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I'll swim up to his castle, then Flounder will splash around to get his attention and don't go.

Now here is your home.

Ariel, listen to me.

The UN world, it's a mix.

Life under the sea is better than anything they got up there.

To see we desire is greener, in somebody else's league.

You dream about going up there.

Mark a duck, this is a big mistake.

Just look at the world around you, right here on the ocean floor.

Such wonderful things around you.

What more did you look in for?

Under the sea.

Under the sea.

Darling, it's better down where it's where to take it from me.

I'll find a sure day we're born again.

How can the sun is live away?

Why are they defaulting for time?

What is under the sea?

Now here all the fish is happy, as I've threw away the oil.

The fish on the land ain't happy.

It's hard because they end up old.

But fish in the bulk is lucky.

They end up for a worse fate.

One day when the boss gets hungry.

Yes, you got me on the plate.

But no, under the sea.

Under the sea.

Nobody beat us, try us and eat us.

It's never gonna see.

We wouldn't let folks know to cope.

Under the sea, we have got hope.

We got no trouble.

Let this be fun.

Under the sea.

Under the sea.

Seems like this video, we don't repeat it after a week.

Luckily, he can even just turn around and be ready.

Let it be hard to start to play.

We got to see it.

We got to hear it.

Under the sea.

She didn't need to play the flute.

She can't play the half, the play's played the bass.

And they sound and chop the bass, play the brass.

She can't play the top.

The flute is the duke of soul.

And the reek keep play the licks on the strings.

It's hard because they know the black fish.

The smell doesn't disrupt.

The note doesn't blow.

Yeah!

Under the sea.

Under the sea.

When does that move?

The flute is doing it.

Under the sea.

What do they got?

All of a sudden?

We got to hear it.

It's the same band.

We just don't have to jump.

We're under the sea.

We just don't slug.

We're cutting the rug.

We're under the sea.

We just don't slug.

We're under the sea.

We're under the water.

Under the sea.

Under the sea.

Under the sea.

Normally, I just play a little bit of the song.

I got carried away with that thing.

That is such a wonderful song.

What an upbeat positive song from the Little Mermaid.

The against sentences with me here.

He is the artistic and managing director of the recene theatre guild,

which is currently getting ready for the big Christmas show,

The Little Mermaid.

It was based on the musical on Broadway,

or is it based on the movie?

Broadway musical.

I'll tell you something, I read once.

Disney was having problems.

They were putting out movies that nobody was watching,

like The Black Hole.

They did that.

There was a live action from a Robinson Crusoe-type movie.

I forget what it was called.

It was the name of the character.

They were flopping.

They spent $150 million on these movies,

and they weren't even making back one third of what they spent on it.

And they said, we're bringing back the musical.

And this was the first one.

The Little Mermaid.

And it turned, for example, after this,

they had Beauty and the Beast.

They had Aladdin.

And all these musicals.

And people said, at the time,

they said, they don't make Broadway musicals anymore into movies.

And Disney said, we are.

We're making musicals here.

And this is it.

This is the musical.

And it's such an upbeat positive musical.

I saw it last year at the recene theatre guild.

And you're bringing it back again this year.

It's not only for kids.

I mean, you saw, I'm out listening to the whole song.

I'm only supposed to make 10 seconds of that thing.

30 seconds, I think we paid for.

But played the whole thing.

And it's really great.

So what made you bring it back again this year?

Well, it's popularity first of all.

And to be honest, it's very expensive to produce.

So once you have the costumes and the sets,

you know, we're trying to, you know,

the financial thing on Broadway is you open a show

and you run it for as many years as possible.

And so that's what we're trying to do, too.

It was very popular.

Exciting.

We had such a wonderful time putting it together the first time around.

And people, you know, some of the performances sold out.

And then people get all I wanted to see it.

I wanted to bring my family.

So bring it back.

And some wind for everybody.

It's a great show.

The cast was selling the cast members and came back

because they had such a wonderful time doing it the first time.

So, you know, it's one around the holidays

to have an upbeat house, the musical that everybody can sing along with

and bring their family.

Great songs in that musical, too.

And I think that's why Disney decided to do musicals again

because all their musicals are Latin, beauty and the beast.

