What does that mean??!

[M J R]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:10pm

Ever have one of those moments in a song? I for one have always wondered, what does she mean in Getting Married Today (Company) when she say "Why watch me die like Eliza on the ice?" What does that mean??!

[AndyHardy]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:12pm

Doesn't it refer to Uncle Tom's Cabin?

(think Small House Of Uncle Thomas from The King and I)

[WindyCityActor]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:13pm

Dear Andy,

I think you are absolutely right. I've always assumed that to be the correct reference.

[ElTico68]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:14pm

Wow... I wondered that every time I heard that song...

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:15pm

M J R, that line refers to the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin--imortalized in musical theatre as "The Small House of Uncle Thomas Ballet" in THE KING AND I.


Eliza is a slave running away from her plantation in Kentucky to freedom in Ohio--but comes to a lake that separates her from her destination.

However, the lake is icy in patches and she decides to risk it and attempts to glide over it to safety--and succeeds.

Now you know.



***Edit--Sorry--I guess others posted correct answer while I was still being long-winded***

Updated On: 3/18/05 at 04:15 PM

[M J R]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:24pm

Thank you!!! I knew I couldn't have been the only one out there with that question...

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:35pm

"Getting Married Today":

CHOIRGIRL:
Bless this day,
Pinnacle of life,
Husband joined to wife.
The heart leaps up to behold
This golden day.

PAUL:
Today is for Amy,
Amy, I give you the rest of my life,
To cherish and to keep you, to honor you forever.
Today is for Amy,
My happily soon-to-be wife.

AMY:
Pardon me, is everybody here? Because if everybody's here, I
want to thank you all for coming to the wedding, I'd appreciate
your going even more, I mean you must have lots of better things
to do, and not a word of this to Paul, remember Paul, you know,
the man I'm gonna marry, but I'm not, because I wouldn't ruin
anyone as wonderful as he is--

Thank you all
For the gifts and the flowers,
Thank you all,
Now it's back to the showers,
Don't tell Paul,
But I'm not getting married today.

CHOIRGIRL:
Bless this day,
Tragedy of life,
Husband joined to wife.
The heart sinks down and feels dead
This dreadful day.

AMY:
Listen, everybody, look, I don't know what you're waiting for,
a wedding, what's a wedding, it's a prehistoric ritual
where everybody promises fidelity forever, which is
maybe the most horrifying word I ever heard of, which is
followed by a honeymoon, where suddenly he'll realize he's
saddled with a nut, and wanna kill me, which he should--
Thanks a bunch,
But I'm not getting married--
Go have lunch,
'Cause I'm not getting married--
You've been grand,
But I'm not getting married--
Don't just stand there,
I'm not getting married--
And don't tell Paul,
But I'm not getting married today.

Go, can't you go?
Why is no-
Body listening?
Goodbye,
Go and cry
At another person's wake.

If you're quick,
For a kick,
You could pick
Up a christening,
But please,
On my knees,
There's a human life at stake!

Listen everybody, I'm afraid you didn't hear, or do you want to
see a crazy lady fall apart in front of you, it isn't only Paul
who may 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--
I'm not well,
So I'm not getting married--
You've been swell,
But I'm not getting married--
Clear the hall,
'Cause I'm not getting married--
Thank you all,
But I'm not getting married--
And don't tell Paul,
But I'm not getting married today.

CHOIRGIRL:
Bless this bride,
Totally insane,
Slipping down the drain.
And bless this day in our hearts
As it starts
To rain.

AMY:
Go, can't you go?
Look, you know
I adore you all, I give you
But why The rest of
Watch me die My life,
Like Eliza on the ice? To cherish
Look, perhaps And to keep you,
I'll collapse To honor you
In the apse Forever,
Right before you all,
So take My happily
Back the cake, Soon-to-be
Burn the shoes and boil the rice.
Look, I didn't wanna have
tell you, but I'm coming down
down with Hepatitis, and I
think I'm gonna faint, so if
you wanna see me faint, I'll
do it happily, but wouldn't
it be funnier to go and watch
a funeral, so thank you for the
twenty-seven dinner plates,
thirty-seven butter knives,
forty-seven paperweights,
fifty-seven candleholders--

PAUL:
One more thing--

AMY:
I am not getting married!

CHOIR:
Amen!

PAUL:
Softly said--

AMY:
But I'm not getting married!

CHOIR:
Amen!

PAUL:
With this ring--

AMY:
Still I'm not getting married!

CHOIR:
Amen!

PAUL:
I thee wed.

AMY:
See, I'm not getting married!

CHOIR:
Amen!

AMY:
Let us pray
That I'm not getting married
Today! Today!

CHOIR:
AMEN!!!


Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim


Copyright © ASCAP. All rights reserved.

[ElTico68]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:42pm

Yay... it just came up in my cue!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:58pm

Okay. it's Sondheim's birthday. Let's make this a weekend-long Obscure Sondheim Reference thread. I'll start.

Five points for the correct explanation for each of these references in "I'm Still Here":

1. HAD HEEBIE JEEBIES FOR BEEBE`S BATHYSPHERE.
What are "heebie jeebies" and what was "Beebe's Bathysphere"?

2. I LIVED THROUGH BRENDA FRAZIER AND I`M HERE.
Who was Brenda and why should it be an achievement to live through here?

3. BEEN CALLED A PINKO COMMIE TOOL, / GOT THROUGH IT STINKO BY MY POOL.
Name three performers who got through the blacklist by drinking or lying by a pool--or both.

4. FIRST YOU`RE ANOTHER SLOE-EYED VAMP, THEN SOMEONE`S MOTHER, THEN YOU`RE CAMP.
Other than Yvonne De Carlo, name two actresses who went from being "vamps" to playing someone's mother and/or being "camp."

5. I`M ALMOST THROUGH MY MEMOIRS AND I`M HERE.
Not trivia, but...name the one diva whose as-yet-unwritten memoirs you would most like to see--whether she told the truth or not.

Winners will receive an MP3 of Delores Gray (my icon) singing "Rose's Turn." In Delores's own words, "The best version of that goddamned song ever sung--I was the only one who understood the PSYCHOLOGY!"

Updated On: 3/18/05 at 04:58 PM

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:03pm

#2-- Miss Frazier was a 1930s free-wheeling adventure-seeking debutante (from **gasp** NEW Money!) who behaved in a MOST unlady-like fashion and married the sicon of some "Old Society" family who were too amashed to show their faces in public after the wedding.

[whatyouown223]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:05pm

Run Eliza, run Eliza!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:09pm

For answers to all of your questions about "I'm Still Here," check here --

http://www.sondheim.com/features/im_still_what.html

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:15pm

3. Zero Mostel, Canada Lee, Larry Parks
4. Bette and Joan, to be sure. Shelly Winters, Tallulah Bankhead et al....

5. Elizabeth Taylor.