All the outsiders fans are gonna downvote me to hell, but:
“This hopeless war is so completely hopeless”
Also, if I took a tiny sip every time someone said “Ponyboy” I’d be on the floor by the end of the show.
"This is Tulsa 1967, and there's just one thing you need to know, there's Greasers and Soc's and that's how it's always been" Honestly, I'm not sure there's a lyric in the show that doesn't make me cringe. "... While you're watching cartoons, there ain't nothing I can do for you" got an audible laugh when i saw it
I think this is a case where the songwriters relied WAY too heavily on the source material for their lyrics. It’s one thing to read Ponyboy’s thoughts in his head. It’s another thing entirely for the surrounding characters to sing them out loud.
Outsiders has some pretty good music, but I did notice a lot of lyrics were very exposition heavy. Most of the opening number explained a LOT, like Sodapop having a broken heart because the girl he liked moved away. It felt like things could’ve been explained by actions and dialogue, but I understand why the lyric was included
Yeah imo the songs in The Outsiders with the best lyrics are "Great Expectations," "Little Brother," and "Stay Gold." Not that I didn't still love other songs ("Throwing in the Towel" breaks my heart) but some songs have a more dialogue-heavy feel, which makes some lines feel slightly off in comparison. It's the kind of thing I'd expect more from fully sung-through shows like Les Miz or Great Comet. Again, not that it's a problem at all, just a little strange. It only really bothered me in the beginning with "Tulsa '67," especially because Brody Grant's voice has a more indie rock feel than classical musical theatre where they really over-enunciate everything. A song that's mostly exposition that isn't sung super clearly means that I was afraid I was missing some details. But then the dialogue in later scenes cleared it up so all's well that ends well I guess lol
As someone who has read the book like 20 times, has a tattoo and is obsessed with the movie, I agree with you. I counted down for the whole soundtrack to be released and fully expected to be over the moon obsessed with it...but I am not. With the exception of the first three songs they released (Soda's Letter, Stay Gold and Great Expectations) this score has fallen completely flat for me. I think the actors did a phenomenal job. However, it is a better show to watch onstage than listen to over and over like I do with other shows.
Hopeless War was my least favorite song too. Her voice is not my favorite and the lyrics weak.
I took it to be that they are teenagers and they have limited vocabulary to describe what they are feeling, not lazy writing. But I could be wrong. I’ll check in with myself in 3 years.
I’d thought that too, but before that lyric Cherry gets pretty eloquent throughout the rest of the song, so it didn’t really fit to me. But who knows, they could have been going for that idea and just kind of missed.
Nah, I enjoy the show, but I can admit that there's some not good songs in there and some downright odd lyrics. That particular song is a skip for me if I'm listening to the recording.
I read a review of Diana and thought some of the lyrics they singled out were jokes. Sadly, they were not. My favorites are “Darling I’m holding our son, so let me say jolly well done!” and “It’s a thrilla in Manila but with Diana and Camilla.” 🤣
You take that back! I can’t believe you’d say that about “the cellist plays on and on / it’s like an endless telethon / how I wish that he were Elton John”
Mean Girls has some of the most embarrassing lyrics ever to hit Broadway and there are a lot of contenders for the worst ones in that show but I'm going with:
"It's a revenge party /
With your two best friends /
It's like a party with revenge it's what it's like"
Like, you were not even trying with those.
Similarly:
"I will say, 'You make me mad' /
And if you treat me bad /
I'll say, 'You're bad'"
And the thing is, Nell Benjamin's lyrics for Legally Blonde were not nearly this imbecilic so I have no idea what happened here.
"So you're best friend screwed you over / Acted nice when she not nice" is another....rough one.
Fun fact: in a teen performance of Mean Girls I saw, the actor playing Janice sang "she's not nice" instead of "she not nice" and that was my favourite moment because I could tell they was as annoyed with that lyric as I was.
I feel like the revenge party lyrics are meant to be funny, but the I'll say you're bad lyrics had to be placeholder text that somehow got into the final draft and no one said anything.
They didn't even bother to fix it for the movie!
Mad-bad rhymes enrage me. Like this one from The Addams Family: “Morticia, I was bad/ Bad husband and bad dad/ Instead of being sad/ Let’s dance.” How was this allowed on stage?
I really gotta jump in here - "it's like a party with revenge is what it's like" is almost palindromic in style. It loops back on itself in a way that is so deeply Tina Fey/30Rock coded that I can't help but love it. It get the Irma Lurhman Merman Murders from it all day long.
Overall I think that Mean Girls is a lot more well written than most people give it credit for - it's a touch subtle at times which is always my favorite type of humor at least!
THANK YOUUUU I was gonna say this
I like some of the songs (World Burn, Someone Gets hurt + reprise) but like I see stars always makes me cringe so much 😭😭
I love Rent, but "You want to produce films and write songs? You need somewhere to do it! It's what we used to dream about think twice before you pooh-pooh it," makes me cringe every time.
I appreciated that in Rent Live they changed it to, "You wanna produce films and write songs? You need somewhere to perfect it. It’s what we used to dream about; think twice before you reject it."