They all have great music.

You know, somebody said, I forget what critics said.

If you leave the theater humming a tune, you've got to hit musical.

Yeah, that's true.

You know, and I had forgotten, you know, my children are now

in their late 20s, middle till late 20s.

And so, you know, we were up on all the Disney musicals when they were little.

We would watch with the tapes, you know, we're watching, we're watching.

You know, we all have it memorized.

The kids are dancing around.

And then, you know, they get in their teenage years

and, you know, maybe you don't see it as much.

And so, I had forgotten how wonderful the music is

and the storyline until a couple years ago

when we had it on play reading and saying, you know, I still remember all the words.

And, you know, I just see the little kids come and the parents come.

Yeah, they're singing along and they, you know,

doing some signing autographs at the end, the cast comes up

and the little kids are just an aw on, you know, walk up to the cast members

and just staring at them like they're rock stars, you know.

And it's a wonderful experience and to make people happy,

especially around this time of the year.

Now, you also have to hire, you have children in the show, right?

Young actors.

So, how about that?

Yeah.

You need to be ten and up because it's kind of a demanding schedule.

We have a pretty extensive performance schedule and rehearsal schedule.

So, the rule of the theater guild is ten and up off.

So, and how do you train ten-year-olds?

Now, as you remember, lines to sing, to act, to be on their marks.

I'm thinking back when I was ten years old.

I think I was learning the time I shoelaces and ride a two-wheeler.

And that was difficult.

I don't know.

I think you probably under it, I think you probably were making radio tapes at ten, you know.

And point to pretend to be the radio host or something.

But, yeah, I tell you, these ten-year-olds are better than the adults.

They, seriously, they know everybody's lines.

Everybody's blocking.

Everybody's dance numbers.

One of the fun things that, you know, the crew gets to watch is these young kids waiting to go on for a number.

And they're all dancing around and trying to be, you know, part of the, you know,

you know, the Ariel or Eric or something.

They know everything.

And it's fun to watch.

These kids, they're like sponges.

They just pick it up and they're boom.

They got it.

Now, it's expensive to put on your said.

Where do you get the costumes, the props?

I mean, you can get the music.

But where do you get all that other stuff?

And I'm not going to spill the beans on this.

But the lead character in Little Mermaid Ariel, how she performs on stage and how she looks like she's swimming.

Is really good.

You guys did a great job on that.

How do you get all that stuff?

Well, you can buy it, but we don't.

We have volunteer designers that do all the props and do all the costumes.

We have a set designer in chain who is our technical director.

She designed the set this time around.

But all that is found by volunteers.

We have an army of people that are making costumes.

And building and painting set pieces and props.

And people help with the lights.

People help with the sound.

It's pretty amazing.

You see one third of those volunteers on stage.

The other two thirds are backstage flying the scenery and calling the light cues.

So we get quite.

And the other thing that's so impressive to me is that these people take time off to work crew.

Because we have daytime performances.

And we have people that have actually taken vacation time during the holidays,

because they want to do this performance for the kids that they're their tradition

and giving back to the communities by helping out at the theater guild.

And so we get a lot of people backstage costume.

People that are changing clothes and scene shift people that are running in tables

and rolling pieces and flying and scenery.

So it's quite impressive.

I'm always in awe that we can get at least people to work for free.

And they just do it because they love it.

And they want to be part of it.

I want to be part of the theater.

Yes.

Who's directing this show by the way this time?

Me.

I directed the last time and so on and directing it again.

So this is your 100 and first.

I'm sorry.

This is your 100 and first directed show.

100 and first.

I remember it as a.

I'm not as dead.

You're in a 10 year old.

Are you smarter than 10 year old?

Maybe I can remember a line or two.

Who knows?

Do you know?

And I'm not kidding.

I have to have the call letters of this station written in front of my face.

So I don't forget them.

I mean, I'm not joking.

I have everything in front of my face.

So because you never know when you're going to slip and give another station's

call letters by accident and believe me.

Well, it's happened.

That's not good.

It's happened.

Okay.

So let's get the dates for the little mermaid now.

It runs starting December.

What is the date here?

I don't have it.

December 8.

We open.

And we run for two weekends.

