"I Wish"

I watched the door as it stumbled closed,
and I think I heard you sigh on the other side.
A single star in the window frame froze,
and the room aches from the space you left behind....



I wish that I could wish myself in love with you,
And spend myself a lifetime in your eyes.
I wish that I'd want nothing more
than you to end each day.
And wish that after "I love you"
there'd be no more to say.
I would live forever ever so contented, warm, and true
if I could only wish myself in love with you.
.
I dream of one day dreaming of no one but you,
then opening my eyes to see you there.
By candlelight or sunlight,
I could never search for more.
If only you could be the only light
I'm searching for.
And if only I dreamed simple dreams like other people do,
I'd dream that I could only dream of loving you.
.
You are everything my mind knows that my heart would ever need.
How lovely life would be...
if only mind and heart agreed...
.
I wish that I could dream myself away from you,
the leave you safely whole and far behind.
I wish for someone kind
to be the love I never will
and that you'll know that, though I'm gone,
I'm dreaming of you still
And wishing that a cross-eyed star somewhere
would dare undo
the mess I've made of love and life..
by never loving you.

"Jericho"

Jericho



Lyrics:

You are an ivory tower, scratching the sky,
Daring the clouds to cross you,
holding your head high.
You die a little more each day
that you keep the world away.
You're beautiful, and dangerous, and too steep to climb.
.
(Chorus)
When will your walls come down, Jericho?
I will blow my trumpet, I will sing my song,
I will circle you every day.
I will stay. I will wait. I will keep my lanterns lit.
And I'll sit beneath your crumbling gate for the love of it.
And I pray one day you'll see me through your fear.
So when you finally find your defenses failing, Jericho,
In the rubble of your walls:
find me here,
find me here..
.
I offer nothing but two eyes open wide to see
All of the things you are that you hide so selfishly.
I'll be no less or more than you tell me you're ready for.
I'll cover you, discover you, and get stronger with time.
.
But, when will your walls come down...
(Repeat Chorus)
.
You've never been one to surrender.
Why expect you to start now?
But still I can't help wishing
that I could be the one to show you how.
.
(Repeat Chorus)
.

.
As sung by the amazing Megan O'Connell at the "Girls Night Out" Cabaret

APAG--"Tell Me a Story"

This is the first song of the show. A little girl naned Eleanora asks her mother to tell her a bed-time story....
Mamma, tell me a story.
Can you make it a fairy tale,
can you, mamma, I won't sleep a wink
until you think up another adventure for me.
Mamma, tell me a story.
.
Can it be about a prince?
Can it have a mystery in it?
Can there be a little bit of romance?
Can the people dance in it?
Mamma, please.
.
Mamma, tell me a story.
Mamma, sing me a lullaby.
You remember the one with the king
and the dragon who taught him to fly?
Mamma tell me a story.
Can you make it a scary one?
Like the tale of the world and the whale
and the magic that blackened the sun?
Oh, no, I promise I won't be frightened.
I know it's only pretend.
Mamma, start with a dark and stormy night
and don't stop till we get to the end.
Don't stop till the fairy tale ends.
.
Mamma, tell me a story.
With the people I'm dreaming of
Throw in a stranger whose life is in danger
and someone to fall into love.
Mamma tell me a story.
One that's never been told before
Please put me in it, and when you begin it
I'll help you to think of some more.
I know it will be exciting
I love to help you pretend
Mamma, start with Once upon a time
and don't stop till we get to the end.
I'll stay up till we get to the end.
.
Mother: spoken Oh, so YOU want to be in the story tonight? Very well... Hmm, let me think...
Once upon a time,in a faraway kingdom,
there lived a beautiful girl named Eleanora
who pestered her mother every night for a fairy tale before she went to sleep.
.
Little Eleanora: Mamma, that's not very exciting. That's boring. Something has to happen to the little girl. Something sad, maybe. So sad that she has to go off away from her home and have adventures and fall in love and save the kingdom.
.
Mother: Hush, now, I was just getting to the sad part.
.
Little Eleanora: Well, get there faster!
.
Mother: Who's telling this story, you or me? As I was saying, in this faraway kingdom, there was a beautiful young girl named Eleanora, who pestered and pestered her mother for a sad, exciting, and romantic fairy tale every night before she went to sleep.
.
Little Eleanora: Go on.
.
Mother: The little girl was very lucky, because her mother was the most exciting, romantic, and tragic story teller in the whole kingdom.
.
Little Eleanora: Well, of course she was!
.
Mother: Quiet, child. Every night until the little girl's 5th birthday, the little girl, her mother, and her father would sit around the fire and listen to mother's stories.
.
Little Eleanora: What happened on the little girl's birthday?
.
Mother: Instead of a story, Mother had a special announcement. An announcement that made the family very happy: she was going to have a baby. Father and Eleanora hoped it would be a boy, and mother loved them both so much, she hoped whatever it was that would make Eleanora and her father happy. Everyone was excited for the baby to come.