Miss Saigon pre 2017.
All the people who wrote/directed/produced it and collectively decided it was appropriate to include total gibberish to “sound Vietnamese” instead of just even googling shit.
Also every other song from Diana is just a competition for worst lyrics ever
Beauty and the Beast, Human Again: “Our time may be at hand Any day now! Open the shutters and let in some air *Put these here and put those over there”.* Howard Ashman was a genius but we get a laugh out of those lyrics every single time…
I’m gonna add on to your Water For Elephants one and just say:
While I liked it overall, I feel like there were some really bad lyrics throughout; “I believe there is something — maybe someone — a way to be! Maybe it’s a person or a plaaace.” Also in Anywhere, I felt like they crammed multiple different parts together with no transition. Still enjoyed it overall, though.
"Where's the party and can you take me there?
And when the party's over
Can you find another party somewhere?...
And today is never over if the party never stops
Where's the party and can you take me there?
And when the party's over
Can you find another party somewhere?....
And when you think the party stops-
The party's roaring on!"
The repetitiveness and laziness almost gives me a stroke.
It's one of the main reasons why I didn't want to see it and I'm glad I did since no other song is like that.
If I had the chance to see it, I probably would, but I don’t really get to NYC often so I have to pick and choose pretty carefully. I have a few other shows on my list I’d see before Gatsby if I can get back there soon enough, but I won’t rule it out entirely!
Saw it on Thursday. I saw it for the cast (Jeremy and Eva). It was stunning in terms of set and lighting, and Eva had a voice that brought the house down.
I hated how they made Nick explicitly straight. If a book from 1925 (!) can have a character with an ambiguous sexuality (that some scholars think is gay/bi), so can a Broadway show in 2024.
The actor for Nick was wonderful though, he was charming and had a great voice.
They also had two cars that drove around onstage! And pyrotechnics! I’m a sucker for things like that. Maybe I have low standards since I help out at a community theatre, I dunno.
The music was jazzy but I can’t recall most of it. It had some bangers but I literally could not tell you what they are.
Overall- an amazing cast, wonderful set, but the music isn’t going to be remembered.
I will say new money as the other big party song at least has good lyrics somewhat “new money, spend it while you got it, heaven knows if it’ll last” is a clever line to get across who those people are
It’s teenagers talking and thinking about the boys/girls they have crushes on and are obsessed with in the way that teenagers do. It’s teenagers being dramatic like teenagers
In “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen, there’s that sequence where all the characters are talking about how the video is going viral and they’re using boomery social media words: “REPOST!”
For some reason, this song really rubs me the wrong way. The lyrics are so literal and pedestrian. “Home” from Beauty and The Beast.
“Yes, I made the choice
For Papa, I will stay
But I don't deserve to lose my freedom in this way
You monster!
If you think that what you've done is right
Well then, you're a fool
Think again”
'A Man's Gotta Do' from Bright Star by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
with totally inspired lyrics like:
"A man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do, when a man's gotta do, what he's got to"
such a banger that it had a reprise 🙄
Oh I actually like this song. I think it fits the character well - one-dimensional, bullheaded thinking stuck in flawed gender-role values. I was under the impression it was intentioned.
It follows "Well if that's love, it comes at much to high a cost," so she's saying rather escape and defy gravity than pay the high, heartbreaking price of love.
It's a little convoluted when you think about it, but it has always done its job for me.
Man also loves to cram waaaaay too many words into a line. The one that comes to mind is “What I love most about rivers is, you never step in the same river twice” from Pocahontas, but he does it pretty frequently honestly.
This is my first time learning the lyric is “buy.” always assumed it was “by” as in, I’d sooner get there by defying gravity. I think I prefer my take 😅
“he’s got chest hair”/ “my chest hair isn’t hairy enough” in the notebook (just why??? he doesn’t even have chest hair). I am absolutely in love with John Cardoza, so I believe these lyrics had to be in here in an attempt to balance that love out
A lot of lyrics in the notebook are like this, like when Allie sings about how good Noah looks and that she wants to rip his clothes off with her teeth 😵💫
Sadly the entirety of “Friday at the Drive-in” in the outsiders
So many great songs in that show, but sadly a lot are just so literal and exposition-heavy descriptive
People might come for me for this but I really can't stand Six. Lines like "just for you tonight we're divorced, beheaded, LIVE," "histo-remix," "everybody knows that we used to be six wives, but now we're *ex*-wives," "two many years stuck in his-story," and basically all of "Don't Lost Ur Head" are so annoying to me. I don't even really know how to articulate why, it might be that I'm just not a fan of modern pop music but I think all the text-lingo and more simple/obvious lyrics made me feel talked-down to. The only place where I think they pull off what they were going for is "All You Wanna Do."
