I Hurt the 80s
Sunday, August 02, 2026
Hosted by Shan
Playlist
[02:23]
It's Only a Matter of Time
— Back to the Future
[02:25]
Overture
— Cats
(1983 Broadway)
[10:42]
The Phantom of the Opera
— The Phantom of the Opera
(Sarah Brightman & Steve Harley)
[11:12]
One Night in Bangkok
— Chess
[22:26]
Come On Feel the Noise / We're Not Gonna Take It
— Rock of Ages
[29:54]
Half to Have You
— Lost Boys
(Broadway cast)
[33:43]
Saturday Night in the City
— The Wedding Singer
(Amy Spanger)
[44:58]
In the Air Tonight
— American Psycho
[44:44]
Fame
— Fame
[52:11]
Footloose
— Footloose
[52:26]
Xanadu
— Xanadu
(closing)
Transcript
[00:24]
Madison Savoyards invites you to their annual Gilbert and Sullivan production,
[00:29]
and this year brings a brand new twist on a classic. From July 31st through August 9th,
[00:34]
they'll present The Mikado, a fresh adaptation of The Mikado at the Bartel Theatre. This
[00:39]
re-imagined version relocates the original Japanese setting to Scotland, giving the
[00:44]
topsy-turvy tale a new backdrop while keeping the brilliant musical score audiences have
[00:49]
loved for more than a century. Set in the fictional town of Ballydoo, the story follows
[00:53]
a disguised prince, Nanki Doug, his beloved Winsome, and the comically reluctant executioner,
[01:00]
Coco, as they navigate a ridiculous law, requiring executions for flirting. When the Mikado arrives,
[01:08]
romantic entanglements, mistaken identities, and comic reversals pile up, all resolving
[01:14]
in classic Gilbert and Sullivan fashion with love triumphant and order restored.
[01:18]
Ticket and Showtime information is available at BartelTheatre.org. That's Madison Savoyards
[01:24]
production of The Mikado, July 31st through August 9th at The Bartel Theatre. You're
[01:29]
listening to W.O.R.T.F.M. Madison. That's right. You're listening to W.O.R.T.F.M.
[01:38]
Madison, Wisconsin. It's two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. Do you know where your theater kids are?
[01:43]
They're tuned in right here to Better Living Through Show Tunes,
[01:47]
and they're in good company with me, DJ Shan. We're going to take it back to a decade I refuse
[01:53]
to acknowledge as being 40 years ago. We're going to, I love the 80s. I hurt the 80s.
[02:00]
That's what I'm calling the show, and I hope you all love Synth because we are going to get
[02:06]
into shows both from the 80s and also of the 80s. We'll get a little bit more into what I mean by
[02:13]
that, but first let's start right away with the Alan Silvestri assisted score for Back to the Future,
[02:23]
the musical. Here's It's Only a Matter of Time.
[02:25]
And that was the overture from Cats, the 1983 Broadway cast recording,
[08:26]
which came after the London recording. Great news for fans of Cats or new fans
[08:34]
who fell in love with Jellicle Ball. We are getting a Jellicle Ball Broadway cast recording.
[08:40]
They just announced it. It's very exciting. If you have a butt ton of money and nothing to do with it,
[08:47]
I beg you, go grease some palms in order to make a pro shot of Jellicle Ball happen.
[08:55]
I'm dying to see it. I know a very few people who did not enjoy the heck out of that show.
[09:04]
It just seems so joyful. Everything I've seen from it I adore. And as I was getting hyped for that
[09:11]
recording, I listened to a little bit of the Broadway, the original Broadway cast.
[09:17]
And I love how much synth is in it. It's just such a choice.
[09:25]
I'm a line Andrew Lloyd Webber a whole lot, but then I play stuff of his on this show and I'm like,
[09:32]
all right, ALW, you're doing some pretty good stuff. I dig it.
[09:37]
Which is an excellent segue into our next song. When I told my partner what I was doing today,
[09:43]
he was like, oh, no, 80s musicals, you're going to have to do Phantom, huh?
[09:47]
And I said, yes, but I'm going to do the I don't even know what to call it. It's not like a studio
[09:54]
sample. They recorded a radio fit, a radio ready version of the title song with Sarah Brightman,
[10:03]
who did play Christine Dyer in both London and on Broadway and Steve Harley, who never got the
[10:10]
chance to play the Phantom. At least that I'm aware of, please correct me if I'm wrong.
