Lyrics (3 page)
Authors: Richard Matheson
Fight on Missouri!
Win your battle for the day!
You have your honor
to hold!
Fight on Missouri!
Sink the foe that’s in your way
beneath a sea
Black and gold!
Though we win
or we lose
we will keep our heads
ever high!
But if we
got to choose
Then let
win-win-win
!
be our cry!
Fight on Missouri!
Your sons and daughters
are behind you
We will root – root
you through!
they may shout “Hold that Tiger!”
but they’ll never see it done!
If you fight on, fight on
FIGHT!
Missouri U
!
Good melody too. I thought I might win that contest. I didn’t.
* * * *
Well,
something
positive must have happened to our hero or heroine in ACT I.
My heart is all aflame
Because of you.
The stars don’t seem the same
Because of you.
The clouds that filled my sky before
have all been blown away
and love has made a sky of blue
for every day.
What good was lover’s lane
and twilight glow?
Alone, the hours dragged.
They seemed to know.
But then we met
and all at once I knew
That love was mine
Because of you.
Also listed on the schedule for ACT I, Scene 2 was
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE!
(I wrote it before the Frank Capra classic was released.)
Can’t you tell
It’s a Wonderful Life
!
Oh, yes, you know darn well
It’s a Wonderful Life
!
Everything about living
is lots more fun
When you’re give-give-giving!
Everytime you can smile when you’re sad
You’ll change your frown away
and the blues that you had!
Force a smile if you have to
that’s the best way to live!
Laugh – ter!
“Dat’s da tonic!” da doctor say
So try it!
Just try it any day!
Tell your sister, your brother, your wife!
Let everybody know
It’s a Wonderful Life
!
Let’s all shout it together!
It’s a Wonderful Life
!
* * * *
ACT II will, largely, consist of descriptive material found in my notes, obviously material Norman and I prepared. The sequence is mostly sung.
I think that SADIE was performed by Jean Vickerstaff.
* * * *
ACT II – Sc. 1
It is the opening night of Van and Alec’s new show. The “Sadie” routine is one of the main production numbers of the show. There are six men arranged in a wide semi-circle around the bench on which Sadie sits. It is a park scene. The time is about 1910. The men are dressed in light suits, spats and straw hats; Sadie in wide skirt, bonnet and with a light parasol. The men all have handlebar mustaches.
| 1st: | You’re lovely |
| 2nd: | You’re adorable |
| 3rd: | But conditions |
| 4th: | Are deplorable |
| 5th: | Why won’t you please |
| 6th: | Make up your mind? |
| Goodness gracious Sadie honey | |
| 5th: | Can’t you see that it’s not funny |
| 4-1: | And it isn’t just your coldness that we mind |
| All: | When you look at us |
| We’re just like a burning house | |
| 1-3: | And just when we’re burning |
| 4-6: | Just when we’re yearning |
| All: | You play with us just |
| Like a cat plays with a mouse | |
| 1st: | You’re exceptionally |
| 2nd: | Attractive |
| 3rd: | You would make a corpse’s heart |
| 4th: | Quite active |
| All: | Sadie, won’t you be mine? |
| (Brief musical break) | |
| SADIE: | I can’t |
| Cause there’s something in me | |
| Extant | |
| Like a bird that is free | |
| I want romance and loving | |
| But I can’t forego | |
| This endless urge for gaily roving | |
| I would | |
| If I could but I can’t | |
| So I won’t | |
| So you see if you rant | |
| Forever | |
| Forever and a day | |
| I would always be compelled to say “nay, nay” | |
| For I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. | |
| ALL MEN: | (Get up and do simple movements while singing) |
| Sadie | |
| I love you so, I love you so, I love you so-O-o-oh | |
| Sadie | |
| How well you know, how well you know, how well you know | |
| Why don’t you flee with me | |
| To faraway places | |
| Kick off the traces | |
| Bay-hay-hay-hay-hay-bee | |
| Sadie | |
| I’m in despair | |
| I never met another | |
| That I’d rather make a mother | |
| Than Sadie | |
| Be my lady Mi-ne | |
| (Now they go into a dance routine while Sadie watches. When their routine is almost over, Johnny (as the hero) comes on stage right reading a book. He does not notice her but she pretends to draw him in by pulling her fingers magically towards the bench so that he follows them and sits down at the other end of the bench. The men see this when they are finished and making various signs of heartbreak they break up into little groups.) | |
| | |
| SADIE: | (Casts little side glances and then clears her throat. He looks at her but then back at his book. She frowns and then smiles. She drops her handkerchief on the ground. He does not notice and she picks it up with a frown with the end of her umbrella. Then she draws it through the air and he smells the perfume on it. He looks up at her.) |
| Won’t you come a little closer | |
| Little closer, sir to me, | |
| If you do then you will know, sir, | |
| What the meaning is of ecstasy | |
| I promise not to bite your head off | |
| I’m as gentle as can be | |
| So won’t you move a little closer, closer | |
| Little closer, sir, to me. | |
| | |
| JOHNNY: | (coolly) |
| Whether it’s December or it’s June | |
| I’m immune | |
| From nature and her tricks | |
| From winsome smiles | |
| and girlish wiles | |
| From sparkling eyes | |
| And breathless sighs | |
| And all the things that mix | |
| A fellows mind until he doesn’t know | |
| If there is snow | |
| Or grass upon the ground | |
| So all your invitations | |
| To the rest may be occasions | |
| But this boy has been around. | |
| | |
| SADIE: | (Moves closer and sings. He tries to read but by the end of the song he does what she asks.) |
| You’ve never kissed me. | |
| You’ve never known me | |
| You’ve never held me | |
| Close in your arms. | |
| You’ve never kissed me | |
| Because I’ve never flown | |
| So I could always be | |
