Well, a new pair of sneakers the other day, I think I got a good price. I put $50 down
and I'm paying $5 a month for 60 months.
I need to make some money. I've been reading these books now. I have the Mayan Air's
right book. They all say the same thing. They say, making that first million is the toughest.
Yeah. I'm finding that to be the case. I hope the second million isn't this tough. In
fact, you might have a little trouble with 1,000 barrier. The money I do have is all tied
up in Pokemon cards. And I had to sell some beauty babies to get the Pokemon cards, but
I wanted to diversify my portfolio.
I'm a fair hair I'll show the link for longer, here a baby, there a mama, everywhere daddy, daddy, hey!
No one can show it to me at all, it's fucking wrong.
I'll let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees, live a home to the flea's in my hair, a home for flea!
Yeah, high for bees, a nest for birds, they know where it's from, the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of my hair!
I'll show the link for longer, it's fucking wrong, I'll let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees, live a home to the flea's in my hair, a home for flea's in my hair, a home for flea's in my hair, a home for flea's in my hair, a home for flea!
You're down the where it stops by itself, you're a da da da da da da!
He'll be paga, I'll be go go when this in me in my toga, my toga made up lawns, rain, too!
You're my hair like Jesus for it, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Mary!
For Broadway Music, Oh Hare, which actually started off Broadway, the New York Shakespeare public festival, ran the musical Hare on Broadway,
it was such a hit with great music, they moved it to the built-more theater, which was a big Broadway theater house,
and it played there for years, and it had nudity in it.
Broadway never had new people running around stage before until Hare did it.
What a bunch of great songs coming from that show, Ian Anderson is here, he's appearing in Broadway blockbusters,
this Saturday at the Racine Theater Guild, and you're going to sing some of the songs from Hare,
I don't love you to sing that one, but there are so many great songs, Aquarius, let the sun shine in,
you name it, it's in hair with new people running around, but not out of the Racine Theater Guild stage,
you guys who were clothing, right? Yeah, yeah, we'll be fully clothed for sure.
And you know, that was a shocker when people went to go see Hare and people running around make it on stage,
because that had never happened in the history of Broadway before.
So, okay, so you guys are going to sing a ton of Broadway tunes this coming Saturday night,
and these are like ensemble songs, not too much you're going to have the whole Broadway musical,
you're going to sing selected songs from a plethora, a ton of Broadway musicals,
went to run some of them, you're going to sing. Yeah, I think we're total, we're at like,
there's like 37 different shows that are ultimately represented by the concert, and I mean,
it's going from lots of things, I mean, they're all blockbusters shows, I mean, I could listen to sound
of music, you know, Oklahoma, I mean, even to Mary Poppins, I mean, there's a gambit of music from
sort of like the Golden Age all the way up through kind of more recent productions that kind of ran
and were big successes. Obviously, that was the focus of the concert as putting in music that was
representative of shows that kind of like made an impact on Broadway, right? Because we have a lot
of great shows that like come off and that don't necessarily live a long life on Broadway, but
wanting to be able to feature all the music that, you know, the general public, the music that's
kind of moved into our sort of pop culture world from Broadway that, you know, people would recognize,
which is obviously fun. Everybody loves hearing the songs that they know, right?
Now, we're going to play some of them because you're going to recognize these songs as soon as
you hear it. People are going to, they say, oh, I didn't know that was from a Broadway musical,
and I was very fortunate. I grew up in New York City, so we went to Broadway musicals all the time
in the 60s, 70s and 80s, all these shows. So I was very fortunate. And that's when tickets were
like six or eight dollars to get in. Now, if you want to go see Hamilton, you're talking almost
$200 for a ticket to go see Hamilton. What did you see Hamilton at all?
Yeah, I did see when they had the sort of sit-down production in Chicago. I got to see it. I also
thought when I toured through Milwaukee, even with when I see them tickets up there.
What do you think of it? Yeah, I mean, I thought it was great. I think, to me, it was a wonderful
thing about Broadway when you think about it over sort of its lifetime, especially as we're revisiting
all this music, is, and even hair that you just played, like musicals in the way that most
art forms do reflect current times and sort of changes in our pop culture, and sort of steps
forward, right? Like Broadway's always been on the front end of positive change, connecting to
what's happening in the world. So it's nice to be able to see that happening, and it's nice that,
you know, to see a show where we're celebrating American history and having the people on stage,
not necessarily look like what you would anticipate, and have it sort of represented with,
you know, more modern forms of music, like hip hop and rap, and sort of celebrating, you know,
what it is to be an American, like the story of America, right? What our founding fathers did
ultimately. So I mean, I thought it was, I think it's such a cool show. Plus, the music is great,
totally singable, great melodies. I really enjoyed it. I didn't like it, and I'll tell you why.
