.png)
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.
Performer
Natasha | Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
There are so many incredible songs to choose from, but instantly my mind went to "With So Little To Be Sure Of" from Anyone Can Whistle. Something about the strength love gives us, how that moment of connection with another person can create stability at moments when the world around you seems to be going truly crazy. And how that can help one believe in oneself even once that moment of connection is over: "Being sure enough of you made me sure enough of me."
Performer
Spamalot | Into the Woods | My Fair Lady | Fiddler on the Roof
"Being Alive" from Company. While not a love song in the traditional sense, "Being Alive" works through, in a most quintessentially "Sondheim" manner, the journey that one must take in order to be able to both give and receive love. The conclusion, that "alone is alone, not alive," and the final plea: "somebody crowd me with love, somebody force me to care..." shows us at our most vulnerable. And that is very romantic.
Performer
Natasha | Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
“If I Loved You” from Carousel is so classic. I love that doesn't come right out and get the point. Billy and Julie both flirt with the possibility of hooking up and maybe a life together and they essentially commit without without ever saying it. Also “Her Face” from Carnival has one of the most beautiful melodies.
Performer
Harmony | Funny Girl
I'd say "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from The Fantasticks, but that's really Off-Broadway. So, I'll go with” Falling Slowly” from Once. Girl and Guy never even kiss in the show, but they express their yearning for one another through the music they make together. What's more romantic than that?
Performer
Jekyll & Hyde | Avenue Q | Les Misérables
“If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot. Such a simple beautiful melody, such a simple beautiful promise…and by that final season of Spring: A Soaring declaration of (Calendar) love! “Garlic! Garlic!” from Dance of the Vampires runs a close second.
Performer
The Band's Visit | Wicked
"If I Loved You" from CAROUSEL and "Too Many Mornings" from FOLLIES
Performer
The Ferryman | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Plenty
"As Long as He Needs Me" from Oliver is beautiful but ladies I don't recommend loving a man that way, for the record.
Performer
The Lion King
"Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors. I saw the original production at The Orpheum when I was a kid and made my parents take me back several times. Lee Wilkof was my schmendrick superhero, and how can you not love a song about the little nebbishy Jewish guy finally getting the blonde bombshell?
Performer
Wolf Hall: Parts 1 and 2
That is very easy! My favorite love song is "Good Thing Going" from Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along.
Performer
The View Upstairs
"Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered"... "Vexed again, perplexed again… thank God I can be oversexed again!" For me, this tune captures the joy and ache of longing perfectly. I particularly love Justin Vernon’s rendition which he recorded with his high school jazz ensemble as a fundraiser for their music program. It knocks my socks off.
Performer
A Night with Janis Joplin | The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess
"I'd Rather Be Sailing" from A New Brain. I am such a fan of William Finn, Malcom Gets, and especially Norm Lewis, whom I had the honor of working with in both Dreamgirls and Porgy and Bess. This song and their performances are simply sublime.
Performer
Now.Here.This. | [title of show]
What More Can I Say" from Falsettos. This song captures the unbelievable wonder of being in love. Yum. And also "Fable" from The Light in the Piazza. There's a longing in that song that makes my heart swell. I told Victoria Clark that I like to listen to it when I'm doing housework--it elevates my mundane chores and even makes toilet-scrubbing a loving act. Sincerely.
Performer
Falsettos | Godspell | Glory Days
"Marriage Proposal" from Falsettos because it's Mendel's song and it's really good, it's great.
Performer
Murder for Two
"Never Before, Never Again" from The Muppet Movie. Okay, not technically a Broadway song, but still- a fantastic love song from a brilliant movie musical. Also one of the most romantic sequences in film history and one of Miss Piggy's greatest performances (in a long list of great performances). If this song doesn't make you want to find a Kermit of your own, nothing will! Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!
Performer
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
My favorite love song from Broadway is from HIGH SOCIETY, 'True Love.' It's also a favorite of my father-in-law, who is 86 years old!!
Performer
Suffs
"Something Good"! This song makes me tear up pretty much immediately. Perhaps it's the tender vocals, the romantic gazebo scene from the movie, the complicated lyrics –– or frankly, all of the above! –– that makes this my absolute favorite. Now go watch and listen to the film version with Christopher Plummer's original vocals: it's stunning!
