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Valentine's Day is here and love is all around us. At this most romantic time of the year, we can't help but wonder... what is the greatest Broadway love song ever? BroadwayWorld continues our great tradition of finding that consensus- and this year we have more answers than ever! We've gathered responses from over 1500 performers, composers, industry professionals, and entertainment personalities from all over the world.
This year's list is presented by The Notebook, now in previews on Broadway. Based on the best selling novel that inspired the iconic film, this new musical follows Allie and Noah, both from different worlds, as they share a lifetime of love despite the forces that threaten to pull them apart, in a deeply moving portrait of the enduring power of love.
Industry
Rocktopia
My favorite love song is "I feel you, Johanna" from Sweeney Todd. It touches me in such a deep way. It goes right to - I've been married for 35 years to the same beautiful woman, I feel her presence. It just kind of puts it right there: "I feel you."
Industry
American Pops Orchestra | National Broadway Chorus
“50 Percent" from Ballroom. I love this song because it shows that you can find love at any age and that often love comes in many forms.
Industry
Back to the Future
"Sue Me" from Guys and Dolls. We normally think that love songs are ballads, but "Sue Me" is anything but! It's brassy, energetic, catchy, treacle-free and funny. Even though it doesn't stand as a love song outside of the specifics of Guys and Dolls, it never fails to put a smile on my face.
Industry
Project Runway
From Follies, "Losing My Mind." I have to tell you, it brings me to tears everytime I hear it. It's very emotional, it's very moving- and who among us hasn't experienced that kind of pain? And it's such a beautiful lyric and such gorgeous music.
Industry
Founder/President The Hartman Group PR
"On The Street Where You Live" from MY FAIR LADY.
Industry
Shucked | Tootsie | 13
"Loving You" from Passion because love is beautifully obsessive and ruining your life shouldn’t be a one-person job.
Industry
Hairspray | Lennon | The Rocky Horror Show | Footloose | The Who's Tommy | Starlight Express | Baby
I have to go with "Maria" from WEST SIDE STORY. The melody, the wanting, all add up to the most romantic song ever in my humble opinion.
Industry
Grease | 'You're the One That I Want,' Guys and Dolls | The King and I | Saturday Night Fever
"Maria" from WEST SIDE STORY
Industry
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical
“If I Loved You” from Carousel. Just an awesome classic Broadway ballad - heartrendingly sweet and complex.
Industry
Kritzerland Records | Author | Producer/Director/Composer/Lyricist
Okay, my unconventional choice for most beautiful B'way love song ever written will be "Once Upon A Time" from ALL AMERICAN by Strouse and Adams. It's rueful, but there is just something so achingly romantic and sweet about the look back at first love - so, I'm choosing it and that's that.
Industry
How to Be A Multi-Hyphenate in the Theatre Business
"One Day More." Here me out. It's a love song about living and working for the next day. Each character is singing about what they want in their life and it's only a day away. Whether or not it's a romance (Marius and Cosette), or love for money (Thenardiers), or love for purpose (Javert), or love for an adopted-ish daughter (Valjean and Cosette), it's a deeply personal love song. We can experience love in so many different ways and I think this encapsulates the passion that comes with that.
Industry
General Manager - Cats | Sunset Boulevard | Mamma Mia! | Thoroughly Modern Millie | Flower Drum Song | Legally Blonde | Gypsy | Salome | Billy Elliot: The Musical | 9 to 5
"I Have Dreamed" from The King and I.
Industry
Falsettos | Head Over Heels | Spring Awakening
"As Long as He Needs Me" from Oliver. It's so awful especially now but I think it's about wanting to share your life and give something to somebody else and how you sometimes feel destroyed if you can't give your love.
Industry
Hollywood Bowl
Most romantic? "One Hand, One Heart" from West Side Story - can't hear that song without a lump in my throat, Most deliciously romantic? "Our Private World" from On the Twentieth Century!
Industry
Superhero | Red | Peter and Alice | I’ll Eat You Last
"Not While I'm Around" from Sweeney Todd. I just think it's complicated, simple and so affirming to the characters when they need it.
Industry
Lend Me a Tenor | Crazy for You | Moon Over Buffalo
My favorite Broadway love song is "Never Neverland" from Peter Pan, and the reason is: it always touches me. Every time I hear it, there's something in that Jule Styne melody that just tears out my heart. I had the chance of working with Jule Styne. We were in a show together and I know how much heart and love he put into every melody he wrote and I heard this song before I ever met him, and it just tears my heart out every time I hear it. And if that isn't love, I don't know what is.
Industry
Angus McIndoe Restaurant
Something by Cole Porter although I'd be hard-pressed to pick a specific favorite. I love "The Party's Over" from BELLS ARE RINGING. My mother sang it all the time, and I get all mushy every time that I hear it.
Industry
Films of HAIRSPRAY | CHICAGO | A Raisin in the Sun | Living Proof | SMASH | Promises | Promises & How to Succeed in Business...
"MY FIRST LOVE SONG" from ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT, SMELL OF THE CROWD
Industry
Managing Partner | aka New York
"Say It Somehow" from The Light in the Piazza. Adam Guettel’s music is unbelievably beautiful and this song touches me every time I listen to it.
Industry
The Threepenny Opera | Caligula | Parade | Les Miserables | Follies
Definitely "All The Things You Are" from VERY WARM FOR MAY
Industry
Dead Outlaw | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown | Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
"As Long As He Needs Me" from Oliver! It's an odd song and I think it's really honest. I think Lionel Bart really got to the heart of something there.
Industry
Mauritus | The Understudy | The Scene
This my vote: "Kiss the Girl," from THE LITTLE MERMAID by Ashman and Menken.
Industry
Record Producer
My choice for favorite Broadway love song is "Till There Was You" by Meredith Willson from The Music Man. I first heard the Beatles version and I thought it was a sensational song. Karen Mason and I were married on Valentines Day! This song says everything I need to say. Happy Anniversary Karen!
Industry
Venice
"Marry Me a Little" from Company. Every time I hear that song I think about being married and how we invent our marriage all the time.
Industry
Screenwriter and Playwright: Addams Family Values | Jeffrey | In & Out | Isn't She Great | Marci X | The Stepford Wives | Jeffrey
"Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" - when it's sung by Bryan Batt.
Industry
The Wiz | Some Like It Hot
My favorite Broadway love song right now is "Changing My Major" from Fun Home. I mean, it hit me hard for a lot of reasons but I couldn't believe it was a waltz. I just thought that was so bold. Like, what a purposefully pretty choice. That song is just enchanting.
Industry
Application Pending
I have to give a shout-out to Jason Robert Brown’s “It All Fades Away” from The Bridges of Madison County. Who cares it it’s about an affair?! It’s a phenomenal love song! So smart, so much heart, and just incredibly powerful. Close runner-up, if I’m allowed to choose from a show I worked on: “Hangin’ Out in A Smoky Bar” from Bill Russell and Peter Melnick's The Last Smoker in America
Industry
Fade
"I Don't Know How to Love Him" by Andrew Lloyd Webber from Jesus Christ Superstar. Mostly because it's my favorite "shower song" but also because love is confusing and bewildering and I think the song captures that quite well.
Industry
What the Constitution Means to Me
"Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George. It's one of my favorite musicals, the music is so beautiful, and Bernadette is Bernadette!
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