Favorite Lyric

[jazzbird]

So, what's your favorite musical theater lyric: one clever and one moving.....

 

[jazzbird]

Okay, I'll start:

For cleverest lyric....gosh it's so hard to choose just one.....so I'm gonna have to choose two.

From Follies:
Could I leave you?
No, the point is, could you leave me?
Well, I guess you could leave me the house,
Leave me the flat,
Leave me the Braques and Chagalls and all that.
You could leave me the stocks for sentiment's sake
And ninety percent of the money you make.
And the rugs
And the cooks--
Darling, you keep the drugs.
Angel, you keep the books,
Honey, I'll take the grand,
Sugar you keep the spinet
And all of our friends and--
Just wait a [edit] minute!

And from Sweeney:
Is that Squire on the fire?

Mercy no, sir
Look closer,
You'll notice it's grocer.

That never fails to completely crack me up.....who thought canabalism could be so humorous. Ahhh...

For most moving lyric....

From Into the Woods:
No more giants
Waging war.
Can't we just pursue our lives
With our children and our wives?
Till that happy day arrives,
How do you ignore
All the witches,
All the curses,
All the wolves, all the lies,
The false hopes, the goodbyes,
The reverses,
All the wondering what even worse is still in store?

 

[Fantine]

Stephen Schwartz's lyrics for "Wicked" are extraordinary witty and clever.

I like "Popular" and "What is This Feeling" (sung when Galinda (Glinda the Good) and Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West) first meet:

GALINDA
(spoken) Dearest darlingest Momsie and Popsical:

ELPHABA
(spoken) My dear Father:

BOTHThere's been some confusion
Over rooming here at Shiz:

ELPHABA
But of course, I'll care for Nessa:

GLINDA
But of course, I'll rise above it:

BOTH
For I know that's how you'd want me to respond
Yes, there's been some confusion
For you see, my room-mate is:

GALINDA
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar
And altogether quite impossible to describe:

ELPHABA
Blonde.

GALINDA
What is this feeling?
So sudden and new?

ELPHABAI felt it the moment
I laid eyes on you:

GALINDA
My pulse is rushing:

ELPHABA
My head is reeling:

GALINDA
My face is flushing:

BOTH
What is this feeling?
Fervid as a flame,
Does it have a name?
Yes!:Loathing
Unadulterated loathing

GALINDA
For your face

ELPHABA
Your voice

GALINDA
Your clothing

BOTHLet's just say - I loathe it all
Ev'ry little trait, however small
Makes my very flesh begin to crawl
With simple utter loathing
There's a strange exhilaration
In such total detestation
It's so pure and strong!
Though I do admit it came on fast
Still I do believe that it can last
And I will be loathing
Loathing you
My whole life long!

STUDENTS
Dear Galinda, you are just too good
How do you stand it? I don't think I could!
She's a terror! She's a Tartar!
We don't mean to show a bias,
But Galinda, you're a martyr!

GALINDA
Well: these things are sent to try us!

STUDENTS
Poor Galinda, forced to reside
With someone so disgusticified
We all just want to tell you:
We're all on your side!
We share your:

GALINDA AND ELPHABA STUDENTS
What is this feeling Loathing
So sudden and new? Unadulterated loathing
I felt the moment For her face, her voice
I laid eyes on you Her clothing
My pulse is rushing Let's just say:
My head is reeling We loathe it all!
Oh, what is this feeling? Ev'ry little trait
Does it have a name? Makes our very flesh
Yes: Begin to crawl:.
Ahhh: Ahhh:

ALL
Loathing!

GALINDA AND ELPHABA ALL
There's a strange exhilaration Loathing
In such total detestation Loathing
So pure, so strong Loathing

STUDENTS
So strong!

GALINDA AND ELPHABA
Though I do admit it came on fast
Still I do believe that it can last ALL
And I will be loathing Loathing
For forever loathing Loathing
Truly deeply loathing Loathing you
My whole Loathing
Life long! Unadulterated loathing

ELPHABA
Boo!

 

[Fantine]

This is another Stephen Schwartz song from a musical, "True Home", which has not been produced yet. It's called "Forgiveness' Embrace" and shows a depth of emotion and self-exploration that makes it very special:

I have served a full life sentence as a prisoner of my past,
As a victim of a victim of a victim.
Seems my parents' parents' parents left traps that held me fast,
and they still catch me even when I think I've licked 'em.

Well, I have blamed them, I have fought them, but I never understood.
All they really did was did the best they could.

Is there a way to rise above,
If I look at them with love,
Though I look at them full honest in the face?
Can I make my peace at last
With the pieces of my past
And enfold them in forgiveness's embrace?
And enfold them in forgiveness's embrace.

I forgive my poor flawed parents for the things they could not be.
I forgive my valient lovers for not completing me.
And the hardest thing of all now,
I forgive myself the sin of not being all I planned
And all I thought I should have been.

But there's an alchemy in time, transforms each grief and loss and scar
Into the precious stuff of who we are.

And there's a way to rise above,
If I look at them with love.
Though I don't deny that harm has taken place.
I can make my peace at last,
With the pieces of my past
And enfold them in forgiveness's embrace

Some call it wisdom, and some just call it grace.
When we make our peace at last
With the pieces of the past
And enfold them in forgiveness's embrace,
And enfold them.
I will enfold them.
Now I enfold them in forgiveness's embrace.

