelot, “Happily Ever After” from Once Upon a Mattress, and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”

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• <PSA>

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• For our final set in this fantasy edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”, Brigadoon is a magical village in Scotland that only appears once every 100 years.  We are going to hear Patrick Wilson and Kelli O’Hara sing “Almost Like Being in Love”. Then Angela Lansbury will sing the title song from “Beauty and the Beast”. We will follow that with “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid, and we will end with Mary Martin as Peter Pan singing “Never Never Land”. Here’s “Almost Like Being in Love” from Brigadoon.

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• Well that’s a wrap for this week’s edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”. If you enjoyed today’s show, please write to the station at WRUU.org and you can write to me, Jeremy Freedman at wruushowbiz@gmail.com.