Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
#1Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 1:13am
In thinking about how in the "bare" bootleg, I always get chills when Arden sang "Do you know how much he loved? Do you know how much he cared?"
The other line I can think of that wrenches at me is at the end of "Look What You've Done" in "Ragtime" when he says, "You've lost Coalhouse. We've all lost."
Yours? Limit yourself to a sentence or two that is the most powerful.
NYC_or_Bust
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/8/05
#2re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 1:22am
"Got my eyes, though they don't see as far now,
They see more 'bout how things really are now."
-The Color Purple
And many of you know me for my "broken record" about this next one, but seriously..."Let the world be done with me!"
Steve Blanchard, Beauty and the Beast
I literally had chills all through intermission.
"Everywhere! It's Everywhere! It's Everything, and Everywhere!
-The Light In The Piazza
"Breaking my heart, opening a door, changing the world,
New Music, I'll, hear it forever more!"
-RAGTIME
I adore the black band holding on the Phantom's mask. ~ Jenna2
Updated On: 11/14/07 at 01:22 AM
#2re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 1:26am
"When they hear you, I'll be near you. Again." -Ragtime
ashley0139
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/3/05
#3re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 1:27am
"Don't be afraid it won't be perfect. The only thing to be afraid of really is that it won't be." - Company
In Grey Gardens Act 2, when Big and Little Edie are talking and Little Edie screams "He'd have had me committed!"
Also in that show, the interaction of "I'm your mother!" "I am not your daughter!"
Oh! And when she is about to leave the front gate and Big Edie is screaming for her and then she says, "Coming, mother darling."
"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
#4re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 1:38am
"I feel your fingers
Cold, on my shoulder
Your chilling touch
As it runs down my spine."
That opening line for Dangerous Game from J&H, gets me EVERYTIME!
"The way he calls my name
The way he takes control
I like the way this man has stirred my soul."
Maybe I Like It This Way from Wild Party
Plenty more, i'll post when I think of more.
"We need people not to come to Broadway shows wearing shorts and flip-flops. We are working hard up here folks. Find a pair of socks."-Joanna Gleason
"I hear L. Ron Hubbard is gonna blow the ladies...and all that jazz! C'mon babe! We're gonna unicorn hug, I bought some NyQuil down....at Wal-Mart?!"-Bebe Neuwirth singing ATJ to Musical Mad Libs at DQYNJ :)
#5re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 1:44am
Totally cliched. However...
"Because reason says I should have died three years ago" - Rent
I recognize the addiction to being alive.
#6re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 1:56am
I have many, many, but a few that immediately come to mind:
"Give in to love, or live in fear," from RENT
as well as
"Want something. Want something."
and "Vary my days," from Company.
I can't say I'm exactly sure WHY on those last two, but for whatever reason, they both definitely give me chills. 
#7re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 2:22am
"Is this how the prophets felt in the presence of God?"
from Joe Papp, Elegies: A Song Cycle
When I hear that line, I always start crying. Even if I'm walking down the street, listening to my ipod. That song gets me every time.
"Do you know the word 'temporary'?"
from Temporary, the John Bucchino song
"I can remember what would have been. It has a name."
from Tom, Hello Again
"And we sit in a bar and talk til 2, about life and love as old friends do."
from Old Friends, I'm Getting My Act Together And Taking It On The Road
"She was K.C. at 7, she was K.C. at 10, and at 18 and 30, she was K.C. again."
from K.C., Three Postcards
"Love means losing track of time."
from Losing Track of Time, Summer of '42
"And the kids all threw confetti. And I feel like I still have some in my hair. I guess it always will be there."
from Diary of a Homecoming Queen, is there life after high school?
"My grandmother's love letters, held in her trembling hand, when she was 17."
from My Grandmother's Love Letters, December Songs
"Look up there. High above us."
from New Words, 1,2,3,4,5
"Without someone in a tree, nothing happened here."
from Someone In A Tree, Pacific Overtures
"I was laughing all the time, I was dancing all the time, I had all the time in the world."
from Dancing All The Time, big
"I just met the girl I'm gonna marry!"
dialogue before Our Time, Merrily We Roll Along
Charley: Someday, Frank is going to be a very important composer.
