Best Broadway Lyric?- Page 3

[dancinfan]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:38am

Sunday in the Park with George
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

DOT
Move on...
Stop worrying where you're going - move on.
If you can know where you're going, you've gone.
Just keep moving on.

I chose, and my world was shaken - so what?
The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.
You have to move on.

Look at what you want,
Not at where you are,
Not at what you'll be-
Look at all the things you've done for me:

Opened up my eyes,
Taught me how to see,
Notice every tree-
Understand the light-
Concentrate on now-

GEORGE
I want to move on.
I want to explore the light.
I want to know how to get through,
Through to something new,
Something of my own-

BOTH
Move on.
Move on.

DOT
Stop worrying if your vision
Is new.
Let others make that decision-
They usually do.
You keep moving on.
...

Just keep moving on.
Anything you do,
Let it come from you.
Then it will be new.

Give us more to see...

[Color and Light]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 1:03am

"There's a lot I'll have missed, but I'll not have been dead when I die!"

That one from A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC always comes to mind, but I think that show in general is chock full of amazing lyrics.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 1:24am

Almost anything Sondheim has ever written.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 1:35am

I agree with "A Little Priest" as the song with the best lyrics. I love the lyrics that siamese dream quoted from Chess's "Endgame," though.

[blaxx]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:30am

I agree that there is a big difference between your favorite lyrics and what could be the best lyric in a musical...

And once more, and with all due respect, they may be (or were) good composers, but Larson and Schwartz ain't good lyricists.

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:44am

I think I was the first one to scoff at the mention of RENT lyrics when this thread was started in January, and I think it bears mentioning again. I realize that there's a great deal in that score (you could substitute Wicked here as well) that speaks to young people in a powerful way, but if we're arguing an (albeit subjective) "best lyric," shouldn't the criteria be wordplay, context, stress, singability, etc? On those criteria the awkward wordings of most of the lyrics in those scores just begin fall apart. That doesn't make them any less special to you, but unless you retitle the thread, they don't belong in this company.

[broadjay]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 3:10am

I 2nd - "Move on" from, "Sunday in the park.." and "A little Priest" is pure gold, the whole way thru!
Anything Sondheim is pretty much a genuis/best lyirc, as he is a genius/best (arguably - for all the critics) lol
and I love "Somebody sit in my chair and make me aware, of being alive..." - Being Alive. not only does it rhyme to prefection and the sentiment is heartaching, it's such a beautiful way of saying love me....

[alba]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 4:13am

I think "Repent" from On the 20th Century has some fantastically natural rhymes--

Jason and Schubert... are also right to cite 1776--"Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve" is top-notch. (Though "I do not know a participle from a predicate/I am just a simple cobbler from Connecticut" is a close second...)

I'd also like to vote for "Shy" (from Once Upon A Mattress)--one of the cleverest lyrics without being remotely pretentious. Also, "Three Letters" or "Ice Cream" from She Loves Me, and "Do You Love Me?" from Fiddler. "Glitter and Be Gay" deserves some recognition too.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 4:45am

First and foremost, lyric should dictate character within context of story.

Sondheim knows this: Character dictates lyric, which dictates melody which dictates harmony, which dictates score, which dictates character. The cycle of life. And show.

All must reach a climactic point of human realization of our own character.

That's a great show of character.

[Color and Light]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 5:12am

Now, as the sweet imbecilities
Tumble so lavishly onto her lap,
Now, there are two possibilities:
A: I could ravish her, B: I could nap.
Say it's the ravishment, then we see
The option that follows, of course:
A: the deployment of charm, or B:
The adoption of physical force.

Now, B might arouse her, but if I assume
I trip on my trouser leg crossing the room...
Her hair getting tangled, her stays getting snapped,
My nerves would be jangled, my energy sapped...
Removing her clothing would take me all day,
And her subsequent loathing would turn me away,
Which eliminates B and which leaves us with A.

Now, insofar as approaching it,
What would be festive but have its effect?
Now, there are two ways of broaching it:
A: the suggestive, and B; the direct.
Say that I settle on B, to wit,
A charmingly lecherous mood,
A: I could put on my nightshirt or sit
Disarmingly, B: in the nude..

That might be effective; my body's all right--
But not in perspective and not in the light.
I'm bound to be chilly and feel a buffoon,
But nightshirts are silly in mid-afternoon.
Which leaves the suggestive, but how to proceed?
Although she gets restive, perhaps I could read.

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 Andersen ever risque?

Which eliminates A...

Now, with my mental facilities partially muddied and ready to snap
Now, though there are possibilities still to be studied, I might as well nap.
Bow though I must to adjust my original plan,
How shall I sleep half as deep as I usually can,
When now I still want and/or love you,
Now as always.

Now,
Anne?



Good God.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 5:23am

Color and Light,

You made my point!

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 10:44am

My favorite lyric is from Pocahontas... yes.. Disney:

"You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew"

and

"You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind."

Schwartz's lyrics to "Someday" from Hunchback are also near and dear. Anything about cultural understanding and peace gets me.


