Do me a favor, set your cell phone to something like ring.
My cell phone goes off, you know what it sounds like?
It sounds like a phone.
Ring.
Some people get a little wacky with cell phone rings.
There'd be in a meeting, a boardroom or something, some guy's phone goes off.
Ring, ring, ring, ring.
Ring, ring, ring, ring.
Bong balls
Ring, ring, ring, ring.
Then they look at you and go, is that yours or mine?
You know that yours, Tommy?
You stayed up the foreign the morning figuring out how to make it play that song?
The more annoying the song, the longer it takes them to find their phone,
you're waiting for a bus to guide next year,
you're halfway through the guitar, solo a free bird.
You're like, well, you answered that before I stab you with this pen.
It doesn't matter where you go, what you do.
I want to spend the storm of love, the day with you.
Oh, but it's happening just for a kiss.
I never knew that I could be in front of like this.
It's crazy, but it's true.
I only want to be with you.
And seven away to WRJN Radio.
I'm Don Rosen.
Thanks for joining us.
I want so excited.
We have the new schedule for the Racine Theater Guild.
It was just announced yesterday.
And this is the first broadcast ever, right?
We yes, a first official.
This is it.
The new seasons coming up.
They saw the this season still come.
You got Star Girl after now and then and you got Cabaret coming up.
Yes, the big musical.
All right, I got it on my phone here.
I save the the big announcement here.
Justin Fisher's here.
She's director of marketing for the Racine Theater Guild.
Any other titles you got there and development.
So I do the fundraising side of things too.
Yeah, so development.
And if there is garbage on the floor, you pick it up.
It's funny you say that because I actually did get some gum
out of the carpet and everybody's got to work.
Everybody works.
OK, so this is the brand new season.
What's 87?
87 season.
We are founded in 1938.
So kind of crazy to think about.
Do you know the first show you guys ever put on?
They did a series of small one acts.
One of them I know was called the red pajamas.
The rest I can't remember off the top of my head.
But because you weren't there.
I was not and that was a quite a bit before by time.
OK, so this is.
It kicks off July 19th.
And you see when you kick it off in the summer, not the fall.
So part of that is that some are quote unquote at the theater
guild is kind of our down time, but not really.
We have classes going on at all times.
One of the challenges we have in the summer
is that people have lives and they're
going on vacation and things like that.
So we usually put a bonus show.
This is what this is called.
It's kind of like the preseason show.
Sometimes it's larger like this last year we did rent.
We've done Greece.
Oh, rent is so good.
I took my brother and sister a lot of stuff.
I loved it.
That's fun.
And we brought in a lot of new people, which is, you know,
when we were talking about the season, we always talk about who
comes to the theater.
But who else can we also get into the door of the theater?
It's a dual conversation that we have at all times.
And so rent was a great example of one of those shows that
kind of serve both audiences in that way.
And so looking forward to this season, we were like, you know,
we've done some smaller musicals too.
And so what we're opening with is actually a musical called
before you get to the musical.
I got to tell you one of the best shows.
And I've seen the movie a million times.
I knew the ending.
I knew everything.
But I was still on the edge of my seat, watching Diolim
for murder.
Oh, yes.
I mean, I've seen the Alfred Hitchcock movie with Robert Compton's
and Ray Melanda, a million times and Grace Kelly.
But I was still sitting on the edge of my seat.
And I knew who the murder was.
I knew it was going to be the key under the carpet of the hall.
And you know, all that stuff, but the way was put together, we thought
and all the actors were great, but we thought the guy who played
the lead role, the Ray Melandro, and the guy who played the
police officer, John Williams' role, just standouts.
And they're all good.
Right.
And the wonderful thing is, is everyone's a volunteer.
And so they do it because they're passionate about it.
And it's wonderful when everyone works as a team as well
and builds off of each other.
And then they've got the crew, like in a show like that,
the crew is essential with lighting and with moving props
in a certain place where it's supposed to be.
If the key's not there.
And the key's going to be in the hallway under the carpet.
Right.
OK, let's kick it off with July 9th through July 28th.
And the show is.
It's first date, which is a very cute little musical.
It's about a young couple getting together for a first date.
And their kind of opposites might attract,
might not attract.
It's all of those ins and outs of the things
that you're supposed to talk about and not
talk about on a first date.
And it actually was on Broadway.
I think 2013, I want to say.
And had Zachary Levi and Kristen Rodriguez.
And so it's going to be a fun little summer show.
And really, kind of everyone can relate to that moment
of your first date.
You remember your first date?
Oh, goodness, sadly.
See, the thing is, the pressure wasn't on you.
It's always on the guy.
I was in high school with a barber cursor.
And I didn't think she'd say yes.
So I really did have much planned.
I said, the I want to go to the movie Saturday night.
She goes, what movie?
I don't know, whatever's playing.
This is when they before multiplexes.