APAG--"Heart of Stone"

A traditional element of musical theatre is the "I want" song, where the protagonist expresses the internal longing that will propel them through the action of the show. "As Pure As Gold" will have a slightly different take on this standard: "Heart of Gold" is an "anti-I-want" song of sorts, where Eleanora explains why she is so determined to never fall in love......
.
Setup: Eleanora is reading through her mother's stories and letters in the chest she left behind and comes across the following love letter from Eleanora's late mother to her father. The letter is read/sung in a voice-over kind of style by the character of Mother/Storyteller who helps to narrate the whole show....
.
Mother/Eleanora:
"My love for you is like the forrest round the tree.
My love for you is like the serpent in the sea.
My love for you is like the castle of a king.
For you, my love, I would do anything, anything.
.
I love you like the mountain loves the sky.
I love you like a dove should love to fly.
I'll love you till the rivers in my body all run dry,
I'll love you till the minute--no, the moment--that I die."
.
Eleanora:
All like this, so many more,
remnants of a sorry a past,
harder than the stories now to read.
How she wasted time on love,
life she wasted dreaming of
a happy ending now she'll never need.
.
(Sarcastically, reading the letter)
I love you, so I'll throw my life away.
I'll give everything I have to give, one day
in giving everything, the price I'll have to pay is just my life.
I'll be your ever-loving wife.
But before the second chapter of our life together's done,
my life will end as I try to give you a son.
Never mind the daughter who now must go forth alone.
Robbed, in fact, by love of love that she will never--she has never known...
No it's not so very different from your stories,
mother...
it's not so very different from your stories...
.
Mother told me all about
a house built out of hay
and how the wolf could easily
just blow that house away.
They built again with sticks and twigs
and tied the roof with twine:
it suffered no less sad a fate
a second tragic time.
.
There is one thing you can use
to build what villians can't abuse,
what wolves and lovers cannot blow apart.
So screw your courage tightly on
until the wolves and pigs have gone
and find a strength that cuts you to the heart.
.
Mother, I have made a promise and I'll keep my vow:
I'll never let the love that killed you touch me now...
.
And so I build my heart of stone
and vow that from now on, I'll face my stars alone.
Fairy tales are make-believe
but broken hearts are real.
I promise that you'll never cry
if you never try to feel,
so steel your mind and find
a star to call your own
and build a steadfast heart of stone.
.
Nothing ever hurts you,
tears will never fall,
stalwart as a fortress
or a mighty castle wall.
All my mother's stories
may have taught me how to dream,
but the way her story ended
taught me stories aren't as lovely as they seem.
.
And so I build my heart of stone
and vow that from now on I'll face my stars alone.
Fairy tales are make believe,
but broken hearts are real.
I promise that you'll never cry
if you never try to feel
so steel your mind and find
a star to call your own and build a steadfast heart of stone.
.
(At this point, the chorus is repeated by Eleanora, while Mother sings the opening "My love for you..." verse in countermelody.)

APAG--Eureka!

