From the recording Dream
Lyrics
“Dream”
Everybody laughed at Showtune Sarah
Could never give a humble reply
See her at a party, ask her “How you doin’?”
Talk less, sing more was her operandi
“Well, aren’t you having yourself a ball?”
As if she heard you and yet not at all
Confused and caught up in her caterwaul
Best excuse yourself to go to the loo
‘Cause she’ll always go too far to get the message through
We mock the blissful hymn of Showtune Sarah
For whom the message’s never distant from the melody
No distinction between verbalese and conversation
When you live to see your deer drop name in lights on every marquee
Total commitment with a cap’tal "T"
From little ingenue to mastery
No mouldy moths tearing your tapestry
The happiness express won’t steer you false
You glide down the street, always hearing a
Frum Sarah’s not the only one who dreams
But often sleeper cars run out of steam
If we could set our flick’ring lights to beam
Like giants in the sky, a thousand stars in the night
All on the meadow, a golden haze so bright
Greet each dawn in a most delightful way
Knowing that our moment’s just a day away
For truth and magic, we’d search high and low
And once we’ve found it, never let it go
No need for shovin’, sing our way to the top
’Til we reach victory, we’ll never stop
Here come the Dreamers like bats outta hell
And when you’ve seen us, you’ll remember it well
Sing for your supper, for Harpo, the lady in the moon
Can’t hold a note? Whistle a happy tune
Let our song fly high and get caught in the trees
Float along a River Shannon breeze
Life could reject but never keep us down
No bringing round of clouds, no sending in of the clowns
No storms we can’t weather, no dreams that can’t be
When we’re strong and brave and sure and free
The light is getting stronger, and our dreams are too
Impossible, though it may seem
All we got to do is dream
And sing, sing, sing!
C’est pour nous, les artistes anonymes
Say what you wanna but we’re here to stay
© 2023 Amelia C. Ray
50 Musicals referenced in “Dream”
VERSE ONE
1. Company - “Ladies Who Lunch”: “Here’s to the ladies who lunch, everybody laugh”
2. Camelot - “C’est Moi”: “C'est moi! C'est moi, I'm forced to admit, ’Tis I, I humbly reply”
3. A Strange Loop - “Today”: “Usher, surprise! How you doin'? It's your daily self-loathing!”
4. Hamilton - “Aaron Burr, Sir”: “Talk less / What? / Smile more / Ha / Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for”
BRIDGE ONE
5. Ain't Misbehavin' - “That Ain't Right”: “Now that a'int right, no that a'int right at all / That you're takin all my money, and goin out, havin yourself a ball.”
6. Sunday in the Park with George - “Color and Light”: “But how George looks. He could look forever / There's only color and light / As if he sees you and he doesn't all at once”
7. Cats - “Jellicle Ball”: “Jellicle Cats are merry and bright, and pleasant to hear when we caterwaul”
8. Song and Dance - “English Girls”: “Oh, excuse me....I've got to go to the loo........the loo!”
9. Jesus Christ Superstar - “Could We Start Again Please?”: “I think you've made your point now / You've even gone a bit too far to get the message home”
VERSE TWO
10. The Threepenny Opera - “Ballad of Dependency”: “He sniggers at the good book / Mocks the priss and prim / Does anything for pay if it will pay”
11. Peter Pan - “Distant Melody”: “Long ago this song was sung to me / Now it's just a distant melody”
12. My Fair Lady - “Why Can't the English?”: “Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? This verbal class distinction, by now, should be antique.”
13. The Sound of Music - “Do-Re-Mi”: “Do - a deer a female deer / Re - a drop of golden sun / Mi - a name I call myself”
BRIDGE TWO
14. The Music Man - “(Ya Got) Trouble”: “Ya got trouble, folks, right here in River City / Trouble with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!"
15. The Phantom of the Opera - “Notes/Prima Donna”: “Your public needs you / We need you too / Would you not rather have your precious little ingenue?”
