I’ll start: “I still want and/or love you.”
Sondheim’s quintessential lyric?
by Anonymous | reply 511 | January 19, 2022 6:34 PM |
You gotta have a gimmick if you want to get ahead.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 25, 2021 1:50 PM |
It's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 25, 2021 3:38 PM |
Nice is different than good.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 25, 2021 3:43 PM |
City on fire!
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 25, 2021 3:45 PM |
You have to move on.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 25, 2021 4:12 PM |
Anything you do, let it come from you, then it will be new. Give us more to see.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 25, 2021 4:13 PM |
Maybe you could show me how to let go, / Lower my guard, / Learn to be free. / Maybe if you whistle, / Whistle for me.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 25, 2021 4:18 PM |
It’s not so much do what you like as it is like what you do.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 25, 2021 4:20 PM |
But with the Schlitz in her mitts down at Fitzroy's Bar
She thinks of the Ritz so it's so schizo
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 25, 2021 4:22 PM |
Don't you love farce?
My thought I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the clowns?
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 25, 2021 4:24 PM |
So many wrong words in these quotes, including mine.
I think we’re all stoned this morning.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 25, 2021 4:28 PM |
I know how I want you to say goodbye
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 25, 2021 4:37 PM |
I chose and my world was shaken, so what?
The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.
You have to move on.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 25, 2021 4:39 PM |
Someone is on your side Someone else is not While you’re seeing your side Maybe you forgot They are not alone No one is alone
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 25, 2021 4:48 PM |
"And one for Mahler!"
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 25, 2021 5:02 PM |
"We have so much in common, it's a phenomenon."
Such a lovely, dreamy kind of lyric.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 25, 2021 5:06 PM |
stuffed the dailies in my shoes
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 25, 2021 5:09 PM |
Every day a little death.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | July 25, 2021 5:12 PM |
Anything can happen in the woods.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 25, 2021 5:53 PM |
Those smug little men with their smug little schemes
They forgot one thing:
The play isn't over by a long shot yet!
There are heroes in the world,
Princes are heroes in the world,
And one of them will save us.
Wait and see!
Wait and see!
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 25, 2021 5:55 PM |
I feel pretty
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 25, 2021 6:03 PM |
RIFF Womb to tomb!
TONY Sperm to worm!
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 25, 2021 6:27 PM |
Sticks and stones may break my bones
But chains and whips excite me
Wait, do you mean lyrics BY Sondheim, or ABOUT him?
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 25, 2021 6:45 PM |
There — can you read?
Good! We will need
Two ports
One of them not to rocky
How about Nagasaki?
Two ports
One of them for the cocoa
What do you call it? — Yoko
Hama! Ja!
Und Nagasaki! Ja!
Sign here!
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 25, 2021 6:54 PM |
Once, yes, once for a lark
Twice, though, loses the spark
As I said to the abbot
I'll get in the habit
But not in the habit
You've my highest regard
And I know that it's hard
Still, no matter the vice
I'd never do anything twice
by Anonymous | reply 25 | July 25, 2021 6:57 PM |
r12
oh dear
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 25, 2021 9:52 PM |
It's a city of strangers
Some come to work, some to play
A city of strangers
Some come to stare, some to stay
And every day
The ones who stay
Can find each other in the crowded streets and the guarded parks
By the rusty fountains and the dusty trees with the battered barks
And they walk together past the postered walls with the crude remarks
And they meet at parties through the friends-of-friends, who they never know
"Will you pick me up, or do I meet you there, or shall we let it go?
Did you get my message? 'Cause I looked in vain
Can we see each other Tuesday if it doesn't rain?
Look, I'll call you in the morning, or my service'll explain."
And another hundred people just got off of the train
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 25, 2021 10:03 PM |
It's the fragment, not the day It's the pebble, not the stream It's the ripple, not the sea That is happening Not the building but the beam Not the garden but the stone Only cups of tea And history And someone in a tree
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 25, 2021 10:07 PM |
Loud, or lewd, or la-de-da-de:
Ev'rything to ev'rybody!
by Anonymous | reply 29 | July 25, 2021 10:09 PM |
I'm yawning as I read.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 25, 2021 10:24 PM |
Oh, Jerry at R30, we all know YOUR quintessential lyric:
“So I put my hand in here
I put my hand in there”
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 25, 2021 10:39 PM |
I don't know how I let you
So far inside my mind
But there you are and there you will stay
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 25, 2021 11:03 PM |
[quote] Oh, Jerry at [R30], we all know YOUR quintessential lyric:
"With you it looks good,
With you it looks great,
With you it looks grand!"
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 25, 2021 11:05 PM |
"What's the muddle in thee middle?
That's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle."
Too clever by half and takes me right out of the show every time.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 25, 2021 11:09 PM |
R31: Life is a celebration with you on my arm!
by Anonymous | reply 35 | July 25, 2021 11:11 PM |
Al-a-mo Remember the Al-a-mo-oh....
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 25, 2021 11:13 PM |
A false alarm
A broken arm
An imitation Hitler
And with littler
Charm
But oh, can that boy f... oxtrot!
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 25, 2021 11:14 PM |
Loving you is not a choice
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 25, 2021 11:16 PM |
And not much reason to rejoice!
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 25, 2021 11:17 PM |
I'm not well, so I'm not getting married (today).
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 25, 2021 11:18 PM |
I sort of hate to ask it
But do you have a basket?
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 25, 2021 11:23 PM |
Someone to need you too much
Someone to read you too well
Someone to bleed you of all the things you don’t want to tell
That’s happily ever after
Ever, ever after
In hell
by Anonymous | reply 42 | July 25, 2021 11:23 PM |
It isn't only Paul who would be ruining his life
You know, we'll both of us be losing our identities
I telephoned my analyst about it, and he said to see him Monday
But by Monday I'll be floating in the Hudson with the other garbage.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | July 25, 2021 11:25 PM |
You're sorry-grateful
Regretful-happy
Why look for answers
Where none occur?
You always are
What you always were
Which has nothing to do with
All to do with her
by Anonymous | reply 44 | July 25, 2021 11:25 PM |
I always liked “ Crazy business this, this life we live in-” and “I, too, have a cornu-Copia of imperfections.”
He really is a master lyricist.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | July 26, 2021 12:21 AM |
Fat whores rejoice!
by Anonymous | reply 46 | July 26, 2021 12:27 AM |
Sounds more like Oscar Hammerstein to me, R46.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | July 26, 2021 12:31 AM |
Have a little priest
by Anonymous | reply 48 | July 26, 2021 12:32 AM |
Sometimes she drinks in bed
Sometimes he’s homosexual
But why be vicious?
They keep it out of sight
Good show!
They’re gonna be alright…
by Anonymous | reply 49 | July 26, 2021 12:43 AM |
Don't say that one around Catholic boys, R48!
by Anonymous | reply 50 | July 26, 2021 12:57 AM |
Going a bit further...
Crazy business this, this life we live in.
Can't complain about the time we're given.
With so little to be sure of in this world.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | July 26, 2021 2:44 AM |
Look perhaps I'll collapse
in the apse, right before you all
so take back your cake,
burn the shoes and boil the rice!
by Anonymous | reply 52 | July 26, 2021 4:25 AM |
So life is ducky
And time goes flying
And I'm so lucky
I feel like crying,..
by Anonymous | reply 53 | July 26, 2021 6:14 AM |
Every day a little death
In the parlor, in the bed
In the curtains, in the silver
In the butter, in the bread
Every day a little sting
In the heart and in the head
Every move and every breath
And you hardly feel a thing
Brings a perfect little death
by Anonymous | reply 54 | July 26, 2021 6:19 AM |
But though I'll do my utmost To see you never frown, And though I'll try to cut most Of our expenses down. I've some traits, I warn you, To which you'll have objections. I, too, have a cornu- Copia of imperfections.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | July 26, 2021 6:24 AM |
Make that:
But though I'll do my utmost
To see you never frown,
And though I'll try to cut most
Of our expenses down.
I've some traits, I warn you,
To which you'll have objections.
I, too, have a cornu-
Copia of imperfections.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | July 26, 2021 6:26 AM |
Why, when I speak, does he vanish?
Why is he acting so clannish?
I wish I understood Spanish
When I tell him I think he's the end
He giggles a lot with his friend
by Anonymous | reply 57 | July 26, 2021 6:35 AM |
What would we do without you? Just what we usually do! Huff, huff, huff……
by Anonymous | reply 58 | July 26, 2021 6:36 AM |
The theme song of the misogynist eldergays of DL: "There's Always A Woman"
Cherchez la femme.
There's always a woman
To spoil the illusion,
The rotten banana
That ruins the bunch.
There's always a woman
Who causes confusion.
There's nothing as low as a woman.
We must lunch.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | July 26, 2021 6:37 AM |
The kind of love that she couldn't make fun of
She'd have none of.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | July 26, 2021 12:06 PM |
Why are his trousers vermilion?
Why does he claim he's Castilian?
Why do his friends call him Lillian?
by Anonymous | reply 61 | July 26, 2021 12:12 PM |
Sometimes when the wrappings fall
There's nothing underneath at all.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | July 26, 2021 12:17 PM |
(Fredrik)
She loves my voice, my walk, my mustache The cigar, in fact, that I'm smoking She'll watch me puff until it's just ash Then she'll save the cigar butt
(Desiree)
Bizarre, but You're joking
by Anonymous | reply 63 | July 26, 2021 12:31 PM |
In the middle of the world we float
In the middle of the sea
The realities remain remote
In the middle of the sea
by Anonymous | reply 64 | July 26, 2021 12:38 PM |
"You must meet my wife."
"Let me get my hat and my knife!"
by Anonymous | reply 65 | July 26, 2021 12:39 PM |
God he’s a genius.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | July 26, 2021 12:43 PM |
Listen to the stories Hear it in the songs Angry men don’t write the rules And guns don’t right the wrongs
Hurts a while But soon the country’s Back where it belongs And that’s the truth
Still and all Damn you, Booth
by Anonymous | reply 67 | July 26, 2021 12:49 PM |
I wish
by Anonymous | reply 68 | July 26, 2021 12:50 PM |
Damn you, Lincoln, you righteous whore!
by Anonymous | reply 69 | July 26, 2021 12:51 PM |
Pretty isn't beautiful, Mother
Pretty is what changes
What the eye arranges
Is what is beautiful
by Anonymous | reply 70 | July 26, 2021 12:51 PM |
And take extra care with strangers
Even flowers have their dangers
And though scary is exciting
Nice is different than good
by Anonymous | reply 71 | July 26, 2021 1:03 PM |
Not quoting:
How do so many of us know all these wonderful words?
We must be as special as we assume.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | July 26, 2021 1:06 PM |
[quote]How do so many of us know all these wonderful words?
You never heard of Google? Or you just cannot think for yourself?
by Anonymous | reply 73 | July 26, 2021 1:08 PM |
And I'll try to make it easier to find me
In the stillness of July
Because of breeze might stir a rainbow up behind me
That might happen to catch a gentleman's eye
by Anonymous | reply 74 | July 26, 2021 1:16 PM |
"Safe words are for wimps."
by Anonymous | reply 75 | July 26, 2021 1:31 PM |
Um, r74, you know that that's Jerry Herman, right? Try quoting on of Jerry's fisting songs.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | July 26, 2021 1:33 PM |
Children will listen
by Anonymous | reply 77 | July 26, 2021 1:33 PM |
children may not obey but children will listen
by Anonymous | reply 78 | July 26, 2021 2:04 PM |
Yes I wanted to show an example of a beautiful lyric that appears effortless and which does not trumpet the sweating over every word.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | July 26, 2021 2:10 PM |
"Shepherd's pie peppered
With actual shepherd
On top"
owns this thread.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | July 26, 2021 2:14 PM |
Some people got it and make it pay
Some people can’t even give it away
by Anonymous | reply 81 | July 26, 2021 2:15 PM |
"Something appealing, something appalling" et al. from "Comedy Tonight" was so early in his career—and has proved amazingly durable and smart.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | July 26, 2021 2:17 PM |
Some people sit on their butts
Got the dream, yeah, but not the guts.
