Favorite Sondheim rhymes?

What are some of your favorites? I'm doing "Assassins" right now and I cannot get enough of this score. What are some of your favorite Sondheim lyric rhymes? Here are some of mine:

"Johnny lived with a grace and glitter/Kind of like the lives he lived onstage/Died in a barn in pain and bitter/Twenty-seven years of age." (ASSASSINS)

"It's fop/Finest in the shop/And we have some shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd on top." (SWEENEY TODD)

"Now as I try to adjust my original plan/How can I sleep half as deep as I usually can/When now I still want and or love you, now as always/Now, Anne" (A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC)

Anyone else?

"I was told just be faithful and never scold,
Sounded easy so I was sold -- I've been miserable since.
I was taught when the prince and the dragon fought
That the dragon was always caught,
Now I don't even wince
When it eats the prince."

and...

"In the depths of her interior
Were fears she was inferior.
And something even eerier.
But no one dared to query her superior exterior."



I everytime I hear "no one dared to query her superior exterior" I can't help but let out a sigh of delight.

kmc

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Charlie Guiteau
Drew a crowd to his trial,
Led them in prayer,
Said, "I killed Garfield,
I'll make no denial.
I was just acting
For Someone up there.
The Lord's my employer,
And now he's my lawyer,
So do what you dare."

Charlie said, "Hell,
If I am guilty,
Then God is as well."
But God was acquitted
And Charlie committed
Until he should hang.

assassins.



Be you anything from king to baker of cakes,
You're a vegetable unless you're free!
It's a little word, but oh, the difference it makes!
It's the necessary essence of democracy,
It's the thing that every slave should have the right to be.
And I soon will have the right to buy a slave for me!

forum.

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Updated On: 5/4/06 at 01:39 PM

But fortunately it's all so clear
That everybody goes down well with beer!
-Sweeney Todd

Somebody pull me too close
Somebody hurt me too deep
Somebody sit in my chair
And ruin my sleep
-Company

---

In view of her penchant for something romantic
De Sade is too trenchant and Dickens too frantic,
And Stendahl would ruin the plan of attack
as there isn't much blue in "The Red and the Black."

and:

With riotous laughter we quietly suffer
the season is town which is reason enough for
A weekend in the country...

both: A Little Night Music

"Life is often so unpleasant/You must know that as a peasant/Best to keep the moment present/As a present for the moment."

The various meat pie ingredients in "A Little Priest" always slay me.

Into the Woods is chock full of some awesome ones!
"There are bugs on her dugs/There are flies in her eyes/There's a lump on her rump big enough to be a hump/There's no time to sit and dither/While her withers wither with her"

"Not forgetting the tests unachievable/Mountains unscalable/If it's concievable/But unavailable"

"It takes just a bit more and we're done/We want four/We had none/We've got three/We need one/It takes two"

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I feel pretty/oh, so pretty/I feel pretty and witty and gay!

HAHA JUST KIDDING.

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Come on, most of these aren't the complex rhymes that Sondheim is famous for. Here, some REAL tongue-twisters:

She sits at the Ritz with her splits of Mumm's
And starts to pine for a stein with her village chums
But with her Schlitz in her mitts down in Fitzroy's Bar
She thinks of the Ritz, Oh, it's so schizo...

It's a wink and a wiggle
And a giggle in the grass
And I'll trip the light Fandango
A pinch and a diddle
In the middle of what passes by.

If the tea the Shogun drank will
Serve to keep the Shogun tranquil
I suggest, if I may, my Lord,
We consult the Confucians -
They have mystical solutions,
There are none wise as they, my Lord.

And, of course, the British ambassador of "Please Hello" in Pacific Overtures has the greatest rhymes I've ever heard - it's a shame most of them aren't heard due to the overlapping:

1: Hello, I come with letters from her Majesty Victoria
Who, learning how you're trading now, sand "Hallelujah, Gloria!"
And sent me to convey to you her positive euphoria
As well as little gifts from Britain's various emporia.

2: I think
Her letters do contain a few proposals to your Emperor
Which if, of course, he won't endorse, will put her in a temper
or,
More happily, should he agree, will serve to keep her placid, or
At least till I am followed by a permanent ambassador.

3: Great Britain wishes her position clear and indisputable
We're not amused at being used and therefore stand immutable
And though you Japs are foxy chaps and damnably inscrutable -

4: The British feel these latest dealings verge on immorality
The element of precedent imperils our neutrality
We're rather vexed, your giving extraterritoriality
We must insist you offer this to every nationality!

5: One moment please, I think that these assure us exclusivity
For Western ports and other sorts of maritime activity
And if you mean to intevene, as is the Dutch proclivity,
We'll blow you nits to little bits, with suitable festivity.

But fortunately it's all so clear
That everybody goes down well with beer!
-Sweeney Todd

Greatest.Rhyme.Ever.

Into the Woods:

"It's your father's fault that the curse got placed and the place got cursed in the first place" from Your Fault (Actually I love all the rhymes in that song)

"Told a little lie, stole a little gold, broke a little vow, did you? Had to get your prince, had to get your cow, had to get your wish doesn't matter how, anyway it doesn't matter now" from Last Midnight--I just love the way that sounds

And love is a lecture
On how to correct your
mistakes

"Little Night Music" film