Friday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

And then we have some daytime performances for school groups where we're busing

and kids from all over a southeastern Wisconsin.

They come and do daytime performances.

Do you, as director, do you sit there in panic and sweat for the first performance?

You know, I do sometimes.

And then sometimes I don't.

And the answer is, second time around, we've done a few of these where we've done

them two years.

And the pressure is less because I can, as I told the cast, we're not here to recreate

last year's show.

Because we have a different cast.

We have different ideas.

We have different things worked well.

They didn't work well.

Maybe we ran out of time last year.

So we've got a lot more time to play and to be artistic and to try new things.

We can always go back to what we did last year because we knew it worked and it worked well.

But this year we can experiment a little bit more.

So I think the second year is a little more fun in the sense that I don't have to worry.

I know Ariel's rock is done.

I know.

King Triton's throne is ready to go and the chandelier will come in on time.

So we can start working on another thing.

Maybe we want to change that.

This actor brought in some new ideas and new creativity.

So it's not technically a remake of last year.

So we've got a lot of different ideas happening.

Hold on one moment.

We're talking to Doug Ensens here at the Racine Theatre Guild,

artistic and managing director of RTG.

More coming up with Doug in just a moment here at WRJN,

where it's going to be sunny today with a hundred thirty-three degrees twenty-five.

And sunny right now at seven nineteen at WRJN.

I don't see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad.

Look at this stuff.

Isn't it neat?

Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?

Wouldn't you think I'm the girl?

The girl who has everything?

Look at this truth.

Treasures untold.

How many wonders can one cavern hold?

Looking around here you think.

Sure.

She's got everything.

I've got gadgets and gizmos of plenty.

I've got who sits and what sits good.

You want a thing in the box?

I've got twenty.

But who cares?

No big deal.

I want more.

I want to be where the people are.

I want to see, I want to see them dancing,

walking around on those.

What do you call them?

Oh, feet.

Flipping your fins you don't get too far.

Legs are required for jumping.

Dancing, strolling along down.

What's that word again?

Street.

Up where they walk.

Up where they run.

Up where they stay all day in the sun.

No wonder and free.

Wish I could be part of that world.

What a great musical.

Great songs.

And you know it's the old style animation.

They didn't use that animation they have now,

which I don't like at all.

The Disney, these were actually hand-drawn for the movie,

Little Mermaid.

And Kudos to Disney for reimagining it for Broadway.

And they brought all these musicals.

They actually bought their own theater on Broadway,

actually 42nd Street.

You know that theater, the New Amsterdam?

Yeah.

That theater.

What's that?

Disney owns it now.

Disney has owned it for years.

I actually have the coffee table book of the resurrection

of the New Amsterdam Theater.

It was originally built by Flo Ziegfeld,

the Ziegfeld Follies.

And he had a rooftop theater on top of the New Amsterdam,

which was meant for his private shows

when guests came over.

These new musicals up on the roof.

But it was all, and then it became a movie theater.

But it never showed, it never showed the,

the X-rated stuff on 42nd Street.

Always first run movies at the New Amsterdam Theater.

It was beautiful until it fell into disrepair.

And they had, the boxes, the side boxes fell off

into the main auditorium.

They had mushrooms and mold growing in the main auditorium.

So they had to close that down.

They had the balcony open for movie theaters at that time.

And I have, the lobby wasn't such disrepair.

You've got to see what this looked like.

And then Disney said, we're going to buy it.

And they spent millions and millions

to revitalize the New Amsterdam Theater.

And they opened it up.

They have a laden play there.

Mary Poppins play there.

A little mermaid.

And all these shows played at the New Amsterdam Theater

on 42nd Street because now they refurbished it

to its beautiful Florentziegfeld.

Look, Ziegfeld built the New Amsterdam Theater

on 42nd Street.

So that's where Disney puts all their productions.

If they have more than one, then they use another theater.

But they always open their own theaters, which is great

because they get to keep all the money that way.

Yeah.

Now, when do you have, what are the understudies

for each character in these shows?

We do because, you know, COVID has been hitting us still.

And the last show actually we had to have an understudy go on

because someone came down with COVID.

We do do that.

That's some of the cast to understudy each other.

And then we have some outside people that are willing to step in

in case somebody goes down.