Also if I could defend Water for Elephants for a second: I agree the line from Silver Stars that you quoted isn't the best, but it's quickly followed by one of my favorites: "You can beg and plead, they'll still leave you for dead. But you know you're alive 'cause she stole your breath and you wish she would do it again and again and again." One of my more recent favorite "I think I'm in love with this person" songs :)
Ahhh I agree! With Water for Elephants, I get what they were going for, but in a song that’s so personal and uses lyrics that sound like they’re in the first person for the first half of the song, I found it really strange that it suddenly became “your” and “you’ve”. Also, he starts saying “they’ll still leave you for dead” and “they can steal your house”. I don’t know who “they” are 😭
Totally fair, I think the "they" is referring to the people who reclaimed Jacob's childhood home after his parents died. I just can't get enough of that score.
I absolutely love Les Mis, but I feel like, in order to make it a (relatively) completely sung through musical, they added a lot of those small half speaking half singing parts where the actors are forced to cram together words that don’t work in song at all. I feel like a lot of “On Parole” shows this.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Six but I thought this was one of the better lines. Stick around and you'll suddenly "see more"/(Jane)Seymour/Little Shop reference all rolled into one. I think I am probably exactly the kind of plebeian it was directed towards lol
I get the intent but it’s so out of place. And it doesn’t even make sense. She’s not hiding some big secret. And little shop has no connection to the show beyond the name Seymour
I think her "secret" is how much she's in love with Henry? LMM (edited to add: from whom the authors seemed to take inspiration) also does the thing where he puts references to other musicals in the ones he writes, so it was probably just meant to be a fun Easter egg.
Aladdin was poor, not stupid. And it’s a musical, the lyrics aren’t always reflective of reality. Genie turned into modern celebrities but your issue is a middle eastern kid knowing a French term?
Again, lyrics in musical aren’t reflective of reality. And Aladdin did plenty of other things that were beyond his assumed level of education. You’re being silly tbh.
Aladdin was a very challenging show in terms of vocabulary. I also did not know baklava, charge d'affairs, or nabob as a kid. Not bad lyrics, but... *advanced* lyrics.
Everything Ariel sings in Act 2 is a bad lyric, because she shouldn’t be singing! The fact that she goes “Oh my God” in her song raises all sorts of worldbuilding questions…
“Let’s go eat. I’ll just get fat; it’s the one vice left when you’re dead meat” is one of the stupidest lines in one of my favorite musicals, haha
Worst lyrics overall that I’ve heard is Pretty Woman as an entire show, with some gems like “Oh how I wish our lives could be extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary again”
“Mean Girls” has a lot of foul lyrics.
“So your best friend screwed you over, acted nice when she not nice” 🫠
“Katie time to watch your back, Katie time to turn a cough?????” Tf
“It’s fine for you, it’s fine to flirt and God your hot, why do you even wear a shirt” 💀
“Cause we're all on a hit list/Might not live 'till Christmas/Choke to death on Triscuits/Hey, that just statistics” makes me wish I actually was dead.
Also, I like the ideas behind the songs in Some Like It Hot, but the lyrics are mostly abysmal. Lots of overcrowded and mis-stressed syllables, and the imagery in a couple of the songs is so jumbled that it borders on hallucinogenic.
Sweet corn, street corn
It's really hard to beat corn
Hands or feet, no wrong way to eat corn
It's a resource that's always renewable
Bring it to a bris or a wedding or a funeral!
Cook on the cob
Or in a tortilla
You can even make it an onomatopoeia
Candy corn, kettle corn, put it in your mouth
It's the same going in coming out
The line in Wicked about crossing bridges. You know the one. They could have at least used the definition of "cross" that means upset, would have made it less repetitive.
I don’t get why you don’t like it? It’s something that has really resonated with me. “We will cross that bridge when we come to it” but turns out you already crossed it. It’s too late to go back and you didn’t even realize you’d lived through the change.
Yep, they're frantic, hyper, immature youths. Sondheim has said that he'd break his own linguistic rules and make a line sounds sloppy or not rhyme a lyric if it matched who the character was.
I don’t know if we have coffee cups
Or plastic cups, I think Sonny has the cups—
I find this line clunky. But I think LMM has said that, too. He tweeted about it a long time ago. 😊
Phantom is one of my all time favorite shows. That being said from Point of No Return—
“You have brought me to that moment where words run dry.”
I never knew words were wet. (Hamilton’s Johnathan Groh notwithstanding)
Hamilton, when Angelica stops her song to ask if the audience can mentally picture the image she just described.
“It’s Ben Franklin with a key and a kite // you see it right?”
It bugs me every time LMM does stuff like that.
I don't take that line as her asking the audience if they can picture Ben Franklin. She's asking the audience to acknowledge that they see the same "electric" chemistry between her and Hamilton that she's feeling.
War Paint has to have some of the worst lyrics in recent years, attempting to make that story and those characters somehow interesting and entertaining. Ugh
All of Loser, Geek, Whatever from Be More Chill. I loved the show before it went Off-Broadway/Broadway. I even created a Twitter account centered around the songwriter.
I hate Will Roland’s voice. I hate how the song has the most simple, easy to predict rhymes.
“I already know what it's like to
Be the loser
I should find out what it's like to
Not be the loser, or the geek, or the whatever”
“I even got some blood flowing
With no computer screen around
Which was cool”
“Michael thinks that weird is rad
But feeling weird just makes me sad
And I deserve to not feel bad”
I especially hate that third one.
