[The REAL Ciaron]

What is your favorite single lyric?

Try to keep it to about one or two sentences please.

[RainyCrystal]

Someone is on you side,
No one is alone.

~Sissi

[Mel AKA Maureen]

"Everybody's got the right."

[B3TA07]

"How gratifying for once to know
that those above will serve those down below."

[belleboi80]

"Loving you is not a choice, it's who I am"

[HeroTheBishop]

"Angry men don't write the rules
and guns don't right the wrongs."

[whimsical]

My personal favorite at the moment:

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

[The REAL Ciaron]

Mine always change. As of right now:

"Child is so sweet and the girls are so rapturous. Isn't it lovely how artists can capture us?"

"It's a very short road from the pinch and punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension" <-----BRILLIANT!!

"'But who can contend with an endless erection that falls to its knees when it sees its reflection"

"Isn't that alarming? What is she, a bird?"

[dramaqueen220222]

"Her taste is much blander I'm sorry to say
But is Hans Christiansen Andersen ever risque?"

One of my particular favorites.

[MrsJamieWellerstein]

"Give 'em love and what does it get you?"

*Gypsy madness*

[RainbowJude]

What is your favourite single lyric? This is such a difficult question because there are so many Sondheim lyrics that I love for different reasons. Some are profound in what they observe, some are just delightfully whimsical and others evoke such beautiful imagery. So I'm just going to humbly offer this lyric, which always offers me some perspective and is brilliant because of how, in some ways, it's completely a-typical of traditional lyrics

[Claire]

'Dwarves are very upsetting...'

[ConverseSneaker]

Careful the Tale you tell
That is the Spell
Children will Listen

and

Even Flowers have thier Dangers,
And though Scary is Exciting,
Nice is Different than Good

Both are very honest, the songs are wonderful, and both mean more than they seem.

[Descartes]

"Alone is alone, not alive"

Des.

[Salome]

Impossible to pick the favorite but right now....


"well there's another national anthem playing..not te one you cheer in the ball park".

[mizzie]

I have a strange love for "Green Finch and Linnet Bird." Particularely:

"Ringdove and robinet
is it for wages
singing to be sold?"

[Jennyanydots]

Wait! Magic beans for a cow so old
that you had to tell a lie to sell it
Which you told
Were they worthless beans? were they oversold?
Oh and tell us who persuaded you to steal that gold.


Or

It's your father's fault that the curse got placed
and the place got cursed in the first place.

[musicluvr77]

"Best to take the moment present as a present for the moment."

I adore that line.

[bvandiep]

Currently,


If you keep your goal in sight, you can climb to any height.

What a writer!

[The REAL Ciaron]

I'm STILL stuck on......

"It's a very short road from the pinch and punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension"

Pinch, punch, paunch, pouch, pension! LOVE IT!!

[YouCouldn'tHandleIt]

I'm sure my brother would post:

The bong of the bell of the bouy in the bay,
And the boat and the boy and the bride are away.

all those b's...

I'm not sure about mine...I'll get back to you

[Salome]

after much thought I have concluded that Steve's finest lyric is:

It's the fragment, not the day.
It's the pebble, not the stream.

It's the ripple, not the sea

That is happening.

Not the building but the beam,

Not the garden but the stone,

Only cups of tea

And history

And someone in a tree.

[MrsJamieWellerstein]

"How gratifying for once to know that those above will serve those down below!"

Especially when in the full context of the song.

[B3TA07]

^That one makes me giggle with gleeeeeeeeee!!! See first page.


All of "Happily Ever After!"

[cabaretfreak]

That line from the Frogs
"...for whose who look down on actors
And who doesn't."

It is such a great line. Yes, I know there are more actors on this forum than techies/designers, but still you have to admit it is a really funny line.

[Salome]

that line was a nathan lane add lib..not a Sondheim lyric however.

[cabaretfreak]

[cabaretfreak]

[RainbowJude]

[cabaretfreak]

[The REAL Ciaron]

[cabaretfreak]

[The REAL Ciaron]

[what_the_heck013]

I hate when people quote several times.