He was brilliant to put those otherwise vulgar words into the mouth of Ethel Merman to belt to the rafters. You get the entire character, her drive and her great limitations, in those two lines.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | July 26, 2021 2:19 PM |
yes r83 he is better than almost anyone else at making the vernacular and diction character-appropriate. ([italic]That was not a cue for anyone to debate the Maria "I Feel Pretty" rhymes are too smart for the character story; we've heard it. Thanks anyway though.[/italic])
by Anonymous | reply 84 | July 26, 2021 4:09 PM |
This is how Samson was shorn;
Each in her style a
Delilah
Reborn
by Anonymous | reply 85 | July 26, 2021 4:46 PM |
Perpetual sunset is rather an unsettling thing.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | July 26, 2021 4:49 PM |
Some of us can quote just about every lyric Steve ever wrote. We are lifelong fans who have listened to every cast album so many times we've actually worn out CDs. Sondheim's music is emotionally satisfying. He speaks in ways and of things with which we can identify: love and all of its problems; ambivalence about life; loneliness and relationships; life and death... If you've ever had a broken heart, listen to "Not A Day Goes By" or "Good Thing Going" and you'll hear your experience in a cathartic way.
And to keep this on-topic:
Could I bury my rage
With a boy half your age
In the grass?
Bet your ass!
But I've done that already
Or didn't you know, love?
Tell me, how could I leave
When I left long ago, love?
by Anonymous | reply 87 | July 26, 2021 5:01 PM |
I need Steve to rewrite all his lyrics for my "Back to Broadway For The Last Time, I Promise" album.
by Anonymous | reply 88 | July 26, 2021 6:50 PM |
The hands on the clock turn but don't sing a nocturne just yet.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | July 26, 2021 6:58 PM |
You said you loved me. Or, were you just being kind?
by Anonymous | reply 90 | July 26, 2021 7:42 PM |
r87 they also manage to be satisfyingly clever and smart, [italic]usually[/italic] succeeding in tickling your brain without drawing undue attention to themselves. They insist on your attention and engagement without demanding them.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | July 26, 2021 7:43 PM |
A love as pure as breath
As permanent as death
Implacable as stone
A love that like a knife
Has cut into a life I wanted left alone
A love I may regret
But one I can't forget
by Anonymous | reply 92 | July 26, 2021 8:39 PM |
Let the moment go
Don't forget it for a moment, though
Just remembering you've had an "And"
When you're back to "or"
Makes me the "or" mean more than it did before.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | July 26, 2021 8:50 PM |
Why did you do it boy? Not just destroy the pride and joy of Illinois, but all the USA
by Anonymous | reply 94 | July 26, 2021 8:51 PM |
"I got through all of last year...
And I'm here"
There's something that always makes me well up a bit when I hear that line performed well. Haven't we all looked back on what's happened to us in our lives and thought "how the fuck did we make it through that?" and then smile with pride that we did and that we're still here?
by Anonymous | reply 95 | July 26, 2021 8:52 PM |
"Where's my prize? I deserve a fucking prize!"
If that doesn't sum up a majority of American psychos, Instahos, and reality stars, I don't know what does.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | July 26, 2021 8:53 PM |
Faced with these Loreleis
What man can moralize?
by Anonymous | reply 97 | July 26, 2021 9:03 PM |
When you're in a tizzy, dizzy wiz ze mutual detante!
by Anonymous | reply 98 | July 26, 2021 9:06 PM |
Sondheim has publicly denigrated Larry Hart but Hart was not only his peer but perhaps his better.
by Anonymous | reply 99 | July 26, 2021 9:09 PM |
Hart's lyrics were witty but sincere. Steve is "look how clever I am."
by Anonymous | reply 100 | July 26, 2021 9:12 PM |
Sondheim will never write a lyric as clever and magical as this gem:
I wanna be a part of B A, Buenos Aires, Big Apple.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | July 26, 2021 9:14 PM |
[quote] "I got through all of last year...And I'm here". There's something that always makes me well
Same, r95. That line always gets me as well.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | July 26, 2021 9:17 PM |
That's the sound of an audience losing its mind
Its the pope on his balcony blessing mankind
Folks, it's Funny Girl, Fiddler and Dolly combined
by Anonymous | reply 103 | July 26, 2021 9:54 PM |
If the tea the shogun drank
Will serve to keep the shogun tranq-
quil
by Anonymous | reply 104 | July 26, 2021 10:59 PM |
R104 His friendship with Tom Lehrer paying off there
by Anonymous | reply 105 | July 26, 2021 11:16 PM |
Oh the flies on your pussy tell me how bad it stinks
by Anonymous | reply 106 | July 26, 2021 11:33 PM |
To find a rhyme for silver
Or any “rhymeless” rhyme
Requires only will, ver-
Bosity and time.
– Stephen Sondheim
(From a letter to the editor of Time magazine, May 24, 1971.)
by Anonymous | reply 107 | July 26, 2021 11:58 PM |
While her withers wither with her
by Anonymous | reply 108 | July 26, 2021 11:58 PM |
Shake it, shake it, shake it.
Until you break it, break it, break it
by Anonymous | reply 109 | July 27, 2021 3:15 AM |
But how can you know what you want til you get what you want and you see if you like it
by Anonymous | reply 110 | July 27, 2021 3:23 AM |
Oh, Sweeney!
Fuck me with your weenie!
by Anonymous | reply 111 | July 27, 2021 3:47 AM |
Just remembering you've had an "and"
When you're back to "or"
Makes the "or" mean more
Than it did before.
Now I understand...
And it's time to leave the woods!
by Anonymous | reply 112 | July 27, 2021 4:10 AM |
I'm ready to ask my mom,
"Can I got to the junior prom?"
Sheldon's got the Chevy!
by Anonymous | reply 113 | July 27, 2021 4:28 AM |
Why bother r113?
by Anonymous | reply 114 | July 27, 2021 7:53 AM |
But that was many years ago.... I doubt that anyone would know.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | July 27, 2021 7:55 AM |
A great, great thread.
It shows that Stephen Sondheim may be the most important gay artist of the 20th century. That we all respond so emotionally to so many different and varied lyrics, all by the same man. Spanning decades.
He's just monumentally important, aside from being the last of a dying breed.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | July 27, 2021 8:10 AM |
No fits, no fights, no feuds and no egos. Amigos. Together!
by Anonymous | reply 117 | July 27, 2021 8:34 AM |
Let the moment go
Don't forget it for a moment, though
Just remembering you've had an "and"
When you're back to "or"
Makes the "or" mean more
Than it did before
Now I understand
And it's time to leave the woods
by Anonymous | reply 118 | July 27, 2021 8:49 AM |
There's a part of you always standing by Mapping out the sky, finishing a hat Starting on a hat, finishing a hat Look, I made a hat Where there never was a hat,
by Anonymous | reply 119 | July 27, 2021 8:55 AM |
If I was a sculptor...but then again, no.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | July 27, 2021 8:57 AM |
It's your father's fault that the curse got placed
And the place got cursed in the first place!
by Anonymous | reply 121 | July 27, 2021 9:09 AM |
And though I'll think of you, I guess
Until the day I die
I think I miss you less and less
As every day goes by
by Anonymous | reply 122 | July 27, 2021 9:11 AM |
Year after year, older and older
Side by side
by Anonymous | reply 123 | July 27, 2021 9:14 AM |
Each day I see her pass
In my looking-glass
Lord, Lord, Lord, that woman is me!
by Anonymous | reply 124 | July 27, 2021 9:18 AM |
[FROGS]
Brek-kek-kek-kek!
Brek-kek-kek-kek!
by Anonymous | reply 125 | July 27, 2021 9:23 AM |
I really hate to ask it But what's a rhyme for basket?
by Anonymous | reply 126 | July 27, 2021 10:02 AM |
Clamor for my drama!
by Anonymous | reply 127 | July 27, 2021 10:15 AM |
Sooner or later you’re gonna be mine…
by Anonymous | reply 128 | July 27, 2021 10:27 AM |
You're so [italic]nice[/italic] You're not good You're not bad You're just [italic]nice[/italic]
by Anonymous | reply 129 | July 27, 2021 11:52 AM |
Just remember:
Someone is on your side,
Someone else is not.
While we're seeing our side
Maybe we forgot:
They are not alone.
No one is alone.
by Anonymous | reply 130 | July 27, 2021 11:58 AM |
All the wondering what even worse is still in store
by Anonymous | reply 131 | July 27, 2021 12:10 PM |
Goliath.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | July 27, 2021 12:13 PM |
I've some business with her mother.
See, it's business.
Oh, no doubt! But the business with her mother Would be hardly the business I'd worry about.
by Anonymous | reply 133 | July 27, 2021 1:05 PM |
Most important artist, period, r116
by Anonymous | reply 134 | July 27, 2021 1:11 PM |
He needs me George, I mean he kneads me
by Anonymous | reply 135 | July 27, 2021 1:19 PM |
A maid! A maid? A maid? A maid!!!
by Anonymous | reply 136 | July 27, 2021 1:31 PM |
So which show is being cited here the most? [italic]Woods[/italic]?
by Anonymous | reply 137 | July 27, 2021 2:13 PM |
Skittering down the hallway
Flittering through the parlor
Tittering in the pantry
Littering up the bedroom
by Anonymous | reply 138 | July 27, 2021 2:21 PM |
"We lose things
And then we choose things
And there are Louis
And there are Georges
Well...
Louis...
And George"
I always found that moment so poignant. It really captures that rebound relationship right after a really passionate affair breaks up. No one can compare. Sondheim is so great about capturing the human experience.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | July 27, 2021 5:10 PM |
I am going to the Lordy I am so glad
by Anonymous | reply 140 | July 27, 2021 5:12 PM |
Love is a lecture on how to correct yer mistakes
by Anonymous | reply 141 | July 27, 2021 5:20 PM |
It's intolerable being tolerated.
by Anonymous | reply 142 | July 27, 2021 5:37 PM |
Whatcha thinking? Barcelona. Oh …. Flight Eighteen.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | July 27, 2021 7:17 PM |
This stuff is all really mind-boggling.
by Anonymous | reply 144 | July 27, 2021 9:41 PM |
If you want to bump it, bump it with a trumpet.
by Anonymous | reply 145 | July 27, 2021 10:39 PM |
Here's to us.
Who's like us?
Damn few.
by Anonymous | reply 146 | July 27, 2021 10:59 PM |
That's actually Sondheim quoting Scottish poet Robert Burns, R146.
by Anonymous | reply 147 | July 27, 2021 11:06 PM |
...which is a toast that he and his Williams friends used--and that's why he used it in Merrily.
by Anonymous | reply 148 | July 28, 2021 2:44 AM |
Long as you ignore you’re the only thing that matters feeling!
by Anonymous | reply 149 | July 28, 2021 5:40 AM |
I meant - long as you ignore me you’re the only thing that matters feeling!
by Anonymous | reply 150 | July 28, 2021 5:42 AM |
[quote]I meant - long as you ignore me you’re the only thing that matters feeling!
We knew. We all knew. Every single one of us knew.