Yeah, to stay whatever the theater was showing.
That was where it stuck with it.
I can't remember the name of the movie, but you went.
I think five were the amount of words she spoke of.
It's as she didn't say much to me.
We never spoke again after that.
We went to the movies, and I think my mother took it
and dropped herself and picked this up.
And that was my first date.
And it was a disaster.
Enough that I remembered it, though.
Right.
But I always remember the bad times.
Sometimes those make better stories for radio, especially.
And I kept thinking during the whole movie,
what am I going to say?
She going to talk?
Do I talk to her?
Why don't I say, I really have nothing in common with her.
Other than she was a very pretty girl in school, very quiet.
And I looked at her in the high school yearbook today.
And I wonder what she is today.
I wonder if she's saying, yeah, one of this first date is loser.
I'm thinking, yeah, my skin was crawling the whole time.
I just wanted to get rid of them.
So that was the first date.
Now, is this a musical?
It is a musical, yes, small musical.
We're actually hoping to have a live band-on stage as well.
Which will be nice, because it takes place in a bar.
And so, yeah, we don't always have live music,
because it's a little more complicated in our space.
But when we can have a small group of live musicians,
it just adds so much to the production.
I know, sometimes you stick them in the back,
out of the way Greg Berg does some of the music.
He does some of it.
I believe we're working with Doug Klum, actually, during this one.
Oh, yes, yeah.
That's so great, guys.
When a Doug Klum, and the reason I know the name is,
because I host the, you were seeing concert band
at the zoo, and he's there.
And Klum, he is related to the Wild West.
There was a, a newspaper editor named Klum,
back in the days of Dodged City, with Wyatt Earp.
And he's related to that Klum,
who ran that newspaper through the days of Wyatt Earp.
There you go.
Yeah.
That's our, I said, wow, are you related to that?
And some, yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's great.
All right, so that's a musical,
and that's coming up.
Now, it's had a bonus show.
Yes, we call that a bonus show.
So we have kind of our five main stage plays,
is what we call them, then we have three bonus shows
you can add to your subscription in the scheme of things.
When I bought my season tickets,
it says, hey, can you want the bounty shows?
Get the all won.
Right.
Every time the, every time the theater opens,
give me the tickets for the show,
as we go all the time.
You know, we used to bring my mom all the time.
And so we had, we have the same three seats,
then my mom passed away several years ago,
but we still get those three seats.
I don't want to give it off.
Right.
So now we use it, we bring a guest with us.
And there's a seat empty right in front of that one.
So if we have four people, I get that seat.
And, yeah, so I, I can't give up that there.
See, it's just, it was my mother's seat, you know,
twice, actually three times,
but twice we had to get the ambulance in there.
Oh gosh.
Right before intermission, she passed out.
And one time I say to my wife, I said,
mom, my mother's passed out.
And I'm screaming, mom, mom, mom,
you wait until intermission.
Right, wait until intermission.
God, that's so much.
So we got the, and as soon as the ambulance came,
they used to, you know,
the face she popped out of you, what's the matter?
She just passed out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So first date is July 19th through the 28th,
then comes a mystery.
And here's one of the things I've seen the movie a million times,
but I'm sure I'm going to be on the edge of my seat,
watching it on stage.
Definitely.
And it's going to be,
it is egg of the Christie's murder on the Orient Express.
September 13th through the 29th.
Yes.
What a great fall night.
That's good.
The wind is going to be blowing outside.
Definitely.
And there's a murderer loose on the train on the Orient Express.
A whole cast of characters,
which is always fun with these kind of murder mysteries.
There's a whole piece of casting character in action.
Everybody's got a motive.
Everybody could have done it, but only one person.
Correct.
And the misdirection is super fun.
And this is actually a Ken Ludwig adaptation.
And so Ken Ludwig is kind of known for more farcical shows.
And so this one's a little more of a fast paced who done it.
It's got, it does have that murder mystery,
but there is some of that slamming doors kind of craziness
to it as well.
Is it Paul Woe?
How do you say his name?
Perot.
Perot.
Hercules.
Hercules, though.
It's spelled hercules, but it's Hercules Perot.
Yes.
There you go.
Perot.
We've seen all the Agatha Christie movies.
And we love watching them.
And it's going to be a set challenge, but exciting challenge because it's different train
cars.
So how do you go the dining car and then to another car?
You know, how you do it?
You flip the set around.
Yes.
You know, and that one stage, how many floor coverings have you had on that stage?
Gosh, we handpicked that stage for every show and then we build up on it and drill bunch
of holes at it.
Do you ever sing it down and get rid of the layers of it?
We might have to soon.
The building's coming up on almost 50 years old and you got to think of how much.
Every time we go in there's a different floor and it's got to be the same floor.
All right.
So it's Agatha Christie's murder on the orange express.
Now after the break, we're going to talk about the next musical coming up, next show
coming up.