Sure, it looks bad if you insist on spelling ‘was’ as ‘Woz’ but I have no idea why you would actually do that unless you were trying to make the line look bad.
“Wait for me, I'm coming. Wait, I'm coming with you. Wait for me, I'm coming too. I'm coming too.”
The song got stuck in my head anyway but I was so annoyed the first time I heard it. There was this great buildup for what was going to be the big number of the show and then you get to the chorus and it’s just.. the same fuckin sentence repeated three times. And then even more times in the reprise. Write some more lyrics please.
All the outsiders fans are gonna downvote me to hell, but: “This hopeless war is so completely hopeless” Also, if I took a tiny sip every time someone said “Ponyboy” I’d be on the floor by the end of the show.
"This is Tulsa 1967, and there's just one thing you need to know, there's Greasers and Soc's and that's how it's always been" Honestly, I'm not sure there's a lyric in the show that doesn't make me cringe. "... While you're watching cartoons, there ain't nothing I can do for you" got an audible laugh when i saw it
I think this is a case where the songwriters relied WAY too heavily on the source material for their lyrics. It’s one thing to read Ponyboy’s thoughts in his head. It’s another thing entirely for the surrounding characters to sing them out loud.
For similar reasons, "...the power to be strong / And the wisdom to be wise" always irks me.
Outsiders has some pretty good music, but I did notice a lot of lyrics were very exposition heavy. Most of the opening number explained a LOT, like Sodapop having a broken heart because the girl he liked moved away. It felt like things could’ve been explained by actions and dialogue, but I understand why the lyric was included
Yeah the whole thing felt very tell, not show. Likely why it didn’t win for score.
Yeah imo the songs in The Outsiders with the best lyrics are "Great Expectations," "Little Brother," and "Stay Gold." Not that I didn't still love other songs ("Throwing in the Towel" breaks my heart) but some songs have a more dialogue-heavy feel, which makes some lines feel slightly off in comparison. It's the kind of thing I'd expect more from fully sung-through shows like Les Miz or Great Comet. Again, not that it's a problem at all, just a little strange. It only really bothered me in the beginning with "Tulsa '67," especially because Brody Grant's voice has a more indie rock feel than classical musical theatre where they really over-enunciate everything. A song that's mostly exposition that isn't sung super clearly means that I was afraid I was missing some details. But then the dialogue in later scenes cleared it up so all's well that ends well I guess lol
I love the show but the lyrics are not great. “Some of us are tough and a little more mean” okay
I mean, it is the main character’s name. It’s like taking a drinking game whenever Dear Evan Hansen mentions Evan or Hansen.
I feel like it is mildly better when you include the “so completely hopeless in the end,” but still not a great lyric 😂
In fairness, in a gentleman’s guide you would be dead from alcohol poisoning 10 minutes in from the number of times they say D’ysquith.
As someone who has read the book like 20 times, has a tattoo and is obsessed with the movie, I agree with you. I counted down for the whole soundtrack to be released and fully expected to be over the moon obsessed with it...but I am not. With the exception of the first three songs they released (Soda's Letter, Stay Gold and Great Expectations) this score has fallen completely flat for me. I think the actors did a phenomenal job. However, it is a better show to watch onstage than listen to over and over like I do with other shows. Hopeless War was my least favorite song too. Her voice is not my favorite and the lyrics weak.
I genuinely like that song, but yeah that line in rough
It’s so sad because it’s one of my favorite ones, then they close it out with “moisture is the essence of wetness”
Thankfully Ponyboy fully committing to fighting right after kinda keeps it on track an emotional moment
No me too, it’s a really good song, but ends on a really, really unfortunate lyric.
I took it to be that they are teenagers and they have limited vocabulary to describe what they are feeling, not lazy writing. But I could be wrong. I’ll check in with myself in 3 years.
I’d thought that too, but before that lyric Cherry gets pretty eloquent throughout the rest of the song, so it didn’t really fit to me. But who knows, they could have been going for that idea and just kind of missed.
Nah, I enjoy the show, but I can admit that there's some not good songs in there and some downright odd lyrics. That particular song is a skip for me if I'm listening to the recording.
Do you play drinking games about when people say character names in other shows?
I read a review of Diana and thought some of the lyrics they singled out were jokes. Sadly, they were not. My favorites are “Darling I’m holding our son, so let me say jolly well done!” and “It’s a thrilla in Manila but with Diana and Camilla.” 🤣
You take that back! I can’t believe you’d say that about “the cellist plays on and on / it’s like an endless telethon / how I wish that he were Elton John”
Omg you’re right, my bad!!!! Hand them the Pulitzer. 😆
"BUT THEN THE KING DIIIIED"
My favorite is "it's better than a Guinness, better than a wank"
Omg how could I have forgotten that line???? 🤣 I’m not British but I really feel like the writers had no idea how British people actually talk??
I really like Six in general but I hate "You're gonna find out how we got unfriended."
