A Weekend in the Country Lyrics

2023 West End
Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends - A Weekend in the Country Lyrics

(from A Little Night Music)

PETRA:
Look, ma'am
An invitation—
Here, ma'am
Delivered by hand
And, ma'am,
I notice the stationery's
Engraved and very grand

ANNE:
Petra, how too exciting!
Just when I need it!
Petra, such elegant writing
So chic you hardly can read it
What do you think?
Who can it be?
Even the ink—
No, here, let me

(Opens the envelope, reads.)

"Your presence—"
Just think of it, Petra!
"Is kindly—"
It's at a château!
"Requested—"
Et cetera, et cetera
"Madame Leonora Armf—"
Oh, no!

A weekend in the country!

PETRA:
We'rе invited?

ANNE:
What a horrible plot!
A weekend in thе country—

PETRA:
I'm excited!

ANNE:
No, you're not!

PETRA:
A weekend in the country!
Just imagine!

ANNE:
It's completely depraved

PETRA:
A weekend in the country!

ANNE:
It's insulting!

PETRA:
It's engraved

ANNE:
It's that woman
It's that Armfeldt!

PETRA:
Oh, the actress?

ANNE:
No, the ghoul!
She may hope to
Make her charm felt
But she's mad if she thinks
I would be such a fool
As to weekend in the country!

PETRA:
How insulting!

ANNE:
And I've nothing to wear

ANNE & PETRA:
A weekend in the country!

ANNE: (hands the invitation back)
Here!
The last place I'm going is there!

FREDRIK's study

PETRA, to FREDRIK:
Guess what, an invitation!

ANNE:
Guess who? Begins with an "A"
"Armfeldt"—is that a relation
To the decrepit Desiree?

PETRA:
Guess when we're asked to go, sir—
See, sir, the date there?
Guess where—a fancy château, sir!

ANNE:
Guess, too, who's lying in wait there
Setting her traps
Fixing her face—

FREDRIK:
Darling
Perhaps a change of pace...

ANNE:
Oh, no!

FREDRIK:
A weekend in the country
Would be charming
And the air would be fresh

ANNE:
A weekend with that woman?

FREDRIK:
In the country!

ANNE:
In the flesh!

FREDRIK:
I've some business
With her mother

PETRA:
See, it's business!

ANNE:
Oh, no doubt
But the business with her mother
Would be hardly the business
I'd worry about

FREDRIK:
Just a weekend in the country
Smelling jasmine—

ANNE:
Watching little things grow

FREDRIK & PETRA:
A weekend in the country—

ANNE:
Go!

FREDRIK:
My darling, we'll simply say no

ANNE:
Oh

CHARLOTTE and ANNE having lunch.

ANNE:
A weekend!

CHARLOTTE:
How very amusing

ANNE:
A weekend!

CHARLOTTE:
But also inept

ANNE:
A weekend!
Of course, we're refusing

CHARLOTTE:
Au contraire, you must accept

ANNE:
Oh, no!

CHARLOTTE:
A weekend in the country—

ANNE:
But it's frightful!

CHARLOTTE:
No, you don't understand
A weekend in the country
Is delightful
If it's planned

Wear your hair down and a flower
Don't use makeup
Dress in white
She'll grow older by the hour
And be hopelessly shattered
By Saturday night
Spend a weekend in the country

ANNE:
We'll accept it

CHARLOTTE:
I'd a feeling you would

ANNE:
A weekend in the country
Yes, it's only polite that we should

CHARLOTTE:
Good

(The Malcolms' house)

CARL-MAGNUS:
Well?

CHARLOTTE:
I've an intriguing little social item

CARL-MAGNUS:
What?

CHARLOTTE:
Out of the Armfeldt family manse

CARL-MAGNUS:
Well, what?

CHARLOTTE:
Merely a weekend
Still, I thought it might am-
Use you to know
Who's invited to go
This time with his pants

CARL-MAGNUS:
You don't mean—!

CHARLOTTE:
I'll give you three guesses

CARL-MAGNUS:
She wouldn't!

CHARLOTTE:
Reduce it to two

CARL-MAGNUS:
It can't be—!

CHARLOTTE:
It nevertheless is—

CARL-MAGNUS:
Egerman!

CHARLOTTE:
Right! Score one for you

CARL-MAGNUS:
Aha!

CHARLOTTE:
Aha!

CARL-MAGNUS: (slyly)
Aha!

CHARLOTTE: (nervously)
Aha...

CARL-MAGNUS:
A weekend in the country—
We should try it

CHARLOTTE:
How I wish we'd been asked

CARL-MAGNUS:
A weekend in the country
Peace and quiet—

CHARLOTTE:
We'll go masked

CARL-MAGNUS:
A weekend in the country—

CHARLOTTE:
Uninvited—
They'll consider it odd

CARL-MAGNUS:
A weekend in the country—
I'm delighted!