It's a play.
It's one of my wife's favorites.
She's seen.
There's been a bit of a five version of it.
It's been a bajillion versions.
It feels like yeah.
And they still make inversions of it.
Yes.
They have one with one owner rider not too long ago and we'll talk about that coming up
in just a moment.
Yeah.
That's exciting.
Yes.
You know, I was telling Jocelyn before the before we got on the air that had been to a million
Broadway musicals and stuff growing up in New York and I think you guys do just as good
a job.
I mean, these are Broadway quality people and let me take a second to go to Broadway musical.
They're good.
Yes.
Not always that good.
I mean, they're good and I want to hear my Ken Howard story.
Ken Howard started in 1776 on Broadway with the original Broadway cast.
But at this time, he was storing something else and my parents are going to a show, not
his show, but they were going to a show and they were at a bar before the show starts
getting a drink.
And my father's eating these rolls that were on the bar and Ken Howard sits down and my
father said, with these yours, well, yes, part of my dinner, but that's okay.
My father said, no, let me get you more because I'm late for the show and I said, I need
you dinner.
I'm so sorry.
I'm nibbling on your dinner.
And Ken Howard said, trust me, I can't stay anyway.
Enjoy the rolls.
You and your wife have a good time with the rolls.
My father's eating Ken Howard's dinner.
Dinner.
I think I'm a show he was doing on Broadway at the time.
All right, Jocelyn Fish is here from the recene theater.
He'll talk about their new lineup.
We'll continue with that lineup at just a moment.
718 at WRJN, a gradual clearing today with a high-tier 46-part to cloudy, low-stirty
five tonight, cloudy with a high-tier 46 tomorrow, 39 in cloudy right now at recene.
At hometown radio refresh, the Civic Media Station, WRJN.
And no, I'm not scanning across the form and aware through this 721 at WRJN radio, Jocelyn
Fish is here from the recene theater.
He'll talk about their new lineup.
This play-up is one of my wife's favorites.
She's seen every movie adaptation of it.
They've had them with Catherine Hepburn.
They had one before Catherine Hepburns, I forget what it was.
And I think the most recent one, why I know it a ride-air, it was in a version of it.
Little women.
Little women.
Please, we may all talk.
Yes.
A great story about sisterhood, about family.
I personally, I will say that this is one of my favorite stories as well because I actually
have three sisters.
And so it was always interesting growing up to get to know the little women.
And this is a really great play adaptation.
It actually was just at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, this version.
And it's the four sisters and how they kind of navigate through life.
And Joe, of course, is our storyteller and how she finds challenge in being a woman
in society and that day and, you know, and what her opportunities were.
And it's just, everyone can connect with it in different ways.
Not me.
I did watch him because my wife was, and I did watch them.
And they're good movies.
I like the one with June Allison.
That was a good version of the show.
They're all good.
But that's the one I've probably seen the most unturned classic movies they run.
They press them.
Sometimes they'll run two or three back-to-back on GCM, running all the versions.
Which is good.
Little women.
That's the big Halloween show.
October 25th through November 10th.
Then we've got one coming up.
It's a musical.
Yes.
For Christmas.
It's December 13th through the 22nd.
It's called the best Christmas pageant ever, the musical.
Yeah, what's it?
Just in case you weren't sure.
We've got to put that in the, like, suzical, the musical, we've got to put that in the
title.
So go tell us.
Yeah.
So best Christmas pageant ever was actually a play and it's one of the first outreach
plays that the theater guild did in 1989 where we welcomed students in to see the show
and have talk backs after the production.
So this is the musical version that has been adapted and has a bunch of great roles
for kids.
Number one, which is wonderful because we always have a lot of interest for getting youth
involved and growing their talent and things like that.
And so it's about the six horrible Herdman siblings and coming in and crashing Sunday
school and ending up getting casts in the best, in their Christmas pageant at church
and the town is kind of not very happy about it, but they kind of come to learn about
the true meaning of Christmas by involving these kids and helping them grow and things
like that.
Nice to have a Christmas musical at Christmas town.
It is fun.
Put you in that mood, people there.
I'm going to talk about something real quick or forget.
It's the people of their cell phones.
We just ran a comedy bit about people of their cell phones.
Just before every show, somebody comes out and says, turn off your cell phones, turn
off your pages, although I don't know if anybody's got pages anymore, but they never know.
Turn off all your cell.
And there's always like one or two people that don't turn to them in the middle of the
show.
You hear the theme from the God.
And as this comedian said a few minutes ago, the worst the music is, the longer it takes
them to find it.
It does.
And everybody's looking.
And it's always like an appointment moment too, or like, you know, some quiet, and you
hear some, it's got to be a pain in the neck for the actor.
It's very hard to keep your concentration when something like that happens and you're
on stage because especially in our space, when it's so intimate and you can see every single
person from the stage and hear everything that goes on in the audience, it can be quite
distracting.
