Your Wow-zah Sondheim lyric PICKS...

[NuggetMonkeys]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:16am

What are some of Sondheim's lyrics that make you think:
"Wow, this guy is what Broadway is all about"?
Some for me...

"There were these two, you see. Wanted her like mad,
One of the a Jude one t' other one his Beadle.
Every day they'd nudge and they'd weedle,
Still she wouldn't budge from her needle..."
-from Sweeney Todd

"But alone is alone, not alive"
-from Company

"Everybody says don't walk on the grass,
Don't disturb the peace,
Don't skate on the ice.
Well, I say do!
I say walk on the grass,
it was meant to feel.
I say sail,
Tilt at the windmill
and if you fail, you fail."
-from Anyone Can Whistle

more more? there are plenty...

-d.b.j-

Updated On: 7/31/04 at 12:16 AM

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:23am

My favourite show from Sondheim is Sunday in the Park with George, and many of the lyrics are really beautiful:

"I chose and my world was shaken, so what?
The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not;
You have to move on."

"Stop worrying if your vision is new;
Let others make that decision, they usually do."

"And how you're always turning back too late
from the grass, or the stick, or the dog, or the light
How the kind of woman willing to wait's not
the kind that you want to find waiting
to return you to the night, dizzy from the height
Coming from the hat
Studying the hat
Entering the world of the hat
Reaching through the world of the hat like a window
Back to this one, from that."

"And when the woman that you wanted goes,
you can say to yourself, "Well, I give what I give!"
But the woman who won't wait for you knows
that however you live, there's a part of you
always standing by, mapping out the sky
Finishing the hat.
Starting on a hat.
Look, I made a hat--
Where there never was a hat!"

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:25am

A LITTLE PRIEST

'nough said.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:26am

Company-
Marriage may be where it's been, but it's not where it's at.

Into the Woods-
Best to take the moment present, as a present, for the moment.

Sweeney Tood-
Save a lot of graves, do a lot of relatives favors...
Everybody shaves, so there should be plenty of flavors...

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:40am

But just for good measure:

INTO THE WOODS~
'You many know what you want but to get what you need better see that you keep what you have.'

'But then what if he knew who I was when I know that I'm not what he thinks that he wants.'

COMPANY~
'Here's to the girls who play wife,
aren't they too much?
Keeping house but clutching a copy of LIFE,
just to keep in touch.
The ones who follow the rules
And meet themselves at the schools
Too busy to know that they're fools--
Aren't they a gem?
I'll drink to them.
Let's all drink to them!'

FOLLIES~
'I'm just a Broadway baby
Walking off my tired feet
Pounding Fourty-Second Street,
To be in a show'

'All afternoon doing every little chore,
the thought of you stays bright.
Sometimes I stand in the middle of the floor,
Not going left,
Not going right.
I dim the lights
And think about you,
Spend sleepless nights
To think about you,
You said you loved me,
Or were you just being kind?
Or am I losing my mind?'

ALL of I'M STILL HERE, but particulary...

'I've run the gamut,
A to Z.
Three cheers and dammit,
C'est la vie'

Updated On: 7/31/04 at 12:40 AM

[Christopher_Acts]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 1:01am

Many of them come from "Moments in the Wood" from Into the Woods

"Let the moment go..
Don't forget it for a moment, though"

"Must it all be either less or more,
Either plain or grand?
Is it always 'or'?
Is it never 'and'?
That's what woods are for:
For those moments in the woods...
Oh, if life were made of moments,
Even now and then a bad one--!
But if life were only moments,
Then you'd never know you had one."

There's more that I love...but I can't think of them at the moment...

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 1:14am

"The difference between a cow and a bean is: a bean can start an adventure!" - Into the Woods
God, I love that quote.

[marebare]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 1:16am

This is tough...I love every single word of "Into The Woods" but some of my favorites are:

IT TAKES TWO: "It takes one
To begin, but then once
You've begun,
It takes two of you.
It's no fun,
But what needs to be done
You can do
When there's two of you.

If I dare,
It's because I'm becoming
Aware of us
As a pair of us,
Each accepting a share
Of what's there."

AGONY: "Agony! Oh, the torture they teach!
What's as intriguing-
Or half so fatiguing-
As what's out of reach?"

MAYBE THEY'RE MAGIC: "If you know
What you want,
Then you go
And you find it
And you get it-
Do we want a child or not?
And you give
And you take
And you bid
And you bargain
Or you live
To regret it.
There are rights and wrongs and inbetweens
No one waits when fortune intervenes"

"No, what matters is that
Everyone tells tiny lies.
What's important, really is, the size."

"If the end is right, it justifies the beans!"

I could go on and on!

[Plum]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 2:10am

My all-time favorite Into the Woods quote, which had me rolling the first time I heard Joanna Gleason deliver it on the OBC:

If the end is right, it justifies the beans!

