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Mark interviews Roger Friedman from Showbiz 411. · The Mark Simone Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Mark Simon Show on sevent ten.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Wr Hey, Roger Friedman, the great entertainment Reporter's got a
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: wonderful website with the new stuff every day. He should
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: check it every day. Showbiz for one one dot com,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Showbiz for one one dot com. Roger Friedman, how you doing.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I'm great, Good morning Mark. Hey. Our friend Clive Davis
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: was in the hospital. How's he doing now?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: He was, He's he's home. He's recuperating from an upper
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: respiratory infection. You know, he's ninety four and Okra Memorial
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Day weekend, he had a three day event at his
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  Speaker 1: house in Westchester where there were like one hundred guests there,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and you know, he's right at the center of all
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the activity. So it might have been a little much,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: you know, for anybody. Forget about ninety four, even seventy four.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: So yeah, but let's go to the hospital for let's
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: explain that he does that every weekend. That's a normal weekend.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: One hundred people come to the house, and you get
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: a schedule. When you get there, you've been there, you
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: get that, that's right, schedule. Nine o'clock breakfast, ten o'clock
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  Speaker 2: rest period, and then you're all going to lunch at
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  Speaker 2: this restaurant and there's two buses waiting to take you.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And then that's exactly right. And then they've got a show.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: They put on a show later in the theater. Everyone performs.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's hysterical and he's he's right at the center
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  Speaker 1: of it all the time. So you know, he loves it.
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  Speaker 1: He's a showman. So he's going to just take it
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  Speaker 1: easy now and recuperate. I think I don't think he'll
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: make it to the Sonwriters Hall of Fame on next Thursday.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Really hopefully he'll just yeah, hopefully he'll stay in bed
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  Speaker 1: or sit outside on the terrace and you know, listen
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  Speaker 1: to some music. I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: This is the guy that goes out seven nights week.
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  Speaker 2: You really think he'll stay at home.
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  Speaker 1: Well, he's going to have to until he feels better. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: this is a it is a serious thing to have
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a of a respiratory infection, especially at that age. But
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: he's going to be fine and we're all sending him
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: good wishes.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Well, that's good. Hey, Tony Awards this Sunday.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: What do you think Tony Awards are going to be great?
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  Speaker 1: First of all, the ratings are going to be great.
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  Speaker 1: There's no competition, there's no sports at all, so they're
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: very lucky they don't have a Knicks game or anything
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  Speaker 1: against them. And Pink the singer, is going to be
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the host, and I think she's going to be great.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: They have all the shows, all the musicals that are
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: on Broadway are doing numbers. They're having a big anniversary
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: number for the Book of Mormon with all of their
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: original Tony winners. Queen Latifa is doing a thirtieth anniversary
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: of Chicago the Musical, so it's going to be I
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: think it's going to be pretty cool. Yeah, it was
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: going to be pretty entertaining.
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  Speaker 2: Broadway this year. Was it a big money wise? Was
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: it a big year for Broadway?
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  Speaker 1: It was a big year money wise, but it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: a great year for the qual of the new musicals
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  Speaker 1: because it's very expensive to produce a musical now on Broadway.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: They've got to get the costs down and so they're
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: only bringing in things that have recognized titles like Beaches
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: came in and then it closed immediately, and that's a
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: problem because they're trying to turn these movie names into
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: musicals and nobody wants that. And the shows aren't good.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: They're not made for musicals. So last year we had Maybe,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: what's it called Maybe ever After and Maybe Happy Ending,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and that was an original show that was brilliant. So
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: they've got to go back to doing that. This year
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: was a tough year financially to produce shows, but otherwise, no,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the shows are booming. Hamilton is booming, Harry Potter is booming.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, the Whiz and the Lion King. So Broadway,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: you know, they used to say, oh, Broadway's dying. It's
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: never going to die, It's going to be here long
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  Speaker 1: afterward gone, We're going to die first.
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  Speaker 2: Well that's good to hear. Hey, what the hell is
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Madonna doing? Why didn't she go away? How did we
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: get rid of this Donna?
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god? She was in Times Square yesterday. Well,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: she really wants to have a hit with her new album.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: It's called Confessions on a Dance Floor Part two, and
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it's a disco album. She's really leaning on her gay audience.
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  Speaker 1: Yesterday she threw like the biggest gay party in the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: world in Times Square. She's up on the way up high,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you know where the Times Square ball is dancing away
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  Speaker 1: in Silicon Silicon and you know, she's lip syncing and
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: she's sixty eight years old. You know, you have to
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  Speaker 1: give her credit. She wants to stay relevant. Everybody wants
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  Speaker 1: to stay relevant. Yeah, so she's doing her best to
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  Speaker 1: keep her hand in. But it seemed a little desperate
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  Speaker 1: yesterday to be, you know, hanging off. She was hagging
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  Speaker 1: off the side of the platform, and I don't know
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  Speaker 1: what that was all about.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, you know, you got to learn from from
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  Speaker 2: Frank Sinautter to Billy Joel. When you get that old,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: no more albums, no more hit singles, it's over. You
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: become a elder statesman and you do these grand concerts
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: all like Billy Joel. You travel the country doing these
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: magnificent concerts. That's what you do. Why didn't you just
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: do that?