It's just that sort of thread.
by Anonymous | reply 151 | July 28, 2021 12:48 PM |
"Where are we to go? Where are we ever to go?"
by Anonymous | reply 152 | July 28, 2021 1:05 PM |
"And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between."
by Anonymous | reply 153 | July 28, 2021 1:07 PM |
"It justifies...the beans!"
by Anonymous | reply 154 | July 28, 2021 1:08 PM |
I’m someone to be loved. And that I learned from you.
by Anonymous | reply 155 | July 28, 2021 1:10 PM |
"You'll never get away from me." Love song, or threat?
by Anonymous | reply 156 | July 28, 2021 2:04 PM |
r156
both
by Anonymous | reply 157 | July 28, 2021 2:11 PM |
Yup, that's the genius of it. [italic](That was kinda my point, but whatever.)[/italic]
by Anonymous | reply 158 | July 28, 2021 2:12 PM |
But Herbie gets away. It's Louise who doesn't.
by Anonymous | reply 159 | July 28, 2021 2:14 PM |
How can you slip and trip into a hipbath?
by Anonymous | reply 160 | July 28, 2021 4:35 PM |
Oh, no you don’t. No, not a chance. No arguments, shut up and dance.
by Anonymous | reply 161 | July 28, 2021 6:06 PM |
Depending on the actress playing Rose and her ability to portray warmth, "You'll Never Get Away From Me" can indeed be played as more threat than cute love song.
by Anonymous | reply 162 | July 28, 2021 6:33 PM |
My Dears...
by Anonymous | reply 163 | July 28, 2021 6:53 PM |
I got through Shirley Temple.
by Anonymous | reply 164 | July 28, 2021 6:55 PM |
I hate that line, r164!
by Anonymous | reply 165 | July 28, 2021 6:57 PM |
I got through Brenda Frazier!
by Anonymous | reply 166 | July 28, 2021 6:57 PM |
Sorry, r165, we posted at the same time.
by Anonymous | reply 167 | July 28, 2021 7:02 PM |
Danced in my shanties ...
by Anonymous | reply 168 | July 28, 2021 7:22 PM |
scanties.
by Anonymous | reply 169 | July 28, 2021 7:23 PM |
I got through Barbara Walters.....LINE!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 170 | July 28, 2021 7:54 PM |
Pantaloons and tunics!
Courtesans and eunuchs!
Funerals and chases!
Baritones and basses!
Panderers!
Philanderers!
Cupidity!
Timidity!
Mistakes!
Fakes!
Rhymes!
Crimes!
Tumblers!
Grumblers!
Bumblers!
Fumblers!
by Anonymous | reply 171 | July 28, 2021 9:20 PM |
"Had heebie-jeebies for Beebe's bathysphere."
Even Sondheim can't nail them all.
by Anonymous | reply 172 | July 28, 2021 9:24 PM |
Sondheim really knew how to capture the culture around him. If I were to describe NYC in the 1970s, this would be part of it.
It's a city of strangers, Some come to work, some to play
A city of strangers, Some come to stare, some to stay
And every day, The ones who stay
Can find each other in the crowded streets and the guarded parks
By the rusty fountains and the dusty trees with the battered barks
And they walk together past the postered walls with the crude remarks
And they meet at parties through the friends-of-friends, who they never know
"Will you pick me up, or do I meet you there, or shall we let it go?
Did you get my message? 'Cause I looked in vain
Can we see each other Tuesday if it doesn't rain?
Look, I'll call you in the morning, or my service'll explain."
And another hundred people just got off of the train
by Anonymous | reply 173 | July 28, 2021 9:28 PM |
What R27 said...
by Anonymous | reply 174 | July 28, 2021 10:16 PM |
The maudlin sentimentality of the big "Into the Woods" ballads is cringeworthy to me. I already knew how popular they were, but sheesh!
I love that someone has sneaked in a Bernie Taupin lyric, he's also a genius!
by Anonymous | reply 175 | July 29, 2021 12:29 AM |
I’m Lovely! All I am is Lovely. Lovely is the one thing I can do!
by Anonymous | reply 176 | July 29, 2021 12:33 AM |
These helmets weigh alot on us
by Anonymous | reply 177 | July 29, 2021 1:22 AM |
Bump it like a strumpet!
by Anonymous | reply 178 | July 29, 2021 3:23 AM |
In view of her penchant for something romantic/DeSade is too trenchant and Dickens too frantic/And Stendhal would ruin the plan of attack/As there isn't much blue in The Red and the Black.
DeMaupassant's candor would cause her dismay/The Brontes are grander but not very gay/Her taste is much blander I'm sorry to say/But is Hans Christian Andersen ever risque?/Which eliminates A...
by Anonymous | reply 179 | July 29, 2021 8:02 PM |
I hear a crane making street repairs
A two ton child running wild upstairs
Steam pipes bang, sirens clang,
And what more do I need?
by Anonymous | reply 180 | July 30, 2021 4:09 AM |
Clothes don't make the man, God knows,
But I wouldn't be surprised if that man made those clothes.
by Anonymous | reply 181 | July 30, 2021 5:36 AM |
A love as pure as breath
As permanent as death
Implacable as stone.
(That's Bobby grown up.)
by Anonymous | reply 182 | July 30, 2021 5:38 AM |
In the depths of her interior
Were fears she was inferior,
And something even eerier...
But no one dared to query her
Superior exterior!
by Anonymous | reply 183 | July 30, 2021 5:42 AM |
This year Japan will export 16 million kilograms monosodium glutamate and 400,000 tons of polyvinyl chloride resin.
Next!
by Anonymous | reply 184 | July 30, 2021 5:47 AM |
BOTH: It could be so nice
If Momma got married to stay
LOUISE: But Momma gets married
JUNE:
And...
LOUISE:
Married
JUNE:
And...
LOUISE: Married
BOTH:
And never gets carried away
Oh, Momma...
Oh, Momma...
Oh, Momma...
Get married today!
by Anonymous | reply 185 | July 30, 2021 8:27 AM |
Startin' now I
Bat a thousand
This time boys I'M takin' the bows and
EVERYTHING'S COMIN' UP ROSE
EVERYTHING'S COMIN' UP ROSES
EVERYTHING'S COMIN' UP ROSES
This time for ME
For me
FOR ME
FOR ME
FOR ME
FOR ME
FORRRR MEEEEEEEEEEE
by Anonymous | reply 186 | July 30, 2021 8:36 AM |
Someone in another thread recently mentioned how tasteless it was when Ethel bared her breasts during Rose's Turn.
"How ya like THEM eggrolls, MISTER Goldstone?"
by Anonymous | reply 187 | July 30, 2021 8:44 AM |
You should have seen what happened out of town before Ethel replaced Helen Lawson.
HOLD YOUR HATS AND HALLELUJAH MAMA'S GOING TO SHOW IT TO YA!
by Anonymous | reply 188 | July 30, 2021 8:50 AM |
Didn't Patti LewdPony perform an actual striptease and do the full monty during Rose's Turn? Isn't that why she screamed at a member of the audience one night after he threw up and yelled "No one wants to see that pussy and those droopy dachshunds, PLuP!"?
by Anonymous | reply 189 | July 30, 2021 9:08 AM |
R187 Mama like! Mama like!
by Anonymous | reply 190 | July 30, 2021 9:13 AM |
"...as pure as breath"
Uhhhhh... I dunno, Steve. I don't know about that one.
by Anonymous | reply 191 | July 30, 2021 3:40 PM |
All those photos up on the wall - with love filling the days, with love seventy ways.,,,,
by Anonymous | reply 192 | July 31, 2021 9:24 AM |
OK, now, everybody.....
by Anonymous | reply 193 | July 31, 2021 9:28 AM |
There's not a tune you can hum.
There's not a tune you go dum dum, dum dum, dum de dum,
You need a tune you can dum dum, dum dum, dum de dum,
Give me a melody!
Why can't you throw 'em a crumb?
What's wrong with letting 'em tap their toes a bit?
I'll let you know when Stravinsky has a hit.
Give me some melody!
by Anonymous | reply 194 | July 31, 2021 9:37 AM |
Did you hear what you just said, Kiddo?
by Anonymous | reply 195 | July 31, 2021 10:12 AM |
Alone and alive on a Saturday night is dead
by Anonymous | reply 196 | July 31, 2021 12:36 PM |
Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there
by Anonymous | reply 197 | July 31, 2021 12:41 PM |
"While you're tied up, let me see you writhe"
by Anonymous | reply 198 | July 31, 2021 1:51 PM |
[quote] "While you're tied up, let me see you writhe"
Your body is achingly lithe.
Not at all wrinkled or hairy
And then in walks Angela Lansbury
by Anonymous | reply 199 | July 31, 2021 2:00 PM |
Or was it that bitch
Miss Elaine Stritch?
I'm now ninety-one
And my memory's done
by Anonymous | reply 200 | July 31, 2021 2:09 PM |
hairy/Lansbury? You're not worthy r199
And "furry" was just within your grasp.
by Anonymous | reply 201 | July 31, 2021 2:09 PM |
[quote] And "furry" was just within your grasp.
Her name is not pronounced “burree” it’s pronounced “berry”.
by Anonymous | reply 202 | July 31, 2021 3:24 PM |
R202, only in the American pronunciation of her name, no? In Britain wouldn't her name be pronounced Lans-bree?
by Anonymous | reply 203 | July 31, 2021 4:10 PM |
But in no land is it pronounced to rhyme with “hairy” Plus it would require a feminine rhyme, including the LANS since that’s where the accent falls
Every day a little death r199
by Anonymous | reply 204 | July 31, 2021 4:19 PM |
I have a moo cow, a new cow a true cow named Caroline! Moo, moo, moo, moo …
by Anonymous | reply 205 | July 31, 2021 8:17 PM |
Moo-ve Over!
by Anonymous | reply 206 | July 31, 2021 8:18 PM |
Night descends and the moon's aglow
Your arms entwined
You steal below
And far behind
At the edge of day
The bong of the bell of the buoy in the bay
And the boy and the bride and the boat are away
by Anonymous | reply 207 | July 31, 2021 9:21 PM |
r121 is one of my Top 10
by Anonymous | reply 208 | July 31, 2021 9:47 PM |
It's not a quintissential lyric as such, but I always love how that song "Your Fault" is constructed, especially how throughout the song as they all accuse each other, you hear Little Red Riding Hood chirping: "So it's your fault!" until it's her turn: "So it's [italic]your[/italic] fault!" they say and she's like: "Wait a minute!"
by Anonymous | reply 209 | July 31, 2021 10:19 PM |
R208 Thanks
by Anonymous | reply 210 | July 31, 2021 10:49 PM |
Someone to hold you too close
Someone to hurt you too deep
Someone to sit in your chair
And ruin your sleep...
Someone to need you too much
Someone to know you too well
Someone to pull you up short
To put you through hell...
Someone you have to let in
Someone whose feelings you spare
Someone who, like it or not
Will want you to share
A little, a lot...
Someone to crowd you with love
Someone to force you to care
Someone to make you come through
Who'll always be there
As frightened as you
Of being alive
Being alive
Somebody hold me too close
Somebody hurt me too deep
Somebody sit in my chair
And ruin my sleep
And make me aware
Of being alive
Being alive
Somebody need me too much
Somebody know me too well
Somebody pull me up short
And put me through hell
And give me support
For being alive
Make me alive
Make me alive
Make me confused
Mock me with praise
Let me be used
Vary my days
But alone...
Is alone...
Not alive
Somebody crowd me with love
Somebody force me to care
Somebody let come through
I'll always be there
As frightened as you
To help us survive
Being alive
Being alive
Being alive!
by Anonymous | reply 211 | August 1, 2021 12:48 AM |
you have too much time on your hands, 211
by Anonymous | reply 212 | August 1, 2021 2:37 AM |
R112
But alone...
Is alone...
Not alive
(...and these are Sondheim's quintessential lyrics)
by Anonymous | reply 213 | August 1, 2021 4:59 AM |
Unpack the luggage, la la la
Pack up the luggage, la la la
Unpack the luggage, la la la
Hi-ho, the glamorous life!
by Anonymous | reply 214 | August 1, 2021 6:24 AM |
I've got the God-why-don't-you-love-me-oh-you-do-I'll-see-ya-later blues.
Bobby in Company and Buddy in Follies were all from the same period. What was Sondheim going through that he wrote men playing the 'withholding' dance of seduction so well?
by Anonymous | reply 215 | August 1, 2021 8:21 AM |
"Being Alive" is the whiniest song ever written.
I hate Bobby and I hate his stupid song. Every woman in the show is too good for him. Every man, too. Bleccchhhhh.
by Anonymous | reply 216 | August 1, 2021 10:19 AM |
[quote] Every woman in the show is too good for him. Every man, too. Bleccchhhhh.
