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Evening Primrose
Music: Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Premiere: 1966
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1. If you can find me, I'm here
2. I remember
3. When?
4. Take me to the world



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 indisputably 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 bloodsucking 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,
Ev'rything 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! I am...



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 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.

Charles: When will I ever see you, Ella?
When will we meet? When will we speak?
When will I once again touch your cheek?
When?

Ella: 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?

Bridge player: I pass

Charles: I pass,
I pass the hours planning things to teach you.
When? When? When?

Ella: I pass the hours planning ways to reach you.
When? When? When?

Bridge player: One heart

Charles: One heart,
One heart is beating wildly.
Can she hear it?

Ella: One heart is beating wildly,
Charles is near it.
When?

Both: When will we be alone together?
When can we meet? When can we speak?
When can I once again touch your cheek?
When?

Charles: 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.

Ella: 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?

Charles: 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?

Ella: I see you smile at me in "Notions"
While I'm cooking. Cover your emotions.
Charles, they're looking! When?

Both: When will we ever be together?
When is the time? Where is the place?
When can I once again touch your face?
When can I once again touch your face?
When? When? When? When? When?

Ella: 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...

Charles: 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!

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.

We shall see the world come true.
We shall have the world.
I won't be afraid with you.
We shall have the world.

I'll hold your hand
And know I'm not alone.
We shall have the world to keep,
Such a lovely world we'll weep.
We shall have the world forever for our own.
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