In all fairness, I saw the streaming production when COVID was amongst us. It was streamed,
and I got to see that. I just, you know, there's an old axiom. If you leave the theater humming a tune,
you have a hit show. I wasn't humming any of their tunes. I just didn't find anything. I don't
know. It's just, it just didn't hit me. And I love usually everything. And my brother saw it on
Broadway and just raved about it. Him and his wife just raved about it. I went to somebody
people, you got to see how many you got to see. I didn't like it. I'm one of the rare few people
that just didn't maybe because I saw it streamed. I didn't see it live on stage, which is a problem
because Broadway shows don't always translate to the small screen. They just don't. You have to be
part of the action. And that's what's so good about the receiving theater guild, whether you see
a musical or a play there, you're part of it. I mean, the set designers at the receiving theater
guild. I don't know who they are. I'd love to meet them someday. But we just a dial M for murder
the play and the set design, the acting. I mean, it's so top notch. I think you could move some of
these productions right to Broadway. And nobody would notice the different. Nobody would say,
oh, that's from Racine. They wouldn't notice it. It's that good. And that's what I felt with
dial M for murder. Everybody was excellent. But I'll single out the inspector and the guy who
played the Rainbow Land part. I kind of give it the character's name. Just great. Just great.
And every musical there is great. We saw Swini Todd. And I thought the set design for Swini Todd
with that, the barber chair that opened up and sent somebody. Every time they sent a body down
their own actors, I hope they're okay. That's a long fall.
No, for sure. It's interesting to bring that up. I think that's one of the best things.
One thing that the Racine theater guild does is we actually hire in people to design our sets,
which I think makes an impact. I mean, obviously it's something that you specifically notice.
But I think within that, most of the other people working on the productions are all volunteers.
Like people who have D jobs, you know, working as social workers, I work as a project manager.
I don't do this for a living, but all these people who come together to do something that they love,
that they want to do to kind of bring joy in their life outside of their day-to-day career when
they're not doing this. So it's so cool that we have that opportunity and that we have such a
well-established year. I mean, we've been around 85 years. It's crazy that we're seeing the
legacy of the Racine theater guild and Racine is incredible. And every seed is a winner in that
theater. Now I've been doing a Broadway show theaters to know that it's uncomfortable. Those
theaters are over a hundred years old and they really haven't been refurbished that well
because the seats are still small when you go to Broadway. They're crowded in. And I mean,
it's good. Once you get into the show, you probably don't notice it as much. But for a guy with
six foot three like me and I'm used to movie theaters now with the recliners and I got spoiled.
When you go to a Broadway show, you don't have a lot of legroom, but in the Racine theater guild,
every seat is a winner. It's not a theater in the round. It's a theater in a semi-circle,
which is different than Broadway theaters that have a flat stage. The only difference I would tell
you is the live orchestra. And it doesn't even matter. I mean, the music's the music. If it's played
well, it's played well. I'm going to play a little tune here that you're going to do a song from,
you got music from gypsy you're going to do, right? Yes, that's true. I don't know if you're doing
this song, but give a listen to this tune. Then I got a story about it here. Hold on.
Wherever we go, whatever we do, we're going to go through it together. We may not go far,
but sure as a star, wherever we are, it's together. Wherever I go, I know he goes.
Wherever I go, I know she goes. No fits, no fights, no futes, and no he goes.
Amigos, together, through thick and through thin, all out or all in,
and whether it's winged place or show, with you for me and me for you,
we'll model through whatever we do together, wherever we go.
Wherever we go. Now what's really interesting is that song is not in the movie gypsy.
You would think a hit song like that, and that's one of those songs you leave the theater humming
a tune. You know, that's not in the movie. Did you ever hear the story? What happened?