I know what you mean r216 I've often felt that way, probably most with mopey, navel-gazing Papi Esparza and - surprising me - least with NPH who kept it lighter but not shallow. Barrowman in DC was OK. I'm too young to have seen Jones or Kert.
by Anonymous | reply 217 | August 1, 2021 11:59 AM |
Being Alive is a cringey song
by Anonymous | reply 218 | August 1, 2021 12:13 PM |
Ordinary mothers needn't meet committees,
But ordinary mothers don't get keys to cities.
No, ordinary mothers merely see their children all year -
Which is lovely, I hear,
But it does interfere
With the glamorous life.
by Anonymous | reply 219 | August 1, 2021 12:22 PM |
Mais oui, we may
by Anonymous | reply 220 | August 1, 2021 12:40 PM |
It's a very short road
From the pinch and the punch
To the paunch and the pouch
And the pension.
by Anonymous | reply 221 | August 1, 2021 1:19 PM |
The truth of There's Another National Anthem was proved conclusively on January 6.
It's not 'quintessentially Sondheim' but it might be quintessentially America.
by Anonymous | reply 222 | August 1, 2021 1:37 PM |
Looky, looky, here comes cookie now
Little cookie playing hooky, that we won’t allow
by Anonymous | reply 223 | August 1, 2021 7:34 PM |
Don’t you love farts?
My fault, I fear…
by Anonymous | reply 224 | August 1, 2021 8:36 PM |
Did you just crack yourself up r224?
by Anonymous | reply 225 | August 1, 2021 11:21 PM |
I admit. R224 made me laugh.
by Anonymous | reply 226 | August 2, 2021 12:13 AM |
We said, “Ok, no rumpus, no tricks.” But just in case they jump us, we’re ready to mix! Tonight!”
by Anonymous | reply 227 | August 2, 2021 11:10 PM |
Well, since we have now quoted just about every lyric the man ever wrote, can we now just admit we have beaten this topic to death?
by Anonymous | reply 228 | August 2, 2021 11:16 PM |
Oh, no, Anita! No!
by Anonymous | reply 229 | August 3, 2021 1:08 AM |
It would be fresh if we addressed the topic instead of just repeating our favorite lyrics. The way I interpret the question is, What do we think is the lyric Sondheim should have on his gravestone? (Many, many years from now, Steve!)
Clearly there will be two sets of answers to this: those who offer the small section of lyric they really think is closest to revealing or summarizing him; and those who go for cheap laughs. Might as well hold back the tide as tell DL to be serious.
by Anonymous | reply 230 | August 3, 2021 2:04 AM |
Okay, R230. I've known Steve for a lot of years. I think the perfect lyric for his memorial would be:
What's hard is simple
What's natural comes hard
Maybe you could show me
How to let go
Lower my guard
Learn to be free
Maybe if you whistle
Whistle for me
by Anonymous | reply 231 | August 3, 2021 2:07 AM |
Yes! The first two lines alone, I think.
by Anonymous | reply 232 | August 3, 2021 2:19 AM |
Put your lips together and blow
Pig
by Anonymous | reply 233 | August 3, 2021 2:45 AM |
Every jot and tittle adds to the pot--
Soon you got the kit as well as the kaboodle!
by Anonymous | reply 234 | August 3, 2021 2:58 AM |
I want to eat a priest.
Have some cat.
Was it named Joanne?
by Anonymous | reply 235 | August 3, 2021 2:59 AM |
Don't you love farts?
My fault, I fear.
by Anonymous | reply 236 | August 3, 2021 3:00 AM |
Yes, of course, I know.
Some things need to be repeated to release the pre-adolescent gatling's voice in one's head.
by Anonymous | reply 237 | August 3, 2021 3:01 AM |
"Such a lovely, dreamy kind of lyric"
No, it's the music that's lovely and dreamy. All those chromatics.
"And though I'll think of you, I guess/Until the day I die/I think I miss you less and less/As every day goes by"
Then why should the audience care?
"Completely shattered by Saturday night"
Now that's an internal rhyme worth noting.
"When you're back to "or"/Makes the "or" mean more/Than it did before/Now I understand/And it's time to leave the woods"
At which point the audience is sleeping, too exhausted to keep track or care.
by Anonymous | reply 238 | August 3, 2021 3:09 AM |
Yvonne DeCarlo: I'm still here!
Angela Lansbury: No you're not.
Ann Miller: I'm still here!
Angela Lansbury: No you're not.
Polly Bergen: I'm still here!
Angela Lansbury: No you're not.
Dorothy Loudon: I'm still here!
Angela Lansbury: No you're not.
Dolores Gray: I'm still here!
Angela Lansbury: No you're not.
Nancy Walker: I'm still here!
Angela Lansbury: No you're not.
Elaine Stritch: I'm still here!
Angela Lansbury: Oh no you're not.
Elaine Paige: I'm still here.
Angela Lansbury: Big fucking deal, Miss Bickerstaff.
by Anonymous | reply 239 | August 3, 2021 3:12 AM |
'There's a lot that I missed but I sure wasn't dead when I died.'
by Anonymous | reply 240 | August 3, 2021 3:31 AM |
So please, don't fart,
There's very little air and this is art.
by Anonymous | reply 241 | August 3, 2021 3:50 AM |
Eventually we'll get to the catharsis then depart...
by Anonymous | reply 242 | August 3, 2021 4:40 AM |
Green finch and linnet bird, Nightingale, blackbird, How is it you sing? How can you jubilate, Sitting in cages, Never taking wing?
by Anonymous | reply 243 | August 3, 2021 4:46 AM |
There is no other way...
by Anonymous | reply 244 | August 3, 2021 4:48 AM |
You know why I did it? Cause there isn’t any Santa Claus.
by Anonymous | reply 245 | August 3, 2021 8:39 AM |
Clutching a copy of "Life", just to keep in touch.
by Anonymous | reply 246 | August 3, 2021 9:53 AM |
I am listening to Lapine on Fresh Air. No one wants him, they just want to talk about Sondheim. Poor thing.
by Anonymous | reply 247 | August 3, 2021 6:24 PM |
Reassure Henrik, Poor Henrik. Henrik, you'll endure Being pure, Henrik." Though I've been born, I've never been! How can I wait around for later? I'll be ninety on my deathbead And the late, or, rather, later, Henrik Egerman.
Doesn't anything begin?
by Anonymous | reply 248 | August 3, 2021 7:01 PM |
So here's to the girls on the go-- Everybody tries. Look into their eyes, And you'll see what they know: Everybody dies. A toast to that invincible bunch, The dinosaurs surviving the crunch. Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch
by Anonymous | reply 249 | August 3, 2021 7:08 PM |
Every day a little sting Every day a little dies In the heart and in the head. In the looks and in the lies. Every move and every breath, And you hardly feel a thing Brings a perfect little death.
by Anonymous | reply 250 | August 3, 2021 7:11 PM |
And no, not a day goes by,
Not a blessed day
But you're still somehow part of my life
And you won't go away
So there's hell to pay,
And until I die,
I'll die day after day after day after day,
After day after day after day,
Till the days go by.
by Anonymous | reply 251 | August 3, 2021 8:12 PM |
Artists are bizarre. Fixed. Cold.
by Anonymous | reply 252 | August 3, 2021 11:52 PM |
I could understand a person if he actually was dead
by Anonymous | reply 253 | August 4, 2021 2:08 AM |
I could understand a person, if a person was a fag.
by Anonymous | reply 254 | August 4, 2021 2:16 AM |
Shit--I shot it!
by Anonymous | reply 255 | August 4, 2021 2:30 AM |
How ridiculous. To be looking at her and be thinking of you.
by Anonymous | reply 256 | August 4, 2021 1:34 PM |
Ruff.
by Anonymous | reply 257 | August 6, 2021 11:54 AM |
The brother you prize keeps telling you lies you better goddamn well know how to goddamn — Oh goddamn you!
by Anonymous | reply 258 | August 6, 2021 12:15 PM |
A spark to pierce the dark
From Battery Park
To Washington Heights
by Anonymous | reply 259 | August 6, 2021 9:40 PM |
Putting thoughts of you aside in the south of France. Would I think of suicide? Darling, shall we dance?
by Anonymous | reply 260 | August 6, 2021 11:21 PM |
I mean, big surprise, People love you and tell you lies.
by Anonymous | reply 261 | August 8, 2021 2:23 AM |
My favorite Sondheim lyric is "And if you're under him, you ain't getting over him". Pure genius.
by Anonymous | reply 262 | August 8, 2021 3:15 AM |
[quote]People love you and tell you lies.
I got the lyric the first time I heard it but I'm ashamed at how many years it took to get me to accept it.
by Anonymous | reply 263 | August 8, 2021 4:23 AM |
^ Now i know.
by Anonymous | reply 264 | August 8, 2021 4:31 AM |
Even Cream of Wheat has lumps
by Anonymous | reply 265 | August 8, 2021 2:56 PM |
Oh, oh,
Think of her at the dustbin
'Specially when she's just been
Traipsing about
Oh, oh,
Wouldn't she be delightful
Living in,
Giving out
I love all the lyrics to "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid." Such delicious dirty old men high testosterone and making fools of themselves. Just wonderful.,
by Anonymous | reply 266 | August 8, 2021 3:00 PM |
It must be the heat or some rare disease. Or too much to eat or maybe it’s fleas.
by Anonymous | reply 267 | August 8, 2021 3:04 PM |
Men are stupid, men are vain, Love's disgusting, love's insane, A humiliating business.
by Anonymous | reply 268 | August 8, 2021 10:59 PM |
Oh, how true!
by Anonymous | reply 269 | August 9, 2021 3:10 AM |
Well played, R269. Well played.
by Anonymous | reply 270 | August 9, 2021 11:41 AM |
Bump it with a trumpet.
by Anonymous | reply 271 | August 16, 2021 12:56 PM |
Little known but true story:
Sondheim wrote the lyrics: "Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Let me love you, Chaka Khan"
by Anonymous | reply 272 | August 16, 2021 3:42 PM |
r272 = thread-killer
by Anonymous | reply 273 | August 17, 2021 7:58 PM |
People you annoy together, children you destroy together
by Anonymous | reply 274 | August 17, 2021 8:11 PM |
Getting a divorce together (which I think doesn't mean doing it together but "getting it together" which makes it more fun
by Anonymous | reply 275 | August 17, 2021 8:12 PM |
I don't need a lot
Only what I got
Plus a tube of greasepaint
And a follow-spot
by Anonymous | reply 276 | August 17, 2021 11:42 PM |
I remember snow
Soft as feathers
Sharp as thumbtacks
Coming down like lint
And it made you squint
When the wind would blow
And ice like vinyl
On the streets
Cold as silver
White as sheets
Rain like strings
And changing things
Like leaves
I remember leaves
Green as spearmint
Crisp as paper
I remember trees
Bare as coat racks
Spread like broken umbrellas…
by Anonymous | reply 277 | August 18, 2021 12:39 AM |
[APRIL] That's not to say...
That if I had my way...
Oh well, I guess, OK
[ROBERT] What?
[APRIL] I'll stay
[ROBERT] But...oh God!
by Anonymous | reply 278 | August 18, 2021 3:58 AM |
"Well, maybe next year."
by Anonymous | reply 279 | August 18, 2021 12:15 PM |
How [italic] DARE [/italic] the privileged white, heterosexual, cis-female Desiree Armfeldt sing "Isn't it [bold] queer[/bold]?"
