The Best Lyrics Ever Written for A Show — Page 3

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.

What, you mean personally?

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Kiss Me, Kate
A Little Night Music
Follies
Sweeney Todd
City of Angels
The Light in the Piazza
Caroline, or Change
A New Brain
Oklahoma
Carousel

I'm pretty young and even I try to know as much as possible about older shows.Just because we're young doesn't mean we're stupid. I like old shows just as much as I like new ones.

I'm not saying the people whom most of us disagree with aren't ignorant, I'm just saying that they're ignorant regardless of age. :)

"Schwartz? Sheik? NOPE. "

Sater wrote the lyrics.

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brandontwin2 - you're basically comparing Schwartz to Sondheim. sure, you can have an opinion. and I can disagree with it 100%

"no..Wicked definitely has the best lyrics ever written. It goes along perfectly with the best book and storyline ever written. i mean, once you look over the bad rhymes and plot holes, I'd say it was robbed at the Tony's! "

Good God!

GYPSY
SUNDAY IN THE PARK

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my favorite Sondheim factoid is that "Someone in a Tree" is his favorite song of his own. and it's definitely one of my favorites.

one of the things I love about these threads is how I'm reminded of other wonderful lyricists. I tend to respond quickly, trying to be the first one to get a particular show in, and wind up missing other shows that I really like. "Finian's Rainbow," for example, is a show I love but had forgotten to mention, and the same with "Caroline, or Change". and Cole Porter, of course, is someone I honestly don't listen to enough, but I know his lyrics are amazing. and, as his mother said, he was a naughty boy.

oh, and "The Secret Garden"? one of the most underrated shows ever. both the music AND lyrics are stunning.


and there's definitely no competition when you have Sondheim and Cole Porter involved.

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Sondheim, Porter, Berlin, Hart, Hammerstein, Ebb, Coward, Gershwin, and Lerner.

There, happy now?

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Updated On: 7/28/08 at 11:08 PM

I did mention SHE LOVES ME, Sondheimboy2, simply brilliant lyrics. Barbara Cook says she considers "Ice Cream" to be one of the best book songs ever written, and I couldn't agree more.
Tony Kushner's lyrics for CAROLINE, OR CHANGE are incredibly underrated. The brilliance simplicity of the powerful lyrics from songs like "I Hate the Bus," the "Epilogue," "Salty Teardrops," and "Long Distance" is just mind-blowing.
Of course Sondheim's lyrics are perfection.
I agree that Hammerstein has been quite ignored, I picked THE KING & I because it's my favorite Rodgers/Hammerstein show, but his lyrics from SHOWBOAT to SOUTH PACIFIC to CAROUSEL are fantastic.
Cole Porter might win the award though, no one else could come rhyme "champagne" with "cocaine" oh so cleverly. The lyrics to "I Get a Kick Out of You" are orgasmic.

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Reading old posts is painful. Delete :)

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Updated On: 11/8/17 at 11:28 AM

I love me some Into the Woods.

"Better stop and take stock while you're standing here stuck on the steps of the palace."

From Pre-1920's - THE MIKADO (W.S. Gilbert)
From the 1920's - SHOW BOAT (Oscar Hammerstein II)
From the 1930's - ANYTHING GOES (Cole Porter)
From the 1940's - PAL JOEY (Lorenz Hart)
From the 1950's - (tie) GUYS AND DOLLS (Frank Loesser) and MY FAIR LADY (Alan Jay Lerner)
From the 1960's - SHE LOVES ME (Sheldon Harnick)
From the 1970's - The work of Stephen Sondheim
From the 1980's - BABY (Richard Maltby, Jr.)
From the 1990's - BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Howard Ashman)
From the 2000's - (tie) HAIRSPRAY (Scott Whitman)and AVENUE Q (Lopez & Marx)

Updated On: 7/29/08 at 02:53 PM