[10:15]
But they recorded a kind of like rock heavy synth heavy version of the title song with the two of
[10:21]
them just to get people hyped, which I understand why Andrew Lloyd Webber did it. He had a history
[10:28]
of releasing his shows as pop albums first as concept albums, JCS, Evita, Joseph and the
[10:36]
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Understandable that he would want to follow suit with Phantom
[10:42]
doing that. So and this is the first version of Phantom of the Opera. I heard I got Columbia
[10:49]
House. If you're Columbia House years old, go take a go take a vitamin. I got a like collection
[10:58]
of Andrew Lloyd Webber cassette that I wore the heck out. And this was I want to say,
[11:05]
I think it was the first track on Side A, and I just loved it. And I hope you love it too.
[11:12]
Here's Phantom of the Opera. You can primary heads cover or version of One Night in Bangkok
[21:03]
out of my cold dead hands. I just love it so much. Chess, of course, one of the ultimate 80s
[21:11]
musicals coming from the 80s being very much about the 80s. It is not a show that you can
[21:17]
be like now it's set in Elizabethan England. Can't do it. Can't do it. Doesn't work. It's the 80s.
[21:25]
And it's fabulous. As I'm gonna be a little sentimental and play some songs just because
[21:31]
I like them, even though you've heard them before, I think this is as good a time as any to say
[21:37]
that my time with better living through show tunes is coming to an end. I have enjoyed it so,
[21:44]
so much. You're not rid of me quite yet. I've got two more shows after this one.
[21:47]
My last one will be on September 6th. But yeah, it just it's time. But I'm also gonna miss the
[21:56]
heck out of it. So I'm gonna get a little sentimental in these next couple shows.
[22:02]
Play in the songs that I really just like sharing with people. The kind of songs that you like
[22:07]
earnestly press into someone's hands and be like, please, please listen to this. And
[22:13]
I don't know, have the world explode into technicolor around you, or something like that. I hope that's
[22:19]
the effect. Up next, a little ditty that surprisingly I can say on the air, but I guess because I'm not
[22:26]
spelling it out. Come on feel the noise slash we're not going to take it from Rock of Ages,
[22:34]
which always charms the heck out of me. It's a show that surprised me so much when I finally
[22:39]
saw it. I liked it so much more than I thought I would, because it's just earnest and joyful and
[22:45]
full of 80s songs that I flip and love. And then I learned that Tim Sowers, former host
[22:50]
of Better Living Through Showtoons, it is his favorite musical and I just that charms me to
[22:56]
no end. So here you go. Here's Come on feel the noise from Rock of Ages. I hope you rock out to
[23:04]
it. And if nothing else, just have like a little imaginary Tim rocking out in your brain. It's super
[29:54]
I could lose myself tonight. That was half to have you from the very, very brand new released
[31:25]
Lost Boys original Broadway cast recording. Just came out last week. It's awesome. I listened to
[31:32]
it a whole, whole bunch. I really liked the Santa Clara sessions that they released before
[31:38]
the show even opened on Broadway. Fell in love with the music then including that song
[31:44]
really. It's fun to hear how the cast has grown. By and large, it's the same cast, a lot of the
[31:51]
same cast members, I should say like majority the same. And how they've gotten just more confident
[31:58]
in this music and these songs and these roles. It's kind of fun to listen to. I adore that song.
[32:05]
It's so captures the 80s, that movie, that musical. And when I listen to that soundtrack,
[32:12]
I'm just a little miffed again. The Schmigadoon one best score and best new musical.
[32:22]
But that kind of also brings me to a different topic that I wanted to cover. I mentioned
[32:26]
earlier that I'm doing songs shows that are from the 80s and of the 80s.
[32:32]
I have talked on the show before at length at nauseam about how I think we're kind of harsh
[32:40]
on movie musical adaptations. There are a lot that are not good. There are a lot that are stellar.
[32:45]
And while I was putting together the show for today, it kind of occurred to me that
[32:51]
the movies that come from the 80s have made kind of kick and rad musicals.
[33:00]
Are they always the deepest thing? No, but they don't have to be. They can just be fun.
[33:07]
Another thing I've said at length. Check your snob at the door and dare to just have fun
[33:15]
in the theater. It's allowed. And on that very, very topic, one of the shows that I think
[33:22]
does the best job of translating 80s music into its score is The Wedding Singer.
[33:29]
It's not a story that I adore, but I listen to the soundtrack a lot because it sounds awesome.
[33:36]
And this is maybe the most fun track to me. Let me know if you disagree. What's your favorite off
[33:43]
of Wedding Singer? Here comes Saturday Night in the City performed by Amy Spanger and the cast,
[33:50]
the original Broadway cast of The Wedding Singer.