That song is literal violence, especially for those of us with a fear of clowns.
by Anonymous | reply 280 | August 18, 2021 1:33 PM |
^ Don't look up the original lyrics to You Could Drive a person Crazy, r280.
by Anonymous | reply 281 | August 18, 2021 1:39 PM |
Just watched/listened to Bernadette Peters rendition of “You Are Not Alone” on YouTube. Sublime performance. Do yourself a favor and check it out…
by Anonymous | reply 282 | August 18, 2021 11:19 PM |
Doe she cry?
by Anonymous | reply 283 | August 18, 2021 11:25 PM |
Do you mean No One Is Alone?
by Anonymous | reply 284 | August 18, 2021 11:25 PM |
Yes, r284, my mistake
by Anonymous | reply 285 | August 19, 2021 12:17 AM |
total cheat and no damn fun if you quote an [italic]entire[/italic] song
by Anonymous | reply 286 | August 19, 2021 12:53 PM |
Loving you is not a choice. It’s who I am.
by Anonymous | reply 287 | August 19, 2021 1:11 PM |
Iny weeny teeny weeny Shriveled little short dick man
by Anonymous | reply 288 | August 19, 2021 1:47 PM |
......with enormous talent
by Anonymous | reply 289 | August 20, 2021 12:30 AM |
In a world where the princes are lawyers,
What can anyone expect
Except to recollect
Lia....
by Anonymous | reply 290 | August 24, 2021 1:06 PM |
In the castle of the King of the Belgians
We would visit through a false chiffonier
Picture that. Imagine Hermione Gingold and some old coot 'visiting through a false chiffonier.' EEEEK!
Where did he get that idea??? Did he invent it entirely? Or, is it something he saw once? In literature? In a museum? Has he ever explained this in any book or interview?
It's a lyric that just makes you seriously wonder about its author.
by Anonymous | reply 291 | August 24, 2021 1:17 PM |
The role was written before Gingold was cast, r291. She evidently stopped the auditions by letting her wig slip off her head to reveal her bare scalp at the end.
Gingold recorded this number four times that I know of: The OBCR, the London OCR, the film soundtrack (the number was cut from the film but the recording is on youtube) and the Sondheim tribute concert with the Scrabble cover.
By far the best is the London cast recording, which is so much more poignant and nuanced than the Broadway recording but I couldn't find it on youtube. So here is the OBCR.
by Anonymous | reply 292 | August 24, 2021 1:41 PM |
I was going to post more lyrics from Liaisons but you can find them by searching google for "liaisons sondheim lyrics."
Meanwhile the divine opera diva Regina Reznick gave a very different but equally wonderful performance in the role at The New York City Opera in the early 1990s.
by Anonymous | reply 293 | August 24, 2021 2:49 PM |
by Anonymous | reply 294 | August 24, 2021 4:22 PM |
I can’t stand Sondheim trite lyrics.
by Anonymous | reply 295 | August 24, 2021 4:25 PM |
When a person's personality is personable
He shouldn't oughta sit like a lump
It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull
To try to get you off of your rump
by Anonymous | reply 296 | August 24, 2021 4:42 PM |
I could understand a person
If it's not a person's bag
I could understand a person
If a person was a fag
etc.
by Anonymous | reply 297 | August 24, 2021 5:09 PM |
Spend sleepless nights to think about you
It's the final line of this verse: All afternoon doing every little chore / The thought of you stays bright / Sometimes I stand in the middle of the floor / Not going left - not going right / I dim the lights and think about you / Spend sleepless nights to think about you
I think Sondheim explains the depths of Sally's obsession with Ben in just seven words. She does not go to sleep so she can continue thinking about him.
I love that song (as sung by Dorothy Collins) and that one lyric always hits me hard.
by Anonymous | reply 298 | August 24, 2021 5:17 PM |
I'll never understand how that dire director Scott Ellis made that intimate little chamber opera A Little Night Music work in that barn of of a theater but he did. My friends and I left elated and the PBS broadcast was nearly as good..
by Anonymous | reply 299 | August 24, 2021 5:36 PM |
Ellis had a brilliant cast already in place when he took over, r299. You're right, he's usually awful.
by Anonymous | reply 300 | August 24, 2021 6:12 PM |
who'd he take over for? What's that story?
by Anonymous | reply 301 | August 24, 2021 6:25 PM |
R298, that's the part that hits me as well. Had a relationship like that with someone once and that song hits those emotions right on the head.
by Anonymous | reply 302 | August 24, 2021 6:53 PM |
You said you loved me
Or were you just being kind
That's the lyric that tells us what a hot fucking mess Sally really is. NO, it's not kind to say to someone "I love you," when you do not love them. It's cruel and selfish and cowardly and poor fucked up Sally just doesn't get any of it.
No, Sally. Ben was not being kind to you. Ben doesn't care about you. You are just entirely fucked up.
by Anonymous | reply 303 | August 24, 2021 6:56 PM |
"You said you loved me, or were you just being kind? Or am I losing my mind?"
Yes, Sally, you're just nuts and you're losing your mind. Get over it and just move along like the rest of us did.
by Anonymous | reply 304 | August 24, 2021 7:03 PM |
Yes, Sally, you could have just put out your tail once for some hot Polish super and ended up in a decent rent controlled apartment in the West 40s or Chelsea. But instead you decided to move to Phoenix. PHOENIX!
Don't come crying to us now over your poor mistakes.
by Anonymous | reply 305 | August 24, 2021 7:43 PM |
Look into their eyes, And you'll see what they know: Everybody dies.
by Anonymous | reply 306 | August 24, 2021 8:42 PM |
Okay, R298 here with the clip of Dorothy Collins singing "Losing My Mind." Unlike later renditions, this performance is NOT overwrought... her Sally is not crazy, but she's troubled and by the end, after being defiant, i think she knows she has a problem.
I think the performance is from The Mike Douglas Show...
by Anonymous | reply 307 | August 24, 2021 8:47 PM |
r307 simplicity that should be required viewing for all everyone performing today. and ([italic]I know, Mary![/italic]) that ascending thing in the accompaniment that starts at @1:26 is fucking genius
by Anonymous | reply 309 | August 24, 2021 9:03 PM |
R309, that was Tunick, not Sondheim, who put that ascending thing into the orchestration. How he dared.
Meanwhile it's well documented that it was Alexis Smith who went to the creatives and said "This number isn't for me, give it to Dorothy." I've always wondered how Dorothy and the authors reacted to that. Because Alexis was so right.
by Anonymous | reply 310 | August 24, 2021 9:21 PM |
^ I didn't mean to imply that Smith was putting down Collins. She loved the song but thought Collins was much better suited for it than she was. She was right.
by Anonymous | reply 311 | August 24, 2021 9:57 PM |
So you're saying Losing My Mind was originally written as Smith's 11 o'clock song?
by Anonymous | reply 312 | August 24, 2021 10:09 PM |
Yes. Read Ted Chaplin's book. After rehearsing it she went to Prince, Sondheim and Bennett and said, this isn't my song, Dorothy should have it. And she was so right.
by Anonymous | reply 313 | August 24, 2021 10:15 PM |
by Anonymous | reply 314 | August 24, 2021 10:30 PM |
OMG not the Alexis-smith-had-them-give-Losing-My-Mind-to-Dorothy-Collins story.
by Anonymous | reply 315 | August 24, 2021 11:04 PM |
Is the story not correct, r315?
by Anonymous | reply 316 | August 24, 2021 11:09 PM |
And they never got that last Follies song quite right, did they? First Uptown/Downtown out of town, and then the barely rewritten version The Story of Lucy and Jessie in New York because Bennett complained he was just drawing a blank on staging Uptown/Downtown. And then that version for the London production 15 years later, I can't remember the name but it ended with "Sometimes when the wrappings fall/There's nothing underneath at all!" for Dianna Rigg to sing without really having to dance.
Kind of like Kern and Hammerstein never getting that last number of Showboat just right. Their first try, It's Getting Hotter in the North is my favorite, with that minor chord rippling through the orchestration.
by Anonymous | reply 317 | August 24, 2021 11:57 PM |
And here's what Bennett finally came up with for Smith's 11 o'clock number, bless his heart.
by Anonymous | reply 318 | August 25, 2021 12:09 AM |
Uptown/Downtown and Lucy and Jessie were both cheap ripoffs of The Saga of Jenny and Here's to Dr. Crippen. Way to go, Kurt.
by Anonymous | reply 319 | August 25, 2021 12:18 AM |
Dorothy Collins was second runner up for both She Loves Me and Do I Hear a Waltz. She lost She Loves Me because Barbara Cook was better Box Office and she lost Do I Hear a Waltz because Elizabeth Allen was sleeping with old, decrepit Richard Rodgers. But weren't they all? That was usually how you got cast in a Rodgers show.
by Anonymous | reply 320 | August 25, 2021 12:54 AM |
Yep, Rodgers first put Shirley Jones in the chorus of South Pacific and then in the chorus of Me and Juliet and kept telling her to just hang on, he had much bigger plans for her. Then the film of Oklahoma! came along....
by Anonymous | reply 321 | August 25, 2021 1:07 AM |
And old Dick just kept fucking along, like Ol' Man River.
by Anonymous | reply 322 | August 25, 2021 1:12 AM |
Dorothy Rodgers must have really loved being Mrs. Richard Rodgers to put up with what she did.
by Anonymous | reply 323 | August 25, 2021 1:19 AM |
“I love ya, Darlene.I love ya. Boom. Squish”.
by Anonymous | reply 324 | August 25, 2021 1:23 AM |
"Wishes come true, not free."
by Anonymous | reply 325 | August 25, 2021 1:28 AM |
For the sweet innocent at R291, he read it in history. Practically every Royal palace, and many another grand home, has secret passageways and entry places for the King's/Duke's/etc lovers (or conversely, to hide the owner from invading forces). A false chiffonnier could well have been one of them - or Sondheim could have just enjoyed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in his youth.
I think it's Neuschwannstein that has an entire concealed walkway within the walls to allow servants to come from downstairs to upstairs, emerging through various well concealed points in the hallways so they could pick the one closest to the room that had rung for them.
by Anonymous | reply 326 | August 25, 2021 1:50 AM |
[quote]he read it in history.
And you know that how?
by Anonymous | reply 327 | August 25, 2021 2:02 AM |
Er, because he has an education? It's a really, really well-known fact.
by Anonymous | reply 328 | August 25, 2021 2:12 AM |
We all know about passageways in elegant residences. Duh. The most exacting lyricist in the American theater makes no reference to passageways in the song. If he intended passageways, they would be there.
The question hinges on the word "visit," not the hallways that are wholly a contribution of R326. Some of you dull girls are giving the word a very benign and unimaginative interpretation, given that it was penned by Stephen Sondheim. He tells you that they would visit through a false chiffonier. I don't think this visit was a chat about politics or the weather. I think he's described a very high-toned late 19th century glory hole, or its rough equivalent.
And where did Sondheim get that idea? Has he discussed it?
by Anonymous | reply 329 | August 25, 2021 3:09 AM |
I can't quite imagine Dolores Gray fucking Richard Rodgers. Maybe with a strap-on.
by Anonymous | reply 330 | August 25, 2021 3:22 AM |
"She does not go to sleep so she can continue thinking about him."
Oh, please, it's so much simpler. She can't sleep because she can't stop thinking about him. Like anyone with a problem on their minds.
by Anonymous | reply 331 | August 25, 2021 3:52 AM |
R317 The song is Ah! but Underneath
by Anonymous | reply 332 | August 25, 2021 3:52 AM |
I know Gray occasionally sang Rodgers' music but when did she ever play in one of his shows?
by Anonymous | reply 333 | August 25, 2021 3:53 AM |
He produced "Annie Get Your Gun" and when giving the rights to a UK producer, Rodgers insisted on casting the role.
by Anonymous | reply 334 | August 25, 2021 3:54 AM |
Thanks, r332.
by Anonymous | reply 335 | August 25, 2021 3:55 AM |
R331 It’s less poetic the way you put it
by Anonymous | reply 336 | August 25, 2021 3:56 AM |
The lyric is "Sleepless nights TO think about you." That was very deliberate and Dorothy Collins plays that quite clearly in the David Frost clip.
by Anonymous | reply 337 | August 25, 2021 3:58 AM |
And thank you, r334, you're entirely right. R&H produced AGYG and Rodgers always controlled the casting of his shows very carefully. Howard Keel was Frank in the London Annie, after understudying both Curly and Billy Bigelow on Broadway and while he was there he starred in a cheap black and white cop movie, which is how he got to play Frank in MGM's film version of Annie. He'd basically had a screen test in addition to Rodgers' recommendation.
by Anonymous | reply 338 | August 25, 2021 4:08 AM |
It's the fragment, not the day
It's the pebble, not the stream
It's the ripple, not the sea
That is happening
Not the building but the beam
Not the garden but the stone
Only cups of tea
And history
And someone in a tree
by Anonymous | reply 339 | August 25, 2021 4:18 AM |
Howard Keel famously went on for Curly one Saturday afternoon and for Billy on the same evening. The New York papers were all over it. It made him. He also took over the lead in the original London production of Oklahoma! to much acclaim. Elizabeth saw him as Curly and loved it and him.
by Anonymous | reply 340 | August 25, 2021 4:29 AM |
R319 The Follies songs are all meant to be pastiches
by Anonymous | reply 341 | August 25, 2021 4:33 AM |
[quote]Dorothy Rodgers must have really loved being Mrs. Richard Rodgers to put up with what she did.