(A patter song in which Albert explains to Eleanora why he has dedicated his life to the study of Alchemy and, consequently, to the service of the prince)
.
ALBERT:
A man will climb a mountain just because it's there.
A man will steal a jewel just because the stone is rare.
A man would catch a thunderhead to prove he can.
And I am just a man like any other man.
.
A fool chases nightmares that do not exist.
A wise man finds reality within the mist.
An alchemist is driven by the need to know,
for something's always possible if man can think it so.
.
A man will stick with courage when the prospects all are bleak.
A man will find the answers that the men around him seek.
A man will dream of insight that might hit him like a streak.
A man like me must realize that such men are unique.
For when I wake, and when I rise, and when I eat, and when I work, and even when to someone such as you I speak....
.
It's all about "Eureka"!
that moment when the thing you seek you thought that you would never ever find
becomes a candle glowing, growing, burning brightly in your mind,
that all-elusive and anticipated
flash of insight liberated
from the depths of muse-kept slumber till you give it wings
and let it fly....
.
It's when the stars are lining up
and pointing to the holy cup
that's overflowing with the secrets and the mysteries of time,
and there is not a mountain made by man
or gods of old or new that you will find
too insurmountable to climb,
it's when the star that's you will shine.
.
And all your eyes and ears are open
to potentials strange and new
and every path mankind has ever
and has never trod unfolds itself to you
and in the moment when the planets in your honor start to sing,
a crazy, driven, absent-minded, maybe even brilliant man like me feels like a king!
.
ELEANORA:
Now, wait! I hesitate to say this:
But how can you be sure that your Eureka thing exists?
You've never found the answers to your very noble quest.
IT seems to me, "eureka's" still ellude you and at best,
it looks like all that you can show for all your work from tales you've told
is proof of 97 ways you can't make gold!
.
ALBERT:
Oh, I never tried to say I wasn't crazy.
After 97 failures, why keep coming back for more?
But when I'm through each day,
I can say that I've learned one more way
to fail than I knew yesterday,
and two more than I knew the day before.
.
I guess it means that I'm a bit romantic.
I dream and plain and wait for things that I may never see.
But it keeps my spirits high
if I just believe that someday I
will look into the sky and find
Eureka's sweet epiphany.
And then, my dear new friend, the world will see...
It's all about "Eureka!"
the long-awaited flash of sweet and mighty light you always knew existed
after many years of struggle comes unhidden and untwisted
from the vault of undiscoverable
brilliance and uncoverable
answers to a morning when a single spark can set a whole new
world on fire...
.
And the stones are all aglow
with all the secrets that they know
and that stars and stones and muses have bequeathed to you.
And there is not a story told by men or angels here or after
that has words and breadth and depth enough to ever hope to capture
what if feels when all your senses see and hear and taste anew.
.
And the world will be my playground, like a puppet on a string.
For when Eureka's shower down on you, the playground is the thing
and in the moment when the planets, in your honor, start to sing,
a man like me can truly be the univere's king.
A crazy, driven, single-minded, philosophic, scientific, unexciting, unappealing, overworked and underfeeling man like me can truly be a king.
.
And that, my dear, is why I do this thing.

APAG--"My Greatest Discovery"

Albert invites Eleanora to his lab, in order to share with her his "amazing breakthrough that will surely change both our lives." She, of course, assumes that he has figured out how to turn base metal into gold and secured their freedom from the castle.
.
ALBERT:
I have asked you here today
with the pomp and circumstance
of a man who's finally done it
who has finally got the chance
to see the truth
that's sure to set him free,
to truly understand the world I truly try to see
objectively...
and for once it's all so strangely clear to me.
The mysteries and elements have chosen to align,
driven by a catalyst that I cannot define
to create this moment I've been waiting for and reaming of.
It's not the gold, my friend, it's not the gold, it's...
always been in front of me.
So, what's a lonely man like me to do?
.
I'm telling you, it'syou...
.
You are my greatest discovery.
My heart has never spun so wildly.
I feel it pulsing like a star,
I'm being drawn to where you are.
Who knew that I could be
so mesmerized by gravity?
It's time to re-examine all the things I thought I knew,
for the greatest thing I'll ever know is what I felt when I discovered you.
.
I am a man who looks for truth
for gold and black and white.
I work methodically through the day
and sleep alone at night,
and till today I never thought I needed more.
But all along, it wasn't gold I hungered for.
I thought that all the questions had impossibly compounded.
Then a perfectly beauitiful answer arrives:
EUREKA, I HAVE FOUND IT!
.
You are my gretaest discovery.
My heart has never spun so wildly.
I feel it pulsing like a star,
I'm being drawn to where you are.
Who knew that I could be
so mesmerized by gravity?
I'ts time to throw out all the stupid things I thought I knew.
The greatest thing I'll ever know is what I felt when I discovered you.
.
Let me discover you.
Let me discover you.
.
(As the song ends, Albert begins to awkwardly "put the moves on" Eleanora, and the audience can see that she is torn---does she stay true to her vow to forswear love forever, or does she listen to her heart? Ultimately, she runs away...)

