well, That's Show Biz, 11-17-2024 3-32 My Favorite Musicals

My Favorite Musicals

“Well, That’s Show Biz!”

11-17-2024

• You are listening to [Station ID].

• Welcome to “well, That’s Show Biz!”. I am your host, Jeremy Freedman, and each week I bring you music from Broadway, Movies, and Entertainers along with some anecdotes, information, and commentary all based on a theme.

• I have been asking fans to send me their lists of favorite musicals, so for my birthday week, I thought that I would do my list of favorite musicals.

• I did a little research and found out that I was 10 years old when I saw the musical that affected my life. My family was on vacation in the Berkshires and we saw Man Of La Mancha at the Williams College Summer Theater. The story about an old man who thinks of himself as a Knight Errant made my imagination soar. There have been many recordings of this show and we are going to open with the title song from the 2000 London cast recording which is the complete show. Then we will hear Jim Nabors and Marilyn Horne singing in the songs “Dulcinea” and “What Do You Want of Me?”. And we will conclude this set with the “Barber’s Song / Golden Helmet of Mambrino” from the original 1965 production. Here’s “Man Of La Mancha” from My Favorite Musical.

• For my birthday week, we are listening to songs from My Favorite Musicals and you just heard the songs “Dulcinea”, “What Do You Want of Me?”, “Barber’s Song / Golden Helmet of Mambrino”, and we started it off with the title song from My Favorite Musical, Man Of La Mancha.

• As a 10 year old kid, Man Of La Mancha absolutely captivated me. And Don Quixote’s creed, “The Impossible Dream” became my creed that traveled with me through my life. Although I prefer the original version, we are going to hear Brian Stokes Mitchell with perhaps the definitive version. We will follow that with the song “Aldonza” and then the “Final Sequence” and “Finale”. Here is “The Impossible Dream”.

• You just heard “The Impossible Dream”, “Aldonza”, and the “Final Sequence” and “Finale” from My Favorite Musical, Man Of La Mancha.

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• You are listening to “well, That’s Show Biz!” on [Station ID].

• For my birthday week, we are listening to songs from My Favorite Musicals.

• If it wasn’t for Man Of La Mancha, My Favorite Musical would be Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. When I saw it during its original production previews, I thought I was seeing something brand new, not easily categorized. Not only was it thrilling and scary, but side-splittingly funny as well. It was pure genius. From the 2012 London cast recording with Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Lovett, we are going to hear the songs “Pretty Women” and “Not While I’m Around”.

• You just heard the songs “Pretty Women” and “Not While I’m Around” from my second favorite musical, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.

• Coming up with a list of favorite musicals is not easy. Most people have one or two favorites but after that, well, what criteria does one use? Most enjoyable? Brings out the strongest emotions? Most singable songs? Favorite role you love to play?

• Third on my list fulfills many of those questions. From the moment the overture for Frank Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella began I felt transported to California’s Napa Valley. The music soars. We are going to open this set with the “Overture” from The Most Happy Fella followed by the song “Standing On The Corner” which was originally written for Loessers’ much more famous musical, Guys and Dolls. Here’s The Most Happy Fella.

• You just heard the “Overture” and “Standing On The Corner” from The Most Ha[[y Fella. And interesting side note, two of the producers of The Most Happy Fella, were Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez and there is an episode of I Love Lucy where the Ricardos and the Mertzes attend the Broadway production of The Most Happy Fella but they only have two tickets, The men see one act and the Ladies see the second act. The actual show had three acts however.

• My fourth favorite show was a show that I saw with my brother. That in itself made it special, but the starring role of Oscar Jaffe, played by John Cullum, is a role I would love to do. From My Favorite Musical, On The Twentieth Century, here is John Cullum singing “I Rise Again” followed by Madeline Kahn singing “Veronique”.

• You just heard “I Rise Again” and “Veronique” from my fourth favorite musical On The Twentieth Century.I would love to chew the scenery as Oscar Jaffe.

• And that is all the time we have for this week’s show on My Favorite Musicals.

• (Next Week’s Show)

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