Mary Rodgers once promised to tell all after all her contemporaries, especially Arthur Laurents, had died. But she didn't.
And then she died.
by Anonymous | reply 342 | August 25, 2021 5:53 AM |
Mary Rodgers was a bitch.
by Anonymous | reply 343 | August 25, 2021 7:00 AM |
Yep, Mary Rodgers worked with Arthur several times and it was well known she hated him,
She told a reporter she would tell all after he died.
He died.
She never said a word,
And then she died,
Cunt.
by Anonymous | reply 344 | August 25, 2021 7:10 AM |
I love the song "Ah, but Underneath." If the follies numbers being performed at the end of act II are supposed to be the windows into each characters thinking/how they see themselves, it fits Phyllis perfectly.
She's a woman who worked to become the social doyenne that Ben needed to move up in the world. She studied hard, played her part, became miserable over the years (and was rewarded by being ignored by Ben) and always believed she really wasn't anything special... hence nothing underneath.
Of the four main characters, I've always liked Buddy and Phyllis, think they got shafted by Sally and Ben.
by Anonymous | reply 345 | August 25, 2021 9:49 AM |
Yes, R337. He was very specific about his word choice in his book. "Spend sleepless nights *to think about you."
She's so obsessed that she refuses sleep in order to obsess over him.
by Anonymous | reply 346 | August 25, 2021 10:21 AM |
Does anything about the title of this thread make you think we should be discussing Richard Rodgers affairs here?
r320 and r321 you started us on a slippery slope
by Anonymous | reply 347 | August 25, 2021 12:21 PM |
Ok, let's talk about Hal Prince's affairs.
by Anonymous | reply 348 | August 25, 2021 12:23 PM |
r348
who do I have to fuck to get out of here?
by Anonymous | reply 349 | August 25, 2021 12:27 PM |
Let’s talk about the infamous sex dungeon
by Anonymous | reply 350 | August 25, 2021 12:28 PM |
Oh, do you mean the infamous sex dungeon that no one on DL has ever seen? That one?
Doesn't exist.
by Anonymous | reply 351 | August 25, 2021 12:37 PM |
No one worth talking about fucks the writer.
by Anonymous | reply 352 | August 25, 2021 12:41 PM |
A great big house for mama.
by Anonymous | reply 353 | August 25, 2021 12:58 PM |
If it were not for the thicket
A thicket's no trick, is it thick
It's the thickest
The quickest is pick it apart with a stick
Yes but even one prick, it's my thing about blood
Well it's sick
It's no sicker than your thing about dwarfs
Dwarves
Dwarfs
Dwarves are very upsetting
Not forgetting
The task's unachievable, mountains unscalable
If it's conceivable but unavailable
Ah
Agony, misery, woe not to know what you miss
While they lie there for years
And you cry on their biers
What unbearable bliss
Agony that can cut like a knife
Ah well, back to my wife
by Anonymous | reply 354 | August 25, 2021 12:59 PM |
“Lyric” Greg. Not song.
by Anonymous | reply 355 | August 25, 2021 1:05 PM |
[quote] “Lyric” Greg. Not song.
Talk to R211, who really did put the entire song.
I did not. What I put is a particularly clever section of a much longer song.
So fuck off.
by Anonymous | reply 356 | August 25, 2021 1:37 PM |
R185 I love the quintuple rhyme that leads into that:
Mama, please take our advise
We aren’t the Lunts; I’m not Fanny Brice
Mama, I’ll buy you the rice
If only this once you wouldn’t think twice
It would be so nice
If Mama got married to stay…
by Anonymous | reply 357 | August 25, 2021 5:48 PM |
I may play cards all night and come home at three.
Just leave a light on the porch for me!
Well, nobody's perfect!
by Anonymous | reply 358 | August 25, 2021 7:28 PM |
R344, Mary Rodgers was asked to comment on Arthur Laurents and she said "Ask me when he's dead." Maybe she was never asked again.
by Anonymous | reply 359 | August 25, 2021 7:37 PM |
I think she was asked by Jesse Green and replied "no comment."
by Anonymous | reply 360 | August 25, 2021 11:34 PM |
Loved his song that was cut on the road in Follies - “Oy, my herpes is flaring up”.
by Anonymous | reply 361 | August 26, 2021 10:59 PM |
Laugh is you must R361, but Yvonne De Carlo sold the shit out of that song in Boston.
by Anonymous | reply 362 | August 26, 2021 11:19 PM |
True, R362 -but you know Yvonne, always going one step too far. One night she showed the audience and the song was immediately cut.
by Anonymous | reply 363 | August 27, 2021 1:46 AM |
I thjink that incident happened when Helen Lawson was still in the part, r363.
by Anonymous | reply 364 | August 27, 2021 1:49 AM |
Yvonne insisted on running the herpes lyrics, complete with gestures, backstage with Teddy Chapin.
by Anonymous | reply 365 | August 27, 2021 6:10 AM |
Loving you is not a choice
And not much reason to rejoice
by Anonymous | reply 366 | August 27, 2021 6:26 AM |
[quote] Of the four main characters, I've always liked Buddy and Phyllis, think they got shafted by Sally and Ben.
I like Phyllis too, R345. Buddy is too self-loathing and a bit mentally damaged himself, possibly due to never being accepted by Sally as anything other than the man she settled for temporarily until Ben came back for her.
I remember someone on DL writing a few years ago, during the London revival of Follies, that at the end of the show, we are left with the feeling that Phyllis is a true survivor who will be fine but the other three have all been left irreparably shattered in some way by the reunion. Didn't people use to say that Phyllis being the strongest character in that quartet was also partly why Alexis Smith may have won the Tony over Dorothy Collins?
by Anonymous | reply 367 | August 28, 2021 7:42 AM |
I don't see how Ben is irreparably shattered. He leaves with his champion.
by Anonymous | reply 368 | August 28, 2021 7:59 AM |
And Buddy has no doubt been through this shit before. I'm also not convinced Sally's idea of happiness has been riding on the reunion. She probably gets "bright ideas" all the time. She's probably a Tom Bianchi/Alan Bates.
by Anonymous | reply 369 | August 28, 2021 8:00 AM |
Stop it this is not another thread to hijack with endless Follies discussion. LYRICS only
by Anonymous | reply 370 | August 28, 2021 12:21 PM |
Everybody says don't...
by Anonymous | reply 371 | August 28, 2021 5:09 PM |
But everybody is not enough...
by Anonymous | reply 372 | August 28, 2021 5:25 PM |
You're all liars and thieves Like his father! Like his son will be too! Oh, why bother? You'll just do what you do!
by Anonymous | reply 373 | August 28, 2021 8:10 PM |
ANNE: A weekend in the country--
PETRA: We're invited?
ANNE: What a horrible plot! A weekend in the country--
PETRA: I'm excited!
ANNE: No, you're not.
PETRA: A weekend in the country, just imagine--
ANNE: It's completely depraved.
PETRA: A weekend in the country!
ANNE: It's insulting.
PETRA: It's engraved.
by Anonymous | reply 374 | August 30, 2021 1:30 AM |
Me eyelids'll flutter
I'll turn into butter
The moment I mutter, "I do"
by Anonymous | reply 375 | August 30, 2021 3:38 AM |
Look, ma'am, an invitation,
Here, ma'am, delivered by hand.
And, ma'am, I notice the station-
Ary's engraved and very grand.
Petra, how too exciting!
Just when I need it!
Petra, such elegant writing,
So chic you hardly can read it!
What do you think?
Who can it be?
Even the ink—
No, here, let me...
"Your presence"—just think of it, Petra!
"Is kindly"—it's at a chateau!
"Requested"—etcet'ra, etcet'ra,
"Madame Leonora Armf—" Oh, no!
by Anonymous | reply 376 | August 30, 2021 8:50 PM |
again, way too long r376
What do you think? Who can it be? Even the ink— No, here, let me...
would sufficient
by Anonymous | reply 377 | August 31, 2021 12:27 AM |
Thank you for that correction, R377.
What on earth would the Datalounge community do without you? Seriously. What would we do?
Everyone, we owe R377 a debt of gratitude. I now have learned the error of my ways and will be more careful to abide by your good guidance, R377.
by Anonymous | reply 378 | August 31, 2021 12:41 AM |
Been called a pinko commie tool,
Got through it stinko, by my pool
by Anonymous | reply 379 | August 31, 2021 12:47 AM |
Perhaps we should first have had a thread on the meaning of the word "quintessential".
by Anonymous | reply 380 | August 31, 2021 12:50 AM |
For r378
I'm calm
I'm calm
I'm perfectly calm
I'm utterly under control
by Anonymous | reply 381 | August 31, 2021 1:40 AM |
A toast to that invincible bunch, The dinosaurs surviving the crunch. Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch. Everybody rise!
by Anonymous | reply 382 | August 31, 2021 4:21 AM |
"Sometimes she drinks in bed;
Sometimes he's homosexual"
by Anonymous | reply 383 | August 31, 2021 3:07 PM |
IIRC, Rodgers wouldn't allow the homosexual lyric in the show. But wasn't the song recorded for the Scrabble album with the line intact?
by Anonymous | reply 384 | September 1, 2021 12:55 AM |
Was it on the Scrabble album? I know it was part of the Side by Side by..... album with the line intact.
by Anonymous | reply 385 | September 1, 2021 2:03 AM |
Yes, it's on the "Scrabble" album (Sondheim: A Musical Tribute) -with the homosexual lyric. It's sung by Laurence Guittard and Teri Ralston (from the original cast of A Little Night Music).
by Anonymous | reply 386 | September 1, 2021 4:04 AM |
Yes, it’s on the Scrabble album, sung by Guittard.
The Sondheim lyrics that really got me:
Love without reason, love without mercy,
Love without pride or shame,
Love unconcerned with being returned,
No wisdom, no caution,
No judgment, no blame.
———-
Not pretty, or safe, or easy,
But more than I ever knew,
Love within reason, that isn’t love,
And I learned that from you.
He gets that breathless yearning in so few words, all spilling over each other.
He knows.
by Anonymous | reply 387 | September 1, 2021 4:04 AM |
Probably not, R387. He doesn't know. And that's the biggest problem with Sondheim.
In the lyric you quote, he's describing obsession. Not love. He gets them all mixed up. When Sally sings, "I love you so, it's like I'm losing my mind," what has happened is that she has already lost her mind and she's obsessed with Ben Stone. It ain't love.
He makes the same basic mistake, though in different ways, with PASSION. The title being trimmed down from the Italian, "Pasione d'Amore." He ended up not writing much about love or passion, but a lot about obsession misunderstood to be love.
by Anonymous | reply 388 | September 1, 2021 12:20 PM |
How is that a mistake? The characters don't have to be "right" about love. No one who watches Follies thinks that what's passed between Sally and Ben is love. They both love the ideal of love. But both act like they are the centre of the universe. There's no room for love when you're self obsessed.
by Anonymous | reply 389 | September 1, 2021 1:00 PM |
I'm not sure how anyone could walk away from Follies or Passion with the idea that Sally or Fosca's idea of love is healthy. Hell, it's this obsession that's been eating away at them all evening.
by Anonymous | reply 390 | September 1, 2021 5:49 PM |
Fine, r390, but what's your point? Do you suppose Sondheim didn't know what he was writing?
by Anonymous | reply 391 | September 1, 2021 7:40 PM |
[quote]He gets that breathless yearning in so few words, all spilling over each other. He knows.
