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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.

Category:
Performer
Jitney | The Book of Mormon | Grey Gardens
"The Next Ten Minutes" from The Last Five Years.
Performer
The Present
I think it would have to be "Everyone Loves Louis" from Sunday in the Park with George. Not your usual romantic love song but a complicated funny plea, in a way. Dot sings of Louis the Baker, to George the Artist, who she truly loves but can't truly have. That excruciating pain of love. I sing it as my warm up song most nights when performing.
Performer
Linda | Fish in the Dark | Bad Jews | Carrie
There really are too many to choose just one! Three of my favorites are "They Were You" from the Fantasticks, "Do You Love Me?" from Fiddler and "Fable" from Light in the Piazza. All extremely different but equally beautiful and moving songs about love. Also, when Tony and Maria first meet in West Side Story-- one of the most romantic scenes in theater ever.
Performer
The View Upstairs
"Say it Somehow” from The Light in the Piazza. For me, Adam Guettel's exhilarating score captures what falling in love feels like. ‘Say it Somehow’ expresses that lucky invigorating rush - passionately complex and supernaturally transportive.
Performer
In Transit | Hair | Les Miserables | Shuffle Along
My favorite Broadway love song would have to be "Without Love" from Hairspray. I made my Broadway debut in this show, the lyrics are funny and sweet, and I sang opposite a number of amazing people that played Penny Lou Pingleton
Industry
Record Producer
My choice for favorite Broadway love song is "Till There Was You" by Meredith Willson from The Music Man. I first heard the Beatles version and I thought it was a sensational song. Karen Mason and I were married on Valentines Day! This song says everything I need to say. Happy Anniversary Karen!
Performer
Natasha | Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
I've always loved "How To Handle a Woman" from Camelot for its simplicity. King Arthur is left completely baffled and not understanding of his wife's (Queen Guenevere) actions, and he concludes the following: “How to handle a woman? / Mark me well, I will tell you, sir / The way to handle a woman / Is to love her, simply love her / Merely love her, love her, love her." Such a simple and honest way of expressing unconditional love!
Performer
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Pippin | M. Butterfy | Ragtime
It's absurdly difficult to pick just one favorite love song from the vast Broadway canon. So here are two: "If I Loved You" from Carousel, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. A song of early love, where the singers are as yet too guarded to openly declare themselves to each other, so Hammerstein uses that magic "if" to try to hold the deeply romantic and prescient poetry at a distance, while Rodgers' gorgeous and poignant melody and harmonies are sweeping and passionate, far beyond the more hesitant words. The second is "Not A Day Goes By" from Merrily We Roll Along, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Here, the declaration of love is almost abrasive, obsessive; resentful, even -- so full and absorbing that it's almost painful, as reflected in the repeated and hammered "Day after day after day after day after day," and phrases like, "I keep thinking, 'when does it end?'" Still, the raw love expressed is heart-rending and true to the core.
Performer
How to Dance In Ohio | Come From Away | Sister Act
"One Hand, One Heart” from West Side Story - Tony, Maria, dress shop mannequins and a pretend wedding ceremony that all of a sudden becomes as real as if they were kneeling in front of the alter at St. Patrick's Cathedral. One hand, one heart - two uniting as one forever and vowing it only to each other. How beautiful is that?!
Industry
Fade
"I Don't Know How to Love Him" by Andrew Lloyd Webber from Jesus Christ Superstar. Mostly because it's my favorite "shower song" but also because love is confusing and bewildering and I think the song captures that quite well.
Performer
Paramour | The Little Mermaid | Amazing Grace
“If I Loved You" from Carousel (The Bench Scene) is the perfect musical theatre love song. They never directly say what they are thinking, they flirt and smoothly flow from singing to talking, and it’s exactly how I wish real life was!
Performer
Significant Other
My favorite Broadway love song is "All The Things You Are." It's classic and it speaks to holistically what it means to be in love with someone, in better words than I could ever use or come up with.
Performer
Come From Away | Les Miserables | Mary Poppins
I'd say one of my favorite love songs is "If I Loved You" from Carousel because I have been there....not admitting how much you love and care for someone, when inside you are really feeling ALL the feelings. Unrequited love can be romantic and nostalgic.
Performer
Natasha | Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
I'm a sucker for Cole Porter and that era of musical theatre, so my favorite Broadway love song is "So In Love" from Kiss Me, Kate. It's got such a haunting melody, on top of gorgeous chord progressions. The lyrics are also heartbreaking, and ultimately so playable in the acting. I just think it's stunning, and it gets a reprise at the end. Beautiful.
Performer
Puffs
"People Will Say We're in Love" from Oklahoma! Maybe I'm too influenced by the Hugh Jackman/Trevor Nunn/NT version, but I always find Curly and Laurie throwing caution to the wind and finally admitting, at long last, that dammit they're in love with each other is incredibly moving. Similar to Beatrice and Benedick at the end of Much Ado.
Performer
The Lion King
"You Should Be Loved" from Side Show. I choose this song because Its written in such a way and with such beautiful imagery that it allows Jake to not only profess his love but simultaneously show her what true love should look like and that she should settle for nothing less than that- even in the face of rejection and hurt. It beautifully reminds us that there are no conditions as it relates to loving someone.
Performer
The View Upstairs
My favorite love song is"‘I Do Not Know A Day I Did Not Love You" from a musical called Two By Two, the story of Noah and the Ark, starring Danny Kaye. Lyrics by Martin Charnin, music by Richard Rodgers. The song title alone says it all! I actually think that it should be revived starting Steve Martin.
Creative
The View Upstairs
"Wicked Little Town" from Hedwig! I don't believe in unqualified, idealistic everything is perfect love songs because life ain't like that. Wicked Little Town is the darkest, cynical yet gorgeous love song I've ever heard in a musical. It's kinda like, well you could get infatuated with anyone really, but if you've got no other choice you might as well let me guide you through this stormy fucked up world. I love that.
Performer
The View Upstairs
"Come Rain or Come Shine," from St. Louis Woman. Because of its absolute devotion to love, even under the most challenging of life's circumstances.
Performer
The Lion King
I'm going to have to go with "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" from Porgy and Bess. I love it because it's a beautiful song and a testament of two people finding love despite their disadvantages and unsavory past.
Performer
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Tuck Everlasting | Wicked
The two Broadway love songs that have always spoken to me the most, and are almost always guaranteed to make me cry are: "All the Wasted Time" - Parade, "Move On" - Sunday in the Park with George. Both songs I heard for first time in acting school performed in class by colleagues and they just devastated me. I still feel the same way about the songs today.
Performer
Aladdin
I can’t think of a song that captures that thrill of first love better than “Shiksa Goddess” from The Last Five Years. Jason Robert Brown perfectly expresses the excitement of “waiting for someone like you.” Plus, as a nice Jewish boy who’s been with a blond goy for over 8 years, it has a special resonance.
Performer
In Transit
My favorite Broadway love song is the "I Love You Song" from the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

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