well, That's Show Biz, 08-21-2022 21 Names

Names

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

8-21-2022

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• <Underwriting>

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• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman and each week I bring you music from Broadway, Movies, and Entertainers all based on a theme with some anecdotes, information, and commentary thrown in. This week’s theme is NAMES. 

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• “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Just about every show ever written has either a song title that includes a name of one of the characters or a song with lyrics that name at least one character. Today on “well, That’s Show Biz!”, we are going to look at just a few of those songs.  Some of them are among the most famous of show songs and others a bit more obscure. I like to mix it up.

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• Starting off our first set of NAMES, in Guys and Dolls, Nathan Detroit is known for organizing illegal crap games. The police are onto him but the gamblers look for good old reliable Nathan to set up “The Oldest Established (Permanent Floating Crap Game) in New York. In Sunday in the Park with George, Dot, played by Bernadette Peters, comes to tell her lover George about her new romance in the song “Everybody Loves Louis”. We will follow that with what I think is one of the most romantic songs ever written for the stage, the gorgeous “Marianne” from Jerry Herman’s The Grand Tour.  And we end this set with the double songs Jacob & Sons / Joseph’s Coat from Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat featuring Donnie Osmond.  Here’s “The Oldest Established” from the original production of Guys and Dolls.

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on WRUU 107.5 FM in Savannah, Georgia and you just heard “The Oldest Established” from Guys and Dolls, “Everybody Loves Louis” fro Sunday in the Park with George, the gorgeous “Marianne” from The Grand Tour, and “Jacob & Sons / Joseph’s Coat” from Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. All the songs this week involve someone’s NAME, either a character in the story of a name important to the plot.

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• To start of our second set, the original cast of the musical Annie sing the title song. We follow that with one of the greatest songs of yearning, the haunting “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd. The closing song from the musical Bye Bye Birdie plays tribute to the female lead, “Rosie”. The movie version expands the names within the song.  The movie follows that with a reprise of the movie’s title song, “Bye Bye Birdie” song by Ann-Margret. And finally, The Jersey Boys tells the story of the pop group The Four Seasons using their songs. There a two NAME songs in the show and I chose my favorite of the two, “Dawn”.  Here’s the cast of Annie with “Annie”.

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• <Underwriting>

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on WRUU, 107.5 FM in Savannah, Georgia. Our theme today is NAMES and you just heard “Annie” from Annie, “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd, “Rosie” and “Bye Bye Birdie” from Bye Bye Birdie, and “Dawn” from The Jersey Boys.

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• Just about every show either has a song with the title of one of the characters or a song that names one of the characters. Hopefully today you will hear both familiar songs and at least one that is new to you.  We’re going to start off this next set with the original cast of Oliver! Singing the title song. Then, in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the lead, J. Pierpont Finch played by Matthew Broderick in this version, realizes he’s in love with secretary, “Rosemary” Pilkington played by Megan Mullally who costarred in the TV show Will & Grace. And finally, the title song from the original production of “Mame”. Here’s “Annie”.

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• You just heard the title song from “Oliver!”, “Rosemary” from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the title song from “Mame” as we look at songs with people’s NAMES on this edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!” If you would like to suggest themes or songs for the show, you can email me, Jeremy Freedman, at wruushowbiz@gmail.com. And please, if you enjoy the show, tell the station by contacting them at WRUU.org.

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• <PSA>

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• For our last set of NAMES songs, we are going to start with Bernadette Peters as silent movie star Mabel Normand singing “Look What Happened to Mabel” from Jerry Herman’s Mack & Mabel. Next, The Follies Ensemble and Lee Remick sing “The Story of Lucy and Jessie” from the 1985 New York Philharmonic Concert Cast Recording. This song showcases Stephen Sondheim’s lyrical gymnastics. Then the original Tony from West Side Story, Larry Kert, sings the classic “Maria”. And we are going to close it out with Carol Channing and company singing the title song from “Hello, Dolly!”. Here’s Bernadette Peters as Mable Normand with “Look What Happened to Mabel” from Mack and Mable.

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• You just heard “Look What Happened to Mabel” from Mack & Mable, “The Story of Lucy and Jessie” from Follies, “Maria” from West Side Story, and the title song from “Hello, Dolly!” as we conclude this NAMES edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”. To send me theme and song suggestions, you can email me at wruushowbiz@gmail.com and tell the radio station how much you enjoy the show by contacting them at WRUU.org. See you next week.