Now they never break the wall.
They do not.
They see clips of it for people actors on Broadway, when the phone rings, the actor will
stop on stage and say, give me that cell phone and they'll do it in the actors, you know,
the characters voice.
Give me that cell phone that I want that cell phone and they'll take the cell phone
away.
They'll go into the audience and grab it.
Yeah.
And the audience loves it because, you know, everybody hates somebody's cell phone.
I just don't understand why people can't shut their cell phones off at the show.
And it is annoying.
And I don't know what it is too, but every time even in church, when you go to church
where you go to a show where there's got to be quiet, it's like you're in a tuberculosis
ward.
Everybody's got a cough, all of a sudden.
They didn't have a cough leading up to the show.
Oh gosh.
But everybody's like you're in some kind of tuberculosis ward and everybody's coughing.
But they, I don't know why they just feel they, it's the stage like those dry out a room
like you wouldn't believe.
That is one thing.
It is very dry in Artheter.
And the people sitting in front of me, the two ladies in front of us have been sitting
in front of us for years because we all have the same seats for season tickets.
But the people behind us are different every time.
And one time I can hear the lady, oh, here's what's going to happen.
Now she has no idea what's going to happen.
But she's, she's the new playwright and she knows again.
Here's what's going to happen.
But she's in whisper it.
She's talking to regular voice.
So I give her the half turn.
And then I give her the full turn with the look that goes with it and never shut some
up for some reason.
There was one quick way we continue with the list here.
They do the 50, 50 raffle.
I wanted three times in a row once.
And the fourth time I said to my wife, if I win this, I can't, people are going to start
recognizing me as winning these things.
That guy again, right?
And the fix is in.
And we won it three times.
And I said, I can't win the fourth.
I just can't, if it wins, we'll just won't take it, we'll just let the next person get
it.
But we haven't won it since.
Okay.
Well, but it was embarrassing.
You know, to win it so many times.
Okay.
So the best Christmas pageant ever, the musical is the, the big Christmas show.
And then in January, we have another show.
Yes.
It's called a fun family comedy.
It is called over the river and through the wood to grandmother's house we go to grandmother's
house we go.
And it's about a young man who goes and visits both sets of grandparents every Sunday for
his big Italian dinner and his grandparents, you know, talking circles around him, feed
him way too much food, all of those wonderful, loving things, but he's kind of exasperated
with it and gets a job offer in Seattle and tries to move and his grandparents come up
with all kinds of shenanigans to keep him from moving to Seattle, but you have a space
needle on stage.
Like the reference, Seattle.
Now everybody says that's the only Thanksgiving song there is over the river and through the
woods.
Actually, jingle bells is a Thanksgiving song.
It was written for Thanksgiving.
There's no mention of Christmas and jingle bells.
And it was written as a Thanksgiving song somehow I got morphed into a Christmas song and
that's the way they take it.
Then coming up in February, very interesting one.
It's called in this corner, Cassius Clay, which is Mohammed Ali.
Yes.
And so it is interesting because a lot of people don't recognize that as his name first and
foremost.
So marketing wise, that will be very interesting and education wise of what the show will
be about.
But that's going to be our other outreach show in the February slot, welcoming local schools
in to have talk backs after the performance.
And yeah, so it's about young Muhammad Ali's life growing up in Jim Crow era Kentucky and
what he faced in his challenges.
And we'll have actual boxing on stage two, which will be interesting.
And the script is Cassius as the narrator, but also Cassius as a character and sometimes
when he's a narrator, he goes into his prose because Muhammad Ali actually did do some
spoken word albums.
I feel like a butterfly.
Stinger like a bee.
Yesterday, my guest was Randy Gordon, who he was on here for an hour, an old friend of mine
who was New York State Athletic Commissioner, New York State Boxing Commissioner.
He has a boxer, he manages now.
He was in the ring at one time, one time, but he wrote for boxing magazine.
He was the boxing commentator for ESPN TV and he was the, he still is.
He's on serious acts.
I'm doing a boxing show every day.
Wow.
So yeah, boxing, we don't know about that yesterday.
And he said, he's not a big guy, it's a little guy, but he's a big boxing fan.
I got a Muhammad Ali story, two of them coming up right after the break, it's 729 Jocelyn
Fishers here from Racine, Theta Guild, we're talking about their brand new line of coming
up in just a few weeks from now.
I got me a quote written here, it's a whale, and we're dead, knocked down to the bloodshed.
I got me a Christ Lauren, and this stuff, I got one, he's on it.
Hurry up and bring your shit box, run it.
The bloodshed is a lot of place.
That Jocelyn says she knows all the works of this, right?
That'd be 52.
Strange proof.
735 WRT and Ang Don Rose, and we're talking about the new lineup at the Racine, Theta Guild.
The last show we just talked about was, and in this corner, can't just clay, a few cash
clay stories for you here.