No, I didn't actually know that that wasn't in the movie. That's crazy. You hear the last
three or four notes because they cut it, and the reason they cut it was they said for time,
they said the movie was getting long, and they had to cut some songs from the movie,
and that was one of the songs they had to cut. Unbelievable. It's such a classic. That was the
original Broadway cast with Ethel Merman. I saw Gypsy on Broadway with Time Daily. Remember
Time Daily? She was on Cagney and Lacey. Yeah, for sure. And it was great because at the very
beginning of the show, if you watch it in the movies, Ross and Russell comes out screaming,
stop, stop. Her little kid is auditioning on stage. With Time Daily, she came down the aisle
of the theater, screaming, stop, stop, stop. She was so good. She was a great mama rose.
And there are so many people that bet middler did Gypsy most recently in the last few years on
Broadway. But what song did you tell me? Is it a secret? What song you do from Gypsy?
I let me check actually our script. I don't even know which song it is. Oh, it's coming up
Rosa. Of course. They didn't cut that. That's day. No, of course, no. Okay, we're going to
play some more from some of the shows. Unfortunately, I brought the wrong music man with me. I went
to bring Robert Preston. And I got that horrible version with Matthew Broderick with me. But
we'll play something from it anyway. Ian Anderson is here. He is in the new Broadway blockbusters
at the Racine Theater Guild. And it is coming up this Saturday, Saturday night. So he is still
some tickets left if you want to go see that. It's WRTN, hometown radio refreshed,
a civic media station. Stay right where you are.
With that weary executive smile.
This book is all that I need. How to, how to succeed.
How to observe personnel. How to collect them to lunch with. How to apply petty friends.
How to begin making contacts. How to walk into a conference hall. With an idea. Brilliant
business idea. But we'll make your expense account. This book is all that I need.
How to, how to succeed.
There you go. Matthew Broderick and a new Broadway cast of how to succeed in business without
really trying. I guess Robert Morris started with the original Broadway cast. And then he was with
he started the movie. And it's kind of interesting. A lot of movies when they make them of Broadway
shows. Don't bring back the original Broadway cast. Some do. Some do not. And with that,
they brought back the original Broadway cast of how to succeed to make the movie. Then the new
Broadway cast version. But some of these things are ever green. You could bring them back time and
time again and just redo them on Broadway over and over again and people love them. And that's
why I love about the Racine Theater Guild. You bring classic musicals back to the Racine Theater
Guild. And everybody loves it because the music is so good. The sound of music. We're going to
retune from that grease. We've got coming up Oliver. And so give us some of the shows you're
going to sing about this Saturday night. No, I know you mentioned that we've actually seen on the
Guild stage too. Sound of music. We did a few years ago. But there's I mean a ton of things in here.
There's a bit from Cabaret, which is actually also coming up at the Racine Theater Guild in May.
So make sure you get your tickets for that. But there's we're representing Peter Pan,
guys and dolls. Hello, Dolly. I know you said Oliver, my fair lady. Even moving kind of more
into more recent musicals like hairspray. I know you mentioned grease. Lim is a rom. Even Hamilton,
as you were talking about. We have a lovely woman singing a solo from that show as well. So I
mean, it's very representative of a lot of, you know, really lots of musicals, right?
Now in the original Broadway cast of grease, now I shouldn't say the original because the original
was made into the movie. Then they brought it back with Rosie O'Donnell starring in grease, which was
there's a woman in there who stars in there called Marsha Lewis. That's not your Marsha Lewis, is it?
You have, you have Marsha Lewis at the Racine Theater Guild. I always wondered if that was the
same one or not. No, I don't think so. You don't think she was on Broadway in grease?
No, I don't think so. My daughter saw it on Broadway. And she said it was too neon. They
too many neon lights on stage. It was excellent. She said Rosie O'Donnell was great. And you know,
but she said it was just too much neon. Now here's something. What are you going to say?
I would just say I heard that production. They kind of, you know, pushed the camp from what
I understand. I remember the theme, the pictures of the Teen Angel, where he had a giant sort of
compadre like ridiculous. And that was just the style they went with, right? But it's interesting.
You know, and a lot of times they put songs in the movie that were not in the Broadway show.
And that's the case with what's the one that you want was a big hit song. It's not in the movie.
That's the excuse me. It's in the movie. It's not in the Broadway show. And I think a lot of
people would be disappointed when they go to see grease on Broadway. And they won't hear that song
because they wrote it for the movie. And it was a hit song with the Libby Newton John and John
Travolta. But it's, you know, it's just not there. One thing that's nice when you produce the show
is you can make the choice to put those songs in. You have to pay extra from a rights perspective.