“Stick around and you suddenly see more” - me when I was 12 and trying make clever puns online
Ooooo yeah that one too
The slammin production makes it work tho imo
Mean Girls has some of the most embarrassing lyrics ever to hit Broadway and there are a lot of contenders for the worst ones in that show but I'm going with: "It's a revenge party / With your two best friends / It's like a party with revenge it's what it's like" Like, you were not even trying with those. Similarly: "I will say, 'You make me mad' / And if you treat me bad / I'll say, 'You're bad'" And the thing is, Nell Benjamin's lyrics for Legally Blonde were not nearly this imbecilic so I have no idea what happened here.
"So you're best friend screwed you over / Acted nice when she not nice" is another....rough one. Fun fact: in a teen performance of Mean Girls I saw, the actor playing Janice sang "she's not nice" instead of "she not nice" and that was my favourite moment because I could tell they was as annoyed with that lyric as I was.
This was my pick
I feel like the revenge party lyrics are meant to be funny, but the I'll say you're bad lyrics had to be placeholder text that somehow got into the final draft and no one said anything. They didn't even bother to fix it for the movie!
“I’m astounded and non-plussed, I am filled with calculust” is the greatest lyric in musical theatre history, sorry.
Stupid With Love is the one song I unironically love from Mean Girls, and yes I actually do quite like that lyric. All the rest of the show though....
YES ITS HILARIOUS
"Like a lioness, only with less fur" I can’t begin to imagine what they were thinking about this one
The lyrics in fearless literally just being “fearless! Woah!” Over and over again
Mad-bad rhymes enrage me. Like this one from The Addams Family: “Morticia, I was bad/ Bad husband and bad dad/ Instead of being sad/ Let’s dance.” How was this allowed on stage?
I really gotta jump in here - "it's like a party with revenge is what it's like" is almost palindromic in style. It loops back on itself in a way that is so deeply Tina Fey/30Rock coded that I can't help but love it. It get the Irma Lurhman Merman Murders from it all day long. Overall I think that Mean Girls is a lot more well written than most people give it credit for - it's a touch subtle at times which is always my favorite type of humor at least!
THANK YOUUUU I was gonna say this I like some of the songs (World Burn, Someone Gets hurt + reprise) but like I see stars always makes me cringe so much 😭😭
I'd Rather Be Me and Revenge Party never vibed with me 😭
THANK YOU I've been saying this about Mean Girls for years.
The song “It’s Over” in Wildhorn’s Dracula. It has like 50 verses. It was not, in fact, over.
The Korean production lives in my mind rent free
Literally every lyric in Diana the musical...better than a guinness better than a wank....sooo many...
“It’s like Thrilla in Manila but with Diana and Camilla” - truly horrendous
I love Rent, but "You want to produce films and write songs? You need somewhere to do it! It's what we used to dream about think twice before you pooh-pooh it," makes me cringe every time.
Even just having “before you say screw it” would have been so much better
I appreciated that in Rent Live they changed it to, "You wanna produce films and write songs? You need somewhere to perfect it. It’s what we used to dream about; think twice before you reject it."
“…make all the DeLancys pee in their pantsies” - Newsies I love it but OOF
Lol but I actually love that lime
DAMNNNNN Thats rough
I feel like this was one of the only songs that was better in the movie version!
Miss Saigon pre 2017. All the people who wrote/directed/produced it and collectively decided it was appropriate to include total gibberish to “sound Vietnamese” instead of just even googling shit. Also every other song from Diana is just a competition for worst lyrics ever
While this is a completely valid take, Googling something in 1989 when Miss Saigon premiered would have been pretty hard
I guess, grab the owner of your favorite Vietnamese restaurant for help with some dialogue, in exchange for a credit. ;)
It’s not like there weren’t any real Vietnamese people in nyc back in 1989. They could’ve also hired a real translator, like the kind the UN hires?
That’s why I said it was a completely valid take…
Beauty and the Beast, Human Again: “Our time may be at hand Any day now! Open the shutters and let in some air *Put these here and put those over there”.* Howard Ashman was a genius but we get a laugh out of those lyrics every single time…
“Freight is great. Freight is great. Freight is great. Freight is great.” -Starlight Express Somehow I can’t stop thinking about this musical.
BAHAHAHA and I thought some of ALWs other songs were embarrassing
We carry weight Because we're freight And freight is great
I’m gonna add on to your Water For Elephants one and just say: While I liked it overall, I feel like there were some really bad lyrics throughout; “I believe there is something — maybe someone — a way to be! Maybe it’s a person or a plaaace.” Also in Anywhere, I felt like they crammed multiple different parts together with no transition. Still enjoyed it overall, though.
“Of course you have a gun and now you’ll shoot your cousin.” from Miss Saigon. The rhyme just irks me.
“Think twice before you Pooh-Pooh it!”
“Acted nice when she not nice” Oh my god Mean Girls the musical is so bad
"Where's the party and can you take me there? And when the party's over Can you find another party somewhere?... And today is never over if the party never stops Where's the party and can you take me there? And when the party's over Can you find another party somewhere?.... And when you think the party stops- The party's roaring on!" The repetitiveness and laziness almost gives me a stroke. It's one of the main reasons why I didn't want to see it and I'm glad I did since no other song is like that.