We talked, there was a movie called Requiem for a Heavyweight with Jackie Gleason, Mickey
Rooney and Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quinn played a punch drunk fighter, and the movie opens
up as soon as the movie starts, he's fighting a boxer in the room who's beaten the
tar out of him, and we don't know who it is because he's an unheard of before, but when
he's going to the, when he's going to his locker room, we'll beat up.
There's a poster in the background, and we find that it was cashless clay before he
was Muhammad Ali.
It was 1962, 61 when they filmed it, and it's a really gritty show.
It's really good.
The other story had two other quick stories.
When I went to Louisville, Kentucky to see the arc, we had some time to kill, we went
through the cemeteries, go to cemeteries, I need interesting people there.
Buried at this cemetery was Colonel Sanders, from Kentucky Fried Chicken, a woman called
Patty Smith Hill, you know, she is, she brought happy birthday to you, our new sister,
and Muhammad Ali is buried there.
Now we were looking for a small gravesite because that's what he wanted, but his family decided,
no, no, no, no, we're going to build him something huge, and they did, so we're at Muhammad
Ali's gravesite.
And the other thing is my cousin, I told his story yesterday when we had Randy Gordon
here, he was a correspondent for Fox News, and he was in watching the DC, it was late at
night, and he sees this man, kind of walking like an old man, and he goes up to him, can
I help you cross the street?
It was Muhammad Ali, he says, hey, champ, can I help you?
And this is when Parkinson was, he was getting bad.
He said, let me just take your arm, and he walked him across the street and says, can
it take you home?
He is not good from here.
And he said, the champ walk off into the night.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Imagine saying, you walk a champ across the street, so that's going to be a good show
in this corner, Cassius Clay.
Yes.
Yes.
That's going to be one of our bonus shows as well, and it's going to be a fun challenge
to stage that there's actually, hoping to reach out.
There's a boxing club here in Racine, and there's a boxing club in Kenosha, and maybe
get a little guidance from them as well as how that all is going to choreograph.
You know, it's when he played, when he played, when he took on Sonny Liston from
the World Championship.
We had to go to our car to listen to the match, and I was a little tiny kid, but my father
wanted to hear it, because it was a big boxing match, Mohammed Alwell, Cassius Clay against
Sonny Liston, and he had to go to our car to hear it on the radio, because it wasn't on
TV, even in ESPN or any of those channels, and they didn't do boxing anymore on TV, so
we're listening to it.
I remember the, yeah, and he's popping and weaving, and it's the right to left.
We have a new world champion, and it's Cassius Clay, Cassius, and he's going, I am the
champ screaming and hollering and wow, such an iconic voice, too.
I can hear it even without a hair jam, I'm the champ screaming.
All right.
That's February 21st through March 2nd, and then coming up, we have a play March 28th.
It's called always a bridesmaid, so this is actually a show that we announced in March
of 2020, and then the world shut down.
Oh, that's right, COVID.
Yeah, it was going to be part of our 2020 2021 season, and we announced our season 13 days
before we closed for 635 days.
Was it really that long?
It was a long time.
It was, yeah, from March of 2020 to December of 2021, we were closed.
I remember you offered people their money back, and I just didn't keep it.
So this is a great little play because it's about a group of women who, during their
senior prom, promise each other to be in each other, there's weddings, and it's a few
different wedding series of everyone getting ready for which brides going to walk down
the aisle, and ugly bridesmaid stresses, and all the drama that comes with a wedding and
all of that.
And you know why they're ugly bridesmaid, because the bride wants to look good, and the
only way you look good is making everybody else look better.
Yeah, so we're going to have a lot of fun, especially costing money in this.
I think it's going to be a hoot, because we have some lovely dresses already, and I'm
sure our costume area is going to have lots of fun, adding all kinds of weird, frilly
beating or fringes, or who knows what to this.
Did you go to your senior prom?
I did go to my senior prom, and actually my high school did junior prom.
We did our prom our junior year.
We didn't do it senior year, but yes.
So when I went to my senior prom, I wanted to ask this girl Susan Smith to the prom,
and she was gorgeous, and she was in all my classes, because in my home room and everything,
and she was very sweet, very nice, always polite, always talking to me.
There weren't too many girls to talk to me at school, and you think I look geeky now.
What do you see me in high school?
That looked really bad.
And so I didn't ask her, because I said, well, every guy's going to ask her, and the
chance is a me getting with her is slim and none.
So went to the senior prom with somebody else, very nice girl, and it turns out nobody
asked her to the prom, isn't that something?
So cut to our 20th high school reunion, I see her there, and by then wife, my first
wife, she went to school with me, and she sees me staring, she's go talk to her.
So I go over there, and there she is.
Was it Susan Smith?