But like when we did the show at the scene theater, go by actually costume to the show. And
we, they put that music in. Those stuff that isn't in the sort of stage production that was
in, that was really popular. Obviously big hit songs from the movie. Oh, that was nice.
Oh, you did do that. Okay. So I didn't, I didn't see it. I don't know how rights were. I know
they work with radio stations with Askav BMI and CSAC Music Rights. I know how that works,
because I filled out the paperwork for years to do that. I don't know how you guys do it with
the Broadway musical when you bring a show in. And I took the dug incidents about this once.
And he explained it to me, but you know, sometimes I could understand, I pretend I understand
stuff that I don't really understand. But I know you get it, you pay for a certain amount of runs
of the show, but I don't know what you can didle around with it, what you can change, which can change.
Yeah. I mean, generally you, you really shouldn't be changing anything about the,
the sort of structure of the show. Obviously, there's some shows set up where you can sort of make,
you know, changes that they've actually put in as options in the script when, you know,
you want to adjust slightly. And some of it can be per content. I know sometimes you want to take
some of the swears out, depending on where you're performing, especially in like a high school setting,
of course. But yeah, it's a very interesting process. The Guild has a playwriting committee,
so we go through the process every year with volunteers, again, along with our,
our managing artist or director, Dugins, just that you just mentioned. And we basically pick a
season. And then once the season's picked, which we picked, the one for next season, which we're
going to announce in March at the beginning of March on the set. So if you want to come out for the
big celebration, I know there's an event at the Guild that night. But we then obviously have to go
through the process of getting rights, which I know sometimes can be a tumultuous experience. I
know there's been musicals we've gotten in the past where we got the rights. And then they were
pulled because maybe like a professional theater was doing it in, you know, close proximity to where
we were around the same time. And they didn't want to have it over-saturated, which ultimately,
obviously results on us making a, you know, hard left in our planning, especially with like
marketing and all of that, to sort of change the show. And really also have to make a decision,
right? Last minute for the change. So luckily, as of late, we haven't had that happen in the
recent seasons. But that is something, obviously, we have to deal with. And at the end of the day,
we want to make sure we're paying out for intellectual property, right? Somebody wrote that,
somebody produced it, you know, they deserve to be paid if we're going to sort of perform the
material as you were talking about. I'm sure making sure that the artist, two songs you're playing,
ultimately gets compensated for their music being out there. And we pay a lot of money to play
music. Even though we're not a music radio station, we still play songs. And so we have to pay
the BMI ASCAP and CSAC rights anytime you do a public performance, even churches that play music
in their churches have to pay music rights because somebody wrote that music and somebody's got to
get paid for it. The performer won't get paid, but the person who writes it did. And here's a classic
example. In Louisville, Kentucky, where Muhammad Ali is buried, and also Colonel Sanders from
Kentucky Fried Chicken is buried, is a tiny little marker. And it's a woman named Patty Smith Hill.
Do you ever? No, I haven't. Okay. She and her sister, Mildred, wrote a song that every time it's
in a movie, they put their names on the screen. They wrote the song Happy Birthday to you.
Mm. And it's always, it's always got to have their name on it because they wrote it.
They were school, she was a schoolteacher and she wrote it. And let's get a quick tune in there.
This is from Greece. We're talking to Ian Anderson of the Racine Theater Guild,
Broadway blockbusters coming up Saturday. However, the small portion of alumni that I noticed missing
are certainly not missing from our fond memories of them. And I'm sure they would want us to know
that they are fully present and accounted for in spirit just the way we always remember them.
One boy, boy for sack, he's going cheat.
Moldy seven Guinness, that's all that about. Small boy, brother Patty,
from lack of sleep, feed him glutenous, stop him getting stout.
If I should say he wasn't very greedy, I could not, I'd be telling you a tale.
One boy, boy for sale, come take a peek.
Have you ever seen as nice a boy for sale?
Where is love, does it fall from skies above?
Is it underneath the willow tree that I've been dreaming of?
What a bunch of great songs from Oliver, even though a movie was such a smash hit.
He and Anderson this year, one of the performers this weekend in Broadway blockbusters at the
Racine Theater Guild. Now, I got my tickets about two weeks ago and it looks like they were going
pretty fast. So if you want to go, but to contact the Racine Theater Guild, like, as soon as they
open this morning to get your tickets, this is one of the songs you're doing, right? Where is
love from Oliver? Yeah, that's one of the ones that we're covering. I know that Oliver is actually
a favorite show of the director of Rob Cruise who's been spearheading the concert series for seven
years, which is crazy. We even got some activity. And while we were shut down during COVID,
we did a virtual concert. Yes, coming back out of COVID, we did the first thing we did on stage
with an audience was actually a spotlight concert celebrating America. So it's been great,
but I know he was happy to put in a film from a show that he loves. I know he loves Oliver.