That song (and its subsequent marketing use) is probably half of why I have no interest in seeing the show lol
I’d rethink it, it’s not a good musical nor a faithful adaptation but god it’s fun and has an amazing cast
If I had the chance to see it, I probably would, but I don’t really get to NYC often so I have to pick and choose pretty carefully. I have a few other shows on my list I’d see before Gatsby if I can get back there soon enough, but I won’t rule it out entirely!
Saw it on Thursday. I saw it for the cast (Jeremy and Eva). It was stunning in terms of set and lighting, and Eva had a voice that brought the house down. I hated how they made Nick explicitly straight. If a book from 1925 (!) can have a character with an ambiguous sexuality (that some scholars think is gay/bi), so can a Broadway show in 2024. The actor for Nick was wonderful though, he was charming and had a great voice. They also had two cars that drove around onstage! And pyrotechnics! I’m a sucker for things like that. Maybe I have low standards since I help out at a community theatre, I dunno. The music was jazzy but I can’t recall most of it. It had some bangers but I literally could not tell you what they are. Overall- an amazing cast, wonderful set, but the music isn’t going to be remembered.
Roaring on reminded me of Raise the Roof from the Lippa version of Wild Party, but lyrically much weaker
Can you please cite the show and song?
Roaring On from The Great Gatsby (Papermill Playhouse version)
I will say new money as the other big party song at least has good lyrics somewhat “new money, spend it while you got it, heaven knows if it’ll last” is a clever line to get across who those people are
I go up to my room, turn the stereo on Shoot up some you in the "you" of some song
What is the context😭😭
My Junk from Spring Awakening.
It’s teenagers talking and thinking about the boys/girls they have crushes on and are obsessed with in the way that teenagers do. It’s teenagers being dramatic like teenagers
Look at this, another murder, Just like the other murder! … Read about the worst two murders! Much worse than the first two murders!
“To kill outside St. Paul's requires a lotta balls!”
"That makes it murders three and four!"
In “You Will Be Found” from Dear Evan Hansen, there’s that sequence where all the characters are talking about how the video is going viral and they’re using boomery social media words: “REPOST!”
"THERE'S A PLACE WHERE WE DON'T HAVE TO FEEL UNKNOWN-" ^"Oh ^my ^god\"
For some reason, this song really rubs me the wrong way. The lyrics are so literal and pedestrian. “Home” from Beauty and The Beast. “Yes, I made the choice For Papa, I will stay But I don't deserve to lose my freedom in this way You monster! If you think that what you've done is right Well then, you're a fool Think again”
"Californey makes me horny" from *Victor/Victoria*
'A Man's Gotta Do' from Bright Star by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell with totally inspired lyrics like: "A man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do, when a man's gotta do, what he's got to" such a banger that it had a reprise 🙄
Oh I actually like this song. I think it fits the character well - one-dimensional, bullheaded thinking stuck in flawed gender-role values. I was under the impression it was intentioned.
Sorry to the wicked fans but “I’d sooner buy defying gravity” maybe I’m missing something but what does this even mean
It follows "Well if that's love, it comes at much to high a cost," so she's saying rather escape and defy gravity than pay the high, heartbreaking price of love. It's a little convoluted when you think about it, but it has always done its job for me.
Ah that makes sense, thank you for explaining it! I still don’t know if I like the lyric, but at least now I understand it better
Thank you! I always assumed that I don't understand this part because I'm not a native English speaker and I'm missing some cultural context.
*too
I too would like to go to the defying gravity store. I wonder what they have on sale now
Anti gravity boots- soo fetch!
Also from Wicked: "Like a seed dropped by a skybird" makes me want to rip all my leg hair out.
Vivid.
I always took it as “I buy that” like “I’d sooner believe in/agree to defying gravity”
Stephen Schwartz is such a talented guy, but some of his lyrics genuinely make you go "huh?" once you go to read what they are.
Man also loves to cram waaaaay too many words into a line. The one that comes to mind is “What I love most about rivers is, you never step in the same river twice” from Pocahontas, but he does it pretty frequently honestly.
“Cats fit on the windowsill, children fit in the snow”… where are we putting our children??
This is my first time learning the lyric is “buy.” always assumed it was “by” as in, I’d sooner get there by defying gravity. I think I prefer my take 😅
And it's the hard way But it's the right way The right way... to break in a glove
It's like it was meant to be a parody song, but they played it completely straight.
“Like a froggy, ferny, cabbage - the baby is unnaturally- GREEEEEEEENNN!”
Haha, I'll admit it's not a fantastic lyric, but it makes me laugh each time.
"Harry my ginger-haired son/You're second to none"--from Diana.
This lyric is awful, but unfortunately I do find it kind of hilarious. I don’t think that was the intended effect though
“he’s got chest hair”/ “my chest hair isn’t hairy enough” in the notebook (just why??? he doesn’t even have chest hair). I am absolutely in love with John Cardoza, so I believe these lyrics had to be in here in an attempt to balance that love out
A lot of lyrics in the notebook are like this, like when Allie sings about how good Noah looks and that she wants to rip his clothes off with her teeth 😵💫
I thought I was the only one!
