well, That's Show Biz, 06-11-2022 2-11 2023 Tony Awards

2023 Tony Awards

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

06-11-2023

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• (Play “Another Op’nin’, Another Show”)

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• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman, and every 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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• And you just heard the opening number of Kiss Me, Kate!, the very first show to win Best Musical at the 3rd Annual Tony awards back in 1949. Prior to 1949, there was no differentiation between Best Musical and Best Play, hence 3rd Annual Tony Awards. Tonight is the 76th annual Tony Awards and on today’s show, we are going to play songs from every musical that opened during the 2022-2023 Tony Award season in chronological order. All the songs played will be from their respective recent cast albums unless no album was recorded or has yet to be recorded. Then we will use an older cast album with one exception that I will get to later.

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• We are going to open our first set with “Ever After”, the Act 1 Finale, from the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods which opened in July of 2022 and is up for 6 Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical. Next, a revival of 1776 opened in October of 2022 with an all-female cast, unusual for a historical show. I didn’t understand the casting and neither did the critics. It received no Tony nominations and no cast album. We are going to hear “The Lees Of Old Virginia” from the original cast album. The musical Almost Famous based on the movie and life of Rolling stone Journalist Cameron Crowe opened on November 3rd 2022, and received one Tony nomination for Best Original Score. From Almost Famous we are going to hear the song “No Friends”. Here’s “Ever After” from Into The Woods.

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• You just heard “Ever After” from Into The Woods, “The Lees Of Old Virginia” from the original production of 1776, and “No Friends” from Almost Famous as we look at songs from every musical that opened during the 2022-2023 Tony Award season.

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• <PSA>

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• The 2023 Tony Awards are tonight and we are looking at every show that opened during this year’s award season. The musical Kimberly Akimbo opened on November 12th of 2022 and received 8 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical, Book, and Score. Kimberly Akimbo is about a teenage girl who suffers from a disease that causes her to age rapidly. We are going to hear the opening number, “Skater Planet” and all my friends in New Jersey will recognize many of the New Jersey references in the song. The musical & Juliet is a jukebox musical, except for one original song, that opened on November 17th 2022 with the premise of ‘what if’ Juliet does not die at the end of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It received 9 Tony nominations including Best Musical and Book of a Musical. We will hear the song “I Want It That Way”. Next, the musical KPOP about KPOP opened off-Broadway and transferred to Broadway with a different book on November 27th and lasted only 17 performances. It was nominated for 3 Tony awards including Best original Score. We will hear the song “Perfect”. And finally, A Beautiful Noise about the life of singer/songwriter Neil Diamond opened December 4th. It did not receive any Tony nominations. We will hear the iconic “Sweet Caroline”.  Here’s “Skater Planet” from  Kimberly Akimbo with a shout out to my Jersey friends.

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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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• We are listening to songs from every musical that opened during the 2022-2023 Tony award season and you just heard “Skater Planet”, from Kimberly Akimbo, “I Want It That Way” from & Juliet, “Perfect” from KPOP, and “Sweet Caroline” from A Beautiful Noise.

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• Our next set starts with the favorite to win Best Musical. Some Like It Hot, based on the movie of the same name, open to raves on December 11 and has earned 13 Tony nominations. We are going to hear the song “Vamp!”. Then, the musical revival of Parade, about the 1913 trial, imprisonment, and lynching of Jewish american Leo Frank in Georgia, opened March 16, and stars Ben Platt. It has been nominated for 6 Tony Awards. We will hear the song “This Is Not Over Yet”. The revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ opened on March 19 and received no Tony nominations. There was never a cast album made when it originally opened. However, one song from the show, “Mr. Bojangles”, was featured on the television docudrama, The Music of Fosse/Verdon and sung by Lin-Manuel Miranda. And finally in this set, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella transferred from London opening on March 23 and retitled Bad Cinderella. Critics said that the title was appropriate and the show received no Tony nominations.  We will hear the title song. Here’s “Vamp!” from Some Like It Hot.

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• You just heard “Vamp!” from Some Like It Hot, “This Is Not Over Yet” from Parade, “Mr. Bojangles” sung by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a song featured in Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, and the title song to Bad Cinderella as we near the completion of musicals that opened during this year’s Tony award season on this edition of “well, That’s Show Biz!”.

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• If you would like to contribute to a future show, you can send me your theme and song suggestions to wruushowbiz@gmail.com and if you are enjoying today’s show, please contact the station at WRUU.org and let them know.

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• The revival of Sweeney Todd opened March 26 starring Josh Groban in the lead and earned 8 Tony nominations. From this new production, we will hear "My Friends”. Next, the new musical Shucked, about a residents of a Midwestern town who try to save their corn industry after  their crop is blighted, opened April 4th and received 9 Tony nominations including a best featured actor in a musical Tony for a non-binary performer, a first. We are going to hear the fabulous song “Independently Owned”. On April 13th, the revival of Lerner & Lowes Camelot opened with a reworked book by Aaron Sorkin and earned 5 nominations. We are going to hear the title song from this new production. And finally, the musical New York, New York based on the movie of the same name just opened on April 26th and earned 9 nominations. And just hitting the streaming services this past Friday, we will hear the title track.  Here’s Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford with “My Friends” from 2023's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

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• You just heard “My Friends” from Sweeney Todd, the fabulous “Independently Owned” from Shucked, the title song to Camelot, and the title track from the new Broadway production of “New York, New York” as we complete our survey of all the musicals that opened during the 2022-2023 Tony Award season.

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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. The 76th annual Tony Awards are tonight. See you next week.