And from my favorite Sondheim score, Sunday in the Park With George:

Work is what you do for others, liebchen. Art is what you do for yourself.

[leomaxfrank]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 2:41am

Chrysanthemum Tea - Pacific Overtures --the entire song--
( too amazing to type out!)

Ballad of Guiteau - Assassins
"The Lord's my employer and now he's my lawyer - so do what you dare. Charlie said 'Hell, if I am guilty than God is as well' - but God was acquitted and Charlie committed until he should hang..."

Sorry, Grateful - Company

enough for now...bed calls

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 2:51am

In Sondheim, there are so, so many great lyrics but, for me, there a particular one that always hit me on a personal level as a creative artist (and I only edit so as not to get into copyright trouble with Mr. Sondheim or with the board monitors):

"Finishing the hat.
How you have to finish the hat.
How you watch the rest of the world
From a window
While you finish the hat.

Mapping out a sky
What you feel like planning a sky.
What you feel when voices that come
Through the window
Go
Until they distance and die,
Until there's nothing but sky.

And how you're always turning back
Too late from the grass or the stick
Or the dog or the light.
How the kind of woman willing to wait's
Not the kind that you want to find waiting
To return you to the night,
Dizzy from the height.

Coming from the hat.
Studying the hat.
Entering the world of the hat.
Reaching through the world of the hat like a window
Back to this one from that."

[M J R]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 2:54am

Something about this song just WRETCHES ME when I hear it:

Hard to see the light now,
Just don't let it go.
Things will come out right now.
We can make it so.

Someone is on your side,
No one is alone.

[bta212]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 7:34am

Sunday: "Finishing the Hat" always chokes me up
Company: "Another Hundred People" ditto. Just a few lines, but he's captured the experience of living in NYC.

But favorite single lyric? No question. From "Merrily"--

"...we'll get Leontyne Price to sing
her medley from Meistersinger..."

It kills me every time.

Updated On: 7/31/04 at 07:34 AM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 8:28am

Let's see Nuggets..."lyrics that make you think: Wow! This guy is what Broadway is all about"...hmmm....

"I had a dream.

...You'll be swell.
You'll be great.
Gonna have the whole world on a plate."

Now, didn't someone else start a Sondheim lyric thread recently? Or was that another dream ?







Updated On: 7/31/04 at 08:28 AM

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 10:35am

INTO THE WOODS
"careful the things you say, children will listen
careful the wish you make, wishes are children
careful the path they take wishes come true, not free
careful the tale you tell, that is the spell"

SUNDAY IN THE PARK
anything you do let it come from you,then it will be new,
give us more to see

[Paul LW]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 11:54am

YES!!!!

"The choice may have been mistaken. The choosing was not"

This has been my mantra!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:09pm

I tear up during Sunday's Move On.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:16pm

INTO THE WOODS

The whole song; "Last Midnight" (It is one of the most hauntingly lovely songs hes ever written)

and most of the finale of INTO THE WOODS

[Zola Q. LaPlaya]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 12:37pm

Best lyric ever:

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG:

"..and Leontyne Price'll sing her
medley from Meistersinger..."

[NuggetMonkeys]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 1:10pm

oh geeeeeeeze, Jose'. Who cares?

"Everybody's got the right to some sunshine.
Not the sun but maybe one of it's beams.
Rich man, poor man. Black or white...
Everybody gets a bite.
Eerybody's got the right to their dreams."
-from Assassins

-d.b.j-

[Kelliexo90]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:10pm

I love the song "Some People" from Gypsy.

"Some people sit on their butts
Got the dream yeah, but not the guts..."

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:12pm

Oh and:
All of ROSES TURN, YA GOTTA GET A GIMMICK, and LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU

Gypsy's songs are the epitome of Broadway.

[pattifan2]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:16pm

Among my favourites have to be:-

'New friends pour through the revolving door' from 'Merrily'

'It's our time, breathe it in, worlds to change and worlds to win' from 'Merrily' - always makes me tear up

Again, 'The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not' 'Sunday In The Park'

'We're the same, we are different...You and I are different' from 'Passion' how brilliant is that?

'Curtain up, light the lights...' I don't have to say anything more!

There are hundreds more but these are the ones which spring to mind.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 6:45pm

At the risk of repeating myself - I was in the national tour of Sunday in the Park with George, and just hearing the closing number of act one, or the reprise in act two, of "Sunday" can make me bawl like a baby - nothing in the world can compare with having been in that show. It's one of the few times in my professional career when I felt that I was actually creating art on stage (well, the Glorious Mr. Sondheim created it, I just got to perform it - and what a true joy that was!)
On a side note - if you have a beating heart in your body that contains love, see The Village...you'll be amazed at the wonderful message presented in this great film by M. Night Shyamalan. He's this millenium's Hitchcock with a heart!

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 7:30pm

Off-Topic: I knew you couldn't say cocktail, but I find it even funnier that you can't say Hitchcock.