Sondheim's Use of "Zoo"
Sondheim's Use of "Zoo"
#1Sondheim's Use of "Zoo"
Posted: 3/6/07 at 6:09pm
Keeping up my pattern of finding idiosyncratic mild-amusements in lyrics, I was walking home from the grocery store today and came to realize...
Sondheim's a fan of rhyming with the word "zoo."
And quite often in or around the beginning sequence
COMPANY
Song: Company
"Jenny, I could take them to the zoo."
Song: What Would We Do Without You?
"Who finished yesterday's stew/
Who took the kids to the zoo"
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
Song: Sunday in the Park with George
"Who was at the zoo, George/
Who was at the zoo?
The monkeys and who, George/
The monkey and who?"
SWEENEY TODD
Song: No Place Like London
"At the top of the hole sit the privileged few/
Making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo"
What other words is Sondheim a fan of over-rhyming?
gumbo2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/21/05
#2re: Sondheim's Use of 'Zoo'
Posted: 3/6/07 at 6:11pmThat's interesting. The only thing I can think of at the moment is that the Zoo is usually a fun place to go, and really easy to rhyme with.
WalkOn
Broadway Star Joined: 8/7/06
#2re: Sondheim's Use of 'Zoo'
Posted: 3/6/07 at 6:14pm
I actually think he likes the word "hat."
FINISHING THE HAT
A BOWLER HAT
...can't you hide it with a hat.
...does anyone still wear a hat.
I think there are more...
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart; and you'll never walk alone.
#4re: Sondheim's Use of 'Zoo'
Posted: 3/6/07 at 6:53pmAnd delivered by hat-wearing Clergy, so I hear.
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
#5re: Sondheim's Use of 'Zoo'
Posted: 3/6/07 at 6:55pm
In the libretto of "A Little Night Music," there's this:
CARL-MAGNUS: Watch him like a...
CHARLOTTE: (interrupts) Hawk? Yes, I know dear, you're a tiger, I'm a hawk. (pause) We're our own ZOO.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#6re: Sondheim's Use of 'Zoo'
Posted: 3/6/07 at 6:57pm
I heard "What's New at the Zoo" from Do Re MI is based on Sondheim's life.
Ouch, you're steppin' on my pouch!
#7re: Sondheim's Use of 'Zoo'
Posted: 3/6/07 at 7:00pmWhen I saw FOLLIES at Encores, I noticed he used the word "rotten" in at least 4 different songs.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
