Reg, the false "****ty" rhymes has always stuck in my craw for the exact same reason.
I used to have a list of 6 or 7 examples of Sondheim using, if not the exact same rhyme, the exact same lyrical idea or image, in different shows. It felt like a list worth making because the occurences were so infrequent.
The one that springs immediately to mind is a very singular image that occurs in both FORUM and PACIFIC OVERTURES.
From "Chrysanthemum Tea" --
* The blossom falls on the mountain, The mountain falls on the blossom."
From "Funeral Sequence" --
"All Trace was in her thrall Oh, why should such a blossom fall"
The image of a falling blossom is very particular, so he must have liked it very much to use it twice.
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Mister Matt, it's like people calling Obama "messiah" and "the one": Supporters never did that. It was only ever the anti-s.
My memory says that is so not the case in regard to this board, but I have no desire to search for examples. I do know that some Sondheim fans felt he was disrespected by Stephen Colbert.
As for the pity line, are we supposed to assume she had something else rhyming to say there, since she went and rhymed something else in a new thought?
I'd nominate virtually all of "Country House" for crappy Sondheim lyrics. "You can't afford to be bored with your board?" Where does the boredom mention come from?
But even saying he was disrespected by Colbert isn't the same as saying he can do no wrong. But I was mostly kidding anyway.
If Mrs. L wasn't going to finish her original sentence with a logical line that scans and rhymes, then I think it's a cheat. Obviously Sondheim knew he was going to head in a different direction, but Mrs. L shouldn't.
To me that sort of gets into the grey area (at least what I consider a grey area) of whether or not characters actually know whether they are singing or not, and whether or not they are - as characters - actively crafting the rhymes in their heads before they sing them.
If she knew she was rhyming everything else, then I don't see it being a cheat that she rhymes the next words, even though they are part of a different thought. If she doesn't know she was rhyming (or singing, I guess), then I might think it's a cheat.
Since we're picking on the song, I've always felt the addition of "with limited wind" right after that was a pretty painful stretch for a joke. If "limited wind" were a Britishism (or a colloquialism of any stripe) it might be forgivable, but it's a moment that always makes me acutely aware of the songwriter, which is something Sondheim rails against every chance he gets -- being *too* clever. In fact, there's a lot in SWEENEY that makes me aware of him scribbling with his notepad and pencil. It's a show that makes me wish I were more learned about music because it's one of my least favorite shows of his, lyrics-wise, and so many people just adore it.
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I don't think Mrs. L does know she's rhyming, any more than Macbeth knows he's speaking in iambic pentameter.
I tend to think like that, too, Reg, but I always wonder if that kind of thinking is the minority. Anecdotally (and basically I mean from reading these boards) I think many people do believe that singers in musicals are aware of the songs and rhymes that come out of their mouths, hence all the talk of "justifying" singing in a musical. I always think that the mere fact that it's a musical justifies the singing (and the musical conventions that come with it), but I know not everyone sees it that way.
As I typed that I was thinking that, and then wondering if I was overthinking things, because isn't she aware of her singing then? I think I've fallen into a rabbit hole!
Yeah, Phyl, that's the joke that takes me out of the song because it's Sondheim goofing on himself. He gets away with it during "It's a Hit" in MERRILY because the characters are also writers, but here it feels very forced.
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I was surprised when I read "Finishing the Hat" that Sondheim didn't mention the big "problem" line in "The Ladies Who Lunch":
Rushing to their classes in optical art, wishing it would pass
I know he has said the "it" she sings is referring to the optical art craze, but it seems like a reach that you are supposed to understand that that's what she means.
Not to mention that there probably weren't "classes" in optical art. A single lecture in a lecture series on modern art in general, perhaps. But "classes"--plural?
Not very likely.
However, he needed a three-syllable word to go with the retard in the musical phrase. Neither the two-syllable "modern" or the five-syllable "contemporary" would do.