well, That's Show Biz, 04-09-2023 2-2 Rhymes

Rhymes

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

04-09-2023

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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 along with some anecdotes, information, and commentary all based on a theme.

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• April is National Poetry Month, so for this week’s theme, we are going to look at songs with fun and clever rhymes and lyrics.

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• The new big show on Broadway right now is Some Like It Hot based on the movie of the same name. But in 1972, composer Jule Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill provided the songs for the musical Sugar based on the same movie, Some Like It Hot. We are going to hear the song “Penniless Bums” which has quite a few fun rhymes by Merrill including one where he rhymes the xylophones. Next, we will hear Robert Preston sing about “Marian the Librarian” from Meridith Wilson’s The Music Man. Listen how makes rhymes with Librarian. After that, we will hear Oscar Hammerstein’s clever rhymes in “Honey Bun” from South Pacific. And finally in this set, we will hear Lin-Manuel Miranda’s clever lyrics in the introductory song “Alexander Hamilton” from Hamilton. Listen to the rhymes.  Here’s “Penniless Bums” from Sugar.

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• We are looking at Rhymes for National Poetry Month today and you just heard “Penniless Bums” from Bob Merrill’s Sugar, “Marian the Librarian” from Meredith Wildon’s The Music Man, “Honey Bun” from Oscar Hamerstein’s South Pacific, and “Alexander Hamilton” from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton.

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• <PSA>

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• Stephen Sondheim wrote some of the cleverest rhymes and lyrics. For set 2, we are going to hear some of them. In “The Dog Song”, from Sunday In The Park with George, Sondheim has the artist George Seurat imagining the life of a dog taking in the experience of the park. In “The Miller’s Son” from A Little Night Music, the maid, Petra, sings about her future sexual life. And in the song “You Could Drive A Person Crazy”, from Company, Sondheim famously rhymes the word personable with coercin’ a bull. Here’s Jake Gyllenhaal from the 2017 revival of Sunday In The Park with George with “The Dog Song”. Listen for the rhymes.

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• You just heard “The Dog Song” from Sunday In The Park with George, “The Miller’s Son” from A Little Night Music, and “You Could Drive A Person Crazy” from Company, all lyrics by Stephen Sondheim as we look at Rhymes on this edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”

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• <Underwriting>

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on [station ID].

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• April is National Poetry Month so we are focussing today on fun and clever Rhymes and Lyrics. For our third set, we are going to focus on patter songs, songs with tongue twistin lyrics. We are going to start off with Jim Dale as P.T. Barnum singing “The Museum Song” from Barnum, lyrics by Michael Stewart. Then George Rose will sing “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. There is dialog after the song. Next, we go to another Sondheim song, “Getting Married Today” from Company. This version is from the 2018 London Cast where gender roles were reversed. And finally, we are going to hear George Rose again, this time with Howard McGillin, singing “Both Sides of the Coin” from Rupert Holmes’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Try to follow the rapid patter. Here’s “The Museum Song” from Barnum.

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• You just heard the patter songs, “The Museum Song” from Michael Stewart’s Barnum, “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, “Getting Married Today” from Stephen Sondheim’s Company, and “Both Sides of the Coin” from Rupert Holmes’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

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• <Other Show Promo>

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• <PSA>

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• We are listening to fun and clever Rhymes and Lyrics today for National Poetry Month. If you would like to assist with a future show, you can send me theme and song suggestions to wruushowbiz@gmail.com. And please contact the station at WRUU.org and let them know how much you enjoyed today’s show.

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• For our final set, we are going to hear outrageous and fun rhymes. Once again we are going to Stephen Sondheim, this time for “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd. Notice how he uses the clever rhymes to make puns. Then we are going to hear a satirical song from Tom Lehrer, “The Vatican Rag”. Please remember that it’s satire. And we will conclude our rhymes Ashman and Menken’s “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid. Focus on the rhymes. Here’s “A Little Priest” from Sweeney Todd.

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• You just heard “A Little Priest” from Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Tom Lehrer’s satirical “The Vatican Rag”, and Ashman and Menkin’s delightful “Under the Sea” from The little Mermaid as we close out our look at fun and clever rhymes and lyrics for National Poetry Month.

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• If you would like to help out with a future show, you can send your theme and song suggestions to me at wruushowbiz@gmail.com. And please, contact the station at WRUU.org and tell them how much you enjoyed today’s show.  See you next week.