The Frogs - Shaw Lyrics

2004 Broadway
The Frogs The Musical - Shaw Lyrics


Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

DIONYSOS:
I knew that I could do it
I knew it, I knew it.
I knew they'd all pooh-pooh it,
And indeed they did.

I knew if I stuck to it,
I'd somehow get through it.
At times I thought, "Oh, screw it!"
But proceed I did,
And oh, you kid -- !

I just met Shaw!
I got to meet Shaw!
There isn't any doubt
The man's without
A single flaw!

I talked to Shaw,
I said to him, "Shaw,
The world is in a crisis."
He said, "Listen, Dionysos,
What you need is Shaw.
I'll go with you," says Shaw.
"I happen to be free,
And who could be
A bigger draw?"

That instant generosity,
That's Shaw!
The verbal virtuosity,
That's Shaw!
The fearless animosity,
That mind with such velocity --
All right, there's the pomposity,
But that's just Shaw.
And maybe some verbosity,
But still you'll be
In awe.

DIONYSOS:
And here comes Shaw!

SHAW:
Dionysos, your arrival is most fortuitous.
My fellow playwrights I fear have lost the art of conversation,
But not, unfortunately, the power of speech.

DIONYSOS:
He has no use for piety
Or notions of propriety.
He'll show us our society
In ways we never saw.

SHAW:
I'm sick to death of the Underworld.
It is like sitting for
All eternity at the first act of a fashionable play
before the complications begin.

DIONYSOS:
The world will soon be dancing "The Shaw."

DIONYSIAN:
How do you dance the Shaw?

DIONYSOS:
Tell him.

SHAVIANS:
First you think. Then you comment.

SHAVIANS:
Then you think.
Then you discuss.

SHAVIANS:
Then you read,
Then you make a quip.

SHAW:
All great truths begin as blasphemies.

SHAVIANS:
That's how you dance "The Shaw."

DIONYSOS:
Isn't he amazing?
Isn't he adorable?
Couldn't you die?
Well, you already have.
Still --

SHAVIANS:
Words can dance,
Thoughts can dance,
Syllables can samba.
Sentences can waltz around in your mind.
Epigrams can leap and bound,
Simply from the way they sound --

SHAW:
Patriotism is the conviction that this country is superior
To all other countries because you were born in it.

DIONYSOS:
Even when he's not profound,
He's so refined!

SHAW:
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many
For appointment by the corrupt few.

SHAVIANS:
Shaw will show the way,
Shaw is for today.
Take him off the shelf.

DIONYSOS:
Everything he writes
Dazzles and delights --
He told me so himself.

SHAW:
When a man knows nothing and thinks he knows everything,
That points clearly to a political career.

DIONYSOS (spoken):
Couldn't you just put him on
Toast points and eat him for lunch?
(singing)
I'll show them Shaw!

SHAVIANS:
First you think...

DIONYSOS:
I want to share Shaw!

SHAVIANS:
Then you reason...

DIONYSOS:
I'm sure of Shaw!

SHAVIANS:
Then you think.
Then you digress...

SHAW:
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures
Is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them;
That is the essence of inhumanity. Next!

SHAVIANS:
Such sanity, humanity,
Who cares about the vanity?
His work is just so literate,
It leaves you all atwitter, it's
Got gravity and levity,
That's why it's got longevity.

DIONYSOS:
A little short on brevity --
Is that against the law?

DIONYSOS, SHAVIANS:
We still need Shaw!
I'm [He's] bringing back Shaw!
The world will have an orgy
Of Georgie
Shaw!



Other Songs: The Frogs Musical Songs Lyrics
The Frogs lyrics Shaw Stephen Sondheim


The Frogs The Musical Lyrics

SYNOPSIS
Opening Fanfare
Invocation and Instructions to the Audience
I Love to Travel
Dress Big
I Love to Travel (reprise)
All Aboard
Ariadne
The Frogs
Hymn to Dionysos
Hades
It's Only a Play
Shaw
Fear No More
All Aboard (reprise)
Hymn to Dionysos (reprise)
Final Instructions to the Audience