It was Smith, but I don't know if it was Susan, I forgot now.
Anyway, we all had to wear a little pictures of ourselves in a name tag with our high school
picture.
And she squins, he says, hi, Donald, and he said, hi, and that was it.
Turns out nobody asked her, she went, she went, she did go to the prom with her cousin,
because nobody, because every guy thought she was going to ask, oh gosh.
And so I was heartbroken, and now, sadly, I wanted to reconnect and just talk to her as
she died in the car crash several years later, but yeah, pretty sure was Susan Smith.
It was Smith was her last name.
I was one of these people that, you know, followed her home and stalking, before stalking
was a crime.
All right, so enough with my hygiene, hijinks from high school.
So that is always a bridesmaid, and that's coming up, March 28th, then the big end of
year musical.
I guess they're musical.
Lesson get bigger than this.
It played at the palace theater on Broadway.
It did.
It wasn't a musical when it came out originally with Reese Witherspoon, it was just a comedy.
And then they like they like to do.
They had songs to it that don't really match up with anything going on in the show.
And it was a smash hit musical on Broadway.
And it's coming and it's called legally blonde.
We all remember that movie with Reese Witherspoon.
And forget what her character's name was in the show, L Woods, L Woods, L Woods with her
little puppy dogs.
Yes, yes.
Little puppy dog.
And that's it.
Now how it, it's hard for you to get a big musical like that that's still playing places
around the country.
Yeah.
So the rights for this actually weren't available for a while because it was touring.
So sometimes that happens where if a musical tour is going on, no matter where it is, we
just can't get the rights to it.
And so we've been looking at this for several seasons actually because it's quite popular
for a certain age range, but also a lot of people just find it so fun and bubbly.
And the other thing is I think that it's a great show to bring in people that might not
be theater people because they know the movie.
Sometimes these shows are a great open door for people that know the movie and are willing
to try a musical.
And then again, you come into the door of the theater guild and you see what we put together
and you're like, oh, I could come back to this for something else.
That's always the great thing about shows like this, I think.
You always know when you have a hit musical and get your money's worth when you leave
the theater humming a tune.
That's what they say on Broadway.
Yeah.
You're in the theater humming a tune, you got to hit.
And legally blonde, I listen to the Broadway channel on my radio.
Yeah, sure.
And they always play music on legally blonde.
It's such a great show.
Yeah, very.
And I've never seen it.
Yeah, very fun poppy show.
And of course, is, you know, Ells trying to get back a Warner after he dumps her and ends
up breaking all kinds of stereotypes along the way and challenging society's expectations
of her.
So it's not only super fun, but a really nice inspiring message to now they did make
a sequel called legally blind, red, white and blue or something.
Now, I read a book and it analyzed that movie terminator to judgment day and a few of
it because they all opened up the same weekend.
Oh my gosh, really?
It was Fourth of July weekend.
They all opened up the same time to four big hit movies.
And not everyone was going to be ahead and it turns out terminator to was the big weekend.
But why would you open up a on a weekend against terminator two and like three others?
Not just it didn't take that sense.
But anyway, so this is the musical legally blonde.
So here's the, here's the lineup again in case you missed it.
We've got first date, a musical opening up on July 19th, Agatha Christie's murder on
the orange express September 13th, little women.
This is the classic on October 25th.
The best Christmas page in ever.
The musicals.
I like when you have to tell people on musical on December 13th over the river and through
the woods, a play on January 10th.
And of this corner, Cassius Clay, that's going to be interesting.
You're going to have a box or tie.
Where?
Yeah.
So it's Cassius from about the age he of 10 to like 18 or 20.
So you still got to have a guy with his physique.
Yeah.
Well, and is it, is he potentially going to be two different characters or we might
have two actors playing him?
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then you've got always a bridesmaid coming on on March 28th and the big musical legally
blonde on May 16th, tickets go on sale.
So season tickets and flex passes are on sale now.
So like you said, season tickets are a great way to just come and see the show and have
your set seat set for every show throughout the season.
And that saves a lot of money off of the.
Yeah, but let me ask you, when do I get my thing in the mail?
You'll get your renewal probably in about two weeks here.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I get that.
And then individual tickets for first date actually will go on sale Monday, May 20th and
then everything else for the season individual tickets will go on sale July 1st.
You know, since I give season tickets, I recognize a lot of the people when I go there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's called to get to know people.
The two ladies in front.
I don't know what their name is for years.
I've been sitting in front of these two ladies and we talk every time and my mother was
like, Oh, how are you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nobody knows each other's names, but we always talk when we see her.
It's funny.
I was just talking to a couple last night who have been season ticker holders.
They told me for 50 years.
Whoa.
And yeah, isn't that just mind boggling to wrap your head around and they were just talking
about how they might be changing their season tickets and how much they just enjoy coming
back time and time again and just might change where they're located in the theater now that
they've aged into scene shows.
