Lyrics that have changed in Shows

Song of Purple Summer and Those You've Known from Spring Awakening. Purple Summer has two entire verses that were cut from the OBCR, and Those You've Known has little lyric changes too, towards the end. There were different vocal arrangements, too. I have no idea why, though.

The lyrics of Purple Summer were changed because the impressionist lyrics of the original song were considered too inscrutable to close out the show, being especially obscure even for the show they were in. A new intro and varied lyrics throughout make the song more tangibly "about something" than the original lyric, which suggested the progression of time and autumnal decline without actually tying in to anything more specific.

^I know why the change was made to the lyrics in the first place- I meant that I didn't know why they were changed back for the OBCR.

The Spring Awakening cast album was recorded between off-Broadway and Broadway, so there were many differences.

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Oh, thanks clumsydude, that would explain all the differences!

ullabelt wrote: [T]here are several alternate versions... to keep things interesting.

If storytelling and craft came first in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, there wouldn't need to be be several alternate versions of the lyrics to keep things interesting. The libretto would already be interesting in the first place.

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Updated On: 9/7/13 at 07:19 AM

DAVID FLICK

Well yes, I agree with that entirely but what I meant was interesting for the creative team/actors as with all the variations on choreography in CHICAGO - they pick and choose with every cast change. I am not a fan of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

BEST 12 BARS

When did fag/drag change?

What you wrote about SHOW BOAT was very interesting indeed. Reminded me of meeskite/jewish in 'If You Could See Her Through My Eyes'

The heaven knows lyric was the original 'radio edit' I think.

Jesus Christ Superstar had a huge crop of changes beginning with the 1996 West End revival. Most of them have reverted to the original lyrics over time as people realized how clunky some of the changes were, but a handful are still part of the show as currently licensed. I'll list them below.

This Jesus Must Die
"One thing I'll say for him / Jesus is cool" became "Infantile sermons / The multitude drools"

Simon Zealotes
"...but add a touch of hate at Rome" became "...but make sure they're all hating Rome"

Poor Jerusalem
All iterations of the phrase "But you close your eyes" became "But you live a lie"

The Temple
Rather than repeat the whole "Roll on up for my price is down..." section once more, the merchants now have a new section, partially based on the additional lyrics for the 1973 film: "Roll on up Jerusalem / Here it isn't us and them / While our temples still survive / We at least are still alive / Come all classes come all creeds / I can fix your wildest needs / Name your pleasure I will sell / I got heaven I got hell // What you see is what you get / No one's been disappointed yet / Don't be scared give me a try / There is nothing you can't buy"

Make Us Well (finally, in the Stratford revival, they gave us a title to distinguish the lepers section from the temple scene -- "long overdue" is an understatement)
* "See my tongue I can hardly talk" became "See his tongue he can hardly talk" (which I guess makes more sense)
* "See my legs I can hardly stand" became "Change my life oh I know you can"
* All the group verse repetitions except for maybe the beginning of the last repeat have been pluralized: "See our eyes we can hardly see / See us stand we can hardly walk / We believe you can make us whole / See the tongues that can hardly talk / See our skin we're a mass of blood / Change our lives oh we know you can / We believe you can make us well / You're the hope of the poor poor man"

Damned for All Time
"Why are we the prophets / Why are we the ones..." became more specific to Judas' plight ("Why are we the prophets / Why am I the one / Who sees the sad solution / Knows what must be done")

The Arrest
The last four lines of the first group stanza of the song are now "How do you view your coming trial? / Have your men proved at all worthwhile? / Did you pick an efficient team? / Is that it for the Jewish dream?"

Judas' Death
Judas' incoherent rambling became instead "And I acted for our good / And I'd save him if I could"

Trial by Pilate
Pilate's verse about truth became "What is truth? / Not easy to define / We both have truths / Are yours the same as mine?"

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Updated On: 9/7/13 at 02:52 PM

In THE FANTASTICKS, most references to "rape" have been eliminated from "It Depends on What You Pay" for the sake of being politically correct.

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Just being in a production of Beauty and the Beast, I can say that Mason De Lu (SPELLING, I KNOW) is completely different in the show from the OBC and in Home, the "What I'd give to return to the life that I knew lately..." verse is different.

FlowerChild

A little more FYI. The final version of Song of Purple Summer was written literally hours before the final preview when shows are "locked-in" so the performed version was the last revision of the Broadway show.