Anyways, the coolest sounding lyrics is:
"IT'S HIS FATHER'S FAULT
THAT THE CURSE GOT PLACED
AND THE PLACE GOT CURSED
IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
-"Your Fault", Into the Woods

My current favorite is:
"No, of course, what really matters is the blame.
Somebody to blame.
Fine, if that's the thing you enjoy, placing the blame,
If that's the aim, give me the blame...
...I'm not good, I'm not nice,
I'm just right.
I'm the witch.
You're the world."

But that isn't a single greatest lyric.

[RainbowJude]

[ADistantMoonAgo]

these are a few of my favorites->

"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"


"It's always morning in my mind, my little lamb, my pet, Johanna"

"All things are beautiful,
Mother,
All trees, all towers,
Beautiful.
That tower-
Beautiful, Mother,
See?
A perfect tree.

Pretty isn't beautiful, Mother,
Pretty is what changes.
What the eye arranges
Is what is beautiful."

[WVDaddybear]

My favorite pun in his lyrics is from Into the Woods when one of the Princes sings, "And they cry on their biers". I was the only person in the theater who caught that one I think on the day that I saw the show.

[Yeslek]

[ConverseSneaker]

[SimplyElymas]

"And in that darkness when I'm blind with what I can't forget
It's always morning in my mind, my little lamb, my pet. . ."

And. . .hmm. . .

"We'll have a nice sunny suite for the guest to rest in
Every now and then you could do the guest in!"

Love the Sweeney. LOVE THE SWEENEY.

[!TheWorld'sMyStage!]

"I have a moo cow, a new cow, a true cow named Caroline"

Sorry. Just my pathelic attepmt at a joke. I'm kidding.

[Webster]

"You said you loved me, or were you just being kind? Or am I losing my mind?"

And

"The situation's fraught. Fraughter than I thought. With horrible, impossible possibilities."

[Baker]

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

Followed by (literally, in the show, and in my favorite Sondheim quotes...)

"Just remembering you've had an "and",
When you're back to "or",
Makes the "or" mean more"

[_daysofinspiration]

[javertsw]

It is hard to pick, but I do like:

"Time I could have spent, so content, wasting time with you."

And all of 'Now' from A Little Night Music.

Oh and...

"Art isn't easy."

[Salome]

lets not forget...


"you'll always be
what you always were
which has nothing to do with
all to do with her"

[javertsw]

Oh yesh, how could I forget Sorry- Greatful!?

And:

"Or they meet at parties through the friends of friends who they never know."

That has happened to us so many times!

[OutTonight]

Right now, I must say that I am a bit stuck on:

''Loving you is not a choice, it's who I am.''

[iamsojustlooking]

this was awesome to read.

but i think if i had to pick a single quote to call my favorite, id sit here for about 300 years, make increasingly LESS progress, and then breakdown and cry.

[The Psychopathic Ingenue]

"What's that muddle in the middle?
It's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle."

[Webster]

"Loving you is not a choice. It's who I am."


"What is kindness but a lie? What to live for but to die?"

I LOVE CANDIDE.

[demon_baker]

But there's so many different *kinds* of Sondheim quotes!

Funny quote: "You're perfect I-dammit" -- Follies

Clever Rhyme (my favorite): "Scarcely a month ago gentlemen, I was struck with a horrible dermitalogic disease, though the finest physicians in London were called I awakened one morning ashamed and appalled to discovered with dread that my head was as bald as a novice's knees" -- Sweeney Todd (say it aloud, I dare you)

Power: "But the work waits, I'm alive at last, and I'm full of joy!" -- Sweeney Todd

Dark Humor: All of "A Little Priest" (though I especially like the "then actor, that's compacter! / Yes, and always arrives overdone!")

Romantic (well, we're talking about lyrics): "Say it loud and there's music playing! Say it soft and it's almost like praying...." -- West Side Story

(lol sorry, I sorely exceeded my 2 sentence limit)

[Salome]

another brilliant lyric form ALNM....


"...Fidelity is more than mere display
its what a man expects from life
fidelity like mine to Desiree
and Charlotte my devoted wife."

[Luc]

[Marcellus]

then you career from career to career (I'm Still Here)

[The REAL Ciaron]

[EsmeraldaDaae]

Creepiest line:"Tell them 'til they listen!"("The Ballad of Booth" from "Assassins").