16. Pippin - “Extraordinary”: “That's the reason I'll never be the kind of man who dwells / On how moths got into the tapestry or why the dungeon smells”
17. Hello, Dolly! - “So Long Dearie”: “For I can hear that choo choo callin' me on to a fancy new address / Yes, I can hear that choo choo callin' me on / On board that happiness express”
18. Do I Hear a Waltz? - “Do I Hear a Waltz?”: “Do I hear a waltz? Very odd, but I hear a waltz / There isn't a band and I don't understand it at all”
BRIDGE THREE
19. Fiddler on the Roof - “Tevye's Dream”: “Fruma Sarah”
20. Starlight Express
- “Light at the End of the Tunnel”: “Once again the pistons will be humming, steam will have a second coming”
- “Belle the Sleeping Car”: “I'm Belle, Belle, Belle, the sleeping car
- Doesn't matter who you are”
21. Sunset Boulevard - “The Greatest Star Of All”: “She's immortal / Caught inside that flickering light beam is a youth which cannot fade”
OUTRO
22. Into the Woods - “Giants in the Sky”: “There are Giants in the sky! There are big tall terrible Giants in the sky!”
23. Evita - “On This Night of a Thousand Stars”: “On this night of a thousand stars let me take you to heaven's door / Where the music of love's guitars plays for evermore”
24. Carousel - “June Is Bustin' Out All Over”: “June is bustin' out all over / All over the meadow and the hill!”
25. Oklahoma! - “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning”: “There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow / There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow / The corn is as high as an elephant's eye / And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky”
26. Mary Poppins - “A Spoonful of Sugar”: “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in a most delightful way” (/Gigi - “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”: “Thank heaven for little girls, they grow up in the most delightful way”)
27. Annie - “Tomorrow”: “Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya Tomorrow! You're always a day away!”
28. Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure - “Finding Wonderland”: “I race around, Search high and low for a truth I used to know When there was magic to be found”
29. South Pacific - “Some Enchanted Evening”: “Once you have found her, Never let her go”
30. Follies - “Live, Laugh & Love”: “What's the point of shovin' Your way to the top? Live 'n' laugh 'n' love ’n’, you're never a flop”
31. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - “Teamwork”: “If our hearts and hands, team up and fight as one,
we won't stop until the victory is won!”
32. West Side Story - “Jet Song”: “Here come the Jets like a bat out of hell / Someone gets in our way, someone don't feel so well”
33. Gigi - “I Remember It Well”
34. The Boys From Syracuse - “Sing for Your Supper”: “Sing for your supper, and you'll get breakfast / Songbirds always eat if their song is sweet to hear”
35. The Color Purple - “Brown Betty”: “You get Shug Avery come sing here, you make a lot of money. She sing for you, Harpo. I know she will. You so pretty.”
36. Mame - “The Man In The Moon”: “The man in the moon is a lady / A lady in lipstick and curls / The cow that jumped ovah cried, ‘Jumpin' Jehovah, I think it's just one of the girls’”
37. Annie Get Your Gun - “Anything You Can Do”: “Any note you can hold, I can hold longer / I can hold any note longer than you”
38. The King & I - “I Whistle a Happy Tune”: “Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect / And whistle a happy tune so no one will suspect I’m afraid”
39. Hair - “Hair”: “Let it fly in the breeze and get caught in the trees / Give a home to the fleas in my hair”
40. Finian's Rainbow - “How Are Things In Glocca Morra?”: “I hear a breeze, a River Shannon breeze / It well may be it's followed me across the seas”
N/A (Repeated musical) Mame - “Bosom Buddies”: “We'll always be bosom buddies / If life should reject you, there's me to protect you”
41. Funny Girl - “Don’t Rain on my Parade”: “Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter / Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter / Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade”
42. A Little Night Music - “Send in the Clowns”: “Isn't it bliss? Don't you approve? One who keeps tearing around, one who can't move / Where are the clowns? Send in the clowns”
43. Les Miserables - “I Dreamed A Dream”: “And still I dream he'll come to me / That we will live the years together / But there are dreams that cannot be / And there are storms we cannot weather!”
44. Cabaret - “What Would You Do?”: “The young always have the cure – Being brave, being sure and free / But imagine if you were me”
45. Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - “Any Dream Will Do”: “May I return to the beginning / The light is dimming, and the dream is too”
46. Man of La Mancha - “The Impossible Dream”: “To dream the impossible dream / To fight the unbeatable foe / To bear with unbearable sorrow / To run where the brave dare not go”
47. Dreamgirls - “Dreamgirls (Finale)”: “And all you got to do is dream / All you got to do is dream / All you got to do is dream / Just dream, and baby, we`ll be there!”
48. Fosse - “Sing, Sing, Sing”
49. Notre Dame de Paris - “Le Temps des cathédrales”: “Nous, les artistes anonymes de la sculpture ou de la rime / Tenterons de vous la transcrire pour les siècles à venir”
50. The Wiz - “I’m a Mean Ole Lion”: “Say what you wanna but I'm here to stay ‘cause I'm a mean ole lion”