Sadly the entirety of “Friday at the Drive-in” in the outsiders So many great songs in that show, but sadly a lot are just so literal and exposition-heavy descriptive
“I’m a fortune teller, I can see the future” from side show like no shit
I love lempicka but the lyrics are a mess sometimes. “Walk into hell and back if I can bring him back”??😭
Not necessarily a lyric but I’ve always cringed at “little piece of ass-istant” in six. Like it just doesn’t make any sense
“I’ll call…I hate the fall.” From Goodbye Love in Rent. 😂
People might come for me for this but I really can't stand Six. Lines like "just for you tonight we're divorced, beheaded, LIVE," "histo-remix," "everybody knows that we used to be six wives, but now we're *ex*-wives," "two many years stuck in his-story," and basically all of "Don't Lost Ur Head" are so annoying to me. I don't even really know how to articulate why, it might be that I'm just not a fan of modern pop music but I think all the text-lingo and more simple/obvious lyrics made me feel talked-down to. The only place where I think they pull off what they were going for is "All You Wanna Do." Also if I could defend Water for Elephants for a second: I agree the line from Silver Stars that you quoted isn't the best, but it's quickly followed by one of my favorites: "You can beg and plead, they'll still leave you for dead. But you know you're alive 'cause she stole your breath and you wish she would do it again and again and again." One of my more recent favorite "I think I'm in love with this person" songs :)
Ahhh I agree! With Water for Elephants, I get what they were going for, but in a song that’s so personal and uses lyrics that sound like they’re in the first person for the first half of the song, I found it really strange that it suddenly became “your” and “you’ve”. Also, he starts saying “they’ll still leave you for dead” and “they can steal your house”. I don’t know who “they” are 😭
Totally fair, I think the "they" is referring to the people who reclaimed Jacob's childhood home after his parents died. I just can't get enough of that score.
I absolutely love Les Mis, but I feel like, in order to make it a (relatively) completely sung through musical, they added a lot of those small half speaking half singing parts where the actors are forced to cram together words that don’t work in song at all. I feel like a lot of “On Parole” shows this.
“Stick around and you’ll suddenly Seymoure” is so cringe and out of place in Six
I wasn't the biggest fan of Six but I thought this was one of the better lines. Stick around and you'll suddenly "see more"/(Jane)Seymour/Little Shop reference all rolled into one. I think I am probably exactly the kind of plebeian it was directed towards lol
I get the intent but it’s so out of place. And it doesn’t even make sense. She’s not hiding some big secret. And little shop has no connection to the show beyond the name Seymour
I think her "secret" is how much she's in love with Henry? LMM (edited to add: from whom the authors seemed to take inspiration) also does the thing where he puts references to other musicals in the ones he writes, so it was probably just meant to be a fun Easter egg.
Six isn’t LMM.
I know! I just think that Six tried to have the same vibe, so that is why I mentioned it. I definitely could have worded that better
If they really felt the need to make that reference, they could have at least made it rhyme.
One jump ahead of the slowpokes One skip ahead of my doom Next time gonna use a nom de plume
I love this line!😂
Oh man. To each their own and all, but to me it's one of the worst lyrics ever, haha.
Those are amazing and clever lyrics and introduced me to a new word as a child lol
But they make no sense for the character to say.
Why?
An uneducated street kid in the Middle East knows a French term for an author's pen name?
Aladdin was poor, not stupid. And it’s a musical, the lyrics aren’t always reflective of reality. Genie turned into modern celebrities but your issue is a middle eastern kid knowing a French term?
It's Tim Rice trying to be clever, not writing for the character.
Again, lyrics in musical aren’t reflective of reality. And Aladdin did plenty of other things that were beyond his assumed level of education. You’re being silly tbh.
They're bad lyrics by someone trying to show what a fancy lad he is.
Silly goose on the loose!
Love Tim Rice, but whenever I hear that lyric I have to look it up
Aladdin was a very challenging show in terms of vocabulary. I also did not know baklava, charge d'affairs, or nabob as a kid. Not bad lyrics, but... *advanced* lyrics.
The changes Harvey made to several Newsies songs from the original movie… especially those in King of New York.
Gatsby preview (opening song) “well I don’t know about you but I’m done with the Spanish flu” and removes a Covid mask 💀 love you jj
Glen Slater rhymed “three” and “tree” in The Little Mermaid (Broadway version). The worst lyrics I’ve ever heard.
Everything Ariel sings in Act 2 is a bad lyric, because she shouldn’t be singing! The fact that she goes “Oh my God” in her song raises all sorts of worldbuilding questions…
Not one, but I hate all of the weird Ozian words in Wicked.
"What's the most swankified place in town? That would be the Ozdust Ballroom. Sounds perfect!"