Performer
Cabaret | Slave Play | Long Day's Journey Into Night
I am thinking a lot about Sweet Charity right now. That show makes me think a lot about love- about hopelessly romantic love.
Performer
Something Rotten! | The Addams Family | The Little Mermaid | [title of show] | Now.Here.This.
This is a no-brainer. "Love to Me" from The Light in the Piazza, but the version that really throws me over the edge is Adam Guettel singing it himself. (I think it was a demo version that they added to the end of the original cast album. Sort of a bonus track...) There's something so sexy and real about his voice and then knowing that he actually wrote the song just wipes me out. I think every girl wishes she had a boy that felt like that about her.
Performer
Rock of Ages | South Pacific
There are two Broadway love songs that tickle my fancy; first, I would have to say is “The Origin of Love” from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I just really love the idea of having ‘another half’ out there that we are each destined to find and rejoin. Second, I would have to say “I'd F*ck Me” from Silence! The Musical– let's face it, I've been working out, and I look good.. not Andrew Samonsky good, but still pretty good, so...
Performer
Hairspray
My favorite Broadway Love song is "So In Love" from Kiss Me Kate. I love it because I love Cole Porter’s music and I played Kate in a high school production of Kiss Me Kate and singing "So In Love" made me feel so full of emotion and true love.
Performer
One Day
One of my favorite love songs from a musical is "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" from Beautiful. I have loved this song for a while, long before it was in the show. But the fact that it is now in such a gorgeous and heartfelt production, gives the song so much more context. This song has been one of my go-to's in terms of grasping inspiration for my own songwriting. Carole King is truly amazing and the hook "will you still love me tomorrow?" tugs at my heartstrings every time.
Performer
Murder for Two | Urban Cowboy | How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying | Into the Woods
Adam Guettel's score is filled with some of the most rapturous music I've ever heard, and "Say It Somehow" is when the two young lovers first get together. When they start harmonizing, my head practically explodes.
Performer
Beardo
It doesn't get much better than “They Say It's Wonderful” from Annie Get Your Gun. The slight melodic changes on the repetitions of "wonderful" melt me. Also a great shower song.
Performer
Chicago
"A Little Priest" (from Sweeney Todd, by Stephen Sondheim) may be my favorite love song from musical theatre. While not discussing love at all, it is the moment when Sweeney sees Mrs. Lovett in a "positive" light for the first time, and she wins what she believes to be his affection. The fact that it condenses the entire world-view of the show, as well as being a defining plot point, is what makes it, for me, an incredible love song. Also, I enjoy morbid jokes that rhyme a lot.
Performer
Dear Evan Hansen | Cruel Intentions: The Musical | Spring Awakening | Brooklynite
"The One I Love" from Hello Again because it is perfect.
Performer
Suffs
"The Next Ten Minutes" from The Last Five Years. You have this two-hander where the couple doesn’t interact; they’re not even moving in a linear timeline, but then, for ten minutes, they come together and we get to see them have this cathartic, honest, gorgeous moment that helps us to understand how it once worked before time, lies, and life warped everything. Oh gosh, and that moment of counterpart at the end right before they finally and at long last harmonize is so expertly and heartbreakingly crafted, and it lingers just long enough before we are once again literally sent off in different directions. 10/10 minutes, without question.
Performer
On Sugarland
A favorite mine would be “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” from The Lion King. Being a 90’s baby myself, it evokes such nostalgia from the movie. I don’t think you can hit the nail on the head more than this one.
Performer
Grease | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers | Feinsteins
I've gotta go with two. "My Funny Valentine" because it's got killer lyrics - "My funny valentine/Sweet comic valentine/You make me smile with my heart/
Your looks are laughable/Unphotographable/Yet you're my favorite work of art." Come on!!
Then, "Some Enchanted Evening," because it is a great romantic song, but also because when I opened in a run of SOUTH PACIFIC, my husband sent me a beautiful watercolor he had painted of a sunset with the words "Once you have found her, never let her go" written across the sky....now that's romantic!
Videos
TICKET CENTRAL
Recommended For You
Get Broadway's #1 Newsletter
Get the best news & discounts for Broadway & beyond.