Goes down.

I don't want to play that sounds.

Well, you know, this isn't able to perform.

And I've never noticed anybody quote going down in a show.

I've seen understudies.

But I've never seen anybody have a problem with that,

because they're always first run shows.

And you have a difficulty, the typical theater doesn't have.

You don't have a curtain to come down.

We don't, yeah.

So it's especially in a musical like this,

where there's a lot of special effects and things like that,

where, you know, you're swimming through the water

and you've got scene changes coming in.

You have to do some misdirection.

And, you know, one of the beautiful things about our theaters,

the audience is so close to the actors,

and they sit on three sides.

So that's wonderful, the audience,

but it's a little challenging sometimes with these,

and Disney shows that are tech heavy,

where you have to do a lot of lighting and sound effects.

But we think we figured it out,

and I think people still have a very magical time

at the theater guild, even without that big curtain that comes down.

Now, you have a benefit, though.

You're only in a semicircle.

There were theaters that are in the round.

I used to go when I was a kid to the Westbury Music Fair in New York

on Long Island, and that's in the round.

And anything you do is,

there's nothing behind the curtain in the background.

Everything's got to come forward.

And that's tough to do a theater in the round.

Have you ever done that before?

Well, you know, the fireside is theater now,

and they've done all of those, too.

Then they're just a very creative.

They just figure it out.

And, you know, into a certain degree,

you're lucky because you can't spend a lot of money on scenery.

When I was young in grad school,

I did an internship at Arena Stage in DC,

which is one of the premier resident theater companies in the United States,

and they're in the round.

And they are so creative with,

but they also have technology.

They've got lifts and they've got things that roll on and roll off

and come out of the ground and come out of the ceiling.

So they still have, you know, the advantage of all of this tech.

I remember one set was a house they had on stage,

and then it opened up to make the floor of the theater.

Wow, how are they going to do this?

There's a house on stage.

Well, they just had all the walls open up,

and that made the floor.

So you just figured out,

and I think, you know, we're doing theater.

We're not, you know, a movie is more of a recreation.

Theater is a live experience and artistic in certain ways.

And I think people like to see how you figure that stuff out.

How the stuff comes on?

How do the scene changes happen?

How does the magic happen?

And, you know, we're not recreating, you know,

it's not realism.

It's theater.

And so all of those things are fun for the audience to watch

and be a part of,

and when you're doing a show in the round,

it's just different creativity.

You go, oh, wow.

They really, they brought that out of the floor,

or they did a great job with that.

So, I think people don't expect

the movie when they come to see a play.

They expect to see, you know, how we deal with that.

And you mentioned the fireside.

Their floor, the theater in the round,

the stage in the round, goes down.

And they go into a basement where they load up all the props

and then they bring it up.

They'll even put the orchestra on there

and they'll bring the orchestra up and down.

Yeah.

And it's very clever and it's a whole new way.

You got to reimagine the way they do it on a Broadway stage

because they have the benefit of closing the curtain,

having everybody hustle around

and they lift up the curtains all new scene there.

And theaters in the round in the semi-circle

like you have to be a little more clever on how you do it.

You know, also in the Broadway show,

there's 2,000 of your closest friends there

and sometimes you're, you know,

a hundred yards away from the stage.

And so, you know, there are some pros and cons to everything.

And in our stage, you know, we're ten rows away.

So, I think, you know,

the fact that we don't have the technology of the Broadway show

is one thing, but also sitting three feet away from an actor.

Those kids are getting a wonderful experience.

They're just part of the action.

They're singing along.

They're part of that energy.

That maybe you don't get at a, you know, 2,000-seat theater.

Okay, I went to hang in there.

I want to talk about some of the other shows coming to the

Racine Theater Guild in just a moment.

Doug Inson, it's my guest here.

When I went to see Les Miserable on Broadway,

they actually redid the theater to make it look.

They hung them like timbers,

rotted timbers to give you the feel of the

the French Revolution.

And the whole theater was like that.

They repainted the theater to match the show.

And I guess when it plays for four or five years,

you get afford to do that.

You can do that, yeah.

All that is I can do.

We're talking Doug Inson into the Racine Theater Guild.

We're talking about the new shows coming up.