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  Speaker 1: You know, when we were kids, I don't know if
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: you remember this, there was a woman who did burlesque.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Her name was Anne Coreo, and she was quite She
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: was probably about that age when she was doing it.
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  Speaker 1: When I was twelve, It seemed like she was one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and six, but she was too old to.
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  Speaker 2: Be doing it.
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  Speaker 1: It was kind of a joke. And that's what Madonna
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: reminds me of. You know, it's like she's going she's
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: going to keep doing this in her seventies. We're going
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: to be seeing her, you know, in all kinds of
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: strange costumes, trying to get a disco aut again to dance.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but okay, that's going to work. And Courrea was
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: not a big hit on the Top Music State. She
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: was not on the Ed Sullivan. She was on like
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the end of the Mike Douglas Show. Maybe that was it.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Well, Madonna wasn't on Ed Sullivan. But meantime she's got
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a deal with people like Taylor Swift. Now, Taylor Swift
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: released a single last night. It's the song from Toy
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Story five and it's already number one and people were
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: going crazy trying to get copies of it in the
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  Speaker 1: last few days and it's huge. And you know, she's
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: thirty six and that's the appropriate age for this. So
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: that's what Madonna is facing, that kind of competition Carpenter
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: on her album.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. According to Forbes, Taylor Swift is now a billionaire,
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  Speaker 2: making her one of the very few billionaires in the music.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Two billion, two billion, two billion, not just one billion,
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  Speaker 1: two billion.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Excuse me, two billion. There you go, two.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Billion, that's why I try. He's going to throw his
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: last ball and go home and smoke cigars.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: So this would put her ahead of McCartney and Oprah
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  Speaker 2: in the billionaire show biz category.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I'm not surprised. Yeah, I'm not surprised. Yeah. Now, well
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: she's you know, think about it. First of all, she
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: has a marketing scheme that's amazing. But McCartney isn't doing
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: too badly. I have to say he has run a
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: perfect pr campaign all week. He's going to have the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: number five album today. It's even doing better than last week.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: But it's called The Boys of Dungeon Lane. It's an
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: excellent album, very very good. It's going to get Grammy
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  Speaker 1: Awards and it's people are loving it, and so I mean,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: you have to give him credit. He's done a classy
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: job of coming back. That's what madonad should be looking at.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: That's it's a classy job of coming back. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you're not going to see Paul McCartney in Times Square
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  Speaker 1: hanging off a platform.
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  Speaker 2: It's a big difference between Paul McCartney and Madonna. Not
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: the same league.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: You tell her that, I'm telling her anything.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, I was a friend Frankie Valley, who was also
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: in his nineties. Now he canceled the rest of his tour.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Frankie took Frankie's done, which is appropriate at the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: age of almost ninety two, he's got to stop performing.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: They had him out on the road and he was
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: singing to you know, tapes, the music was playing in
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  Speaker 1: his mouth, wasn't moving. He didn't even look like he
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: knew where he was. Now, I've seen Frankie socially at
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: dinners and that kind of thing over the last couple
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: of years, and he's looks very good, but he is
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: very you know old. And now he's canceled the rest
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of his shows for the rest of the year, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: that's going. He's not coming back after that. But he
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: should be happy. He's a gigantic star. What a legacy
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Jersey boys, right, He's got the music will play for
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: ever telling his story. The songs are played constantly. You know,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: everyone knows walk like a Man and Sherry and Ragdall
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I mean and Greece. You know, come on, he's better
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: than Frecky Valley.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Also the mayor of munchkin Land. You're not a soprano, right, No,
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: you're not a sopranos fan.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: I am a sopranos fan, but I don't remember that.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Remember when they wanted to kill him and they didn't.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: They you know, they're careful what they say on the phone.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: He goes the mayor of munchkin Land, what's going on there?
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: But he was listening.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: He's had a great time, but he deserves to stay
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: home now and not have to you know, but they
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: love it. See these performers love it. They love the adrenaline,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: they love the adelation. You know, there's so much going on. Oh,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: by the way, speaking of performers who are doing well,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Sting starts his uh. I think it's nine performances of
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: The Last Ship at the Metropolitan Opera on Twoday. There's
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: still a few tickets left. I looked online last night.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: But it's a great show, you know, The Last Ship,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: And you can still get in there. I think they
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: have seats up top for fifty dollars and of course
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: a little more expensive downstairs. But it's a Metropolitan Opera
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and it's going to be terrific. I'll be there on
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Tuesday night and it's going to be it's going to
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: be a terrific week, very.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Very good tip for everybody, go get the sting tickets. Yeah,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: and the read showbiz for one one dot com. There's
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: a lot more stuff up there Showbiz for one one
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: dot com. Roger Friedman, thanks for being with us. Thank you,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: great take care, Hey don't forget Buck and Clay Noon Today.
• 10:40
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• 10:47
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• 10:51
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