So they might need a back of the house seat.
Well, we saw the Broadway, the spotlight show the other time.
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
We had to get different.
We get different seats.
I'll tell you something after sitting for decades in front of those same seats, when you
change, it's a whole new experience.
It's a different perspective.
Yeah.
Because you're sitting at a different part of the stage and he said, wow, Broadway, what
was it?
Broadway blockbusters.
Broadway blockbusters.
That was so good.
I had to miss it because I got COVID unfortunately, but it was really bombed because I, especially
because that was a really great ensemble group, you know, having those many voices on
stage to bring lots of classes.
That's going to be horrible when you, when one of your cast members gets sick, especially
with a lead member.
Now you always have backups.
Right.
Yeah.
We've had to put in understudies in the last couple of years for a couple of our shows.
And so now that the CDC has changed their quarantine guidelines for COVID, we're going
to be discussing how we move forward with if people get sick.
What does that look like for our shows?
Well, I remember a couple of times and you have some of these pros who can do it.
They actually have the script and look in their hand.
Right.
But after a while, you don't see them holding it anymore because they, they just hold
it and they glance down if they get stuck.
That's a pro.
Yeah.
I couldn't do that.
I couldn't remember lines.
Anyway, when I was in high school, I was in the drama club, but I wasn't, I tried
acting once and then I couldn't pull it off.
I just, I couldn't do it.
And so I was the stage manager for three years in high school.
And, but I just, I couldn't do it.
I know how people remember lines.
I've been a radio for 52 years and I still have to hold things in front of my face because
I can't remember anything.
I don't know how you remember lines on those shows and you got to remember because the
next person's got to pull off that line that you, so you better say it right.
Yes.
And occasionally they screw it up, but the Yonies doesn't know when they screw it up.
Live theater, nothing like it.
You know, it's one thing when you volunteer, but when you're getting paid a fortune on
Broadway and a show, you better get it right.
All right.
Now, we still have some shows.
Yes.
For this season.
Yes, we do.
And we're going to talk about that coming up in just a moment here.
As a matter of fact, one show is underway right now.
Now and then, which I'm going to see Saturday afternoon, we go to the matinee's now.
When you get old, you go to matinee's because you're afraid you're going to doze off.
And we have a lot of good theaters.
We got the one out in Fort Atkinson's, a great theater in the round.
They have fireside.
We're so lucky to have these theaters ready.
We've got Chicago right down the road, and you guys take trips down there with us.
We do every so often.
It's been a while.
I've been looking at what's coming up next season to figure out if we might schedule
one again.
And of course, we have six straight theater here in town, too.
Yes.
So they're great friends of ours.
Always wonderful to have people that support both of us.
All right.
749 in WRJN.
Home town radio refreshed us civic media stations.
OK.
We are.
It's 751 at WRJN radio, Justin Fischer's here from the Racine Theater Guild.
We talked about their brand new season.
You heard it first.
And this season's not over yet.
Now and then is playing right now.
And this is an unusual show because it's something where no one's telling the ending
or what's going on in the show.
You got to come to find out yourself.
You do.
You do.
And that's been really intriguing to hear the audience response to it, especially of
like, oh, I figured things out like very early on, or I had no idea until they set it
on stage.
And then what people kind of are taking away from it as well, it's one that kind of makes
you have a discussion with the people in your car on the drive home or have a thought
about what you might do with your life and things like that.
So it's been really, it's been a wonderful response.
And it's a great intimate show, you know, it's four actors, which is a challenge because
like you said, you have to know your lines and you have to make sure that everyone's
on top of it because especially with four actors, you don't want anyone dropping anything.
Well, my wife and I, every night when we did it in front of the TV, we watched the old
Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1956 and my wife and I, oh, I'll tell you, I'll talk
over the ending.
They're always great ending you to the Alfred Hitchcock show and I know in the end, sometimes
she's right, sometimes she's wrong.
But yeah, we always try to guess, oh, yeah, yeah, because you know, it's going to be a twist
because if it was just regular, you know, it wouldn't put it on Alfred Hitchcock.
So that's what kind of hoping for one of those type shows where it's not a murder mystery,
but at least you'll be guessing what's going on.
Yes.
So we actually have five more shows of that still Thursday, Friday, two on Saturday and
one on Sunday.
So plenty of opportunities for people to come.
See a great play.
And next, it's Stargirl.
It's about Stargirl.
So Stargirl is based on the Jerry Spanelli novel and it's about a young girl who comes
to a high school and she's very eccentric.
She has her own personality.
She has a pet rat, actually, it's where it's fun clothes.
And it's high school.
So the students aren't very accepting of that.
And they want her to stick with the status quo and try to change her.
And she tries to, you know, stay true to herself.
So we've got a cast of five high schoolers and then a professor character as well.
And so they've been rehearsing that and Nate Stamper from Case High School who rents
the theater over there.