Mary: He is. I think you already are.
dialogue before Our Time, Merrily We Roll Along
"You know, after this moment, this moment that we three are having together, we're going to be able to do anything. Anything we ever dreamed of!"
dialogue before Our Time, Merrily We Roll Along
And lastly, maybe this line isn't short enough, but this always gives me chills and makes me cry when I experience it in the theatre:
Cassie: ...Just treat me like everybody else.
Zach: Is that what you want from me? (pointing to the line) Is this really what you want to do?
(They both look upstage at the line as it slowly comes to life. The music builds in intensity, as the "chorus" performs "One".)
Cassie: Yes... I'd be proud to be one of them. They're wonderful.
Zach: But you're special.
Cassie: No, we're all special. He's special- she's special. And Sheila- and Richie, and Connie. They're all special. I'd be happy to be dancing in that line. Yes, I would... and I'll take chorus... if you'll take me.
(I totally ruined your "specific short lines" request... I'm sorry! But that's a moment that gives me chills!)
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#8re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 2:29am
"Sunday"
The final Sunday from the Sunday in the Park with George finale on the London recording, right before George says "White. A blank page or canvas. So many possiblities." That line I don't dig so much, but that final "Sunday" is gorgeous.
"Mama, Mama, Mama..."
Celia Keenan-Bolger on The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Still gives me chills.
"You mean what was the best picture of the year or what did they pick as the best picture of the year?" - California Suite
thevolleyballer
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/29/04
#9re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 3:07am
Frankie Epps' entire screamo episode during "There Is A Fountain/It Don't Make Sense" from PARADE.
"He won't rest until I know he's burning in the raging fires of hell forever more..."
#10re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 3:15am
"I close my eyes and there she is, beneath the wrinkles and the scars, I'm still that little girl wishing blindly on the stars!"
Witches of Eastwick....
Popular...You're gonna be Popuular....;)
#11re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 3:33am
"A birdcage I planned to hang... I'll get to that some day. A birdcage for a bird who flew away.... around the world."
~ Grey Gardens
one of the best lyrics ever! always makes me cry.
And of course (I'm surprised that this hasn't been said yet) "For me! For me! For me! For me! FOR ME!"
~ Rose's Turn
#12re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 4:03am
"You know, after this moment, this moment that we three are having together, we're going to be able to do anything. Anything we ever dreamed of!"
dialogue before Our Time, Merrily We Roll Along
Agree. "Long ago, all we had was that funny feeling / Saying someday we'd send 'em reeling" gets me too, for some reason. I'm also with the lines from Rent and Grey Gardens that have been mentioned.
From Ragtime (many):
"The sound of distant thunder suddenly starting to climb..."
"Oh, Sarah, it's more than promises, Sarah, it must be true."
"Breaking my heart, op'ning a door, changing the world, new music..."
"Like a firework, unexploded, wanting life but never knowing how...'til now."
"And we will ride on the wheels of a new dream, a new time, Sarah, now, I'll play them the music of something beginning..."
"Unafraid to be weak. Unafraid to be strong."
"I'm a poor immigrant, a Jew, who points a camera so that his child can dress as beautifully as a princess. I want to drive from her memory every tenement stench and filthy immigrant street. I will buy her light and sun and clean wind of the ocean for the rest of her life."
...Basically, I'm in chills for most of that musical.
Sunday in the Park with George:
"I could look at him/her forever."
"And when the woman that you wanted goes, you can say to yourself, 'Well, I give what I give.'"
Company:
"But who will I take care of?"
Chess:
"Let man's petty nations tear themselves apart. My land's only borders lie around my heart."
Updated On: 11/14/07 at 04:03 AM
#13re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 4:36am
I second everything from Rent, Ragtime, Spelling Bee, Grey Gardens AND Company. Man, you guys are good.
I will also add to the Rent pile: "When your heart has expired" from the second act.
All I've got left are the ones that are weird and personal, but whatever.
