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They say that falling in love is wonderful... and doesn't Broadway know it! 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.
Performer
Kiss Me Kate | Holiday Inn | In The Heights | Disney's High School Musical
"What is it About Her" from THE WILD PARTY. It is a really triumphant song and his turmoil is so beautiful.
Performer
Grease | Xanadu | Grammy Award-Winning Recording Artist
"Some Enchanted Evening" from SOUTH PACIFIC
Performer
Newsies | Follies | Chicago | Teddy & Alice | Show Boat
This is a very difficult question, but "This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific means a lot to me and my wife.
Performer
Wicked | How to Succeed in Business | A Chorus Line | Promises | Promises | Company | On the Town | Can-Can | Annie Get Your Gun | State Fair | Follies | Babes in Arms
I thought this would be easy...it's not. Did I say "If Ever I Would Leave You" last time? "Always"? "My Heart is So Full of You"? "Some Enchanted Evening"? See what I mean? I should be more modern but I always think of the older shows. OK...I've just re-discovered "So Many People" from Saturday Night. So that's the one.
Performer
Jekyll & Hyde; Recording Artist & Concert Star
'On the Street Where You Live' from My Fair Lady
Creative
The Way We Were | Yentyl
"I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from MY FAIR LADY.
Creative
SISTER ACT THE MUSICAL | LEAP OF FAITH | LOVE NEVER DIES | THE LITTLE MERMAID
Anything by George and Ira Gershwin. They always found a new way to say 'I love you.' I'd like to nominate their entire body of work!
Performer
Disaster! | Memphis | Aida | Cabaret | Rent
"Anthem" form Chess. Not your typical boy/girl love song but rather a love song between a man and his country.
Performer
Saint Joan | A Doll's House Part 2 | Romeo and Juliet | The Trip to Bountiful | Stick Fly
It's not really a love song, but "Anyone Can Whistle." It's just such a touching song. I don't know, everytime I hear it I just well up. It's just a moving, tender, touching song.
Performer
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks | Follies | Cabaret | Love Letters | First Impressions | Champagne Complex | John Murray Anderson's Almanac. Commander In Chief. The Sopranos
"Something Wonderful" from THE KING AND I. I've always loved it, but I've never sung it.
Performer
New York | New York | Wonderland | In the Heights
"Dammit Janet" from THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW
Director
NINE | Chicago The Film | Memoirs of a Geisha | Cabaret | Little Me | ...Forum
"I'll Never Fall In Love Again" from PROMISES, PROMISES, because in the song the two main characters, Fran Kubelik and Chuck Baxter sing about never falling in love again, while they actually do.
Director
Boop! The Musical | Kinky Boots | Catch Me If You Can | Hairspray | Legally Blonde | La Cage Aux Folles
"I Have Dreamed" from The King and I.
Industry
Critic and Columnist | Author
"Warm All Over" from THE MOST HAPPY FELLA by Frank Loesser.
Performer
Heartbreak House | Frozen | The Herbal Bed | The Real Thing
I've got two actually..."Somewhere" from WEST SIDE STORY and "Till There Was You" from THE MUSIC MAN.
Performer
Priscilla Queen of the Desert | La Cage Aux Folles | A Chorus Line
'Till There Was You' from The Music Man
Performer
Romeo and Juliet
That's a tricky one. My favorite Broadway love song... "Losing My Mind," I think. All of his music was so beautiful.
Performer
Bullets Over Broadway | Curtains | Contact | Steel Pier
I always get choked up on "If I Loved You" by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It's kind of a bittersweet love song, but it's one of my favorites.
Performer
Billy Elliot | Dirty Rotten Scoundrels | Chicago | Victor/Victoria | Damn Yankees | Born Yesterday | Serious Money
"All The Things You Are" by Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II from VERY WARM FOR MAY. When performed in the original stage version with a full chorus there is nothing more sublime. Now if you were to ask me the most "surprisingly charming" love song it would have to be "I Think I Got You Beat" from SHREK by Jeanine Tesori.
Performer
Mamma Mia! | A Little Night Music | Impressionism | A Tale of Two Cities | Les Misérables | The Light in the Piazza | The Last Ship
"Love to Me," Fabrizio to Clara from LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.
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.
Performer
The Pirate Queen | Chicago | Urinetown | Side Show | Beauty and the Beast | Smile | Zorba
"Too Many Mornings" from FOLLIES. The thought of a great lost love kills/is killing me even as I write this.
Performer
Guys & Dolls | Spamalot | Don't Quit Your Night Job
"Mea Culpa", cut from SWEENEY TODD. What's more romantic than an old man fantasizing about his adoptive daughter?
I'm sorry, that just made me throw up a little in my mouth.
Honestly though, it would be Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" from RED, HOT AND BLUE. The phrase "how strange the change from major to minor" is so beautiful it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time.
I'm sorry, that just made me throw up a little in my mouth.
Honestly though, it would be Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" from RED, HOT AND BLUE. The phrase "how strange the change from major to minor" is so beautiful it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up every time.
Creative
La Cage aux Folles | Hello Dolly! | Mame | Mack & Mabel | Dear World
I picked five of my favorite songs, because each represents a different aspect of love. "My Heart Stood Still" (Rodgers and Hart) for the suddenness of love; "If I Loved You" (Rodgers and Hammerstein) for imagined love; "Here I'll Stay" (Lerner and Weill) for the solidity of love; "It Never Was You" (Kurt Weill) for the after love; "A Quiet Thing" (Kander and Ebb) for unexpected love and "Ill Be Seeing You" (Pop song) for the permanence of love."
Industry
Young Frankenstein | Cry-Baby | The Producers | Hairspray | Annie | Bombay Dreams | I Remember Mama | Ain't Broadway Grand | To Be Or Not To Be | Spaceballs
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.
Videos
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