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shaw - stephen sondheim lyrics

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[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

[the shavians enter laughing]

[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]
[to the shavians]
tell him

[shavians]
first you think
then you comment

[music stops momentarily as they all murmur something brief
and judicious to each other; then it resumes]

[shavians]
then you think
then you discuss

[music stops again as they babble to each other more animatedly; two loud chords halt the discussion and music continues]

[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?
[to the shavians]
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 subst-tutes 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]
couldn’t you just put him on
toast points and eat him for lunch?
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?

[shavians]
we still need shaw!
he’s bringing back shaw!
the world will have an orgy
of georgie
shaw!

- stephen sondheim lyrics

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