Most Romantic Broadway Love Song

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.

Andrea Burns

Performer

The Notebook | In The Heights | The Full Monty | Beauty and the Beast | West Side Story Tour

I am currently obsessed with "Say it Somehow" from The Light in the Piazza. A perfect use of the old musical theater rule... "when words can no longer express..." Clara and Fabrizio's love scene is romantic and emotional despite the language barrier between them. The way the voices find each other in the music without lyrics is sexy, haunting and just beautiful.

Patti LuPone

Performer

It's not a musical theater song, but "A Case Of You" by Joni Mitchell because it's besotted, it's filled with sex, it's love goo.

Orfeh

Performer

Pretty Woman | Legally Blonde | Saturday Night Fever | Footloose | The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Mine would have to be "Our Love Is Here To Stay", not only because Gershwin is unrivaled in sheer genius as far as I'm concerned, but I was lucky enough to have been in the "long" running "Fascinating Rhythm" and listening to my co-stars sing that song every night into the finale' (which was Hang On to me), gave me chills and still brings back some of my best and happiest Broadway memories as a performer...

Angela Lansbury

Performer

"If I Loved You" from Carousel because it reminds me of my first love...

Nathan Lane

Performer

"Too Many Mornings". It always makes me cry. Missed opportunity, longing and regret, exquisite lyrics and a melody that breaks your heart. That Sondheim kid has a big future.

Lea Salonga

Performer

Yes, I am going to be absolutely biased and say "Sun and Moon" (MISS SAIGON). I don't know of any other song ever written where the two lovers are singing in complete metaphor, likening themselves to two celestial beings that should never meet, but somehow still do. It's magical, tender and exciting, starting and ending as quiet as the night sky. It still gets a huge sigh from me whenever I hear it, either live or recorded, and I have a sentimental attachment to it as it's the first song from the show I ever learned.

Brooks Ashmanskas

Performer

It would have to be "My Friends" from SWEENEY TODD. A strange choice, I grant you, but I think it honestly shows ALL kinds of love lyrically-speaking, and, musically, the sense of longing in the actual accompaniment joined with the familiarity/comfort of the song's orchestration (in the original production - and that's not meant as a dig to the current revival's brilliantly realized and fitting orchestrations); truly utilizing the strings and the brass as - up to that point - the audience's "friends", for me, adds up to being the definition of romantic. Or, if this diatribe is a bit much, just say I said "People Will Say We're In Love", and put whatever reason you'd like.

Elaine Stritch

Performer

"Make Someone Happy" from the Broadway production "DO RE MI" - words by Comden and Green. Music by Jule Styne. The song beautifully explains the only way to find true happiness..."make some happy - make just one someone happy...and you will be happy, too." I'm not saying it has to be a love affair...just as long as it's how you feel. Hey...it could even be a long-haired dachshund!

Cherry Jones

Performer

"Yours, Yours, Yours" from 1776, because it portrays the romance of great minds who were also madly in love.

Michael Crawford

Performer

I think "If I Loved You" from CAROUSEL is the most perfectly written love song. The matching of the lyric to the melody is sublime.

Ute Lemper

Performer

Chicago

"The Music That Makes Me Dance" from FUNNY GIRL. The song evokes childhood memories, Barbra's voice, gorgeous chords with a great crecendo towards the end.

Thomas Meehan

Industry

I'd say, "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," from SHOWBOAT. Because, rather than being a lugubrious ballad, like most of Broadway's classic love songs, it's a bouncy and upbeat number that at the same time manages to be touching and sweetly melancholy.

David Zippel

Creative

Certainly one of the most romantic Broadways songs is "Lazy Afternoon" from THE GOLDEN APPLE. The music by Jerome Moross and the lyrics by John Latouche are so seductive. The 1975 Barbara Streisand recording is extraordinary.

Robert Goulet

Performer

La Cage aux Folles | Moon Over Buffalo | Camelot | The Happy Time

For the most romantic Broadway song, my wife insists that I say "If Ever I Would Leave You", but if that is playing it too close to the vest, how about -- "If I Loved You" -- Both songs have great lyrics and great melodies.

Matthew Sklar

Creative

"One Hand, One Heart" from WEST SIDE STORY. Everytime I hear it it gets me. The orchestration is a masterpiece. The melody is beautiful and unpredictable. Also, it was the song my parents first danced to at their wedding. So good!!!

Maureen McGovern

Performer

Little Women | 3 Penny Opera | Nine | The Pirates of Penzance

I find Gershwin's music to be incredibly romantic. To me, his most passionate theater song is the 1935 PORGY AND BESS duet, "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," with lyrics by Dubose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. I have loved this score since I was a child -- it was ahead of its time in the '30s when it was written and in many ways it still is today.

