The Sondheim Lyrics Chain

[Leighton]

I've got one without the hyphen ... 

Oh, oh, wouldn't she be delicious
Tidying up the dishes,
Neat as a pin
Oh, oh, wouldn't she be delightful
Sweeping out
Sleeping in

If someone can find the hyphenated be-de feel free to go with that!

[scenicdesign71]

My astonishment beggars description -- I'm genuinely surprised that the previous clue didn't wheedle forth the intended solution (but kudos to Leighton for instead finding a clever "trick" answer, in Forum -- I felt fairly sure there'd be one somewhere, but was too lazy to look for it).  How many uses of nonsense syllables are there in Sondheim?  And can I find some excuse to use the word dumpling in this paragraph, just to clinch things?



It did occur to me that, unless I'm forgetting some other "deedle" elsewhere in the oeuvre, leaving a playable clue might've been awkward for the next player. ("Deed," as in the one to Mme. Armfeldt's duchy, somehow didn't occur to me until just now).  I'd been going with the assumption that it would've been legal to cram the BW's brief, agitated dialogue with Todd into an ellipsis, and then leave something from her final sung line, "Hey, don't I know you, mister...?" as the next target.  Or, if we're calling "Final Sequence" one long song and we don't care about switching singers, there's certainly plenty of it left, after the BW's death, to cull from.


High in a tower -- like yours was, but higher:
A beauty asleep.
All 'round the tower, a thicket of briar
A hundred feet deep.
Agony!  No frustration more keen...

[valmont]

In my opinion, it would not be kosher to continue past the Beggar Woman's final line, as what follows is a distinct musical number in the score, titled "The Judge's Return".  However, one could use the lyrics from her lullabye, added for the London production.

[MartinG]

Glad you said that, Darin. I'd been dithering over the BW stuff but wasn't sure I'd get away with it.   

Cunning  ,  Dave.


Look at those eyes, cunning and keen

Look at the size of those thighs, like a mighty machine!

(There are a few plurals but one singular with which I'm familiar)

[KathyB]

It's a very short way from the fling that's for fun
To the thigh pressing under the table
It's a very short day till you're stuck with just one
Or it has to be done on the sly

[Chris L]

Better stop and take stock
While you're standing here stuck
On the steps of the palace

You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision!
Why not stay and be caught?

[scenicdesign71]

Our inventions were unique--
Remember, darling?
I was limping for a week;
You caught the flu.

I'm sure it was...
You?

[valmont]

If there's anything at all
I'm sure of here and now and us together.

[scenicdesign71]

If only we had more than letters
Holding us together,
If we just could hold each other now,
The sunrise then could be
A thing that I could see
And merely think, "how beautiful!"

[KathyB]

All that time wasted
Merely passing through,
Time I could have spent
So content,
Wasting time with you

[scenicdesign71]

...And I think to myself:
Other people are movie stars.
Why can't I be a movie star,
Like Fay Wray and George Brent?
I'd be truly content.

I needn't be a rich glamorous --
Nor a really great glamorous --
Just a simple straight glamorous
Movie star!
It's the principle that counts.

[Leighton]

That's what counts!
Ounce by ounce
Putting it together

[MartinG]

And they walk together past the postered walls with the crude remarks.
And they meet at parties through the friends of friends who they never
know.

[scenicdesign71]

Mrs. Lovett, how I've lived without you
All these years I'll never know--
How delectable!
Also undetectable...

[MartinG]

Grandmother first,
Then Miss Plump...
What a delectable couple:
Utter perfection...