Guettal's "How Glory Goes" lyric is incredible.

Ragtime's opening song is pretty damn amazing storytelling

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 11:12am

Schwartz's "you never knew you never knew" lyric reminds me of his lyric in WICKED about crossing a bridge until you've crossed a bridge...

[Thespianchick87]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 11:20am

EPONINE
And now I'm all alone again
Nowhere to go no one to turn to,
Did not want your money sir
I came out here coz i was told to
And now the night is near
Now I can make believe he's here.

Sometimes I walk alone at night
When everybody else is sleeping
I think of him and then I'm happy
With the company I'm keeping
The city goes to bed
And I can live inside my head.

On my own
Pretending he's beside me
All alone, I walk with him till morning
Without him
I feel his arms around me
And when I lose my way I close my eyes
And he has found me

In the rain the pavement shines like silver
All the lights are misty in the river
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
And all I see is him and me for ever and forever

And I know it's only in my mind
That I'm talking to myself and not to him
And although I know that he is blind
Still I say, there's a way for us

I love him
But when the night is over
He is gone, the river's just a river
Without him the world around me changes
The trees are bare and everywhere
The streets are full of strangers

I love him
But every day I'm learning
All my life I've only been pretending
Without me his world will go on turning
A world that's full of happiness
That I have never known!

I love him
I love him
I love him
But only on my own.
- Les Miserable

I hate to post the whole song but I can't pick just one lyric

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrel]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:13pm

It's fop.
Finest in the shop.
And we have some shepherd's pie peppered
With actual shepherd on top!
And I've just begun --
Here's the politician, so oily
It's served with a doily,
Have one!

Put it on a bun.
Well, you never know if it's going to run!

[FrontRowCenter2]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:49pm

Funny Girl

Coronet Man (can't believe it was deleted from the movie):

"he's short on height, shy on weight, but he's the only man can make my coffee percolate. . "

[luvliza89]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 3:07pm

LOVE that part of Cornet Man!

Also from that song (even though it doesn't appear in the show):

Well--
I just put the kids to sleep
And swept the shack,
Took my sweet man's satchel down
And watched him pack,
I said, "Darlin', while the stove still smolders,
Unpin your woman's hair and rub her shoulders."
I threw myself across the doorway
Beggin', "Stay, sweet man, stay,"
But there's more in my man's life
Than this old hag.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 3:40pm

...

"Back to life, back to sense,
back to child, back to husband,
no one lives in the woods.
There are vows, there are ties,
there are needs, there are standards,
there are shouldn'ts and shoulds.

why not both instead?
there's the answer, if you're clever:
have a child for warmth,
and a baker for bread,
and a prince for whatever-

Never!
It's these woods.

...

Just a moment,
one peculiar passing moment.

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.

first a witch, then a child,
then a prince, then a moment-
who can live in the woods?
and to get what you wish,
only just for a moment-
these are dangerous woods...

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."

Posted: 9/11/06 at 3:47pm

"My shows were always filled with class
The best champagnes would fill my glass
My lap was filled with gorgeous ass
You couldn't call me crass in any way!"
-The Producers

[iheartamc10]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 3:55pm

"Go out and tell our story to your daughters and your sons... Make them hear you.. Make them hear you..."

Ragtime...

[BrOaDwAy*GaL]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 4:06pm

"I'm not afraid of anything, be it mountains, water, dragons dark or sky!"
-*Songs For A New World*

[JACXR71]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 4:09pm

"It's his father's fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place."

And the rest of that song. And show. And every other show by Sondheim...

[americanboy99]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 5:03pm

Poppin' pussies into pies. -Sweeney

I think DO RE MI's lyrics from Sound of Music are very witty.

Please,
don't fart.
There's very little air,
and this is art.

from "Invocation and Instructions to the Audience" in "The Frogs"

RENT has great lyrical moments. Notable "Another Day".

[GreenFinch2]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:55pm

I agree on "A Little Priest"
Sondheim is just amazing!

"The history of the world my sweet

Oh, Mr. Todd, Ooh Mr. Todd, what does it tell?

Is who gets eaten and who gets to eat!

And Mr. Todd, too Mr. Todd, who gets to sell!"


I also love any line from "Being Alive" because it is just such a deep song about what it means to love and be loved.

And I don't know why but I love how in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, when Cunegunda (sorry about the spelling) is singing "Glitter and Be Gay", she has the lyric: "If I'm not pure at least my jewels are!"

I could go on about my favourite lyrics but I would probably be typing for hours so I'll stop.

One more though! From A Little Night Music, I love everything from "Every Day A Little Death" because it has such depth talking about every day things that some people hardly notice.

And another from Ragtime: "There was a time when you were the person in motion, I was your wife, it never occurred to want more. You were my sky, my moon, and my stars, and my ocean! We can never go back to before!"

There we are. I'll stop there.

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 9/11/06 at 7:56pm

This lyric from RENT always really hit me

How can you connect in an age
Where strangers,landlords,lovers
Your own blood cells betray