Lempicka - Perfection Lyrics

2024 Broadway
Lempicka the Musical - Perfection Lyrics

(Performer - George Abud)

MARINETTI: (spoken)
We fought a war that broke the world in two
The world has irrevocably changed

STUDENT 1: (spoken)
Yes

STUDENT 2: (spoken)
Yes

STUDENT 3: (spoken)
Yes

MARINETTI: (spoken)
We can't go back

(sung)
Our innocence is gone
We are sober, broken creatures
And we need art that speaks where we live now
With the knowledge of the knife's edge

(spoken)
But look at this
Trees! The river! And... trees!

(sung)
A streetlamp glowing down on wet cobblestones
How very Parisian!
It would make some bourgeois housewife happy
When she hangs it behind her couch

(spoken)
And speaking of couch...
Ah, here we go!
A nude reclining
Why do we ever need
To see another goddamn naked woman?!
There's a new beauty in the world today:
The beauty of speed
And power racing towards a glorious future!

(sung)
This is the age of the machine
Man now can dream of perfection

STUDENTS:
Ooohh

MARINETTI:
With speed and steel
Flame-spitting engine of the automobile
Machine perfection!

STUDENTS:
Oooh

MARINETTI:
Destroy the past
Destroy convention
Everything that hinders our ascension
To perfection

STUDENTS:
Beauty, speed, the machine

MARINETTI: (spoke-sung)
No more paintings of ballerinas
No more paintings of sad musicians
No more paintings of naked women
Or bowls of fucking fruit

All must be smashed
Rules are meant to be broken
Glorious destruction —
Pave the way for truth!
Imperfections left behind
Sleek and powerful can stay

STUDENT 4: (spoken)
It's brutal!

MARINETTI: (spoken)
No, it's kind

STUDENTS:
Straight and perfection lead the way

MARINETTI:
Weakness is not kindness
Weakness is a mess

STUDENTS: (spoken)
Yes!

BARONESS: (spoken)
But what is imperfect?
Who decides?

MARINETTI: (spoke-sung)
Ah, Baroness, you're looking lovely
Dressed as always to a tee
You've a soft heart
It's part of your charm

BARONESS: (spoken)
Who decides?

MARINETTI: (spoke-sung)
Him, him, him, and me!
We must decide there isn't room for everyone
It's about expedience
Europe will be overrun with imbeciles, criminals
And deviants

STUDENT: (spoken)
...Deviants?

BARONESS: (spoken)
Come now Marinetti, I disagree
Isn't perfection the enemy?
True beauty lies in humanity
Imperfections and all

MARINETTI: (spoke-sung)
Sentimental woman
Next you'll tell me
"Beauty is truth and truth is beauty"
When you and I both know
Truth is often... ugly

MARINETTI:
In this new age of the machine
Man now can dream of perfection

STUDENTS:
Oooh

[MARINETTI, MALE STUDENTS]
With speed and steel
Flame-spitting engine of the automobile
Machine perfection (Machine perfection)
(Oooh)

Destroy the past (the speed, the machine)
Destroy convention
Everything that hinders our ascension

In this new age of the machine
Man now can dream of perfection
(Oooh)

MARINETTI: (spoke-sung)
Beauty, speed, the machine
The future is barrelling down on us
Feel the rush

Feel the beauty of speed, the machine
The future's careening like a drunken thing
Hear it sing!

Feel the rush of the wind
While the pistons push
Hear the whoosh of the engines that pass you by

See the sky filling up
With machines
Each silver plane, a bird on the wing

The future's upon us!
What a glorious thing!
Can you feel it? This minute?
The future is here!
It's tomorrow now!

Lempicka the Musical Lyrics

Perfection
Woman Is
Stay