A Chorus Line: "So beautiful I'd never live to see." That's really just me remembering my angsty/insecure years, but still. It moves me.
Aida: When Radames tracks Aida down at the river and is trying to discuss their situation and she says se doesn't know what he's talking about and he says "Don't you?" Gets me every time...I am a sap.
#14re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 4:58am"marilyn monroe" The final one at the end of tell me its not true in Blood Brothers and of course the first "tell me its not true" in the same song, gets me everytime as well
"If you talk about my family I will punch you in the fanny so hard it'll end up on your face... oh, looks like someone beat me to it!" - Dawn French
#15re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 9:43am
Another bare lyric "I've been trying to tell you this since I was... twelve."
SITPWG: "Look, I made a hat, where there never was a hat."
The Glorious Ones: "...and every man gives his name to his son."
RENT: "your own blood cells betray"
#16re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 10:00am
I'll second "Let the world be done with me" from Beauty & The Beast. When I worked on a local production of this, I got chills nightly.
"I swear to God I'll never understand
How you can stand there straight and tall
And see I'm crying
And not do anything at all"
-Last 5 Years
"Everything's strange, you've changed
And I don't know what to do to get through"
-Tick, Tick...BOOM!
"Why do Daisy's shivers run up my spine?"
-Side Show
And not a lyric, but the first 5 notes of Songs For A New World.
"Wishes come true, not free..."
MuslimBwayFan
Understudy Joined: 11/8/07
#17re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/14/07 at 10:05am
I think this line always makes me think of the Grammar Nazis on BWW
"And what is it that I meant to have wrote?"
"Written...."
rachel85282
Swing Joined: 10/17/07
#18re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/15/07 at 9:22am
"look here i've got a navel; it means i'm someone's child"
-"a home for you (reprise)" Bat Boy
#19re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/15/07 at 9:35am
"I want to write music. I want to sit down right now at the piano and write a song that people will listen to and remember, and do the same thing every morning for the rest of my life."
- Tick Tick... BOOM!
nygrl23
Broadway Star Joined: 4/18/07
#20re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/15/07 at 9:41am
"HIgh and handsome, gleaming like the crown of a king."
"Where would that be? Where is that?"
Don't know why, but this two-line exchange from Light in the Piazza brings me to tears/chills every time.
#21re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/15/07 at 10:20am
Two from Sunday in the Park with George:
"Why do you insist you must hear the words? When you know I cannot give you words. Not the ones you need..."
"Oh, Georgie, how I long for the old view"
And the post above just reminded me of Piazza:
"May it last forever, Clara. The light in the piazza..."
Updated On: 11/15/07 at 10:20 AM
misschung
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/18/07
#22re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/15/07 at 10:31am
If we're going with short lines or lyrics:
Cabaret:
the last time Sally says "maybe this time" in Maybe This Time
Rent:
"but I am over her"
"I forget how to begin it"
Company:
The first time the Company says "Bobby come on over for dinner"
When Bobby sings "Keep me Company"
Gypsy:
"I had a dream, I dreamed it for you, June"
The morning star always gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go --doesn't it?
#23re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/15/07 at 10:49am
Omigod! In Dessa Rose, when Dessa sings:
"I'm the only baby whose name she chose
Dessa
For descendant of a woman named Rose."
... at the end of 12 Children. I remember falling to pieces in the theatre over that.
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
lstbutifulgrl2
Broadway Star Joined: 10/10/07
#24re: Specific short lines or lyrics that give you chills
Posted: 11/15/07 at 1:23pmthe mark/roger fight before goodbye love, particularly the "poor baby" line.
"Sometimes on the strip, the dreams you come in with, ain't the dreams you leave with" ~Rock of Ages
"I'm a butterfly, trivial and small, and in the greater scheme of things, I don't mean much at all." ~The Story of My Life
"Forget Regret, or life is yours to miss." ~Rent
"I'm a butterfly, trivial and small, and in the greater scheme of things, I don't mean much at all." ~The Story of My Life
"Forget Regret, or life is yours to miss." ~Rent