We've got Little Mermaid and some other stuff coming up as well.

That's all straight ahead.

It's 729 at WRJM.

That's what I do.

It's what I do.

To help unfortunate my folk like yourself.

Poor souls with no one else to turn to.

I admit that in the past I'd been a nasty.

They weren't kidding when they called me well or which.

But you'll find that nowadays I've mended all my ways.

Repentance in the light and made us switch to years.

And I fortunately knew a little magic.

It's a talent that I always have possessed.

And you'll lately please don't laugh.

I use it on behalf of the miserable, lonely and depressed,

pathetic.

Poor unfortunate souls,

in pain, in need.

This one longing to be thinner.

That one wants to get the girl and do I help her?

Yes indeed.

Those poor unfortunate souls.

So sad.

So sad.

I didn't realize that was Pat Carroll from the make room for Daddy

that did Thomas Show.

That was the, that's the same actress on there.

I didn't know that from the movie.

Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

She's wonderful.

Yeah, she's no longer with us.

But she was great, great comedian.

And she's great on that song.

By the way, poor unfortunate souls.

Disney has one thing going forth that they're great up.

Villains.

They always make great villains.

And there's some of them are frightening.

But I was a kid.

They were, remember Cruella Deville from 100.

Oh, yeah.

She is bad.

It turns out, but not all of them are bad.

Even the villain from Beauty and the Beast.

He turned out to be a good guy after all.

I mean, sometimes it works out.

But the Disney villains, even their live action villains,

we're always, we're always good.

Okay.

So the little mermaid is at the Racine Theater Guild.

It kicks into action December 8th.

Runs to the 17th.

How do you get tickets to this now?

It's not sold out.

Is it?

It's not, not yet.

So, yeah, you want to call early, though,

because it's all assigned seating.

So you can call the box opposite.

262.

At 633-4218.

Or you can go online and buy tickets that way

or stop by the box office from noon to 6.

And pick them up.

They're not expensive.

You go to a Broadway show today.

And when I saw Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang on 42nd Street,

it was $125 a ticket.

That was the starting price.

And that was back about 10, 12 years ago.

That was the stuff.

Today, you go on Broadway.

You want to see Hamilton get ready to put your house up

for your mortgage.

It's very expensive.

And that's why you're lucky to have the Racine Theater Guild

and local community theater because they don't break the bank.

Yeah, it's $20.

Our top ticket is $20.

And then you get to discount if you're a senior or a student,

things like that.

You come on a different day, you get to discount.

So the most you're going to pay is $20 to see you play

at the theater guild.

And if you're an old conjure, you know, like me.

Yeah.

You get in a little shiver.

Let's talk about some shows coming up.

You've got dial M for murder coming in in January.

This is probably based on the Alfred Hitchcock movie

and the play dial M for murder.

It is.

That's a classic murder mystery that I think people think they know

the ending to, but they don't.

So I don't want to give it away, but it's a man trying to

get rid of his wife and trying to figure that out.

And we've always had a lot of fun in murder mysteries

at the theater guild.

So people like murder mysteries.

And that's dial M for murder.

And it was in the movies.

It was in 3D.

Good news.

It's in 3D at the Racine Theater Guild.

And you don't need glasses for it.

All right, coming up in February, we've got now and then.

What's that about?

Now and then it's a really sweet show.

And it's about an older couple.

And a younger couple.

And this man walks into a bar that's owned by a younger couple

and a mystery, you know, he pays them to talk to them for a minute.

And then you wonder why?

What's going on in his life?

And you hear sirens in the background.

And I really can't give away more than that.

But it's a wonderful story about love and what's important

and how you think you want your life to go.

And the decisions that you make that build the future for you.

So it's very sweet, very fun.

Only four people.

The younger couple and the older couple.

So I can't give away more than that because that's also kind of a mystery.

We've got a major musical coming up, major in May.

This one, a slew of Tony Awards on Broadway.

It's always revived on Broadway.

The movie won best picture of the year.

And it's cabaret.

What good is sitting alone in your room?

Everybody knows that.

Because life is a cabaret, my friend.

Yeah, I love cabaret.

You know, there's a reason why people keep doing them.

They're written so well.

The characters are so well developed.