And I was at that both those shows. I went to the first one, the spotlight one. You first
opened up my wife and I went, we had to get out of the house. It was COVID. And we said,
this is where we get it. Yeah, we just, you know, had to get out of that place.
Okay, here's I get two stories to tell because I want to get these in. My Pippin story.
This is a life lesson learned for me. I was dating a girl named Ginger at the time. It's
back in the 70s. Pippin had the original Broadway cast and it was a huge hit on Broadway.
So I went down to Macy's Ticketron. That's where you got tickets from. Macy's Ticketron.
And I went down to Macy's and they said, Oh, that shows sold out. You can't get tickets for it.
I said, really? They said, leave your name. A lot of times people want to turn in their
tickets or they can't go and they want to resell them. So I got a call and they said,
woman had two tickets. She can't use them. Here's her address. She said, it was okay to go to her
house. Now again, you have to pay the face value. You can't pay more than that because that's
called scalping. So you have to pay the face value. I went to the house. I think it was like
10 bucks a ticket. I gave her 20 bucks. I told my girlfriend, remember you wanted to see Pippin?
We've got Pippin for tonight on Broadway on the aisle. Great seats. She goes, I don't feel like
going, I'm going to sit home and watch TV. Now I shorten the story because every day I was calling
Ticketron at Macy's and I said, anything anything. No, no, no, no, we got your name. Don't worry.
We'll call you. Don't worry. I do that every day. And I finally got to tickets. And $20
was a lot for Broadway show tickets back then for two of them. And that was the beginning of the
end. Now I never threw out those tickets. I kept them. And every time I wanted to feel that if I
did something stupid, I would look at those tickets and say, yes, I could do something dumber than
this and those. That was the beginning of the end of our relationship. And so I couldn't give
them away because the show was coming up in a couple of hours. And you know, people need to get
ready. So I called a few people. They couldn't use them. So I kept the tickets as a monument to my
stupidity. And that's my Pippin story with the original Broadway cast. And I did. You're living
you learn, right? Well, and funny thing is the woman who worked at the Ticketron office. I told her,
I said, if anybody wants them, they can have them free. If somebody calls in, I'll just give it
to them. And she goes, she said later on to me, I wish you'd have asked me. I would have gone.
Again, a monument to stupidity. That's not going to, that's not going to happen at the theater
guild because I have my tickets by wife and I are going and we're going to have a great time.
We both love Broadway show music. And before I started working here again, we used to drive,
I used to drive it to work in the morning and we always popped a Broadway CD in the car.
And we picked different ones every time. And we used to listen to them on the way to and from
when we traveled, we always had a Broadway show original cast CD in the car. And I had some
strange ones like two by two. Do you ever hear that? No, I've never heard about that in there. Yeah,
Danny K started in two by two. It was the story of Noah's Ark and it was a Broadway musical.
It wasn't very good, but it played on Broadway for a for a while, you know, hundred or so
performances on Broadway, but you know, the last one I said, go ahead. Yeah, I always think it's
so interesting when there shows that like that you're mentioning that like general consciousness,
like people don't know, but they weren't not successful. Like they were successful on Broadway.
They played for a period of time and they've sort of like fallen off the consciousness where like,
you don't see schools producing them. You don't see, you know, community theaters producing them.
It's very interesting to me that that just is the case with Broadway shows. It's very interesting.
Yeah, they're the classics that everybody knows and they're guaranteed to be ahead. Yeah,
live Oliver. Everybody knows Oliver. They all know the music, the sound of music. They all know the
music. Grease. They all know the music. So they're instant hits and you don't have to worry about
if people going to like it or not, but there are, there are a couple of them. I'm trying to think
as I have this CD called Forgotten Broadway musicals and a lot of them did very well on Broadway.
The last one I saw on Broadway and a lot of people don't know this was a Broadway musical.
Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang. They know the movie, but it went. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I know
that every once in a while you see people produce that, but obviously the car is a huge,
huge barrier when you're going to produce that. I think actually we read that when we were
considering it for the guild in the past. And it's a very complicated show. Even the
caraticus, his sort of inventions are like part of the show because obviously that's what he does.
