(DRUM BREAK)
GK: It's spring in New York and as E.E. Cummings wrote, "Wholly to be a fool while spring is in the world, my blood approves, for kisses are a better fate than wisdom, lady, I swear by all flowers." Romantic excess ----throwing caution to the winds and just going for it- (RD WARSAW CONCERTO OPENING) ----- Romanticism ---- the love of style above all, the big hopeless gesture, the burst of feeling, Cinderella down on her knees in the scullery and dreaming of the prince. Jay Gatsby in his mansion, dreaming of Daisy.
HM/GK (SING):
Only you can make this world seem right
Only you can make the darkness bright
TR (IRISH):
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye.
That is all we know of truth
Fore we grow old and die.
I lift the glass up to my mouth,
I look at you and sigh.
(VIOLIN APPASSIONATA)
GK: Nobody is immune: theologians, actuaries, tax accountants, everyone has had one of those Saturday nights when you go off on a whim to a seedy bar and dance the tango with a mysterious woman with a gardenia in her hair and wind up in a love nest on Staten Island and awaken Sunday morning with the taste of wine in your mouth and you're an hour late for church and you have no plausible alibi. None.
HM (SINGS, w WJ & GK BACKUP):
When a man loves a woman, down deep in his soul
She can bring him such misery
If she plays him for a fool, he's the last one to know
Lovin' eyes can't ever see.
GK: We're all susceptible, especially in the month of April. You walk out into New York, you hear music from a darkened doorway (SAX), a man holds out his hand----
TR (BOGIE): Of all the gin joints in New York, you had to walk into mine. Here's looking at you, kid.
GK: He smiles a crooked smile. He reaches for a cigarette and lights it and exhales and the way he does it makes your heart beat an extra beat.
TR (BOGIE): Still the same old story, kid. A fight for love and glory. The world will always welcome lovers. And so will I. What do you say? Care for a drink?
SS (TO HERSELF): I'm happily married. I'm the mother of two beautiful children. They're waiting for me back at the apartment. I said I was just going out to get milk and fruit for breakfast. But sure. I can have a glass of gin with ---- him. Why not?
(SENSIBLE CHORD)
JENNYS:
Maybe you should reconsider
There are other options, you know.
Wait and see how you feel tomorrow
Always best to take things slow.
GK: Any other time of year, you wouldn't give it a thought. But it's April.
You're riding the A train uptown and it stops at 34th Street and right next to you is the downtown A train and there is a woman sitting on the downtown train opposite you and she is reading a book of poems by Sharon Olds, the same book you are reading, and she's reading the same poem you're reading......
SS/TR (READING): ....our bodies delicately together, like maps
Laid face to face, East to West, my
San Francisco against your New York, your
Fire Island against my Sonoma, my
New Orleans deep in your Texas, your Idaho
bright on my Great Lakes, my Kansas
burning against your Kansas your Kansas
burning against my Kansas, your Eastern
Standard Time pressing into my
Pacific Time, my Mountain Time
beating against your Central Time....
(MUSIC RISING UNDER)
GK: She is the only one you can ever be happy with (SFX: "Watch for the closing doors, please.") And you get off the train and you run (RUNNING STEPS, REVERB) up the dark subway tunnel following those red lights (TR SHOUTING, OUT OF BREATH: Come back! Wait for me!!! I can't live without you!) It happens all the time in New York. Read the Missed Connections column in the Personals.
EJ: You were sitting in the front row at Alice Tully Hall. I was onstage. The cellist in the string quartet. (SQ SFORZ CHORD) Our eyes met during the slow movement and that interminable viola solo. You: lean, sexy, in a short skirt that seemed to get shorter and shorter so that I missed my entrance in the 3rd movement. (SQ SFORZ) You were sitting next to a heavyset unshaven man in a black suit who was chewing on something and halfway through the last movement I knew that you were not with him nor he with you. I was so exhilarated to know that and I took the last movement a little fast and the first violin glared at me. I didn't care. (SQ SFORZ) I stood for the bow and you were standing and clapping. I was so happy. You were ten feet away, glowing. We could have danced. I wish now that we had. (SQ SFORZ) We took an intermission and when we came back, you were gone. I don't blame you. The Schubert quartet was next and personally I have loathed Schubert all my life. I spit on Schubert. (FRED HAWK, SPIT) Anyway, I have left the quartet. I am alone now. On the sidewalk on the west side of Broadway. At 65th. (FRED TRAFFIC) Usually in the late afternoons. When it's cold or raining, I'm down in the subway station. Playing this tune. For you. (CELLO SOLO, 15-20 SEC)
HM:
"sweet spring is your
time is my time is our
time for springtime is lovetime
and viva sweet love
FN: STELLA!!!!! STELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!
(GK/HM: .
Only you can make this change in me
For it's true, you are my destiny
TR: I'm the king of Sweden and I'm in love with the wife of my best friend so I'm going to meet her in the forest and see if she'd like to mess around. And if he comes along, she can put a hanky over her head. I mean, what can happen?
(SENSIBLE CHORD)
JENNYS:
You ought to talk it over with your mother.
Consider pros and cons ---- make a list.
Don't make a hasty decision
Maybe you should see a therapist.
SS: I got a rush ticket to "Prairie Home." Town Hall. Last minute. Went in and it was up in the balcony and I sat down and there he was in the next seat. I had never seen him before in my life and yet by intermission I knew. We laughed at all the same things, we were moved by the same things. They did a sketch about crazy passionate love and his left knee seemed to touch my right knee and I thought, Do I dare? Do I? It's dark up here. Why not??
(SENSIBLE CHORD)
JENNYS:
April is almost over.
One more week to go.
Better try to restrain yourselves
At least until the end of the show.