APAG--"What Are You So Afraid Of?

After Albert professes his love for Eleanora in the song "My Greatest Discovery," Eleanora runs off in confusion and fear.....

(This song is in a very irregular meter, following a 3/4, 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 pattern in the A sections and staying in 5/4 for the B sections)

What are you so afraid of?
Are you frightened to feel his touch?
Or could it be that trusting him would
open your heart too much?
What are you so afraid of?
Can't you see that he's just a man?
All you have to do is let him in, but somehow...
I don't think I can.

Are you scared to be happy?
Are you scared of the pain?
Do you fear what's occuring
is too much to sustain?
Are you scared of forgetting
who you've been all along?
You are sure he's mistaken,
But what if you became the one who's wrong?

What are you so afraid of?
Are you frightened of what he'll see?
Once all your walls have crumbled down what
will your defenses be?
What are you so afraid of?
Can't you see that his heart is good?
I'm afraid my mind will not allow
my heart...to act as it should.

Are you scared of the moment
when your stars will collide?
Are you scared to be emptied?
Or of what he'll find inside?
Do you fear all the judgment
that you know the world may pass?
He's the first man to offer
But should you fear that he may be the last?

What are you so afraid of?
There's a power that flows within.
So could it be that you may drown if
you ever dare begin?
What are you so afraid of?
Can't you open your heart and trust?
Close you eyes and gather all your strength, and somehow..
do what you must.

Here you have a man with beauty and humility.
Here you have a chance to be the woman mother dreamed you'd be.
Here the stars have given you a golden opportunity to love.
What is there in this to fear... What are you so afraid of?

APAG--"My Father's Son"

This piece is a duet between the Prince (who wishes to win the heart--Ok, more like the alleged potential fortune) of the Miller's Daughter, and an alchemist named Albert who is also kept in the Prince's employ for the purpose of creating gold to finance the struggling kingdom. Both men feel the presence of their late fathers in their lives, but in very different ways....

PRINCE:
My father's son is sitting on his father's knee.
I feel the moment fading back from memory.
My father's hands were big and strong then, my own hands were small.
He offered me the world: I could not hold it all.
.
But time flowed through its bloody veins,
and soon the man that boy became
was cutting corners, dragons, and his losses.
My father's son is on his knees again;
he prays for strength he needs to lead the men
whose futures are his crosses.
.
But how can my father's son become the man his father was
and step out of the shadows father cast?
Though father wasn't always right,
he lived and lead with all his might:
a legacy that beats for me a heavy-handed drum.
Oh, what will my father's son become?.
.
ALCHEMIST:
My father's son is bent across his father's knee.
I feel the moment, even in my memory.
My father's hands were big and strong then; my heart wanted more.
It wasn't father's legacy I hungered for.
.
But time turned on its bloody head,
and with the boy's dreams nearly dead,
he stumbled on the wonders of discovery.
My father's son has dropped his father's name.
He wouldn't dare deny from where he came,
but knows that greather things are yet to be.
.
Just don't let my father's son become the man his father was.
Let him create a future of his own.
Though father wasn't always wrong,
a man can only wait so long
to turn from grace to fleeing from that heavy-handed drum.
Oh, what will my father's son become?.

BOTH:
A man is burned like ashes
into the halls of time,
not by who he is or what he's done,
but who he leaves behind...
.
.
(Then both repeat their boldface choruses in canon, ending with...)
What will my father's son become?
What will my father's son become?

APAG--"What the People Need"

Merelda has been ruling the kingdom with fear and propaganda--in this song she tries to convince the young king that a kingdom at war is a kingdom that is easily controlled.

