let me entertain you

ohrochester:

Or, two examples of Stephen Sondheim’s lyrical greatness in one song:

(Backstory: Bernadette Peters plays an ex-lover of George Seurat, and here tells him, shortly after their breakup, why she just loves her new boyfriend, a baker named Louis.)

And then in bed, George

I mean, he kneads me —

I mean like dough, George …

The comedy loses a little when you read it, since the kneeds/needs jokes doesn’t really land aurally until the next line.

And then, later in the same song:

Everybody gets along with him.

That’s the trouble,

Nothing’s wrong with him …

Critic Ethan Mordden called this “the greatest character damnation in all of Sondheim.” Louis is nice and sweet and popular…but he’s just plain ordinary.