[Dixielandjazz] Industrial musicals - Fresh Air, NPR

[Robert Ringwald]

Sales Take Center Stage: To Boost Morale, Companies Burst Into Song
NPR's Fresh Air, November 5, 2013
Why would someone write a sentimental ballad about a bathroom? For the same reason
someone would write a rousing song about tractors: So the song could be used in what's
called an industrial musical.
These musicals were like Broadway shows, but they were written and performed for
corporate sales meetings and conventions from the 1950s to the 1980s. The lyrics
were all about the products being sold and how to sell them. Some of them were lavish
and costly, even though they'd be performed only once.
And as ridiculous as the songs were, they were often written and performed by really
talented people: John Kander and Fred Ebb, who wrote the songs for the musical Cabaret,
did an industrial. And a few had lyrics by a young Sheldon Harnick, who co-wrote
the songs for the Broadway hits Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello! and She Loves Me.
Harnick and actor-singer John Russell performed in dozens of these musicals, and
Steve Young has co-written a new book about the genre, called Everything's Coming
Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals.
Young is also a writer for The Late Show With David Letterman, where for a while
he was the writer in charge of the regular feature "Dave's Record Collection."
Harnick, Russell and Young joined Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about the genre's
history.
44-minute segment:
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/05/243204830/


-Bob Ringwald K6YBV
www.ringwald.com
916/ 806-9551

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