They're complex characters.

And as you and I were talking, you walk away singing the songs.

You remember these songs.

There's young people.

There's old people.

There's good guys.

There's bad guys.

It's just fun.

It's a fun musical.

And then it's kind of heartbreaking at the end.

So it's got a little bit of everything.

And of course, people always picture lines of Manelli.

In the lead role, that's what you picture lines of Manelli.

But Jill Hayworth played the original on Broadway.

Joel Gray, who I got to interview years and years later.

He was promoting a new movie he was in.

And he'd wanted to talk about the movie on a short time with him.

I wanted to talk about Cabaret.

We never got a chance to talk about it.

But that's the rarity.

When they could take the guy who originated the role on Broadway.

He plays the MC.

And he did it in the movie as well.

Yeah.

That was nice.

And then you were talking about Hamilton.

I think he was the wizard in Hamilton too.

I think he played that one of the many roles that he said in his life.

Yeah.

Yeah, he did.

He's a great Broadway actor, a great musical performer.

And a great dramatic actor as well, Joel Gray.

Coming in July.

Oh, that's a rarity.

Okay.

So when you have it in April, you've got the star girl.

That is next year.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, that's a classic for a lot of young people to, you know, there's a series on it.

There's a book about it.

That's a young girl who just doesn't quite fit in.

And she, you know, tends that she's a star girl.

And she has special powers and she develops a friendship with people.

And they don't, this plays really all about friendship and what's important.

And being an individual and being allowed to be different.

And different is cool.

And we shouldn't be afraid of that.

And we should embrace that.

So we'll be doing that for our seventh or eighth grade outreach program.

We're bringing kids from a sixth grade outreach program.

I'm sorry.

We're trying to sell this to students.

So we'll be doing data and performances for that as well.

So if any teacher wants to bring their class, they should give us a call and we'll sign them up.

And you know, it opened kids up to more than rock concerts because my mom and dad always, we always went to Broadway shows.

My dad didn't like them, but he went.

I think I told you the story on it when they were dating, he took my mother to see the original Broadway cast back in the 1940s of Oklahoma.

And he excused himself halfway through the show and sat in the lobby.

So I can't sit there and watch that.

I just can't sit there.

Now he's gone back to the theater many, many times after that.

We saw Hello Dolly on Broadway at the same James theater.

We saw it with Betty Grable right after Carol Channing left the show.

We saw 1776 with the original Broadway cast at the 46th Street Theater.

We saw, what did we see?

We saw a chorus line.

We saw, I'm kind of thinking my playbills I have at home.

That's our remember all the shows guys saved all the playbills.

I saw Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, Lay Miss Her Rob all on Broadway.

My mother saw the original funny girl on Broadway.

But I've never seen a play on Broadway, only musicals.

I don't know why it's just turned out.

My mother used to go to a lot of plays.

I did, I went to a couple of off Broadway shows.

My favorite one was God Spell.

So before it went to Broadway, it was off Broadway.

Again, a musical though.

Yeah, right again, a musical.

I went, I took my date ahead and she said, I got one to see God Spell.

And it was a lower Manhattan and off Broadway theater.

And to tell you what off Broadway theaters have their different.

During the intermission, the cast came out with glasses of wine or grape juice,

depending what you wanted.

Everybody in the theater got a little cup of wine or grape juice.

And I think a cracker or so.

It was almost like a communion.

And they did that.

And God Spell, you'd never see that in the Broadway show.

Plus they charge you about five bucks for that little thing or more cracker.

Yeah, the cracker cost five bucks.

I remember what was going into a Broadway theater and they had orange, Julius,

they had orange drinks.

And this was back in the 60s and they went to three bucks for it.

And my father did, you going out, you pay for your fun.

You know, if you're going to go spend, by the way, the theater back then

was eight dollars tops ticket for a Broadway musical eight or nine dollars.

And he said, again, it's been eight or nine dollars for a Broadway show.

Go splurge, get the orange drink, get whatever you want.

Have a good time.

And I did.

And I have all the play bills from every show I've ever seen on Broadway.

At Chicago, by the way, some great Broadway shows.

We saw wicked on in Chicago.

We saw Jersey boys in Chicago.

