being alive...

Being Alive - John Barrowman

i'm sitting here watching the 2006 version of Company by Stephen Sondheim on PBS right now with Raul Esparza. It won the 2007 Tony for Best Revival and he was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical.

Being Alive is usually considered the show stopper in the play. it is also the finale. it really says a lot when you listen to the words. I prefer the John Barrowman version of all of the ones i've heard. Barrowman did it in a revue with Carol Burnett years ago, but the videos are not very clear. when i found the video above, it combined John's version with my favorite character - Captain Jack - in Torchwood. what more could i ask for?

after the lyric, i have included the Raul Esparza version for your added enjoyment.

Someone to hold you too close
Someone to hurt you too deep
Someone to sit in your chair
And ruin your sleep
And make you aware of being alive

Someone to need you too much
Someone to know you too well
Someone to pull you up short
And put you through hell
And give you support for being alive - being alive
Make me alive, make me confused
Mock me with praise, let me be used
Vary my days, but alone is alone, not alive.

Somebody hold me too close
Somebody force me to care
Somebody make me come through
I'll always be there
As frightened as you of being alive
Being alive, being alive

Someone you have to let in
Someone whose feelings you spare
Someone who, like it or not
Will want you to share a little, a lot of being alive
Make me alive, make me confused
Mock me with praise, let me be used
Vary my days, but alone is alone, not alive

Somebody crowd me with love
Somebody force me to care
Somebody make me come through
I'll always be there
As frightened as you to help us survive
Being alive, being alive,
Being alive, being alive.


Being Alive - Raul Esparza


[the other song from the play i'll have to post is The Ladies Who Lunch with Elaine Stritch who was in the original Broadway version at another time. it was a theme song the bartenders had at the bar i worked at many years ago. we had a tendency to go out to lunch before work and felt no pain when we got there. if you get my drift?]

You can pull all the stops out...

Till they call the cops out
Grind your behind till you bend.
But you gotta get a gimmick
If you wanna get a hand.
You can sacrifice your sacharo
Working in the back row.
Bump in a dump till you're dead.
Kid you gotta have a gimmick
If you wanna get ahead.
You can uh...You can uh...
You can uh...uh...uh...
That's how Burlesque was born.
So I uh...and I uh...
And I uh...uh...uh...
But I do it with a horn...
Once I was a Schleppa,
Now I'm Miss Mazzeppa,
With my revolution in dance.
You gotta have a gimmick
If you wanna have a chance!



stephen sondhiem is known for many, many musicals - sweeney todd, assassins, company.... what a lot of people forget is that he also wrote the lyrics for many other shows - west side story and gypsy being two of the biggies. the video above is from the movie gypsy. you gotta have a gimmick is my favorite song from it but there is a personal story that adds to my favoring it. back in the day, many, many many years ago, i tended bar in chicago. one evening chili pepper and a couple of the other performers from the baton came in. when i saw them i grabbed the gypsy disc and put you gotta have a gimmick on the turntable. chili came up to the bar and said, "michael, you're a bitch!" i said, "thank you" and bought them all cocktails. see... ya gotta have a gimmick...