The Five Best Sondheim Rhymes- Page 2

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 1:05pm

Good ones, Spork!

Also:

Sweeney was smooth, Sweeney was subtle
Sweeney would blink and rats would scuttle

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 1:16pm

madbrian beat me to it!

I love the rhymes that don't draw attention to themselves immediately. It wasn't until the 3rd or 4th listen that I could really appreciate why I found this song so hilarious.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 2:21pm

While not a rhyme, I've always loved:

Then you career from career to career


And I also like Reginald's suggestion from "Ah, But Underneath". I know that many people dislike that song and think it's trite, but I like the song. The song always makes me think of Bette Davis.

Updated On: 7/21/11 at 02:21 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 3:01pm

Some of these have already been cited, but are worth repeating.

1) A shepherd's pie peppered with actual shepherd

2) An imitation Hitler but with littler charm

3) Just remembering you had an 'and," when you're back to 'or,'
Makes the 'or' meand more than it did before.

4) Fredrik:

She loves my voice, my walk, my mustache
The cigar in fact that I'm smoking
She'll watch me puff until it's just ash
Then she'll save the cigar butt.

Desiree:

Bizarre, but
You're joking.

5) BRITISH ADMIRAL

Her Majesty considers the arrangements to be tentative
Until we ship a proper diplomatic representative.
We don't foresee that you will be the least bit
argumentative,
So please ignore the man-of-war we brought as a
preventative.

(explosion)

RECITER

Yes, please ignore the man-of-war
That's anchored rather near the shore,
It's nothing but a metaphor
That acts as a preventative.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 3:07pm

Honorable mention:

As I said to the Abbot,
I'll get in the habit.

But not in the habit!

[Idiot]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 3:13pm

I can't believe nobody here pointed out:

I SORT OF HATE TO ASK IT
BUT DO YOU HAVE A BASKET?

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 3:27pm

IDIOT, that is another of my favorites. From the same show.

This is another favorite of mine:

Frogs!
We're the frogs!
The adorable frogs!
Not your hoity-toity intellectuals,
Not your hippy-dippy homosexuals,
Just your easy-going, simple,
Warm-hearted, cold-blooded
Frogs
Of the pond
And the fronds we never go beyond.
When you rearrange a single frond,
We respond
With a --

[theatreguy]

Posted: 7/21/11 at 3:53pm

Another (cut) from Follies:

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.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 2:48am

Though not a rhyme, I love the economy of

Children can only grow
From something you love, to something you lose.

- the change of one letter making all the difference!

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 5:26am

Could I leave you?
Yes.
Will I leave you?
Will I leave you?
Guess!

[Buddy's blues]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 6:03am

Not really a rhyme either but Sondheim for me at his best from "Poor Baby"
She's tall enough to be your mother! Goliath!

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 7:44am

Buddy's blues, after first I fell in love with a COMPANY recording, never having read the lyrics with it, it took many moons before I realized that "Goliath" was in there. Now it's all I hear and kills me everytime.


One of my favorite lyrics in all of INTO THE WOODS is during the transition towards the end of the prologue, going in to the "Into the Woods" theme, with the Baker's wife completing the list with "The haaaaaair!" as Cinderella and the Baker come in over her.

Also in ITW, the line "Where's the cheesecloth?" for some odd reason always makes me laugh and crushes my heart. Is this noted in the libretto as a lyric or line of dialogue? I have no libretto handy. Either way, I feel quite certain Sondheim wrote it. Big minutia.

[mamaleh]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 8:33am

Besides the aforementioned "In view of her penchant....," I've always loved the lilting:

"Such lovely blue Danube-y
Music, how can you be
Still"

(from DO I HEAR A WALTZ?)

[chewy5000]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 8:37am

I too love rhymes like "suicide" and "you aside".

Although not Sondheim, I am crazy about the lyrics of "I'll Never Fall In Love Again":

What do you do when you kiss a guy,
you get enough germs to catch pneumonia
and after you do, he'll never phone ya

[Jon]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 10:24am

theatreguy - you reaqlize the whole "Ritz/Schlitz" thing is a tribute to Cole Porter, who used that rhyme in Kiss Me Kate.

of course, many of the songs in Follies are pastiches of earlier composers - "Losing My Mind" is meant to mimic the Gershwins.

[bwaymizfit]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 1:16pm

I'm glad somebody mentioned Assassins! I have plenty of favorites from other shows that were already mentioned, but IMHO the lyrics to Assassins are some of his best.

Some personal favorites:

"How could you do it, Johnny,
Calling it a cause?
You left a legacy
Of butchery
And treason we
Took eagerly,
And thought you'd get applause."

and, albeit a non-rhyme:

"if you can't do what you want to/then you do the things you can"
Updated On: 7/22/11 at 01:16 PM

[gcal]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 1:42pm

Go, can't you go
Why is no-body listening?
Goodbye go and cry
At another person's wake
If you're quick for a kick
you could pick up a christening
But please on my knees
There's a human life at stake

[tazber]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 1:57pm

uncageg already posted my favorite.

[uncageg]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 2:11pm

Which one taz? Into the Woods?

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 2:13pm

No one's posted the delightfully dirty:

CP:
If it were not for the thicket

RP:
A thicket's no trick. Is it thick?

CP:
It's the thickest

RP:
The quickest is pick it apart with a stick

CP:
Yes, but even one prick, it's my thing about blood

RP:
Well it's sick

CP:
It's no sicker than your thing with dwarves

RP:
Dwarves?

CP:
Dwarves!

RP:
Dwarves are very upsetting.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 4:00pm

SonofRobbieJ-

Actually (and this makes the song even funnier), the exchange is:

CP:
It's not sicker
Than your thing with dwarves.

RP:
Dwarfs.

CP:
Dwarfs...

RP:
Dwarfs are very upsetting.


It's very subtle and most people probably wouldn't catch it unless they read the lyrics.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 4:19pm

Oh God.

I played Rapunzel's Prince.

Shame. Shame on me.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 4:25pm

For me, nothing will ever top-

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

[C'est Moi2]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 11:11pm

Surprised I haven't seen this one yet...

You'll leave him a clue:
For example, a shoe.
And then see what he'll do.

Now it's he and not you
Who is stuck with a shoe,
In a stew, in the goo,
And you've learned something, too,
Something you never knew,
On the steps of the palace.

[ChiChi]

Posted: 7/22/11 at 11:23pm

Men are stupid
men are vain
love's disgusting
love's insane