He's actually directing that as well.
So that will be great in April.
One of our outreach shows.
So again, local schools would be coming as well to see it and have a talk back with
the cast and crew and ask them questions and that.
And then wrapping up the season will be a really good Nazi musical.
I don't have too many good Nazi musicals out there, but this one's good.
Cabaret.
Cabaret.
The classic on Broadway and it is was the best picture of the year when Liza Menele filmed
it.
And so cabaret's coming in on opens in May and Doug actually just had auditions this
weekend.
So that's always a hard challenge to, you have a lot of people that really want to do it.
And how do you choose the right person for the right role and this person for that role
and dancing and singing and, and this is the 1998 version of cabaret.
So we'll have maybe this time and it will have, I think the money song as well as an
addition to that one.
So it'll be, it's going to be kind of a darkly delicious tale because there is wonderful
music and, and there is a lot of razzle dazzle story.
Yes.
And, and part of that razzle dazzle is to distract the characters and kind of distract the
audience from the reality of the world that it takes place in at the same time.
It's a really interesting juxtaposition.
Now, I got to interview Joel Gray, you know, he had a movie coming up man on a string
or something like that.
I wanted to talk about cabaret.
He wanted to talk about the movie he's got coming.
So when I said, well, you made the switch, not many people do it from the Broadway original
Broadway cast of the movie.
And I said, I was, it was good.
It was good.
Now, about the movie, I wanted to talk about cabaret because he's one of the few people
that actually flipped into the, into the movie.
He's the MC.
Right.
And he did such a great job.
And he looked freaky.
Yeah.
He's got the, you know, the hair slipped back and everything, the great, great songs in
that cabaret.
Yes.
And songs that people don't probably realize they know be cut, be from that musical.
I know.
It's one of those that those songs have kind of lived outside the musical.
They have made it a little bit into the pop culture world.
Now, you also have some other shows coming up.
And in March, March 15th or the 17th, James and the Giant Peaks.
Yes.
So that's our final show of our Children's Theater series for this year.
And so we typically recommend those shows for four and up.
That's the story of James and his adventures in the Giant Peach with his insect friends
who have big personalities and there's some nice music in it.
So it's a mini musical as well, $7 a ticket.
So it's a wonderful way to introduce young people to theater.
And coming up comedy tonight, I've been to a couple of comedy shows.
They're very funny.
This is called Bible Bingo, an act of charity in two acts, 17 March 16th.
Yes.
So you will actually get to play Bingo as part of the show.
And Vicki Quaid is actually coming up from Chicago.
She also does a show down there called Late Night Catechism.
And so it's so much fun.
It pokes great fun at the traditional fundraisers of the church.
But also it's just a hoot and howler of a night.
James Jazz coming up.
Yes.
James Jazz as well.
So we actually have on March 23rd, Affinity Trio coming down.
Mark Jacobson is one of the feature artists in that.
And a couple of years ago he did Miles Davis is kind of blue on our stage.
And so people love Eric and great group he's got March 23rd.
And then actually in April will be our final Gs Jazz concert of the series.
And that's going to be Donna Woodle.
And she is just a powerhouse singer and you don't want to miss that because she's just
blow you away.
Okay.
So let's quick review here.
This season's coming up beginning July 19th with the musical first date.
Then Agatha Christie's murder on the Aryan Express in September 13th.
Little women, the classic October 25th.
My wife and I told her last night she loves little women.
The best Christmas page and after the musical on December 13th over the river and through
the woods on January 10th.
And in this corner, Cassius Clay.
I can't see that.
That should be interesting.
The champ February 21st.
And so Brides made the comedy on March 28th and legally blown the Broadway block busting
musical will be coming in on May 16th.
But in the meantime, you have now and then star girl and you have cabaret.
Cabaret.
Coming in.
Is it difficult to get when when people audition, what if you don't find the right people?
I mean, that's got to be scary when you're you say, we don't believe what are we doing?
You can't breathe.
So how does it work in?
So luckily, you know, we have an incredible again, these volunteers that come in and give
their time and their talents not only on the performance side, but the acting side.
We actually have a people that come all the way from Northern Illinois out to Lake Geneva
up to North Milwaukee that come and are part of our show.
Obviously, a lot of people live here in Racine too.
And so shows like cabaret, for instance, people have a bucket list that they call it and
they come out for shows like that.
And if you can't find a lead, you say, Doug is an expert, you'll see him in the show.
You'll be on the Joe Gray Rolls.
Start learning the lines.
Start singing.
Jocelyn Fish, Racine Theater, get one of my favorite theaters ever.
I love, I love when you guys come in and talk theater with us here.
Yeah, and thanks for it.
Thanks for having me.
Alright, thank you, Jocelyn.
He'll be back.
7.58 W.R.N.J. and I'm Don Rose and see you tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. right
in early.