CHARLOTTE:
Oh, my God

CARL-MAGNUS:
And the shooting should be pleasant
If the weather's not too rough
Happy birthday, it's your present

CHARLOTTE:
But—

CARL-MAGNUS:
You haven't been getting
Out nearly enough
And a weekend in the country—

CHARLOTTE:
It's perverted!

CARL-MAGNUS:
Pack my quiver and bow

CHARLOTTE & CARL-MAGNUS:
A weekend in the country!

CARL-MAGNUS:
At exactly two thirty, we go

CHARLOTTE:
We can't

CARL-MAGNUS:
We shall

CHARLOTTE:
We shan't

CARL-MAGNUS:
I'm getting the car
And we're motoring down

CHARLOTTE:
Yes, I'm certain you are
But I'm staying in town

(Both households are seen simultaneously.)

CARL-MAGNUS, ANNE, PETRA:
Go and pack We'll go
My suits! Oh, good!

CHARLOTTE, FREDRIK:
I won't! We will?

CARL-MAGNUS, ANNE, PETRA;
My boots! We should
Pack everything Pack everything white
I own that shoots! Ma'am,
It's wonderful news!

CARL-MAGNUS, FREDRIK, CHARLOTTE:
No! Are you
Charlotte! Sure it's alright?

CHARLOTTE, ANNE:
I'm thinking it out We'd be rude to refuse

CARL-MAGNUS, FREDRIK, PETRA:
Charlotte! Then we're off!
We are?

CHARLOTTE, FREDRIK:
There's no need to shout
We'll take the car

CARL-MAGNUS, ANNE, PETRA & FREDRIK:
Charlotte! We'll bring champagne

CHARLOTTE, ANNE, PETRA & FREDRIK:
All right, then! And caviar!

ANNE, PETRA, FREDRIK,
CHARLOTTE & CARL-MAGNUS:
We're off on our way
What a beautiful day

For a weekend in the country
So inactive that one has to lie down
A weekend in the country
Where—

HENRIK:
A weekend in the country
The bees in their hives
The shallow, worldly figures
The frivolous lives
The devil's companions
Know not whom they serve
It might be instructive
To observe

CARL-MAGNUS, FREDRIK, HENRIK:
Charlotte! We're off! A weekend

PETRA:
We are?

CHARLOTTE, ANNE & FREDRIK, HENRIK:
I'm thinking it out
We'll take the car In the country

CARL-MAGNUS, ANNE, PETRA
& FREDRIK, HENRIK:
Charlotte!
We'll bring champagne The

CHARLOTTE, ANNE, PETRA
& FREDRIK, HENRIK:
There's no need to shout
And caviar Bees in

ANNE, PETRA, FREDRIK, CHARLOTTE
& CARL-MAGNUS, HENRIK:
We're off and away Their hives
What a beautiful day!

ANNE, PETRA, FREDRIK, HENRIK,
CHARLOTTE, CARL-MAGNUS & QUINTET:
With riotous laughter
We quietly suffer
The season in town
Which is reason enough for

A weekend in the country!
How amusing
How delightfully droll
A weekend in the country
While we're losing
Our control

A weekend in the country
How enchanting
On the manicured lawns
A weekend in the country
With the panting
And the yawns

With the crickets and the pheasants
And the orchards and the hay
With the servants and the peasants
We'll be laying our plans
While we're playing croquet

For a weekend in the country
So inactive that one has to lie down
A weekend in the country
Where...
We're twice as upset as in
Twice as upset as in
Twice as upset as in
Twice as upset as in

QUINTET, HENRIK, CARL-MAGNUS, ANNE & PETRA:
Twice as upset as in Shallow Charlotte, we're A
Twice as upset as in Worldly Going Weekend
Twice as upset as in People Charlotte, we're A
Twice as upset as in Going Going Weekend, a
Twice as upset as in Shallow Charlotte, we're Weekend, a
Twice as upset as in People Going Weekend, a
Twice as upset as in Going Charlotte Weekend, a
Twice as upset as in Out of Out of Weekend out of

ANNE, PETRA, FREDRIK, HENRIK,
CHARLOTTE, CARL-MAGNUS & QUINTET:
Town!

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
Opening / Side By Side
Introduction
Company
The Little Things You Do Together
You Could Drive a Person Crazy
Live Alone and Like It
Loving You
Getting Married Today
Into the Woods
Agony
I Know Things Now
Hello Little Girl
Children Will Listen
Send In the Clowns
The Ballad of Sweeney Todd
The Worst Pies in London
My Friends
Pretty Women
A Little Priest
The Ladies Who Lunch
Sunday
Tonight Quintet
Broadway Baby
Everybody Ought to Have a Maid
You Gotta Get a Gimmick
Waiting for the Girls Upstairs
I'm Still Here
Could I Leave You?
Everything's Coming Up Roses
The Boy From
Losing My Mind
Not a Day Goes By
Being Alive
Old Friends
Side By Side By Side
Our Time
Love is in the Air