He's in an inventor, which is why he creates the car. But yeah, they definitely had a stage
production that was played on Broadway, which I mean, I love. I mean, the Sherman Brothers music.
And what's, how can you go wrong there? And I mean, we're even doing Mary Poppins, which,
you know, obviously the stage production wasn't necessarily all written by them, but it's based on
the music from the movie. They actually were supported by two other composers who had composed
on other musicals when they actually made the stage production Mary Poppins. Now their music
down the left. They did fly the car. I saw it on 42nd Street. They turned this old
hornet house into a Broadway music. They refurbished the whole place of Broadway,
Broadway playhouse. And they flew the car above the audience. And it was dark. So you couldn't see
how they were doing it. But I did buy the CD and the lobby, the making of and how they,
man, I can see how they did it. But they flew the car above the audience to the back to the front
again. And he turned it around. And you're in awe watching that's the big showstopper that car
flying above the audience. And I guess I had to make sure this thing was going to stay and not
fall down and kill people. No, that's real. Yeah. I actually saw the, I always think that that's
like an incredible thing when we actually did Mary Poppins, but the theater guilt we had Mary
fly out. And I think that's the thing that I hear now when we talk back about the show. Like,
they don't remember the people necessarily who are in it, but they remember Mary Poppins flying
out at the end, which was very cool that we were able to do that. Yes. It's a cool thing.
Yes. If you can fly anything, you get a special effects in a Broadway musical.
Now, this is interesting about Mary Poppins. When my fair lady was on Broadway,
they had the original Broadway cast Sterling Holloway played a role. A Rex Harrison was Henry
Higgins. Analyze a little was Julie Andrews. He starred with the original Broadway cast in my
fair lady. When they came to making the movie, though, they brought back Sterling Holloway.
They brought back Rex Harrison, but they didn't bring back Julie Andrews because she wasn't
in name at the time. And they needed to go with the name. And they went with Audrey Hepburn,
who couldn't sing. They had, they had somebody, Marney Nixon redid her, um, did her voice.
Yeah, we did that many times about that point in time. She was a wife for so many people.
And so the ironic thing was Sterling Holloway won the Academy Award.
Rex Harrison won the Academy Award, the movie won best picture of the year,
but the best actress award went to Julie Andrews from Mary Poppins that year.
And what? Yeah, obviously Walt Disney had some insight about the talent that was and then
became Julie Andrews in the start of that was there. So it's so interesting when I hear that story
that, you know, did not take a chance of the one who won a Tony for playing the part on Broadway.
I'm Broadway and then you didn't love them because they didn't have the quote unquote name.
And then, you know, she won the award anyway when she was competing with a person who replaced her
in the movie. It's so interesting. And make you think, could she have won the Academy Award for
my fair lady? I think so. I think so too. I think the Academy voters said this isn't fair. Plus,
it's tough to give it to somebody who didn't do their own singing. No, that's true.
And, you know, Marty Nixon, her husband was Ernest Gold. And he was a composer. He wrote
the music for the movie Exodus. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world. He did a dozens of dozens of
Broadway movie soundtracks, Ernest Gold. And her son was Andrew Gold had a couple of hits on
the top 40 charts. So the whole family, Marty Nixon, Ernest Gold, Andrew Gold, all heavy into music
did very well with it. Here's my other quick story before we break here. I want to tell you another
story. The 1776 great show on Broadway. It's my favorite one I ever saw on Broadway. It's the
signing of the Declaration of Independence. And you think that couldn't be a fun musical, but it was
a very good musical. And it started the original Broadway cast also played in the movie. They brought
the entire cast back to the movie. But one of the actors in on the Broadway show is Ken Howard.
He played Thomas Jefferson, a key role, obviously, in 1776. And he went out to the movie.
He went into a lot of other roles on Broadway. He went on to a TV series, The White Shadow,
which was a hit series on CBS. But he was appearing in rumors. And I told you off the air,
you remember the show rumors, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he was starring in rumors on Broadway.
And my mother and father were going to a show that night, not rumors, but they stopped at a bar
to get a drink before the show started. And there's some roles on the bar, like dinner rolls.
And my father's eating one along with his drink. And Ken Howard sits down. And he said to my father,
oh, I'm sorry, that was part of my dinner. Yeah, I'm appearing in a show. I just wanted to get a
quick bite. And my father said, I'm eating your dinner. I am so sorry. Let me buy you more rolls.