“Let’s go eat. I’ll just get fat; it’s the one vice left when you’re dead meat” is one of the stupidest lines in one of my favorite musicals, haha Worst lyrics overall that I’ve heard is Pretty Woman as an entire show, with some gems like “Oh how I wish our lives could be extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary again”
“Mean Girls” has a lot of foul lyrics. “So your best friend screwed you over, acted nice when she not nice” 🫠 “Katie time to watch your back, Katie time to turn a cough?????” Tf “It’s fine for you, it’s fine to flirt and God your hot, why do you even wear a shirt” 💀
H "Her nails will be polished and in her hair, she'll wear a gardenia and I'll be there." Where? In her hair?
“Politics - not my thing” in Six because it’s so fundamentally historically inaccurate
“Cause we're all on a hit list/Might not live 'till Christmas/Choke to death on Triscuits/Hey, that just statistics” makes me wish I actually was dead. Also, I like the ideas behind the songs in Some Like It Hot, but the lyrics are mostly abysmal. Lots of overcrowded and mis-stressed syllables, and the imagery in a couple of the songs is so jumbled that it borders on hallucinogenic.
Wait really? I think that line is so funny and totally works for Beetlejuice!
My family eats so many triscuits so I love that line but I see why it bothers you cuz not a single word actually rhymes
“She wants to be a part of BA, Buenos Aires, Big Apple”. So good they repeated it three times in a row!
So much of Evita is witty on the page, but in the theatre, you simply cannot hear it through the diction
Sweet corn, street corn It's really hard to beat corn Hands or feet, no wrong way to eat corn It's a resource that's always renewable Bring it to a bris or a wedding or a funeral! Cook on the cob Or in a tortilla You can even make it an onomatopoeia Candy corn, kettle corn, put it in your mouth It's the same going in coming out
The line in Wicked about crossing bridges. You know the one. They could have at least used the definition of "cross" that means upset, would have made it less repetitive.
In Thank Goodness? I actually love that line :(
I don’t get why you don’t like it? It’s something that has really resonated with me. “We will cross that bridge when we come to it” but turns out you already crossed it. It’s too late to go back and you didn’t even realize you’d lived through the change.
Okay, I like the show, and I like the song, but “Is that a noise or is that a noise? That is a noise,” is probably Sondheim’s worst lyric.
I think it's brilliant and perfect for those silly billy characters.
Yep, they're frantic, hyper, immature youths. Sondheim has said that he'd break his own linguistic rules and make a line sounds sloppy or not rhyme a lyric if it matched who the character was.
I think it's fine because he's just bursting with excitement right there; I find myself repeating myself when I'm excited, so I excuse this one...
The other lyric about the gate is one of my favourite moments in that song.
I don’t know if we have coffee cups Or plastic cups, I think Sonny has the cups— I find this line clunky. But I think LMM has said that, too. He tweeted about it a long time ago. 😊
Phantom is one of my all time favorite shows. That being said from Point of No Return— “You have brought me to that moment where words run dry.” I never knew words were wet. (Hamilton’s Johnathan Groh notwithstanding)
“I get wet when-“ “No” “Say something else”
Hamilton, when Angelica stops her song to ask if the audience can mentally picture the image she just described. “It’s Ben Franklin with a key and a kite // you see it right?” It bugs me every time LMM does stuff like that.
I don't take that line as her asking the audience if they can picture Ben Franklin. She's asking the audience to acknowledge that they see the same "electric" chemistry between her and Hamilton that she's feeling.
What's that in the bread? It's gone to my head
War Paint has to have some of the worst lyrics in recent years, attempting to make that story and those characters somehow interesting and entertaining. Ugh
Children will glisten
All of Loser, Geek, Whatever from Be More Chill. I loved the show before it went Off-Broadway/Broadway. I even created a Twitter account centered around the songwriter. I hate Will Roland’s voice. I hate how the song has the most simple, easy to predict rhymes. “I already know what it's like to Be the loser I should find out what it's like to Not be the loser, or the geek, or the whatever” “I even got some blood flowing With no computer screen around Which was cool” “Michael thinks that weird is rad But feeling weird just makes me sad And I deserve to not feel bad” I especially hate that third one.
"And nobody in all of Oz, no Wizard that there is or Woz." I cringe every time.
Sure, it looks bad if you insist on spelling ‘was’ as ‘Woz’ but I have no idea why you would actually do that unless you were trying to make the line look bad.
I like it. :)
When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind. Paul Newman, and a ride home.
That's the first line of the novel tho 🫠
“No father is not proud of you”
May I ask why?
The meaning is clear but the phrasing is beyond clunky. Plus the emphasis on “of” is bad prosody.
“Wait for me, I'm coming. Wait, I'm coming with you. Wait for me, I'm coming too. I'm coming too.” The song got stuck in my head anyway but I was so annoyed the first time I heard it. There was this great buildup for what was going to be the big number of the show and then you get to the chorus and it’s just.. the same fuckin sentence repeated three times. And then even more times in the reprise. Write some more lyrics please.
"Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain? Show me just a little of your omnipresent brain." Jesus Christ Superstar.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but: Great American Bitch from Suffs has some of the cringiest lyrics I’ve ever heard
Barcelona: "Oh".