MERELDA:

What the people need
is a common enemy
to unite them under you.
What the people need
is a common enemy.
Doesn't really matter if the stories are true.
Tell them what they want to hear.
Tell them what they've got to fear.
Tell them danger's very near, and they'll be
putty in your hands.

Show them innocence at stake.
Show them sacrfice to make
Show them greatness for goodness sake
until every one of them
rises up with you and stands.

What the people need
is a common enemy
to unite them
under you.
What the people need
is a common enemy
doesn't really matter if the stories are true.

(to be continued)

APAG--The obligatory love duet...chorus

Eleanora and Albert finally declare their love for each other.

Once upon a time we were made for each other.
Tell me again: how I found you.
We'll be the greatest tale that the tellers have told
One "happily ever after" after another.
Here, let my arms and my story surround you.
Holding you fast in a love as true
and as pure as gold.

FG-"The Sluts on My TV" Hoedown

Jenny laments her favorite nighttime pasttime...

Too many nights I sit alone at home with my remote.
I feel my thighs expanding and a lump within my throat.
It's like a train wreck on the screen, I cannot turn away.
From all the dirty flirting and the freaky T & A.
The hour hand is crawling by as my depression grows.
At 2 a.m. the Girls Gone Wild are taking off their clothes.
These programs are addicting, more than I should pr'y admit.
Perhaps one day I'll show my boobs for just the fun of it...

Ok, maybe not...but still a girl can dream...
Cuz truth be told, this dreamer's not as wholesome as she'd seem..

Cuz I watch ...
E-limidate, and Real World, and Average Joe, and Next--
all filled with skinny women underdressed and over-sexed.
Temptation Island, Bachelor, and all the WB...
Oh, why can't my life be more like the sluts on my TV?

"I Want My Life to Have a Soundtrack"

(total charm song....the verses are kind of patter sing-songy and the chorus is swing!)
.
I'm one of those people who sings in the shower, the car, and the bar, and the street.
It's like there's a choir in my head and a whole flock of goose-stepping guys in my feet.
At times irritating, I'm stuck calmly waiting for baiting the hook and the line
So to reel in the feelin of life so appealin and so inescapably mine....
It's time for an external manifestation of all of the sounds in my skull.
There's only one thing that I need to make life incomparably lovely and full...
.
I want my life to have a soundtrack.
I wanna be followed by an instrumental entourage.
Everywhere that I go, be the star of the show. and you know...I'm gonna have a happy ending.
I wanna sing everything with an orchestral underscore.
I want a streetful of people who randomly burst into song!
I want it picture perfect and cinema sweet,
Wanna walk down the street and be tapping my feet
with a world of happy people always happy to sing along!.
.
You might think that I'm kind of crazy... to wish for this the way that I do (do do doo!)
It's only a dream that I've had since before I knew dreams only rarely come true.
Now dare I admit that there's one little bit I neglected to mention before.
I long for the street, and the folks, and the feet, but how sweet to get just one thing more!
Someday I'll see someone out there who is marching to beats from his/her on special drum,
And we'll fall in step, and the music will swell, and you'll see all the people are singing and dancing and danceing and singing and laughing and loving as well!
.
Cause I want my life to have a soundtrack!
And I want it blaring out from everything and every one.
With the rhythm and sound all around it's so sweet that I found...
someone to dance along beside me!
I wanna sing everything with an orchestral underscore.
I wanna streetful of people who randomly burst into choreography and song!
I want it picture perfect and cinema sweet,
wanna walk down the street and be tapping my feet
in a world of happy people always happy to sing along!
Happy, happy, happy.... to sing along!

"Big Yellow Moon"

A just-for-fun, bouncy jazzy, torch-y song!

Big yellow moon,
all alone in the sky.
Inky black blanket
keeping both of us dry.
I could scratch on your face like a witch in the night.
I'm all over the place, don't know which way is right.
Am I doomed? (big yellow moon)
Bring my baby home soon!

Big yellow moon,
tell me what can I do?
Somewhere, I wish
that he's wishing on you.
When he left me alone, I was sure I'd be strong,
Now I'm singing the blues-- why don't you sing along?
I'll make room. (big yellow moon)
Bring my baby home soon!