And Ken Howard said, no, no, I really don't have time. I wasn't going to eat them anyway.
But you can have the rest of the roles. And my father said, I feel terrible. I'm eating your
dinner. And you got to go up here in the show right now. And he said, don't worry about it. It's
fine. So that's my other story. My father eating Ken Howard's dinner before he ordered
rumors on Broadway. I said to my father, what, what possessed you to start eating somebody's dinner?
He said, I thought it was like pretzels on a bar. They put dinner rolls.
So we all have stories. What's, what song are you singing from Oklahoma?
Oklahoma. We're singing the title song, Oklahoma. And that's a big group number,
which will be great. As we've been rehearsing this week, the music's really coming together with
our sort of ensemble singers. I mean, there's a total of 50 plus people that are in this concert,
which I think might be the biggest group we've had. We had done prior to COVID some concerts that
had big ensembles just to celebrate. I think we did Rodgers and Hammerstein. And we had done
celebrating Andrew Lloyd Webber. And so it's nice to kind of revisit this and have like a lot
of voices in the space and sort of celebrating this great music. But yeah, we're singing
Oklahoma.
the wind comes sweeping down the plane. And the wave of wheat can sure smell sweet. When the wind
comes right behind the rain.
In a lone antock and watch a hawk making lazy circles in the scar. We know we belong
to the land. And the land we belong to is grand. And when we say,
you are your pile, yeah. We're on the same y'all do and find Oklahoma, Oklahoma, okay.
The wind comes sweeping down the plane. And the home of the wave and wheat can sure smell sweet.
Hello,
Harry, well, hello.
Louis, it's so nice to be back home where I belong. You're looking swell.
Many I can tell. Danny, you're still growing. You're still growing. You're still.
He and Anderson, my guest here at WRJ on this morning. I'm Don Rose and thanks for joining us here.
He and appearing with Broadway blockbusters. This coming Saturday night at the
Racine Theater Guild still can get tickets for that. And I wouldn't miss it. I'm going to
be there by wife and I love Broadway show music. What do you think of the movie? Hello,
Valley. Can you see it with Barbara Stransand? Yeah, it's interesting. It's when you realize
that how young Barbara was. I think she's great in it. I think the costuming is killer.
I'm some other great sort of Broadway talent sort of filling out that cast. But she was so young.
We're like, you think about it from that aspect. It doesn't make sense for her to be a widower
when she was in her 20s. Not that that couldn't be the case if that were to be. But obviously,
Carol Channing being older, the character being an older character is what you anticipate.
A sort of matrem. But yeah, I mean, a beautiful movie. And I mean, the music is great.
Jerry Herman writes a great musical in general. Lots of music you remember as you were talking about
Hamilton, you could walk out of a Jerry Herman show and be humming a tune if not many of that.
I know. You always get your money's worth with your humming a tune. Walter Mathau said that
that was the worst experience he ever had making a movie with Barbara Stransand because she's
demanding. And you know, keep in mind when she made Hello Dolly, funny girl wasn't out yet.
I mean, she made funny girl, but she made Hello Dolly and Gene Kelly directed it.
And it was very expensive to make and they couldn't release it because they made a deal with David
Merrick that they couldn't release Hello Dolly into the theaters until it was done running on Broadway.
And they wound up having to give him a lot of money to get them to allow to release Hello Dolly.
By the time they released it, movie musicals were falling out of favor with the public.
It was 1969. They wanted to release it in 68 right after funny girl came out, but you know,
they made a dumb deal with David Merrick. I didn't think she was right for the role. She was good,
but Walter Mathau was 20 times her age. And I didn't you didn't believe that she was falling for
Walter Mathau. Yeah, what's crazy is for people who know that movie, the Cornelius Hackle,
sort of the young Archer, you actually went on to be the original Phantom and fan of the opera
on Broadway, Michael Crawford. Yes, yes, that's true. Now I saw Hello Dolly on Broadway with Betty
Grable in the original with the cast, but so many people went on to play that role, including
and I have it here and a little of time to play at Pearl Bailey with an all-African-American
guest. I got Cab Calloway playing the love interest and Pearl Bailey, who I heard just
knocked it out of the ballpark because this is this was made for Pearl Bailey. I mean, they did
the guy who did the casting for that all-African-American cast, but just nailed it with Pearl Bailey.