[38:30]
Tell the night to save its moonlight. Tell the birds not to sing. Tell yourself
[38:45]
that you must have been out of your mind. Cause it's not that kind. No, it's not that kind.
[40:31]
I just wanted to come down here to address the rumors flying around that the company is in
[40:36]
trouble. It is not. We're doing just fine. And tomorrow begins the biggest sales weekend
[40:41]
of our year, the 1987 Midwest packaging convention in Chicago, where Mr. Stone is being honored
[40:49]
with a lifetime achievement award. My latest projections show that we can move a company
[40:56]
record 10 million units this weekend. And at that volume, our net profit margin rises 8.2%.
[41:02]
And do you know what that means? Raises for everyone.
[41:08]
Own behold music for the factory floor. Studies show that music increases productivity
[41:48]
and company morale. What is this? It's hip to be square.
[43:51]
2024 was a heck of a year on Broadway for Huey Lewis with both The Heart of Rock and Roll,
[43:58]
a Huey Lewis in the News jukebox musical about a box factory worker who dreams of a life in rock
[44:04]
and roll. And also the release of Back to the Future, the musical, which I opened the show with,
[44:10]
which featured heavily Huey Lewis's The Power of Love, which he contributed to that film's
[44:16]
original soundtrack. Segueing with Huey Lewis in a darker way, this musical not from the 80s,
[44:26]
but about the 80s, it is Duncan Sheik's translation, I guess, of American Psycho,
[44:35]
originally in London starring Matt Smith of The Crown, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who,
[44:44]
all kinds of things fame. It includes a really beautiful cover of an 80s song.
[44:51]
I regret to inform you it doesn't have the drum solo. But here for Mother's Special Boy,
[44:58]
for my fellow dungeon crawlers, here is In the Air Tonight from American Psycho.
[46:31]
And that was fame from the musical fame, based on the movie fame from 1980.
[51:42]
Fame is actually one of our earliest movie to musical transfers. It didn't have a Broadway run
[51:47]
until the early 2000s. But it was running a US tour nationally, starting in 1988.
[51:57]
And it was pretty popular. It had a steady following, because how do you beat fame?
[52:03]
You don't. It's great. I'm going to say goodbye here and leave you with a couple songs.
[52:11]
First, Can't Leave Out Footloose, Gotta Have Footloose, and then one of my very favorite,
[52:18]
favorite songs from one of my very favorite musicals that I just think we need more of.
[52:26]
A lot of positivity. It's Xanadu from Xanadu, which I only just watched the movie for the
[52:32]
first time, which is very embarrassing. I loved it. People love to poo on that one,
[52:39]
but I thought it was such a good time and Gene Kelly is so, so charming.
[52:44]
Why do people hate Xanadu? I don't know. It's not for me to know, I guess.
[52:52]
And then I just need to reorder my playlist a little bit. Nope. We're gonna play these out of order.
[52:57]
We're gonna do Xanadu first, because I'm a big silly and I had to add a song.
[53:01]
Please enjoy Xanadu. Please stick around for On the Horizon following this show.
[53:05]
I'm gonna be back on the 23rd, covering for Allison. Please tune in then, but please tune in
[53:11]
every Sunday so you get the very best that musical theater in Madison has to offer.
[53:16]
I appreciate you so much, my friends. Stay safe out there. We'll talk soon.
[60:41]
From acoustic improv to live shows from the sweaty dance floors of dive bars,
[60:45]
the sounds of a seven-piece band rocking on the banks of the Mississippi.
[60:50]
Team Marie will lead a Cajun dance workshop at 4.30 p.m., followed by a potluck supper at 6,
[60:56]
transitioning at 7 p.m. to the concert and dancing. More information at FolkloreVillage.org.
[61:02]
Team Marie and Bayou Juju will be bringing some Louisiana heat to Folklore Village
[61:06]
on Sunday, August 9th. You are listening to WRT Madison.
[61:27]
Madison Savoyards invites you to their annual Gilbert and Sullivan production,
[61:31]
and this year brings a brand new twist on a classic. From July 31st through August 9th,
[61:36]
they'll present the Mikado, a fresh adaptation of the Mikado at the Bartel Theater.
[61:41]
This reimagined version relocates the original Japanese setting to Scotland,
[61:46]
giving the topsy-turvy tale a new backdrop while keeping the brilliant musical score
[61:51]
audiences have loved for more than a century.