They did some great, great shows in Chicago as well.

They have these old movie theaters.

They converted into live shows now.

And don't you, you, I don't know if you still do it.

Don't you do trips, excursions to Chicago to see some shows?

We did before COVID yet.

We used to, you know, bus everybody down and see a show and come back.

And so we're getting back into the swing of that.

But with COVID, we break a little bit.

COVID really wrecked life for a lot of people.

And not to mention the people who got COVID.

Comedy tonight.

Now this is stand-up comedy you do.

And I went to one show.

I was given tickets and I loved it.

Yeah.

We've gone a little different from we do have some stand-up comics.

But this year we changed a little bit.

So the next one is the Golden Girls special.

This is kind of a fun show that they brought from Milwaukee.

Some of the performers are in drag.

Some are not.

And it's a Golden Girls.

You know, everybody loves the Golden Girls, right?

So actually that one sold out.

So we added one.

So we have performances from February 3rd and 4th of that.

And then this very talented lady from Chicago to this Bible bingo.

An act of charity and two acts.

And this has been a huge hit in Chicago.

And so we're bringing that back in March.

So two little different things.

We got the Golden Girls and we've got some bingo going on.

So people can get tickets for those.

Children's Theater.

Now the Children's Theater is where children perform, right?

And you can have your kid become a big actor or actress in the theater.

And you have classes for this as well, right?

We do.

We have theater guild classes.

And the Children's Theater sometimes has kids performing for kids.

Sometimes it has professional actors performing for kids.

And the Children's Theater is where children are performing on a situation.

Alice in Wonderland comes up in February.

And that's going to be Union Grove students.

And they've come down on two, three, four times at the theater guild.

Really talented kids doing Alice in Wonderland.

And they did it in Union Grove and sold out.

All the performances sold out.

And so we're lucky that Rob Cruise and Company will be bringing it down in February.

Three days of the Theater Guild Friday Saturday and Sunday.

Coming from Milwaukee is coming down to do James and the Giant Peach.

That's in March.

I tell you that.

So we've done I think three or four times.

And everybody loves that story about the Giant Peach and all of the crazy fun bugs that go along with that and animals.

That's fun.

What do you do with the stage moms?

The stage moms, that's exciting.

Yeah, we just got some with that.

You know, to be honest with you, it's very interesting to me.

I've seen two types of parents.

I've seen parents that see all of the performances and that are traditional stage moms.

And then unfortunately occasionally, some parents can't be bothered.

And they have other things to do.

And I tell you that's so heartbreaking.

These kids work so hard and some parents are very supportive and some parents, you know, like your dad.

I don't like musicals.

Okay.

So, but you could go see your kid.

So, think goodness, that's a rarity.

Most of the parents have been very supportive, very helpful.

They bring food for the kids.

They're bringing 20 people with them.

You put a kid in the play, you get 20 other people coming to it.

So it's a good family fun.

And it's so exciting afterwards.

They're bringing flowers.

Everybody's taking pictures.

And the mom says, I think my kid should have more lines.

My kid doesn't have enough.

I don't know how many lines they have.

Every kid in that play in the play knows I've got 13.

I've got 22.

I've got 40.

My kid should be on stage more.

And by the way, why you're facing or backwards on the stage.

She should be facing forward on the stage.

More people have to see her, but you don't have to deal with that luckily.

Doug incidents the artistic and managing director of the Racine Theatre Guilder.

Next production coming up starts December 8th through the 17th.

It's the musical.

The Broadway musical, The Little Mermaid.

I've seen it last year.

If it's anything close to last year, you're going to love it.

Bring the kids.

Bring grandma grandpa.

It's a musical for the entire family.

Tickets around sale at the Racine Theatre Guild box office.

Or you can get them online, right?

Either way, right?

Okay.

Hey, Doug, we'll have you back again when dial them for murder.

He's ready to kick in, all right?

Thank you, sir.

All right.

Hold on the line.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hold on.

Don't go anywhere, Doug.

You want to talk to you a second?

It's 749.

We are going to talk movies with Brett Hoffman coming up in just a moment in WRJN.

And check in twice.

You're going to find out who's naughty and nice.

Santa Claus coming to town.

Yeah, Santa Claus coming to town.