I thought I was responding very directly to that statement, but perhaps I was not clear enough. And that's fair.
I don't equate obsession with "breathless yearning" which sounds to me more like romantic love than obsession. If the person posting that statement here is relating any of those lyrics Giorgio sings to love, that might be re-examined.
Artists are free to pursue what interests them. As they should be. But it's hard to find Sondheim dealing much with love. Obsession. Neurosis, maybe. Neediness. Love is missing in most of Sondheim. If the characters use the word "love" that's a red flag that it isn't going to be about love at all.
by Anonymous | reply 392 | September 1, 2021 8:19 PM |
why do some people seem so committed to driving threads into the shitter?
Yes, I know. Goodbye for now.
by Anonymous | reply 393 | September 1, 2021 8:33 PM |
I'm with you R393. I wish there was a way for the squabbling that went on between R385 - R392 to be shunted off the the side of the larger thread. Some of this has been fun, but then, oy and vey, the Bickersons arrive and all of the air gets sucked out of the thread.
by Anonymous | reply 394 | September 1, 2021 8:59 PM |
I'm r385. What squabbling?
by Anonymous | reply 395 | September 1, 2021 9:06 PM |
See, it's your fault. No! So it's you fault... No! Yes, it is! It's not! It's true.
by Anonymous | reply 396 | September 1, 2021 11:25 PM |
R387's lyrics are not sung by Fosca, they are sung by Georgio. He has come to realize that the "love" he had Clara was not real love. So R388 suggesting that Sondheim was mistaking obsession for love makes no sense. Georgio never obsesses over Fosca - just the reverse.
by Anonymous | reply 397 | September 2, 2021 1:20 AM |
Phyllis loves Ben.
by Anonymous | reply 398 | September 2, 2021 9:26 AM |
Phyllis loves the ten elderly men from the UN
by Anonymous | reply 399 | September 2, 2021 10:14 AM |
How the kind of woman willing to wait's Not the kind that you want to find waiting
by Anonymous | reply 400 | September 2, 2021 11:50 AM |
thank you r400 for getting us back on track with a great - and truly quintessential piece of Sondheim craft.
by Anonymous | reply 401 | September 2, 2021 12:05 PM |
And all you have to do is move your little finger, move your little finger and you can change the world.
by Anonymous | reply 402 | September 2, 2021 2:13 PM |
[quote] And all you have to do is move your little finger
I really appreciate Sondheim not being lazy. Each time this section comes back around he changes the verb.
Move your little finger
Squeeze your little finger
Crook your little finger
by Anonymous | reply 403 | September 2, 2021 4:19 PM |
Sunday in the Park is a mature exploration of two people who really are in love but can't make the human level work at the same time as George's obsession with his art. Dot saves herself because she's an adult, but she doesn't love him any less. R400's quote is the quintessential lyric of that love story.
Happiness, the song that opens Passion, is a simply beautiful song about the early stages of "an ordinary love story" (made more beautiful by Marin Mazzie's gorgeous voice).
Sondheim is quintessentially an overthinker. My guess is the love song he's written that is closest to him (other than Finishing the Hat) is the unused Water Under the Bridge. It would be hell to be in love with the voice of that song.
by Anonymous | reply 404 | September 3, 2021 5:30 AM |
And my guess would be "With So Little To Be Sure Of."
by Anonymous | reply 405 | September 3, 2021 12:37 PM |
Debbie's is the only good version that I've heard.
by Anonymous | reply 406 | September 3, 2021 12:41 PM |
I chose, and my world was shaken so what? The choice may have been mistaken the choosing was not
by Anonymous | reply 407 | September 4, 2021 2:19 AM |
I know this is a lyric thread but I just realized that for all his genius and all his longevity, we never hear a bad word about the man himself. No tantrums, no fights, no feuds, etc. [[italic]added that so there'd be a lyric[/italic]]
by Anonymous | reply 408 | September 7, 2021 10:08 PM |
He told Patti LuPone she wasn't a star.
by Anonymous | reply 409 | September 7, 2021 10:09 PM |
He has ego aplenty (perhaps deservedly), but he doesn't engage in tantrums and fights. He just doesn't suffer fools -gladly or otherwise.
by Anonymous | reply 410 | September 7, 2021 10:24 PM |
Yes. You always notice how, at least in public, he never tries to diss an actor, other composer, or lousy production? You never hear him going on about which production or actor was his favorite.
by Anonymous | reply 411 | September 7, 2021 10:55 PM |
He was credited with pushing for ImeldaGYPSY.
by Anonymous | reply 412 | September 7, 2021 10:56 PM |
I'm sure he has plenty of ego, but he keeps it in check--at least in public. He's invariably generous in his praise of colleagues and collaborators--at least in public.
A shame about Imelda, but nobody's perfect.
by Anonymous | reply 413 | September 7, 2021 11:00 PM |
Well, now that she didn't come to New York in the role, I'd put money that the next Rose on Broadway will be Sutton Foster.
by Anonymous | reply 414 | September 7, 2021 11:03 PM |
I'm always struck, when I watch YouTubes of Sondheim's Tony wins, that he pretty much only thanks Gemignani, his musical director/conductor, and Tunick, his orchestrator. Very generous and classy, in my opinion.
by Anonymous | reply 415 | September 7, 2021 11:11 PM |
no r414. Peppermint. Gypsy. You gotta get a gimmick.
by Anonymous | reply 416 | September 8, 2021 2:44 AM |
I do seem to recall him saying Imelda sang "Everything's Coming Up Roses" like you've never heard it before.
He was right. She sang it like a play within a play being performed at a mental institute for the criminally insane.
by Anonymous | reply 417 | September 8, 2021 5:36 PM |
Imelda Staunton gave us the most real depiction of Rose Hovick that we've seen yet. She gave us a real woman who could really do all those horrible things to her own children.
I loved her work in it. She was brilliant.
by Anonymous | reply 418 | September 8, 2021 5:39 PM |
I wish the TV recording was good. Sadly, it probably scuppered any chances of a transfer. The Donmar "Cabaret" improved when it became the Roundabout "Cabaret." I could see the same for London "Gypsy."
by Anonymous | reply 419 | September 8, 2021 5:42 PM |
I've been in correspondence with Sondheim for decades. He is always gracious. He can put more in a paragraph than most people put into pages and pages. He will call you out when you make a mistake or are foolish.
by Anonymous | reply 420 | September 9, 2021 8:45 PM |
You're lucky it's only correspondence or he might use the riding crop.
by Anonymous | reply 421 | September 9, 2021 8:50 PM |
When is West Side Story soundtrack coming out ?
by Anonymous | reply 422 | September 9, 2021 8:51 PM |
Oh, give it a rest.
by Anonymous | reply 423 | September 9, 2021 8:52 PM |
Is there a good video of the Frogs ?
by Anonymous | reply 424 | September 9, 2021 9:46 PM |
Yes, R424. You can find it online if you know the right places.
by Anonymous | reply 425 | September 10, 2021 1:51 AM |
[quote] I do seem to recall him saying Imelda sang "Everything's Coming Up Roses" like you've never heard it before. He was right. She sang it like a play within a play being performed at a mental institute for the criminally insane.
I completely agree. I love Imelda's performance of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" — especially at the end when she shakes her arms up and down like she's completely unraveling. It's the best performance of this song that I've ever seen.
Watch 2:47 to 2:57
by Anonymous | reply 426 | September 10, 2021 10:44 PM |
wow I know video and closeups can fuck with a performance but that's terrible with all the subtlety of an appendectomy with a cleaver, as if she's performing for the deaf, dumb, and blind, maybe
by Anonymous | reply 427 | September 10, 2021 10:52 PM |
[quote] wow I know video and closeups can fuck with a performance but that's terrible with all the subtlety of an appendectomy with a cleaver, as if she's performing for the deaf, dumb, and blind, maybe
She's performing on stage. Subtlety doesn't work on stage.
by Anonymous | reply 428 | September 10, 2021 10:58 PM |
The only problem with Imelda's performance of that song is that she played all the other scenes the same way. Loud, angry, manic, and on the verge of a psychotic break. It would have been more effective if she showed a little variation here and there.
by Anonymous | reply 429 | September 11, 2021 12:19 AM |
Rose is relentless. If she could temper her narcissistic behavior, most of the play would not go on to happen.
by Anonymous | reply 430 | September 11, 2021 12:38 AM |
Rose's drive is relentless. Her behavior can't be.
by Anonymous | reply 431 | September 11, 2021 12:48 AM |
That's not true re Imelda. I guess no one got a video bootleg of the London run. There should be some audio floating around out there.
by Anonymous | reply 432 | September 11, 2021 12:49 AM |
Staunton was brilliant. She created a damaged woman who really would act callously and selfishly with every person in her life.
by Anonymous | reply 433 | September 11, 2021 12:52 AM |
Yeah, that was the most callous, selfish acting I've ever seen.
by Anonymous | reply 434 | September 11, 2021 12:57 AM |
Imelda was miscast as Sally
by Anonymous | reply 435 | September 11, 2021 1:01 AM |
She wasn't ideally cast. "Losing My Mind" was staged with too heavy a hand.
by Anonymous | reply 436 | September 11, 2021 1:10 AM |
She was too old and ugly
by Anonymous | reply 437 | September 11, 2021 1:14 AM |
I saw Imelda Staunton on stage in Gypsy. Just like Elena Roger in Evita I found it an example of British reviewers taking a mediocre performance and praising it to the skies. Staunton performed the part like an old Englishwoman's stereotype of what she thinks a tough American broad must be like. She screamed and yelled every line. She was devoid of any charm and was so relentlessly nasty that you wondered why Herbie and the others around her didn't just decapitate the harridan. Staunton made Patti LuPony look more nuanced in comparison.
by Anonymous | reply 440 | September 11, 2021 7:30 AM |
Moo moo moo moo!
by Anonymous | reply 441 | September 11, 2021 8:02 AM |
r440 that's what it looks like at r426. and that looks like it wasn't just a live stage performance they taped, I'm betting they did the performance [italic]for[/italic] the cameras, a la Sunday in the Park and others.
Does anyone here know if the National tapes at actual performances or has special calls for tapings ?
by Anonymous | reply 442 | September 11, 2021 11:47 AM |
NT tapes at performances. You often see the audience and you certainly hear it. They do, however, advise ticket buyers beforehand that they're attending a performance that will be filmed, because it's obviously somewhat intrusive. I've never heard, or seen any evidence, that they intercut it with shots done without an audience.
by Anonymous | reply 443 | September 11, 2021 2:57 PM |
Nonsense. Imelda was "relentlessly nasty" in "Small World," "You'll Never Get Away From Me" or "Together Wherever We Go"?
I doubt you saw her on stage. You saw the BBC TV recording like everyone else here.
by Anonymous | reply 444 | September 11, 2021 4:22 PM |
Imelda's mistake was being ready for "Rose's Turn" before she even got to "Some People." It makes for a dreary evening. It was a shame, too, because her "Rose's Turn" is one of the best I've ever seen. If she'd built to it, it would have been devastating.
Rose is a selfish person, yes, but she does have to display moments of tenderness and charm to get what she wants. Rose used every tool at her disposal, not just aggressive yelling and braying to bully people into doing what she wanted. When her other tools fail her, she can bellow and bray, but that can't be her default for 2 1/2 hours. It gets old quickly and makes you wonder why someone like Herbie would stick around.
by Anonymous | reply 445 | September 11, 2021 5:05 PM |
And she did use charm. It's inbuilt to the part ("Small World" etc.)
by Anonymous | reply 446 | September 11, 2021 5:14 PM |
[quote]...makes you wonder why someone like Herbie would stick around.
Well, there's the problem. You weren't paying attention. He didn't. He left. He finally had enough of Rose's abuses, and he left. It happens in the 2nd Act, when Louise agrees to strip. Let that be the end of that foolish argument that Rose has to be charming so Herbie doesn't leave. He leaves. He leaves.