Funniest line:"Hell,i'd even play the maid to be in a show!"("Broadway Baby" from "Follies")

[Eponine93]

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

I also like the Baker's Wife's line in Steps of the Palace:
When you know you can't have what you want,
Where's the profit in wishing?

It reflects my life so much.

[Dvarg]

Not necessarily my favourite, but a damn good one:

My husband, the pig!
My swain is a swine
or, to further refine
it, a pig!
It's ghastly and vastly ironical,
a cynical, clinical chronicle:
"The woman who married a monocle."
My husband, the pig!
Ugh!

[TheatreGirl]

my two favs (at least, from ITW):

"a slotted spoon doesn't hold much soup!" ~jack's mom

"i need your shoe to have a child!" ~baker's wife.


soooooooooo random!

[thinkofMerylStreep]

My fave:
"I chose and my world was shaken...so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not. You've got to move on..." -SITPWG

But I also love
"But then how do you know who you are til you know what you want, which you don't?" -ITW
and
"Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood. Do not let it grieve you, no one leaves for good." -ITW

[3ebnine]

I think all of "Moments In The Woods" is incredibly brilliant, but I absolutley love the ending.

"Let the moment go..
Don't forget it for a moment, though.
Just remembering you had an 'and,' when you're back to 'or,'
Makes the 'or' mean more than is did before.
Now I understand--
And it's time to leave the woods. "

[bwayluvor31]

Every word of "A Little Priest"!

I also really like

"F: She'd strike you as unenlightning.
D: No, I'd strike her first." - A Little Night Music

[Mark]

It's so hard to pick just one, but I love

"look into their eyes and you'll see what they know - everybody dies.
a toast to that invincible bunch - the dinosaurs surviving the crunch
let's hear it for the ladies who lunch - everybody rise..."

[Mr T]

"Who Sir? You Sir? Welcome to the grave" Enough said still gives me shivers when typing it.

[jcstar]

Isn’t it rich, isn’t it queer
Losing my timing this late in my career
And where are the clowns
Quick send in the clowns
Don’t bother, they’re here
-- Send In The Clowns

This was played at my Nanny's funeral, and I am told that the last person in the chapel exited on the last line. A friend of mine told me later "You couldn't have timed it better."

Andy.

[The REAL Ciaron]

[Mara]

I think Company has some great lyrics:

"You impersonate a person better
Than a zombie should" - You Could Drive a Person Crazy

"And they meet at parties through the friends of friends who they never
know" - Another Hundred People

[JulieJordan]

Fredrik: She floats.
Desirée: Isn't that alarming? What is she, a bird? - You Must Meet My Wife

[jcstar]

[Dvarg]

[jcstar]

It was my Nanny's favourite song. She didn't have many, but she told me me she wanted this played at her funeral.

In Striesand's revised version (new lyrics by Sondheim), I drew a lot of comparisons between then lyrics and my memories of my Grandparents. She also thought we were a bunch of clowns... and we were.

Here's the revised lyric from the BROADWAY ALBUM:

[The REAL Ciaron]

I was not trying to insult your grandmother or anything. I was just saying the song itself is about defeat.

[dantheman]

That I can think of right now:

Now this may be a bit stringy, but then, of course, it's fiddle player.

That's not fiddle player. That's piccolo player.

It's piping hot.

Then blow on it first.

- A Little Priest

[dwarves r very upsetting]

"I wish"
at the end of ITTW

Sums it up for me. Most people as they get each thing they want the come up with somethin new to get next, whether it is a dream or an achievement you still move on to the next things. Is anyone really ever content? I know I want to be but I'm not sure that I am.

[snowwhite28]

And to get what you want only just for a moment
These are dangerous woods

[will2787]

"Now you know,
Life is crummy,
Well now you know.
I mean big surprise,
People love you and tell you lies,
Bricks can fall out of clear blue skies..."

Now you know from Merrily We Roll Along.

[LittleGavroche]

Love all of "Something Just Broke." I feel like it sums up our nation's reaction to tragic things, like presidential assassinations and such.

Where it's just; "Something just--" that's one of the best bits for me.

And someone mentioned the "guns don't write the wrongs" line. Utter genius.

"Unworthy of Your Love" is also good for somewhat corny romantic quotes.

[actionjaxson91]

[thirteen]

"Because the lives of the wicked should be brief, for the rest of us death will be a relief, we all deserve to die."