Favorite Song Or Lyric From Gypsy

[MrWilliams1987]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 12:58pm

"Hold your hats and hallelujah, Mama's gonna show it to you." - Rose's Turn

[JSquared2]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 12:58pm

OK?

[The8re phan]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 1:01pm

Once I was a schleppa, now I'm Miss Mazeppa 

[Dan6]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 2:11pm

And any IOU I owe, you owe

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 2:40pm

Often quoted:

”Mr. Conductor, if you please.” 

[Bwaygurl2]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 2:54pm

Mama, get out your white dress 

You've done it before, without much success 

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 3:38pm

"If you wanna bump it, bump it with a trumpet"

Also, in Rose's Turn, I really love how the whole show turns on a single word, "Well," [someone tell me, when is it my turn...].

[Dreamboy3]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 5:01pm

Bwaygurl2 said: "Mama, get out your white dress

You've done it before, without much success"


LOUISE:
But Momma gets married

JUNE:
And...

LOUISE:
Married

JUNE:
And...

LOUISE:
Married

BOTH:
And never gets carried away

[Jarethan]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 6:43pm

I agree re 'any IOU I owe, you owe'.  As silly as it sounds, this phrase pops up in my head regularly.  It is just so damned clever and 'Sondheimesque'.

While I do not love the song 'Little Lamb', I do love the last line...'I wonder how old I am'.  A perfect lyric to justify the entire song.

Rose's Turn is as close to a standalone masterpiece as probably any song every written in telling such a powerful story.  The pinnacle to that song for me is 'Momma's gotta let go', although I do think that BP's rendition of the song had a different one; that 'Weeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllll' made her rendition more powerful than any I have heard.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 7:24pm

I've always loved "knitting sweaters and sitting still" and "living life in a living room" as Rose's examples of what "people who don't know they're alive" do.

[darquegk]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 8:29pm

I love “the cow song” in its entirety because it’s perfect camp. So bad it’s good. Back in college we used to quote “m’moo m’moo” from the LuPone album constantly.

[halfhourcheckwithmerman]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 8:37pm

Some (beat)

hum (beat)

drum (beat)

people...

My favorite triple-rhyme ever. 

I also like any opportunity to call attention to the cut "Mama's Talkin' Soft," especially the lovely demo sung by Laura Leslie, which is included as a bonus on the OBC album. While pretty far from how it was intended to be sung in the show, this demo is great for calling attention to its brilliant, lean, winking lyric, which recalls the techniques of writers like Frank Loesser or Yip Harburg more so than even Sondheim.

Momma's talkin soft.
Momma's got a plan.
Momma's eyes are wide,
Momma sees a man.

Momma's blushin' pink,
Strokin' back her hair.
Momma has a smile—
And when she has a smile,
No one else has a prayer.

Momma's talkin' low.
Momma's gonna win.
Momma's movin' slow.
Momma's movin' in.

Bet when Momma's done
Not a soul survives.
Momma's talkin' soft:
Everybody run for your lives!

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 8:43pm

Something about the cadence of "she loves a man cow, a tan cow, who can cow her with a glance" tickles my brain every time

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 6/19/25 at 9:35pm

In ''Finishing the Hat,'' his collection of lyrics, Sondheim recalls that in the late '50s, he performed a song from the yet-unfinished musical of ''Gypsy'' for Cole Porter at Porter's apartment. Porter had his legs amputated, and Jule Styne, ''Gypsy's'' composer, brought Sondheim along to cheer up Porter. Sondheim sang ''Together, Wherever We Go'' and got to the lyric: “Wherever I go, I know he goes / Wherever I go, I know she goes / No fits, no fights, no feuds, and no egos / Amigos / Together!” Sondheim writes: “It may well have been the high point of my lyric-writing life” to witness Porter’s “gasp of delight” on hearing a surprise fourth rhyme.

 

Updated On: 6/19/25 at 09:35 PM

[Art Isn’t Easy]

Posted: 6/20/25 at 9:14am

If Mama Was Married is my favorite song, to me it's the heart of the show, but Gotta Get A Gimmick is such a perfect number, just incredible couplet after couplet:

"You can sacrifice your saccro/ Working in the back row" - "Dressy Tessie Tura is so much more demur-er than all them other ladies because/ You gotta get a gimmick, if you wanna get applause" - I could go on!

Oh and also: "Starting now I bat a thousand/ this time boys I'm taking the boys and" is up there with going/boeing as my favorite Sondheim rhyme

 

[morosco]

Posted: 6/20/25 at 11:58am

Starting now I bat a thousand!
This time, boys, I'm taking the bows and

Rhyming "thousand" with "bows and" is just brilliant.