Of course, I love 99.9% of the lyrics in "Les Miserables," too, my favorite musical ever.

 

[GodChick]

Moving: from man of la mancha
To dream the impossible dream. To fight the unbeatable foe.
To bear with unbearable sorrow and to run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong and to love pure and chaste from afar.
To try when your arms are too weary to reach the unreachable star

This is my quest to follow that star. No matter how hopeless, no matter how far. To fight for the right without question or pause. To be willing to march,
march into hell for that heavenly cause. And I know if I'll only be true
to this glorious quest that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest.

And I know If I'll only be true to this glorious quest that my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest. And the world will be better for this, that one man, scorned and covered with scars, still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable star.
( the lyrics to this song are sooo moving if you really think about what they are saying)

Clever: from Annie
Little girls,little girls everywhere I turn I can see them. Little girls, little girls night and day I eat, sleep and breathe them. I'm an ordinary woman with feelings I'd like a man to nibble on my ear, but I'll admit no man has bit so how come I'm the mother of the year?

Little cheeks, little teeth everything around me is little. If I wring little necks surely I will get an acquittal. Some women are dripping with diamonds, some women are dripping with pearls. Lucky me! Lucky me! Look at what I'm dripping with little girls.

How I hate little shoes,little socks,and each little bloomer. I'd have cracked years ago if it weren't for my sense of humor. Some day I'll step on their freckles. Some night I'll straighten their curls. Send a flood, send the flu, anything that you can do to little girls.

Some day I'll land in the nut house with all the nuts and the squirrels. There I'll stay until the prohibition of little girls.
(i sing it to my 5 year old daughter and she loves it!)

 

[jazzbird]

I love Mrs. Hannigan! Annie was my sister and my favorite movie when we were kids. Looking back it seems like we would watch it just about every week. We also had the record which we'd play on our plastic fisher price record player and make up dance routines. Those were the days....

 

[jazzbird]

GALINDA
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar
And altogether quite impossible to describe:

ELPHABA
Blonde.

Funny!

 

[WhenFinallySetFree777]

Of course, I love 99.9% of the lyrics in "Les Miserables," too, my favorite musical ever.

This one blows everything else out of the water for me - from Les Miserables:

"And remember
The truth that once was spoken
To love another person
Is to see the face of God"

 

[Cheli]

It's completely impossible to pick one lyric! I think some of the cleverest are from Stephen Sondheim though. He seems to be able to write lyrics that are so actable, if you know what I mean.

So some of the lyrics that stick out for me are:

Even though I'm an atheist I've always liked the line: "To be willing to march into Hell for a Heavenly cause" in To Dream The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha

"Don't you love farce? My fault, I fear. I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry my dear" in Send In The Clowns from A Little Night Music

Oh, and a funny one: "To tell the truth it hurt by pride: the groom was prettier than the bride!" in Sadie, Sadie from Funny Girl

One I really love because it's unusual and clever is in With One Look (from Sunset Boulevard): "Silent music starts to play"

I'm sure I'll think of loads more.

 

[Penguin50388]

Well I shall follow, both of mine are from Stephen Schwartz's Wicked.

Commical: The first few verses of Dancing Through Life

The trouble with school is
They always try to teach the wrong lesson
Believe me, I've been kicked out
Of enough of them to know
They want you to become less callow
Less shallow
But I say: why invite stress in?
Stop studying strife
And learn to live "the unexamined life":

Dancing through life
Skimming the surface
Gliding where turf is smooth
Life's more painless
For the brainless
Why think too hard?
When it's so soothing
Dancing through life
No need to tough it
When you can sluff it off as I do
Nothing matters
But knowing nothing matters
It's just life
So keep dancing through

Dancing through life
Swaying and sweeping
And always keeping cool
Life is fraught-less
When you're thoughtless
Those who don't try
Never look foolish
Dancing through life
Mindless and careless
Make sure you're where less
Trouble is rife
Woes are fleeting
Blows are glancing
When you're dancing
Through life

For the most moving it's a close one between Defying Gravity and For Good, but I'm going to have to say For Good is more emotional for me. Again, Glinda is the "Good Witch" and Elphaba is the "Wicked Witch"

ELPHABA
I'm limited:
Just look at me - I'm limited
And just look at you -
You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda
So now it's up to you
(spoken) For both of us
(sung) Now it's up to you:

GLINDA
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you:

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

ELPHABA
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend:
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you:

GLINDA
Because I knew you:

BOTHI have been changed for good

ELPHABA
And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for

GLINDA
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share

BOTH
And none of it seems to matter anymore

GLINDA / ELPHABA
Like a comet pulled / Like a ship blown
From orbit as it / Off it's mooring
Passes a sun, like / By a wind off the
A stream that meets / Sea, like a seed
A boulder, half-way / Dropped by a
Through the wood / Bird in the wood

BOTH
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better?

GLINDA
And because I knew you:
ELPHABA
Because I knew you:

BOTH
Because I knew you:
I have been changed for good.