1. If You Can Find Me, I'm Here
Charles:
Is it done?
Are they gone?
Am I alone?
I am alone
It's done
They're gone
I am a genius
Charles, you are an unadulterated genius
You are an indisputable extraordinary
What was that?
Not a thing
You're a fool
You are alone
And it begins
Careful Careful
Mustn't get excited, Mustn't overdo it
Softly, Tiptoe
You'll get used to it in no time
Look at it! Beautiful!
What a place to live, What a place to write!
I shall be inspired
I shall turn out elegies and sonnets,
Verses by the ton
At last i have a home, And nobody will know
No one in the world
Nobody will know I'm here!
I am free! I am free!
Goodbye my friends and good riddance
Pardon while I disappear
Come see me soon in my hideaway
If you can find me I'm here
Farewell you blood sucking landlords
Pouring your threats in my ear
Good luck forever to you and yours
If you can find me, I'm here
And I'll stay
Cozily hiding by day
During the day I'll resign
Waiting till you go away
But at nine
Master of all I survey
Everything gets to be mine to own
Mine to use
Mine to write
All the poems i choose
All alone
Only me and my muse
and forty pianos and ten thousand shoes
Farewell Neanderthal neighbors
Swilling your pretzels and beer
Fair weather friends will you miss me now?
If you can find me I'm here
Goodbye despoilers of beauty
Ruin another career
When you wake up with one genius less
If you can find me I'm here
And I'm free
Free as a bird in a tree
Free as the slippers I wear
Free with a year's warrantee
Free as air
All of these products and me
All that i ask is a chair that tilts
Books to read
Light refreshment before i proceed
And a blazer or maybe a tweed
The barest essentials a poet would need
Live in your barbarous jungle
screaming for ways to get clear
When all the screaming has died away
Come and visit my hideaway
I will be glad to provide a way
If you can find me
I'm here
I am here
I am here
I am here
I am here
2. I remember
Ella:
I remember sky.
It was blue as ink.
Or at least I think
I remember sky.
I remember snow,
Soft as feathers,
Sharp as thumb tacks,
Coming down like lint,
And it made you squint
When the wind would blow
And ice, like vinyl,
On the streets
Cold as silver,
White as sheets,
Rain like strings and
Changing things
Like leaves
I remember leaves,
Green as spearmint,
Crisp as paper.
I remember trees,
Bare as coat racks,
Spread like broken umbrellas
And parks and bridges,
Ponds and zoos,
Ruddy faces,
Muddy shoes,
Light and noise and bees and boys and days.
I remember days,
Or at least I try.
But as years go by
They're a sort of haze.
And the bluest ink
Isn't really sky.
And at times I think
I would gladly die
For a day of sky.
3. When?
Charles:
Ella, look at me.
This way, Ella.
Ella, concentrate hard.
Ella, hear me and turn before I deal another card.
Ella:
No, don't look at me.
Don't look up, Charles.
If you look at me,
Then I will look at you happily and
They will see how much I like you.
C:
When will I ever see you, Ella?
When will we meet?
When will we speak?
When will I once again touch your cheek?
When?
E:
When will we meet?
I long to know, Charles.
How do you dance?
How do you smoke?
What is a party?
What is a joke?
But when?
C:
"I pass."
I pass,
I pass the hours planning things to teach you.
E:
I pass the hours planning ways to reach you.
Both:
When? When? When?
C:
"One heart."
One heart,
One heart is beating wildly.
Can she hear it?
E:
One heart is beating wildly.
Charles is near it.
When?
C:
When will we be alone together?
C/E:
When can we meet? When can we speak?/When will we be alone together?
When can I once again touch your cheek?/When can we meet? When can we speak?
Both:
When can I once again touch your cheek?
When?
C:
Ella, gay as a tarantella...
Pure as larks singing a cappella...
Let my poem be your umbrella...
Ella, poets who suffer pain
Should fall in love with girls named Jane.
Not Ella.
E:
When will we meet?
I long to know.
What songs do you like?
Where are you from?
Have you been married?
Why did you come?
When?
C:
When, Ella, when?
I long to teach
Your eyes how to read,
Hands how to write,
Lips how to spell,
But night after night,
When?
I see you scouring and mending,
Pale and dreamy,
Bending and Pretending
Not to see me...
When? When? When?
E:
I see you smiling at me in "Notions"
While I'm cooking.
Cover your emotions,
Charles, they're looking!
When?
C:
When will we ever be together?
C/E:
When is the time? Where is the place?/When will we ever be together?
When can I once again touch your face?/When is the time? Where is the place?
Both:
When can I once again touch your face?
When? When? When? When? When?
E:
When will we meet?
I long to know.
What songs do you like?
Where are you from?
Charles, am I ugly?
Charles, am I dumb?
Charles, do you like me?
Charles, could you love me?
Charles...
C:
Harkens:
Absent, the daylight darkens...
Ella, what kind of coward am I?
This I will not allow!
Ella, what if they do their worst?
I'll see you first!
We'll be together!
Now, Ella, now, girl,
I shall show
Your hands how to touch,
Eyes how to glow,
Lips how to kiss!
I've so much to show!
Then you will blossom,
Then you will grow and
Then! Then! Then!
4. Take Me to the World
Ella:
Let me see the world with clouds
Take me to the world
Out where I can push through crowds
Take me to the world
A world that smiles
With streets instead of aisles
Where I can walk for miles
With you
Take me to the world that's real
Show me how it's done
Teach me how to laugh, to feel
Move me to the sun
Just hold my hand
Whenever we arrive
Take me to the world
Where I can be alive
Charles:
The world is better here. I know. I've seen them both.
E:
Let me see the world that smiles
Take me to the world
Somewhere I can walk for miles
Take me to the world
With all around
Things growing in the ground
Where birds that make a sound are birds
E/C:
Let me see the world that's real/I have seen the world
Show me how it's done/And it's mean and ugly
Teach me how to laugh, to feel/We could laugh together here
Move me to the sun/Stay here with me
Just hold my hand/Stay here. I love you, Ella.
Whenever we arrive/But we're happy here
Let it be a world with you/Stay with me
Any other world will do/Stay with me
E:
Take me to a world where I can be alive
What kind of life is this? We'll become just like the people here.
C:
Do you want the world?
Why then, you shall have the world
Ask me for the world again
You shall have the world
A world of skies
That's bursting with surprise
To open up your eyes
With joy
We shall see the world come true
We shall have the world
E:
I won't be afraid with you
We shall have the world
Both:
You'll hold my hand and know you're not alone
We shall have the world to keep
Such a lovely world you'll weep
We shall have the world forever for our own
Evening Primrose is a musical with a book by James Goldman and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on a John Collier short story published in the 1951 collection Fancies and Goodnights.
Written originally for television, the musical focuses on a poet who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing. He meets a community of night people who live in the store and falls in love with a beautiful young girl named Ella. Bizarre complications arise when the leader of the group forbids their relationship.
