The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show — Page 2

#26

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 2:15am

I don't think it's possible for there to be a "competition" with Sondheim involved.

That being said, Finn and Loesser do some lyrical wonders as well.

#27

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 2:19am

I think the lyrics to A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC are simply terrific.

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I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.

#28

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 3:20am

I'm going to have to say Sunday in the Park with George has the best lyrics I've heard:

"George's stroke is tender..."
"The kind of woman willing to wait is not the kind that you want to find waiting to return you to the night"
"One eye: no illusion that you get with two..."

Just off the top of my head

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What a night! I was in more laps than a napkin!

#29

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 3:25am

INTO THE WOODS
THE SECRET GARDEN
LAST 5 YEARS

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And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before... After the Sky. -Into the Woods (Jack)

#30

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 9:54am

Sweeney Todd and City of Angels

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"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" - Willy Wonka

#31

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 11:11am

Sweeney Todd
Into The Woods
South Pacific

Those are the ones I immediately thought of. Wicked has some awful lyrics.

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"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible

#32

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 12:34pm

Craig beat me to it by two posts. Other than the obvious Sondheim, City of Angels has some of the best lyrics ever written.

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Hi, Shirley Temple Pudding.

#33

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/27/08 at 12:45pm

I tried to think of just one Sondheim show to post, but I can't because they're all so great.
So, anything Sondheim and also Candide. (incidentally, a show in which Sondheim did some re-writes!)

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"As we all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one's heart broken at regular intervals" - Frank Rich

Dearest, how can this be so? You were dead, you know. - Candide

Oh my god, this show has everything! Half naked guys and girl on girl action! - [title of show]

(My avatar? Why, yes! That is Laura Benanti making out with a chick!)

Updated On: 7/27/08 at 12:45 PM

#34

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 5:55am

Yeah, I would have to say Gypsy and Into the Woods.

Gypsy for it's emotional resonance. Each lyric is so purposefully written and perfectly relates to whatever is going on at the moment. And Into the Woods for some of the internal rhymes and just general amazing lyics. Such a strong show that just screams Sondheim.

#35

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 6:13am

In no specific order, I picked the first ten that came to mind:

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
GUYS & DOLLS
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
GYPSY
SWEENEY TODD
GREY GARDENS
MY FAIR LADY
THE KING & I
SHE LOVES ME
ANYTHING GOES

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"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#36

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 7:58am

I'd cite Yip Harburg for FINIAN'S RAINBOW and Alan Jay Lerner's especially fine lyrics for CAMELOT.

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

#37

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 8:24am

I'm with Chess. It's too damn underrated.

And while I like Wicked, its lyrics leave much to be desired seriously. I let my friend listen to For Good and at first she was obsessed with it being about "the only song EVER that's about friendship!".

Two weeks later, she came around and started bitching about the oversimplified lyrics. Don't worry, people come around. :)

I quite fancy Oklahoma too.

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In Soviet Russia, Wicked hates you too!

#38

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 8:50am

Submitted for your consideration:

1776

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"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

#39

Posted: 7/28/08 at 8:51am

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 08:51 AM

#40

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 9:42am

INTO THE WOODS... but basically any Sondheim

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"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES--- "THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS

#41

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 9:47am

Phantom of the Opera, hands down....

#42

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 9:54am

Sondheim, no doubt. As well as Hammerstien II and Gershwin.

#43

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 10:03am

It is going to be a Sondheim show, no question. Picking only one of his is a bit harder. A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, SUNDAY IN THE PARK W/ GEORGE, INTO THE WOODS & SWEENEY TODD would be my choices.

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"It's Phantom meets Hamlet... Phamlet!"

#44

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 10:50am

My Fair Lady is the best Broadway musical ever: lyrics, music, book, etc.

My Fair Lady is a good show, even a very good show, but not the best.

I let my friend listen to For Good and at first she was obsessed with it being about "the only song EVER that's about friendship!".

Wow, I guess she doesn't have much exposure to musical theatre, then?

As far as "The Best Lyrics" go, it's a tough decision, especially if you analyze musicals with respect to the eras in which they were written. I personally would narrow it down to:

A Little Night Music
City of Angels
Falsettos
Les Miserables
Fiddler on the Roof
The Most Happy Fella
Oklahoma

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"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#45

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 10:55am

To be honest, it's kind of hard to have a decent discussion on this topic with many people too young to know Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, or Ira Gershwin.

#46

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 11:01am

I love all Sondheim lyrics and actually the old lyrics to Wicked were pretty good in the first workshop but they seemed to use a lot of Sondheim's ideas in them

#47

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 11:42am

Into The Woods by Soundheim and Lapine.

I'm reading it now and it's the best lyrics I've read so far.

#48

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 11:46am

"actually the old lyrics to Wicked were pretty good in the first workshop but they seemed to use a lot of Sondheim's ideas in them"

such an insult.

never again... please.

#49

re: The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show

Posted: 7/28/08 at 11:49am

Yoru friends are obviously young and of the school that believes newr is generally better.

heck out the brilliance of Cole Porter and that of Lorenz Hart. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewlidered" may have some of the best lyrics ever written, period. Hart was abslutely brilling in his use of internal rhyme.

Of course, he didn't use any four-letter words,so he may be over the heads of some audiences today.

#50

Posted: 7/28/08 at 12:12pm

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 12:12 PM