Jed Bernstein

Industry

Former President | The League of American Theatres and Producers | Inc.

"I've Never Been In Love Before" from GUYS AND DOLLS - a big bold shouting love to the world. "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" - The song speaks to everyone's secret fear, being alone without a loved one on New Year's Eve...

Michael McKean

Performer

Superior Donuts | The Pajama Game | Hairspray | Accomplice

"If I Loved You", from CAROUSEL, is written as a duet, and the drama of these two people denying what they are feeling is what makes it a great song. As a solo number it's just the loneliest thing you can imagine, and just as great. Runners-up: "Her Face", from CARNIVAL, "Never Will I Marry", from GREENWILLOW.

Euan Morton

Performer

Chess | Taboo | Sondheim on Sondheim

I think the most romantic Broadway Love Song ever written is "Unworthy of Your Love" by Sondheim (ASSASSINS). This is a great song. I'm not sure how romantic it could be considered, but it proves that everyone has someone who loves them...

Jill Eikenberry

Performer

"If I Loved You" -- hands down. Because it's like the dance you do before you admit how much you love someone.

Robert Lopez

Creative

Frozen | The Book of Mormon | Avenue Q

"A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow," from the movie A Mighty Wind. I know, it's not from a Broadway show per se, but the song was written by a Broadway star, the brilliant Michael McKean (and his wife, the actress Anette O'Toole). It's amazingly performed in the movie by Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy as an estranged, divorced folksinging duo from the 60's. The song says one radical thing, simply and beautifully: that love is worth more than money. And it's punctuated with this kiss that's so sad and beautiful at once. It's such a wonderful movie - for those who went expecting a fall-on-the-floor comedy and were disappointed: watch it again.

Mark O'Donnell

Industry

I'd say "If I Loved You" from CAROUSEL, because they don't admit they're in love, they pretend it's only a possibility, and that restraint breaks your heart.

Sara Ramirez

Performer

Spamalot | A Class Act | The Capeman

I think the most romantic Broadway love song is......."How Could I Ever Know" because of the lyrics. The notion that a person who is no longer in this world could contact their true love to tell them they are the one they were born to love, is extremely moving to me.

Gabriel Barre

Director

I am more often moved by the - playing against it - category of love song: "People Will Say We're in Love", "If I Loved You", etc...however, without a doubt, the most riveting and romantic love song ever written (for me) is: "Somewhere" from WEST SIDE STORY simply because the song itself is pure and perfect like we always dream love to be but it doesn't pretend it's possible now...

Stephanie D'Abruzzo

Performer

It Must Be Him | I Love You Because | Avenue Q

I always get a little teary-eyed when I hear the ending of "Yours, Yours, Yours" from 1776. It's that duet harmony, coupled with those simple, simple words that mean so much more when sung by John and Abigail: Till then, till then... I am... As I ever was and ever shall be... Yours...yours...yours...yours...yours. And even though it's more heartbreaking than romantic, I truly love "You and I" from CHESS. So bittersweet. Have a swell Valentine's Day---

John McDaniel

Industry

I am probably partial to ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, but I have to say that "I Got Lost In His Arms" is one of my all-time favorite love songs. Creating the arrangement for Bernadette a few years ago lives as one of my sweetest Broadway memories. Irving Berlin had a simplicity that just cuts right to the heart of the matter.

Lucie Arnaz

Performer

They're Playing Our Song | Lost In Yonkers

My favorite love song is MY FOOLISH HEART. It's just the most perfect of lyric and melody and every word rings true to the way falling in love happens.

Leah Hocking

Performer

On Monday I had my first rehearsal for THE MOST HAPPY FELLA at City Opera. At the read through we came to "Warm All Over", which I always knew was a beautiful song, but when Lisa Vroman sang it I thought that is one of the most romantic and sexy songs I've ever heard. So there you have it, Happy Valentines Day to you and whomever you spend it with!

Sally Mayes

Performer

Steel Magnolias | Urban Cowboy | She Loves Me

I guess my all time favorite would have to be "My Funny Valentine". I just think it is a perfect song, and a realistic version of love, that is to say, its about someone totally not perfect, but she adores him anyway.

Rick McKay

Performer

Director / Producer: Broadway: The Golden Age

The most romantic Broadway song ever written has to be "They Can't Take That Away from Me." It captures that bittersweet beauty and transitive nature of love. You never know just how long it will last and how precious that time is. I loved the song when Fred Astaire sang it in SHALL WE DANCE," when Harry Groener sang it in CRAZY FOR YOU and when Fayard Nicholas, in his last screen performance, sang it in the last moments of my film "Broadway: The Golden Age." It is about so much more than even romance - it is about life. And the song never dates, for the Ira Gershwin lyrics are timeless.

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