| Close to your charms. | |
| So if you kiss me | |
| And I will know if it’s true | |
| That I will never see | |
| More than friendship from you. | |
| So as it narrows down | |
| There’s only one guarantee | |
| That I meant nothing to you | |
| And that’s for you-to-kiss-me. | |
| (She is right by him and gives him a long lingering kiss.) | |
| | |
| JOHNNY: | (Sits dumbly on the bench staring ahead. Then he starts to sing weakly.) |
| I didn’t know what I was talking about | |
| I hadn’t the slightest idea that I’d find | |
| Romance so exciting | |
| So wonderfully rare | |
| That my heart would be fighting | |
| To jump out of the frigid-air. | |
| If I had once ever suspected that love | |
| Could sail any heart in the blue shy above, | |
| I’d have given up the struggle | |
| And let my locked heart out | |
| I didn’t know what I was talking about. | |
| Sadie. I love you. Marry me. | |
| | |
| SADIE: | I can’t. |
| JOHNNY: | Why? |
| SADIE: | I don’t know. There’s just something holding me back. |
| (She begins to sing “I Can’t” and Johnny joins in with her. Both songs are sung in unison per lead sheet. While they sing – towards the end of the song – a Spaniard comes walking out onto stage right with sombrero, guitar, bright sash, et al. Johnny does not notice him until the end of the song, the Spaniard offers her his hand and she smiles, rises and walks off at left upstage.) | |
| JOHNNY: | (Looks dazed at this occurrence. He stares at where they have exited and then gets up. He wanders over to where all the men are watching. He looks at them, and shrugs his shoulders with his arms raised, palms up.) I don’t get it. |
| ALL: | (Ala “Good Evening Friends”) You never will… |
| JOHNNY: | (He sits down on another bench and stares at the stage.) |
| ALL: | (Group around him and start singing to the tune of “Come a Little Closer”… with changes for difference in meter of words.) |
| Welcome to the club we call it | |
| Those who’ve sat too close incorporate | |
| If a fellow flops at love, then he | |
| Should do well in our fraternity | |
| We’re the flotsam and the jetsam | |
| On the sea of sweet romance | |
| We’re the guys who sat too close to Sadie | |
| And only got a kick in the pants. | |
| (They take him in their midst and all exit stage right as Sadie and the Spaniard come on stage left, arm in arm. She sits down on the bench and he kneels before it.) | |
| | |
| SPANIARD: | Senorita where I come from |
| This can only mean one thing. | |
| You and I are going to marry | |
| I’ll go now to get the ring. | |
| We will live in hacienda | |
| We will eat tortilla beans. | |
| We will raise a great big family. | |
| That’s what this means | |
| (He gets up and they start dancing to “Sadie” in a tango beat. At the end of the dance she kisses him lightly, and he falls back in a faint to be caught by two chorus men, who have rushed on stage just at the right moment. They drag him off stage right. Sadie wanders over to bench and sits down, arranging her hair and primping. At this point a very well dressed Englishman with a monocle and all the graces comes on from left upstage. He walks over to her in a manner that indicates he expects to be knighted or at least to ascent very shortly. He takes a handkerchief from his pocket, puts it down carefully and kneels down gingerly.) | |
| ENGLISHMAN: | |
| I’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean | |
| To extend my propositions | |
| I think that we’d be happy | |
| Under marital conditions | |
| Sadie, please marry me | |
| Sadie please say you’ll be | |
| The Lady Sadie Tudor Fitzhugh the Seventh | |
| or is it the eleventh | |
| I really cannot recall | |
| But Sadie I promise you. | |
| That half of our children’s blood will be absolutely blue. | |
| For I’m extremely wealthy | |
| And my family quite healthy | |
| So dear Sadie | |
| Be my lady mine. | |
| (He rises carefully and they dance a waltz to the melody of “Sadie.” At the end she kisses him. He gives a loud English laugh, passes out and is carried off right downstage by two chorus members, who again have appeared just in time.) | |
| SADIE: | (Repeats her performance that happened after she kissed the Spaniard.) |
| (Enter a Russian dressed boldly and extravagantly. He comes on stage left with long strides and throws himself before her.) | |
| RUSSIAN: | Sadie, won’t you be mine |
| Sadie, you’re looking fine | |
| I think that you will be an adequate modder | |
| I’ll be the fodder | |
| Let’s be off for the Kremlin. | |
| Sadie, your life will be | |
| Full of sweet ecstasy | |
| Cause you’ve never been kissed | |
| Til you’ve been kissed by a Communist | |
| Sadie be my laddie mine. | |
| (He starts to dance violently and at the end of the dance he is so tired that he collapses and is dragged off the stage.) | |
| SADIE: | (Sighs and leans back on the bench. The lights grow dimmer as if it were later in the day. She starts to sing slowly and unhappily. As she sings, the chorus men, Johnny and the other |
| three slowly come out and hum in the background, as they stand there looking at her.) | |
| There doesn’t seem to be | |
| anyone for me | |
| I guess it’s all because | |
| of my perversity. | |
| But I keep searching | |
| Hoping that I’ll find | |
| The man who fills my dreams | |
| Fills my searching mind. | |
| So I’ll go on and on | |
| Reaching for a star (she starts off stage) | |
| And breaking hearts because | |
| That’s what hearts are for. | |
| I know I’m callous inside | |
| I haven’t denied | |
| It’s true | |
| But I will search for my dre-am | |
| Until I can see him | |
| Until I can really know. | |
| (She stands for a moment at the edge of the stage left downstage. Then after they all sing slowly “Sadie we love you sooooo,” she twirls her parasol a little and exits.) |