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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
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