Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

#1

Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 3:59pm

I'd have to say Sweeney Todd.

I will not lie, there are some Sondheim lyrics I don't like, and some of his rhymes I don't like.

But I think Sweeney's lyrics are pure perfection. Brilliance, and without a doubt flawless.

I'm not sure I've heard a score with better lyrics.

So what score do you think has the most perfect/flawless lyrics?

Updated On: 5/26/06 at 03:59 PM

#2

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:01pm

I go for A little Night Music, my fave Sondheim score. What he does there is better than anything I ever heard.

#3

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:05pm

When I saw this thread I was going to enter in Sweeney. You beat me to it.

#4

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:08pm

"I'd have to say Sweeney Todd."

I'd have to agree

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#5

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:13pm

Sunday In The Park With George in my opinion.

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BSoBW2: I punched Sondheim in the face after I saw Wicked and said, "Why couldn't you write like that!?"

#6

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:20pm

"Into The Woods" for me.

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Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#7

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:21pm

NIGHT MUSIC for sheer sophistication and GYPSY for passion.

TT

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"Me flunk English? That's unpossible!" - Ralph Wiggum

#8

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:23pm

Sunday in the Park With George


BUT if this thread were about the MOST flawed, I'd have to name "The Woman in White". "...we are serving fish..."

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"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman

#9

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:24pm

Sweeney.

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"When you're a Jet, / You're a Jet all the way, / From your first pirouette / To your last grand jete." --Brian Kaman

#10

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:25pm

I agree with TT 100% -- NIGHT MUSIC and GYPSY.

Updated On: 5/26/06 at 04:25 PM

#11

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:31pm

Sweeney Todd.

Funny how every answer so far has been a Sondheim show

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#12

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:35pm

What is this? A goddamn Sondheim thread?

Try "South Pacific," if you can all stop hero-worshipping you-know-who for five seconds.

#13

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:39pm

SWEENEY TODD
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
INTO THE WOODS
CAROUSEL
GYPSY

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"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy." -Charlie Manson

#14

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:43pm

I have to vote for MY FAIR LADY.

WHY CAN'T THE ENGLISH?
A HYMM TO HIM

Perfection!

#15

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:44pm

The Last Five Years' lyrics are so naturally conversational and subtle. I think they're beautiful.

#16

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 4:46pm

A Little Night Music or Sweeney Todd.

I see no reason to list a non-Sondheim show merely for the sake of listing someone else. It's not like we have anything to gain by listing his shows. They simply are the most flawless.

And South Pacific? "Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk?" Come on.

#17

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 5:15pm

The show may be lumpy and problematic in general, but Lerner's lyrics for Camelot are sublime.

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Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

#18

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 5:17pm

South Pacific
Sweeney Todd
Carousel
Follies
Chicago

#19

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 5:20pm

I'd say My Fair Lady as well. A love story where the word love isn't uttered. Genius.

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"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli

#20

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 5:21pm

Yeah, definitely Sweeney Todd. I LOVE Sondheim's lyrics but in every show there's at least SOMETHING that makes me go - huh? Not in Sweeney.

#21

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 5:27pm

Wicked

Nessa and Confessa- Brilliant!

I would have to go with Sweeney, although I kind of like Sweet Charity's.

#22

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 5:30pm

Actually, yes, Flahooley, My Fair Lady is a close second for me. Praise to Alan Jay Lerner!

#23

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 5:37pm

A Little Night Music is in my opinion a truly FLAWLESS score

#24

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 6:25pm

Follies
No Strings

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#25

re: Broadway Score With The Most Flawless Lyrics?

Posted: 5/26/06 at 7:39pm

Kiss Me, Kate.