What are some of Sondheim's lyrics that make you think: "Wow, this guy is what Broadway is all about"? Some for me...
"There were these two, you see. Wanted her like mad, One of the a Jude one t' other one his Beadle. Every day they'd nudge and they'd weedle, Still she wouldn't budge from her needle..." -from Sweeney Todd
"But alone is alone, not alive" -from Company
"Everybody says don't walk on the grass, Don't disturb the peace, Don't skate on the ice. Well, I say do! I say walk on the grass, it was meant to feel. I say sail, Tilt at the windmill and if you fail, you fail." -from Anyone Can Whistle
My favourite show from Sondheim is Sunday in the Park with George, and many of the lyrics are really beautiful:
"I chose and my world was shaken, so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not; You have to move on."
"Stop worrying if your vision is new; Let others make that decision, they usually do."
"And how you're always turning back too late from the grass, or the stick, or the dog, or the light How the kind of woman willing to wait's not the kind that you want to find waiting to return you to the night, dizzy from the height Coming from the hat Studying the hat Entering the world of the hat Reaching through the world of the hat like a window Back to this one, from that."
"And when the woman that you wanted goes, you can say to yourself, "Well, I give what I give!" But the woman who won't wait for you knows that however you live, there's a part of you always standing by, mapping out the sky Finishing the hat. Starting on a hat. Look, I made a hat-- Where there never was a hat!"
BlueWizard's blog: The Rambling Corner
HEDWIG: "The road is my home. In reflecting upon the people whom I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me."
INTO THE WOODS~ 'You many know what you want but to get what you need better see that you keep what you have.'
'But then what if he knew who I was when I know that I'm not what he thinks that he wants.'
COMPANY~ 'Here's to the girls who play wife, aren't they too much? Keeping house but clutching a copy of LIFE, just to keep in touch. The ones who follow the rules And meet themselves at the schools Too busy to know that they're fools-- Aren't they a gem? I'll drink to them. Let's all drink to them!'
FOLLIES~ 'I'm just a Broadway baby Walking off my tired feet Pounding Fourty-Second Street, To be in a show'
'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, You said you loved me, Or were you just being kind? Or am I losing my mind?'
ALL of I'M STILL HERE, but particulary...
'I've run the gamut, A to Z. Three cheers and dammit, C'est la vie'
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Many of them come from "Moments in the Wood" from Into the Woods
"Let the moment go.. Don't forget it for a moment, though"
"Must it all be either less or more, Either plain or grand? Is it always 'or'? Is it never 'and'? That's what woods are for: For those moments in the woods... Oh, if life were made of moments, Even now and then a bad one--! But if life were only moments, Then you'd never know you had one."
There's more that I love...but I can't think of them at the moment...
This is tough...I love every single word of "Into The Woods" but some of my favorites are:
IT TAKES TWO: "It takes one To begin, but then once You've begun, It takes two of you. It's no fun, But what needs to be done You can do When there's two of you.
If I dare, It's because I'm becoming Aware of us As a pair of us, Each accepting a share Of what's there."
AGONY: "Agony! Oh, the torture they teach! What's as intriguing- Or half so fatiguing- As what's out of reach?"
MAYBE THEY'RE MAGIC: "If you know What you want, Then you go And you find it And you get it- Do we want a child or not? And you give And you take And you bid And you bargain Or you live To regret it. There are rights and wrongs and inbetweens No one waits when fortune intervenes"
"No, what matters is that Everyone tells tiny lies. What's important, really is, the size."
Chrysanthemum Tea - Pacific Overtures --the entire song-- ( too amazing to type out!)
Ballad of Guiteau - Assassins "The Lord's my employer and now he's my lawyer - so do what you dare. Charlie said 'Hell, if I am guilty than God is as well' - but God was acquitted and Charlie committed until he should hang..."
In Sondheim, there are so, so many great lyrics but, for me, there a particular one that always hit me on a personal level as a creative artist (and I only edit so as not to get into copyright trouble with Mr. Sondheim or with the board monitors):
"Finishing the hat. How you have to finish the hat. How you watch the rest of the world From a window While you finish the hat.
Mapping out a sky What you feel like planning a sky. What you feel when voices that come Through the window Go Until they distance and die, Until there's nothing but sky.
And how you're always turning back Too late from the grass or the stick Or the dog or the light. How the kind of woman willing to wait's Not the kind that you want to find waiting To return you to the night, Dizzy from the height.
Coming from the hat. Studying the hat. Entering the world of the hat. Reaching through the world of the hat like a window Back to this one from that."
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Sunday: "Finishing the Hat" always chokes me up Company: "Another Hundred People" ditto. Just a few lines, but he's captured the experience of living in NYC.
But favorite single lyric? No question. From "Merrily"--
"...we'll get Leontyne Price to sing her medley from Meistersinger..."
It kills me every time.
"They have never understood, and no reason that they should.
But if anybody could . . . " --SS
INTO THE WOODS "careful the things you say, children will listen careful the wish you make, wishes are children careful the path they take wishes come true, not free careful the tale you tell, that is the spell"
SUNDAY IN THE PARK anything you do let it come from you,then it will be new, give us more to see
"Did you know that if you take the first two vowels in Olive and rearrange them it spells I-Love?"-Spelling Bee
"It's night like this that hotel bars were specifically made." Light In The Piazza
BlueWizard's blog: The Rambling Corner
HEDWIG: "The road is my home. In reflecting upon the people whom I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me."
"Everybody's got the right to some sunshine. Not the sun but maybe one of it's beams. Rich man, poor man. Black or white... Everybody gets a bite. Eerybody's got the right to their dreams." -from Assassins
"Some people sit on their butts Got the dream yeah, but not the guts..."
What is Broadway? A street? Some say it's a street. Some say it is the best street in the world. Others think its terrible. That's the beauty of it, it's terribly beautiful. Some hate it and don't know why. Others love it and don't know why. That's what makes it so wonderful, it's a mystery.
At the risk of repeating myself - I was in the national tour of Sunday in the Park with George, and just hearing the closing number of act one, or the reprise in act two, of "Sunday" can make me bawl like a baby - nothing in the world can compare with having been in that show. It's one of the few times in my professional career when I felt that I was actually creating art on stage (well, the Glorious Mr. Sondheim created it, I just got to perform it - and what a true joy that was!) On a side note - if you have a beating heart in your body that contains love, see The Village...you'll be amazed at the wonderful message presented in this great film by M. Night Shyamalan. He's this millenium's Hitchcock with a heart!
"I don't really get the ending,all i can go with is when after several months,Judith saw Pat sang,and later she kissed him on the toilet,after that the story back to where Pat went down from the stage after he'd sung,and he went to the italian lady.I just don't get it,what Judith exatcly meant when he kissed Pat that she had seen,and did Pat end up together with The Italian Lady?Please help me,thank u very much!"
Quote from someone on IMDB in reference to a movie he/she didn't understand. Such grammar!