Broadway Disasters
“Well, That’s Show Biz!”
10-13-2024
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You are listening to [Station ID].
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Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman, and every week I bring you music from Broadway, Movies, and Entertainers along with some anecdotes, information, and commentary all based on a theme.
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Today, October 13th, is International Day for Disaster Reduction. So today we are going to play songs from Broadway Disasters. Most Broadway disasters never make a cast album so these musicals are special.
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We are going to open our first set with “And Eve Was Weak” from the Broadway Disaster Carrie based on the Stephen King book. It closed after 5 performances. We follow that with “If The World Should End” from Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark. Spiderman set the record for the most previews in Broadway history due to technical troubles and injuries to its performers. It had 182 performances but closed with a massive financial loss. Then we will hear “Swell” from the disaster Nick and Nora that had 9 performances. And we will close this set with Stephen Sondheim’s “Me and My Town” from Anyone Can Whistle which closed after 9 performances. Here’s “And Eve Was Weak” from Carrie.
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We are listening to Broadway disasters today and you just heard “And Eve Was Weak” from Carrie, “If The World Should End” from Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark, “Swell” from Nick and Nora, and “Me and My Town” from Anyone Can Whistle.
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To start off our second set of Broadway Disasters, we have “By Jeeves”, the title song to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s By Jeeves, which closed after 73 performances. We will follow that with “Take Care of This House” from Leonard Bernstein’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue which closed after 7 performances. And we will close this set of Broadway Disasters with “Born in Puerto Rico” from Paul Simon’s The Capeman, about a convicted murderer, which closed after 68 performances. Here’s By Jeeves.
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You just heard the title song from By Jeeves, “Take Care of This House” from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and “Born in Puerto Rico” from The Capeman as we listen to Broadway Disasters today on “well, That’s Show Biz!”
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You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on [Station ID].
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Today is International Day for Disaster Reduction so we are celebrating with songs from Broadway Disasters. There have been many Broadway Disasters but most never produced a cast album which makes these disasters quite special.
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Opening our third set, we have a musical named Disaster! which was a jukebox musical that parodied 1970s disaster films. It ran for 72 performances. We are going to hear the song “Mockingbird”. Then, from another Andrew Lloyd Webber disaster, Bad Cinderella, which ran for 85 performances, we are going to hear the title song. We will conclude this set with the show Dance of The Vampires which ran for 56 performances. As far as I can tell, it never produced a cast album but it featured Bonnie Tyler’s song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” over and over and over, or so I was told. Here is “Mockingbird” from Disaster!
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You just heard the songs “Mockingbird!” from Disaster!, the title song from Bad Cinderella, and “Total Eclipse of the Heart” which was featured in Dance of The Vampires.
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And now for our final set of Broadway Disasters. Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We roll Along was a disaster in 1981, running for 16 performances. 40 years later, it finally got its due by winning Best Musical Revival at this year’s Tony Awards ceremony. We’re going to hear Daniel Radcliffe singing “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” from this Tony winning production. And we will close with “All I Wanted Was the Dream” from Peter Allen’s Legs Diamond which ran for 64 performances and contained the line “only the critics can kill me”. Here’s “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” from Merrily We Roll Along.
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You just heard “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” from Merrily We Roll Along and “All I Wanted Was the Dream” from Leg’s Diamond which closes out our show on Broadway Disasters.
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(Next Week’s Show)
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- 1:00pm WRUU-FM by Live
- 1:01pm And Eve Was Weak by Marin Mazzie & Molly Ranson on Carrie: The Musical (Premiere Cast Recording) (Michael Gore Songs, Inc.)
- 1:05pm If The World Should End (From ‘Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark’) by Jennifer Damiano on Broadway Hits (Vol. II) (UMG Recordings, Inc.)
- 1:08pm Swell by Barry Bostwick, Chris Serandon, Jeff Brooks & Joanna Gleason on Nick and Nora (Original Broadway Cast) [Soundtrack from the Musical] (JAY Productions Ltd.)
- 1:12pm Me And My Town by Angela Lansbury, Sterling Clark, Harvey Evans, Larry Roquemore, & Tucker Smith on Anyone Can Whistle (Broadway Cast Recording) [Bonus Track Version] (SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT)
- 1:18pm By Jeeves (Bertie, Bingo & Gussie) [The American Premier Recording] by Andrew Lloyd Webber & By Jeeves Original Broadway Cast on By Jeeves (American Premier Recording) (The Really Useful Group Ltd.)
- 1:21pm 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: Take Care of This House by Roberta Alexander & Tan Crone on Bernstein: Songs (Etcetera)
- 1:24pm Born In Puerto Rico by Ruben Blades, Marc Anthony, Julio Monge, Raymond Rodriguez, Renoly Santiago, Philip Hernandez, Nestor Sanchez & Lugo on The Capeman (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Universal Music Classical)
- 1:31pm Mockingbird by Rachel York & Set Rudetsky on Disaster! (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Disaster Cast Album Limited Liability Company)
- 1:32pm Bad Cinderella by Andrew Lloyd Webber & Carrie Hope Fletcher on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cinderella’ (Original Album Cast Recording) (A Polydor Records Release)
- 1:35pm Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler on Faster Than the Speed of Night (Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited)
- 1:44pm Franklin Shepard, Inc. by Daniel Radcliffe & New Broadway Cast of Merrily We Roll Along on Merrily We Roll Along (New Broadway Cast Recording) (Masterworks Broadway)
- 1:49pm All I Wanted Was the Dream by Peter Allen on Legs Diamond (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Sony Music Entertainment)
