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Mark interviews Roger Friedman from Showbiz411. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Mark sim Own show one wo Well, Roger fan
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is the great entertainment reporter. He has a website you
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: should check every day. There's always news stories, showbizfo one
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: one dot com, showbizfore one one dot com. Roger Friedman,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: how you doing.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I'm really doing great because once mom Donnie is mayor
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: all tickets to Broadway shows will be free and all
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the restaurants around them will be serving free food and empty.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: At the same time. But hey, speaking of speaking of Broadway,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: everything is settled, right They had all these strike threats.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: That's all settled now.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: All the strikes have been settled, which was very smart
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: because it's a tricky time on Broadway. The last thing
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: anyone needed was a strike. And things are back to
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: normal and Broadway is booming right now. Actually, oh, you know,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Hamilton uh is doing incredible business. The last week did
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: to three point four million dollars, which is insane, and
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: it's been doing that right along since they brought back
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: their Tony winning star Leslie Odom Jr. For a run.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: That's I guess going through the winter January maybe, and
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: people are will pay anything to get into the show.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: They're premium tickets for fifteen hundred dollars and they're all
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: sold out. People will pay absolutely anything to get in there.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And other shows are doing great. There's a new show
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: called Queen of Versailles with Kristin Chenowith that's also doing
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  Speaker 2: great business.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: We have what is Queen of ver Size about that
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  Speaker 1: woman with the house in Florida.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it's about the woman with the house in Florida,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: and yeah, and f Murray Abrahams and I think he
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  Speaker 2: plays her husband and the songs are really good and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: that's going to be a big hit.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, yeah, we have a lot and Chess
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: is coming. Did you ever see Chess the first time around?
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: No Weber? No, oh yeah, one night in Bangkok. It's
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a very popular show. And you know, the book was
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: never good. The songs were great, but the book book
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: was never good. So they got this great guy, Danny Strong,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: to rewrite the whole show. And now that show is
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: selling out in preview, it's like crazy, I mean totally
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: sold out. So we have a Broadway is booming. And
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I just put up a story on Showbiz for one
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  Speaker 2: one that Daniel Radcliffe is coming from Harry Potter, who
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: already has a Tony Award for Merrily We Roll Along,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And he's going to be in a one man show
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: this winter that's being imported from England that's supposed to
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: be terrific. And as long as they don't charge seven
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: hundred dollars a ticket, I think they'll be Okay.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I know it's good news. I'm glad Broadway's doing so well. Hey,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I welcome by a rocket Fuller Center on Radio City's
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Marquee right above it. It was the first Christmas tree
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I saw this year. That Christmas tree above the Marquee
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: is up already. It's a little early.
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  Speaker 2: Oh is it really it's there already?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah. There's a great story about I'm an editor they
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: brought into the New Yorker from England, which was like
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: are in nineteen ninety and they bring this guy in
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: and he's an older guy and he's never been to
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: New York before. Somehow he got a job working as
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: an editor of New Yorker and he comes back after
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: lunch and he says to the people in the office,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: oh my god, we have to do this story. There's
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: a big tree going up in Rockefeller Center. Well, and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: everyone was.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Like, uh huh, ey. So speaking of Christmas though, this
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: is the we're a little early, but pretty soon that
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Christmas music will start everywhere. And then you wrote about
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Mariah Carey. But yeah, it's the only time of the year.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: A lot of people who don't know who these people
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: are start to hear Andy Williams and Nat King Cole
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a great Also, you know, I'm thinking big
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Brenda Lee, Brenda Lee, Brenda Lee. Sometimes her song goes
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: all the way up to number one during Christmas time.
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  Speaker 2: She's about ninety and they you know, they go and
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: they wake her up and they tell her what's going on,
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  Speaker 2: and she's shocked. Well, Mariah Carrey had an album out
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: a few weeks ago that nobody bought, which was a
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: pretty good album. It was very well sung and had
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: nice songs, but nobody wanted to hear it, you know,
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  Speaker 2: bad marketing. Also that Mariah doesn't really get out and
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: push stuff. She expects you to come to her. But
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: she loves the Christmas season and she has, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the best selling Christmas song of all time. That's all
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I really want for Christmas is You or whatever it's called.
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  Speaker 2: Sounds like a Phil Spector song and It's sold about
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  Speaker 2: a billion copies. And every year around this time she
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: starts putting little messages on social media not yet, not yet,
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  Speaker 2: we're not ready yet. And then she goes out and
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: she is for big Christmas season. It lasts about six weeks,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: so we're about to see Mariah's Christmas season. And that's
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: how we know.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Roger Freeman, too many documentaries. That's enough. With these documentaries.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I know.