Santa Claus coming to town.

To town.

It's 7501 at WRJN.

Looking for sunshine today with high-dirt 33 degrees.

Clotty tonight, lows around 26.

Tomorrow, Clotty with high-dirt 37.

And snow showers before noon on Sunday.

And Clotty with high-dirt 37.

Right now we're 25 degrees in sunshine.

And we're seen on Black Friday.

A lot of people doing their shopping today.

A lot of people not doing their shopping today.

Some people just relaxing today.

Brett Hoffman couldn't be with us live today.

And either could Mike Clemens.

They had other things to do today on Black Friday.

But we did record something with Brett Hoffman.

And before he tells us what new movies are coming out at the weekend.

We're going to talk about some of the movies

and how they did last weekend at the box office.

What number five we have five nights at Freddy's.

It brought in $3.5 million.

And number four was another war film.

This was the newcomer Thanksgiving.

It made $10.2 million.

And should play strong throughout the Thanksgiving holiday.

And number three was last week's number one at the Marvels.

They had $10.2 million.

And then in number two at number one,

we had both of our newcomers,

trolls band together, and the Hunger Games,

the palette of songbirds and snakes.

Trolls band together was a delightful release for families

and made $30.6 million.

So it will continue to do well over the Thanksgiving holiday.

And at number one, the Hunger Games,

the palette of songbirds and snakes brought in $44 million.

That was the prequel to the original Hunger Games movies.

And it took place 64 years in the timeline of events.

We'll see what goes on this upcoming Thanksgiving week

because we've got Disney's animated Wish

and the epic Napoleon film,

starring Joaquin Phoenix.

Those and all the films I just mentioned will be up for grabs

for people looking for something to see

during this fun time period of the year.

Okay, and we do have those two new movies to talk about.

And Brett Hoffman from Marcus Theater

is here in detail right now to give us the details on those two new films.

Well, the first one is an animated title,

and it's Disney's Wish.

Wish follows a young girl named Asha,

who wishes upon a star and gets more direct dancers

than what she bargained for when a troublemaking star

comes down from the sky to join her.

Should be a delightful movie on screen for families to go see

and should pair nicely with the other option,

trolls band together, which is out right now.

The next one is an epic film directed by Ridley Scott.

It's Napoleon.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Napoleon.

And it details the checkered rise and fall

of the French emperor Napoleon

and his relentless journey for power.

There are plenty of great movies out there for everyone

to enjoy this holiday week.

Go check out a movie at your local theater.

Thank you, Brett.

Brett's back with us live next Friday.

He'll be here like 735 in the morning.

He had to record that today,

because he couldn't make it here,

but always could be here from Brett Hoffman

and Marcus Theater is even who he's been with me

on the air for years and years and years.

There was everything about movies.

Another film which I saw this week with my wife

was Killers of the Flower Moon,

directed by Martin Scorsese,

starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

Excellent movie.

Now, it's three hours and 27 minutes,

but it did not feel like that.

It's a murder mystery.

And it's based on a true story

about the murders of the Osage Indians

in Oklahoma back in the 1920s.

They were getting murdered and picked off one by one

on the Osage Indians

or a poor group of Indians

until they discovered oil on their land.

And then they became super wealthy.

And when people are super wealthy,

they make enemies.

So I'm not going to tell you anything about the movie

other than go see it.

And go to the bathroom beforehand

because it's three and a half hours

and you really don't want to miss any of it.

The performances in the film are just wonderful.

There's some other actors in there.

The actors with smaller roles,

like Brendan Frazier, John Lithgoes in the film.

It's a murder mystery.

There's courtroom drama.

There's investigation.

It's a whole good, great movie.

But again, you got to get ready to invest

three and a half hours in that film.

Killers in the flower moon.

I don't know how long it's going to be in theaters, though.

When we went there,

there was only one other couple in the theater.

So I don't know.

We went on four o'clock in the afternoon

on Wednesday afternoon.

So go check it out as I'll

hope into good movies out there.

What's really interesting is before the movie,

Martin Scorsese, the director comes on screen

and says thank you for coming to the theater

to watch this film.

I was at another movie once

where the director of the movie came out on screen

beforehand and thank people for coming to the theater