All who insist that Rose has to be charming are ignorant of the world. People are physically and psychologically abused every day and they stay in those bad relationships. With partners. With parents. With employers. With Scott Rudin. With Harvey Weinstein. For a host of reasons, they stay. Stronger people would leave right away. But some people... they stay.
Here's what Staunton did that was so daring and brilliant. She created a Rose who was so self-absorbed and controlling that her 16 year old daughter got married behind her back and sneaked away without telling her. She abandoned her family because she knew she had to. She escaped her mother because she saw that if she did not escape, Rose would never stop controlling her every move. Throughout the play, Louise is the milder and quieter of the two. She has to eat Rose's shit for most of another act. And really, she never does stand up to Rose until she has her own professional success and some money of her own.
Rose is not a charming woman you can reason with. She's deeply narcissistic and manipulative and she controls everyone and everybody and if you don't go along with that, you're out. By the end of Act 1, June escapes and Rose breaks with her entirely for doing so. Does she go after her daughter? Does she show any concern? NO. She drops June and substitutes Louise and she does it in about... 8 seconds.
Staunton gave us a real and dramatic Rose Hovick, not a musical comedy star lady doing a virtuoso turn.
by Anonymous | reply 447 | September 11, 2021 8:48 PM |
I didn't see the performance live on stage but I have seen enough live and filmed performances over many years to know that the work can not be that dramatically different in different media. Staunton did not give a performance of a real human being no matter how narcissistic and deranged she might be; she was an actress overdoing everything and yelling.
by Anonymous | reply 448 | September 11, 2021 9:08 PM |
[quote]Staunton did not give a performance of a real human being....
Perhaps none that you know.
Lucky you.
by Anonymous | reply 449 | September 11, 2021 9:11 PM |
I think it's a mistake of the GYPSY play script to only have Herbie as the sole love interest. "If Momma Was Married" is somewhat unearned.
by Anonymous | reply 450 | September 11, 2021 9:17 PM |
Did Dean Jones ever play Herbie?
by Anonymous | reply 451 | September 11, 2021 9:17 PM |
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, r 447, but for chrissakes dial it back a bit. You sound the worst kind of didact.
by Anonymous | reply 452 | September 11, 2021 10:14 PM |
Less Rose. More lyrics.
by Anonymous | reply 453 | September 12, 2021 9:21 AM |
How does Rose compare to Sondheim's mother?
by Anonymous | reply 454 | September 12, 2021 1:33 PM |
Closely enough that R447 probably = Stephen Sondheim.
by Anonymous | reply 455 | September 12, 2021 3:08 PM |
Staunton looks like she exemplifies the dumbing down of everything in that she has to play all of it with more and more [italic]stuff[/italic] to underline, emphasize, telegraph, indicate and do everything else rather than simply letting the [italic]material[/italic] do the work, which it does so well.
by Anonymous | reply 456 | September 13, 2021 1:57 PM |
[quote]How does Rose compare to Sondheim's mother?
She's tall enough to be his mother.
by Anonymous | reply 457 | September 13, 2021 2:06 PM |
Agree r216. And Esparza's pronunciation of "bon [italic]voyage[/italic]" in "Barcelona" makes me hate him and his poseur Bobby and wonder why those people would like him. Although it's probably Esparza showing off perfect French more than Bobby.
by Anonymous | reply 458 | September 15, 2021 12:26 PM |
"I've got a new show, it's certain to blow, Even with Nathan and that Bernadette ho".
by Anonymous | reply 459 | September 16, 2021 5:04 PM |
How long did that take you, r459?
by Anonymous | reply 460 | September 17, 2021 2:33 AM |
Then you career from career to career.
by Anonymous | reply 461 | September 17, 2021 3:16 AM |
put your dimple down
by Anonymous | reply 462 | September 17, 2021 5:05 AM |
R460- 2 minutes. About the same amount of time it takes you to eat a turkey.
by Anonymous | reply 463 | September 17, 2021 4:54 PM |
Had Heebie-Jeebies
For Beebe's Bathysphere
by Anonymous | reply 464 | September 18, 2021 3:30 AM |
Sondheim's worst:
What's the muddle in the middle?
That's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle.
Too clever by half and takes me right out of the show every time.
by Anonymous | reply 465 | September 19, 2021 2:14 PM |
And another hundred people just got off of the train, the bus.....
by Anonymous | reply 466 | September 19, 2021 2:27 PM |
Life is often so unpleasant .You must know that, as a peasant.
by Anonymous | reply 467 | September 19, 2021 2:32 PM |
[quote] Life is often so unpleasant .You must know that, as a peasant.
That is also one of my favorite Sondheim lyrics.
by Anonymous | reply 468 | September 19, 2021 2:54 PM |
Thanks to R464 I learned something new today. Per Britannica: "Bathysphere, spherical steel vessel for use in undersea observation, provided with portholes and suspended by a cable from a boat. Built by the American zoologist William Beebe and the American engineer Otis Barton, the bathysphere made its first dives in 1930." Mr. Beebe pictured.
by Anonymous | reply 469 | September 20, 2021 1:48 AM |
"something, something, rooting through my rutabaga, blah, blah, blah...arugula..blah blah"
by Anonymous | reply 470 | September 20, 2021 3:20 PM |
"Does anyone still wear a hat?"
by Anonymous | reply 471 | September 20, 2021 4:16 PM |
I'm electrifying and I ain't even trying
I saw City Center Encores version of Gypsy with LuPone and had a great time. For me, the star of the evening was Marilyn Caskey as Electra. The character of Electra never grabbed me in any version of Gypsy I'd seen up to that point. I thought maybe it was the nature of the beast, Tessie and Mazeppa are tough acts to follow. Until Ms. Caskey. Brilliant. She underplayed it as if she'd been "electrified" a few too many times. One of her legs was sort of dragging behind her. Her costume headpiece didn't really light correctly or on cue or at all. Her motor skills were not responding maybe due to nerve damage, sense of direction askew. She was so brilliant with the nuance that I can't find words. I was crying with laughter. Laughed so hard I cracked my head on the seat in front of me. I looked up to see the blackout at the end of the number and in the darkness her headpiece finally lit up as she trying to exit and wandering into the wings.
by Anonymous | reply 472 | September 21, 2021 12:27 AM |
Great post. Not really the right thread for it but.........
by Anonymous | reply 473 | September 21, 2021 12:21 PM |
R473- You're absolutely right. 🙏🏻 And thank you for the compliment.
by Anonymous | reply 474 | September 21, 2021 7:36 PM |
[quote]"Does anyone still wear a hat?"
I do.
Well, I don't, but he made one anyway.
by Anonymous | reply 475 | September 22, 2021 9:25 AM |
This is ridiculous. What am I doing here? I'm in the wrong story.
by Anonymous | reply 476 | September 22, 2021 10:21 AM |
Joanna Gleason says she basically came up with ^ that line ^ after a conversation with SS about the character. She came up with "I'm in the wrong story,"
by Anonymous | reply 477 | September 22, 2021 11:56 AM |
by Anonymous | reply 478 | September 29, 2021 6:50 PM |
"We all deserve to die."
by Anonymous | reply 479 | October 3, 2021 2:35 AM |
In view of her penchant For something romantic, De Sade is too trenchant And Dickens too frantic, And Stendhal would ruin The plan of attack As there isn't much blue in The Red and the Black. De Maupassant's candour Would cause her dismay The Brontes are grander But not very gay Her taste is much blander I'm sorry to say But is Hans Christian Ander- Sen ever risque?
by Anonymous | reply 480 | October 3, 2021 2:42 AM |
^ Sorry but I'm not going to bother to fix it. You all know it anyway. But I'll add:
My body's all right
But not in perspective
And not in the light.
by Anonymous | reply 481 | October 3, 2021 2:45 AM |
Could I bury my rage With a boy half your age In the grass? Bet your ass.
by Anonymous | reply 482 | October 3, 2021 2:46 AM |
Slightly off topic but does anyone know when and why "Could I leave you -- yes!" was changed to "Could I Ieave you -- guess!"
by Anonymous | reply 483 | October 3, 2021 2:50 AM |
Changed? Yes comes earlier in the song. Guess replaces it at the end.
by Anonymous | reply 484 | October 3, 2021 2:52 AM |
Oh, I always thought I heard "yes" at the end on the OBC. But I just listened to it again very loud and I guess it does sound more like "guess."
I have a hearing impairment. Deaf in my right ear, certain frequencies don't register in the left. I have to listen to things really loud. I didn't completely lose my hearing in my right ear until 15 or 20 years ago and I still miss the sense of spatiality that comes from stereo hearing so much.
And don't bother to offer advice. I've spent years going to audiologists and have had three surgeries on my right inner ear. Osteosclerosis is curable 90 to 95% of the time with surgery, one of the few forms of deafness that is. I'm in the 5%.
by Anonymous | reply 485 | October 3, 2021 3:16 AM |
dinners for ten
elderly men
from the U.N.
by Anonymous | reply 486 | October 3, 2021 3:18 AM |
How ridiculous. To be looking at her and be thinking of you.
by Anonymous | reply 487 | October 18, 2021 1:17 PM |
Besides, you ever see a bear with forty foot feet?
by Anonymous | reply 488 | October 18, 2021 1:19 PM |
Sondheim has always said he takes things from librettists' drafts, how many of these might have been written by the book writers?
by Anonymous | reply 489 | October 18, 2021 7:15 PM |
There I was in Mr. Orpheum's office...
by Anonymous | reply 490 | October 19, 2021 3:27 PM |
23 Skidoo!
by Anonymous | reply 491 | October 19, 2021 3:51 PM |
High in a tower she sits by the hour maintaining her hair.
by Anonymous | reply 492 | October 19, 2021 4:21 PM |
Next!
by Anonymous | reply 493 | November 2, 2021 9:29 PM |
Sic semper tyrannis
by Anonymous | reply 494 | November 3, 2021 2:57 AM |
Hush, love, hush.
by Anonymous | reply 495 | November 8, 2021 12:09 PM |
Wham! Bam!
Thank you, Ma'am!
by Anonymous | reply 496 | November 8, 2021 12:57 PM |
Anyone can whistle.
That's what they say.
Easy.
by Anonymous | reply 497 | November 8, 2021 1:29 PM |
I'm an old broad!
I drink cocktails at lunch!
My husband porks his secretary!
While I'm doing brunch!
by Anonymous | reply 498 | November 8, 2021 2:00 PM |
something about your day job, r498
by Anonymous | reply 499 | November 8, 2021 6:48 PM |
I want to the way that it was
by Anonymous | reply 500 | November 9, 2021 3:05 AM |
[quote] I want to the way that it was
oh, dear
by Anonymous | reply 501 | November 9, 2021 11:34 AM |
I'm a fancy flower!
I drink every hour!
Takes my uppers with my downers!
Boys, send in dem clowners!
by Anonymous | reply 502 | November 9, 2021 12:27 PM |
I'm dead.
by Anonymous | reply 503 | November 26, 2021 11:09 PM |
I’m defying gravity.
by Anonymous | reply 504 | November 26, 2021 11:14 PM |
Every day a little death. Especially today.
by Anonymous | reply 505 | November 26, 2021 11:25 PM |
Look, perhaps I'll collapse In the apse right before you all So take back the cake Burn the shoes, and boil the rice.
by Anonymous | reply 506 | December 20, 2021 2:01 PM |
"....watching little things grow"
by Anonymous | reply 507 | December 20, 2021 4:41 PM |
There's a Twitter handle with 38,000 followers
by Anonymous | reply 508 | December 27, 2021 1:00 PM |
I've heard this song too frequently done as sprechstimme because the person performing had no singing ability.
But this version has a proper singer who does an amazingly controlled final note but her singing ability just makes us realise the monotonous repetition in the lyric.
by Anonymous | reply 509 | December 28, 2021 9:32 AM |
Do we think that Steve would like playing Wordle?
by Anonymous | reply 510 | January 19, 2022 6:26 PM |
No. Not challenging enough.
by Anonymous | reply 511 | January 19, 2022 6:34 PM |