You're missing the sun,I'm misisng the one..that I always run to.
We really should becontent on our own.
But, why do I feel that I'm only real
when I feel him next to me?
Come on, sister yellow, tell me when you're gonna bring my fellow home????
.
Big yellow moon,we're alone in the sky.
Why are you blindto the tears that I cry?
From one lonely girl to another:
Can't you see I need him like I need no other?
Let all of the stars and the crazies make room
cause I can be mad as a midnight loon
Don't let this stupid sorrow be my gloom and doom, and please....
big yellow moon...bring my baby home soon!
Bring my baby home soon

"The Healer"

This song is based on a short story by Aimee Bender that I used for Serious Prose Speech Competitions in High School. Still a work in progress...
.
Where I went to high school we had more than our share of freaks.
I mean, sure, we had the goths, the jocks, and that kid who wouldn't shower for weeks
But we also had a girl whose hand was made of fire
and another girl whose hand was made of ice
And that's really freaky Sci-Fi shit
and they caught a lot of hell because of it
at first, but then we all got used to it
and nobody looked twice....
.
The Fire Girl and the Ice Girl
were as different as you could get.
Everyone tried to group them together,
but they'd act just like they'd never met.
The Ice Girl sat in the front with a bucket to catch the drips.
And the Fire Girl sat in the back with her ash and her paper clips.
Then one day in math when the teacher was gone
they did what we'd wanted all along
They reached those hands out palm to palm
and laced their fingertips.
.
And putting all jokes about Robert Frost and the end of the world aside,
in that room the sophomores saw the elements of fire and ice collide.
.
And I was the one who sat in the middle and watched them come together
I saw their hands get normal in each other's grasp.
I saw the fingers, nails, and skin
where once just fire and ice had been
and I heard the Ice Girl whimper
and the Fire Girl gasp:
"Don't let go," she said, "Don't let go."
"Don't let go," she cried, "Don't let go.
You don't know the pain I've been through."
But the Ice Girl pulled her hand away and said,
"Yeah, I do."
.
The Fire Girl and the Ice Girl
started doing their trick a lot.
The Fire Girl'd hold on as long as she could,
but the Ice Girl always got too hot.
And the kids would call them freaks with envy in their eyes,
and they'd gather round and act all sweet and wise,
and say "that's pretty freaky sci-fi shit"
and nobody could get enough of it, at first
but then we all got used to it, and then
nobody looked twice.
.
The Ice Girl was a healer
and a hospital volunteer.
2 times a week she'd drip away
her patients' sorrow, pain, and fear,
but that Fire Girl was trouble, everybody knew.
There was nothing that she wouldn't say or singe or do.
And then one day during a fire alarm
she put her hand on a teacher's arm.
Miss B as singed, her skin unharmed,
but her blouse was burned clear through.
.
Nobody cared to learn the truth
or hear the Fire Girl's side,
and teachers, kids, and former friends
let fear roll out the wrath of judgment wide.
.
And I was the one who stayed after class
and watched them come to get her.
What she swore was an accident they called a crime.
The Ice Girl walked them to the door,
and like they'd done so many times before,
the two girls let the magic happen one more time
.
"Don't let go," she said, "don't let go."
"Don't let go," she cried, "don't let go."
"I don't know what I'm going to do."
And then the Fire Girl pulled her hand away and said,
"You think I do?"
.
And I was the only one from school
who ever went to visit
the poor Fire Girl locked in a cell
with nothing flammable in it.
And I never had that much to say,
didn't tell her the Ice Girl moved away.
I said, "everything's pretty much the same,
and I'm not sure why I came."
And she only kinda smiled at me,
and her eyes looked kind of clear,
and then one random Tuesday, they said,
"Sorry but your friend's not here."
.
And they wouldn't tell me where she'd gone,
but in High School secrets don't last long.
And I heard one about an axe and a firely blaze of glory....
.
But that's another story.
.
And if this one's gotta have a moral,
I've gotta say I've learned
that wanting to be normal....
only gets you burned.
.
"Don't let go," we cry, "don't let go."
"Don't let go," se scream, "don't let go."
"No one knows quite how to get through
all the fire and ice of life...."
.
But maybe now I do.
.
Where I went to High School, we had more than our share of freaks....
,