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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
Almost Famous | Waitress | Jersey Boys | On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
"If I loved You" from Carousel is probably the greatest love song ever written because it deftly walks the line between flirtation and confession of feelings that only a Rogers and Hammerstein song can really do but if I'm picking the kareoke song... it's "On the Wings of Love" every time. That bridge?! Come ON!
Performer
Be More Chill | Godspell | Tick Tick...Boom!
"Love Is My Legs" from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels written by David Yazbeck sung by the great Norbert Leo Butz and the great Sherie Rene Scott. I love that song so much. It is a belty, belty song. It is so full of heart but also hilarious. I wish someone would sing that to me on Valentine's Day.
Performer
Flying Over Sunset | On the Town | White Christmas | Gypsy | A Chorus Line | Never Gonna Dance | Oklahoma
A Couple of my favorites are My Heart is So Full of You, Some Other Time, The Way You Look Tonight, and every single glorious love song from West Side Story. These are songs that completely haunt me spiritually in the best way possible
Performer
It Shoulda Been You | Mothers and Sons | Master Class | Gypsy
"My White Knight" from The Music Man. I love the lyric "And I would like him to be more interested in me than he is in himself." It touches me because it's so generous.
Performer
Harmony | It Shoulda Been You | The Phantom of the Opera | Les Miserables | Master Class | Love Never Dies | The Little Mermaid
“What about Love” from The Color Purple. I’ll never forget the first time I saw this song onstage in the original musical and I sobbed my eyes out! Even just hearing it now I cry again!
Performer
You Can't Take It With You | Living on Love
It probably sounds a bit cynical, but "Being Alive" is my favorite. Its the truth of what it can mean to be in a relationship and to love someone.
Performer
The Shark Is Broken | Violet | Anything Goes | Jersey Boys | Almost Famous | Songs for a New World |
I'm a big fan of the classic musical love songs like "Easy to Love" from Anything Goes, but one that moved me the first time I heard it Off-Broadway and has stuck with me since is "Wait for Me" from Hadestown. It's just stunning and tragic and beautiful.
Performer
Maestro | To Kill a Mockingbird | Significant Other | Spring Awakening | Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
It's "Move On" from Sunday in the Park with George. That song every time gives me goosebumps. It's beautiful and sad like life is.
Performer
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | A View From The Bridge
"I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" from My Fair Lady.
Performer
Paradise Square | Slave Play | The Color Purple | Holler If Ya Hear Me | Godspell
"Elaborate Lives" from Aida. Even though they're dying in a tomb! It's such a beautiful song.
Performer
Finding Neverland | Mary Poppins | Fiddler on the Roof
"I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face" from My Fair Lady. It's so wonderful to see how a stubborn angry man can learn to be moved, tender and humbled in the face of Love. Even though the word love is not mentioned once, we as the audience all know how much he loves this wild cat he taught to be a Lady! And in my mind he never wants to live without her from that day.
Performer
Mary Poppins | The Secret Garden | The Music Man | The Sound of Music | Nine | Showboat | The Phantom of the Opera
"All The Things You Are" from VERY WARM FOR MAY, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. For me, it's like the heavens are opening up when I hear that song. And it reminds me of how I feel about Danny.
Performer
Hedwig and the Angry Inch | The Secret Garden | Six Degrees of Separation
"Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor
Performer
Spamalot | Beetlejuice | Sondheim on Sondheim | Legally Blonde | The Great American Trailer Park Musical | Hairspray | Leslie Kritzer is Patti LuPone at Les Mouches
My favorite Broadway Love Song is "One Hand, One Heart" from my favorite Broadway musical, WEST SIDE STORY. I recently sang it at my aunt's wedding - it's a beautiful, simple, love song.
Performer
Death Becomes Her | Company | Hello | Dolly! | Disaster | Sister Act
My favorite Broadway love song has evolved over the years and my current choice is a reflection of that. I grew up in the country and when I think of home, I think of the wild lady slippers, lily-of-the-valley, forsythia and lilacs. Edelweiss is used as a love song and subliminal goodbye to a beloved homeland that will forever be in your heart.
Performer
Falsettos | Anastasia | An American in Paris
It's always been "If I Loved You" from Carousel. I learned it in college and it's always stuck with me. The minute I sing it, it just sweeps me away.
Performer
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
My favorite Broadway love song is "I Don't Need Anything But You" from Annie, between Annie and Daddy Warbucks. It's the sweetest song and it's not a traditional love song, it's not romantic love. It's about a father figure, a new dad, and a little girl, and it's just so touching.
Performer
The Phantom of the Opera
I really like "Tonight" in West Side Story. You know, the enegery when you first meet someone and the excitedness that you feel.
Performer
Parade | The Cher Show
“Before and After You” from Bridges of Madison County. The melody line breaks and fills my entire heart all at once.
Performer
Leap of Faith | Arcadia | Speed-the-Plow | Company | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Taboo
Today, for some reason, I keep thinking of WITHOUT YOU from Rent. Not the happiest of choices, yeah, but there's a version that Mary Chapin Carpenter did at Jon Larson's memorial, just her voice and her guitar, that makes me weep for its beauty. It's a rainy day, longing for someone, achy song that hurts so sweetly. And I've always had a soft spot for NEW WORDS by Maury Yeston. It's a parent singing to their child. Very simple and very difficult to define love. And the love in one's family, one's home, wherever you create it, is the deepest love of all. Ask me again tomorrow. I'll have a different answer.
Performer
Dear Evan Hansen | Bare | Matilda
"Unworthy of Your Love" from Assassins is my jam.
Performer
The Best Man | Catch Me If You Can | Rock of Ages | Xanadu | Little Shop of Horrors | Hairspray | Bat Boy | One Life to Live
"What More Can I Say" from FALSETTOLAND. There are so many that I love, off the top of my head I picked that one because it's not conventional...or corny.
Performer
Chicago | Boeing-Boeing | Beauty and the Beast
"My Cup Runneth Over" from I Do, I Do. I think those lyrics really typify how couples in long relationships feel.
Performer
Hadestown | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Casa Valentina | Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark | The Lion King | Beauty and the Beast
"If I Loved You." I love how they dance around the idea that it's a love song, but they're both denying that they're in love.
Performer
A Little Night Music | Elaine Stritch At Liberty | A Delicate Balance | Show Boat | Company | Love Letters | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Sail Away | Goldilocks | The Sin of Pat Muldoon | Bus Stop | On Your Toes | Pal Joey | Call Me Maddam | Angel in the Wings | Loco
"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!
Performer
Wicked | Pippin | I'm Not Rappaport | Fosse | Grind | Jesus Christ Superstar
"My Funny Valentine". What else? It's a beautiful song, beautiful lyrics, and it's about the simple truth of love. Valentine's Day, to me, is every day. And it's not just about the love of a Valentine, it's about the love of spirit. If we can, as a people, all over the world, come to love one another, then the world will be a better place.
Performer
The Glass Menagerie | Mrs. Warren's Profession | Doubt | Stepping Out | Macbeth | Angels in America | The Night of the Iguana | Imaginary Friends
"Yours, Yours, Yours" from 1776, because it portrays the romance of great minds who were also madly in love.
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