And I heard she did a great job and I have the songs from Pearl Bailey in Hello Dolly. She
used this great Cab Calloway. I mean, it was perfect for the role. So Hello Dolly had a big
long run on Broadway at the time. I think it was one of the longest Phantom of the opera's now
the longest running show in the history of Broadway. You doing anything from Phantom?
Phantom didn't make the list, but we do have another show that's been on Broadway a long time,
which is Wicked. Everybody's seen, we all, everybody loves Wicked, right? I actually only saw it
like a stage production, obviously, knowing the music for years, but I only saw a recent production,
but like I get why it's on Broadway. It's a great book. The music is incredible. The story is
is great. It's a very tight, great musical. So like, it totally makes sense for me to
have been living as long as it has on Broadway for sure. And then the movie's coming with
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Rivo, also a major Broadway theme. I know she's been moving into movies
more recently, but incredible singer for sure. While they're doing a strange thing,
they're releasing part one and then they're waiting another year before they release part two of
Wicked, which I don't get at all. I mean, that's, yeah, I don't, I, I don't understand the day.
They're thinking about the musical, but there must be ways that they're filling it out, right?
And obviously in a movie, you can, you can do things, especially with sort of the magical nature
of living and the world that is Oz that could allow for expanding. I just, it's interesting,
but again, there must be a reason, right? Outside of the financial,
that is definitely splitting it, right? So I must be a reason they want to expand the.
I saw it in Chicago, and I loved it. The original Broadway cast album I've played over and over
again with Kristen Chenoweth. And for people that don't know, it's the story of the Wizard of Oz to
almost. It's how the Wicked Witch of the West got wicked. Basically, Allana, how she became
such a nasty person and Glenda, the good witch is played by Kristen Chenoweth. I forget who played
the Wicked Witch. Idina Menzel, who wanted to be a voice of Elsa and frozen. I mean, everybody
knows that voice from let it go, right? Who John Travolta's name blew her name at the Academy
Awards and couldn't pronounce it. That was a famous. Oh, there's so many great shows. You know,
what one I saw recently didn't see it on Broadway. It's the kid with the cast on his arm. What was
the name of that show? Oh, Dear Evan Hansen. I love the movie. I fell in love with that movie.
Dear Evan Hansen, great songs, great story about a mistotal misunderstanding.
Yeah, it's when it's one of the shows that I think I've seen where, which I love about theater,
is sometimes where you sit with your sort of emotions about what you're watching and you don't
know how to feel about it. Like, he was doing everything for the right reasons, but it was a really
awful thing that he was doing. I saw the production on a tour through Milwaukee and, but again,
it was great. It was a very cool experience. It was a very sort of modern, you know, show for now,
right, with all the tech, you know, the texting and communication, but like, it was a great
theater for feeling, you know, it made you feel something like, how do I, I don't know how I
sort of navigate my emotions around this character. I want to care about him, but he's doing
something horrible. Yeah, and it all, it's all a show of misunderstanding and it's so great.
Dear Evan Hansen, the DVDs out, you can get that. Ian Anderson appearing this weekend, Saturday,
and what are the song, what are the, give me one of the songs you're going to sing, so I know what
you want stage. Yeah, I mean, I'm singing as part of the ensemble, and then I'm also singing in
the song from How to Succeed, been a long day when there are great characters are waiting for
the elevator. Yeah, thank you. On with the other great talented people at the gill.
Well, if you come up after the show in the lobby, I'll say hello to you there. Ian Anderson,
Broadway blockbusters and it's at the Racine Theater Guild, this Saturday. Is it one show only?
Is that how it's working? We're doing two shows. There's one at two o'clock and then one at seven,
so yeah, get your ticket. Yeah, I'm two options. All right, there you go. And I'm going to the
matinee, actually, we go to my wife, we don't stay up late. Listen, we're going to the matinee.
Hey, Ian, thank you very much. I love talking Broadway. I can do it for days. We're going to go out with
one of the songs that will be sung at the Racine Theater Guild. Don't rain me from the sound of
music. Ian, thank you very much. Hold on the line. Don't go anywhere, Ian.
Let's start at the very beginning of very good
life's to start. When you read you begin with
when you sing you begin with don't rain me. Don't rain me. Don't rain me. The first three notes just
happen to be don't rain me. Don't rain me. Don't rain me. Don't rain me.
Come, I'll make it easier for you. Listen.