Wednesday afternoon The AIR brings you a special new episodes of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast.  You can tune in at the website, or if you’re on a laptop or desktop, you could just stay right here and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM (EDT) Beatles Blast tackles a topic we haven’t done yet, ballads by the Beatles (group and solo). We open with a special mash-up song performed live by Mike Batt (of Wombles, Zero Zero, and Katie Melua fame), which combines two classic Beatles tunes with one John Lennon standard and is very clever and amusing.  Batt, in addition to his own legendary career, has some Beatle connections.  Sir Paul McCartnery tapped him to serve on the board of the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, and his “Hunting of the Snark” album included contributions from George Harrison and Julian Lennon.

Inspired by his mash-up, I decided to put together an entire show of Beatles ballads. Check out the playlist…

Beatles Blast 091

Mike Batt “Imagine Something Yesterday”
The Beatles “Let It Be”
George Harrison “Isn’t It A Pity”
Ringo Starr “Imagine Me There”
The Beatles “Cry Baby Cry”
Paul McCartney “My Love”
John Lennon “Woman”
The Beatles “And I Love Her”
John Lennon “Oh My Love”
Paul McCartney “Maybe I’m Amazed”
George Harrison “Learning How To Love You”
Ringo Starr “As Far As We Can”
The Beatles “Real Love”
John Lennon “Imagine”
The Beatles “Something”
The Beatles “Yesterday”

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM(EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch presents a bit of a tribute to a show we just saw a couple of weeks ago. I wrote about the Signature Theater production of Pacific Overtures HERE, but on this week’s new Curtain Call, you can hear for yourself how wonderful this rarely-performed Sondheim masterpiece is when Mel brings you highlights of the original cast album from 1976 (starring the great Mako). Pacific Overtures features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by John Weidman, with “additional material by” Hugh Wheeler.

Set in 19th-century Japan, it tells the story of the country’s westernization starting in 1853, when American ships forcibly opened it to the rest of the world. The story is told from the point of view of the Japanese, and focuses in particular on the lives of two friends who are caught in the change.

The 1976 Broadway production of Pacific Overtures was nominated for ten Tony Awards, and the show includes Sondheim’s personal favorite tune that he’d written, “Someone In A Tree.”

Here’s the playlist…

Curtain Call 124

Pacific Overtures

“The Advantages of Floating In The Middle of the Sea”
“There Is No Other Way”
“Four Black Dragons”
“Chrysanthemum Tea”
“Poems”
“Welcome to Kanagawa”
“Someone In a Tree”
“Please Hello”
“A Bowler Hat”
“Pretty Lady”
“Next”

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM,  The Comedy Vault  presents a classic episode featuring the stand-up comedy of Eddie Griffin.