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  Speaker 1: It's the cheapest thing to do. It's cheaper than making
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: an actual move.
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  Speaker 2: Oh. No, documentaries are fabulous. I'll tell you why documentaries
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: are more important than ever. No, they're more important than ever,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you why. The reason is as funding
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: gets cut for PBS and national public radio, where we
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: get a lot of information, and as the networks like
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: CBS today is laying off a thousand people, as the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: networks are contracting and not doing so much documentary work
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: or news work. Independent documentaries are really a huge source
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  Speaker 2: of information for us, and we're getting to find out
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  Speaker 2: things from around the world that we wouldn't know. Critics
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Choice Association, which I'm part of, has a big award
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  Speaker 2: ceremony under him or ninth over at the the Ballroom
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: on forty seventh Street, And that's a very important thing.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: The Gotham Awards just announced their awards coming up, nominations
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: coming up, and they have five terrific documentaries and then
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: we'll have the Oscars. You can't. I feel that you
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: cannot have enough documentaries to illuminate subjects around the world
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: that we would not have act.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Most of them are about you know, there was there's
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: a new one Stiller and Mara. Now I love Stiller
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and Mara. I know it's great.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Have you watched it?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I knew Stiller and Mara. Yeah, what's like happened dozen off?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Halfway through? What am I watch?
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Oh? No, I watched. I loved it. I loved them.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I knew them too. We were very lucky to live
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: in New York and know them. And although I never
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: had Blue Nune Wine, Ben Stiller, their son, has done
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: a great job documenting their career and it's on Apple TV.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I recommend it for it's so enjoyable to see them again.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: All right, maybe just see I'd rather go to YouTube
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: and just watch Stiller and Mirror and he Ed Sullivan
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: show on The Tonight Show, or watch but you.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't But we would because we're one hundred and fifteen
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: years old. But for younger people who are Ben Stiller fans,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: let's say, and they don't know anything about Stilar Mirror,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: they're learning about his parents for the first time through
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: this documentary. Then they're going to go to YouTube and
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: look at the clips, but they don't know offhand that
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  Speaker 2: they should be doing that. Do you see what I mean? Yeah, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: this is giving them entry away to that stillar mirror.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: So I think that's terrific.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Now you're right about there's another documentary coming or is
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: it a biopic CCR Creeden's Clearwater Revival?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Oh well, Creeden's you know, Creeten's Clearwater Revival is huge.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: It's so weird that, you know, fifty sixty years after
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: they had hits, they're bigger than ever. You know that
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: their greatest hits winds up in the top twenty every
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: week on iTunes. Wow, no one knows what, no one
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  Speaker 2: knows why. But the songs are great. You know, They'll
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Stop the Rain, you ever seen the Rain? Proud Mary,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: all these songs and they're being played on the radio constantly.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: So now you know this Bruce Springsteen movie is out
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: called Deliver Me from Nowhere, and the people who made
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: it really want to make a movie about John Fogerty
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: and Creeden's because you know, the great story, the crazy
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: story about them is that in the seventies, John Fogerty
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: lost the rights to all his songs and it took
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: him like twenty years to get them back, and in
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  Speaker 2: the meantime he just sort of had to disavow them
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: and go on and play other songs. He would have
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: been charged by this company that bought them if he
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: had played them. Wow, it's a crazy story. And John
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  Speaker 2: Fogerty is one of the good guys of all time
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: in music. Everyone loves him. So they're waiting to see
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  Speaker 2: if the Springsteen movie gets a lot of awards. I
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  Speaker 2: think it'll have a lot of awards action this winter,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: and then they're going to announce that John Fogerty movies.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: It'll be a whole new genre. There'll be a Freddie
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: in the Dreamers movie. They'll be Oh, I hope so
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Gilbert O. Sullivan's pick.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: It won't stop Jerry and the Pacemakers.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: There you go. Well, Roger Friedman great stuff. Check out
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: his website showbiz for one one dot com, Showbiz for
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: one one dot com. This new stuff every day up there.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Oh listen, I have one other thing to tell you ahead,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Tom Hanks Off Broadway show with the Shed begins tomorrow night.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: It's already sold at its first two performances. It's called
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: This World of Tomorrow Kelly o'harrison at Ruben Santiago Hudson,
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  Speaker 2: and everyone's really looking forward to it. Go to the
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Shed and try and get tickets.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Tom Hanks new show. All right, all right, sounds good.
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  Speaker 1: Roger Friedman, thanks for being with us.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Thank you, take care.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Hey, we got a lot coming up, and then we'll
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: get back to the Merrill Race in the next hour.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Don't forget Bucking Clay. It's an excellent show every day
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: at noon right here on seven to ten WR