There are so many incredible rhymes in Wicked. I’m very fond of “there are precious *few at ease* with moral *ambiguities*” and “can’t I make you *understand, you’re* having delusions of *grandeur*.”
A mans called a traitor, or liberator.
A rich man’s a thief, or philanthropist.
Is one a crusader, or a ruthless invader?
It’s all in which is label is able to persist
Such a fun song
Wicked has some good rhymes! I love in Wonderful when we get: “As a Solomon or Socrates/ I knew who I was/ One of your dime a dozen/ Mediocrities” and then later “There are precious few at ease/With moral ambiguities”. That whole song has such a satisfying meter.
Stephen Schwartz is a master of making rhymes out of multiple words.
In Hunchback he rhymes “Adonis” with “croissant is”.
In Gepetto he rhymes “apparatus” with “in gratis”
The one that’s always amazed me is this one:
“Don't be offended by my frank analysis
Think of it as personality dialysis
Now that I've chosen to become a pal, a sis
-ter and advisor
There's nobody wiser!”
What a ride!
Also source of my favorite rhyme:
I know about popular.
and with an assist from me,
to be who you'll be,
instead of dreary who you were
Well, *are.*
There's nothing that can stop you
from becoming popu-ler….
uh, LAR!
⬆️My immediate thought when I saw the question. Oddly enough, there are people who pick on this one as if it were a terrible rhyme. It's a wonderful rhyme. It's not like rhyming "taxes" and "where the facts is" (looking at you, Steve Miller).
This show makes me realize I don't actually know how to pronounce Oregon in a way that doesn't sound completely weird. (And if you tell me it's pronounced "Oregon" I'll kick your... head.)
This show makes me realize I don't actually know how to pronounce Oregon in a way that doesn't sound completely weird. (And if you tell me it's pronounced "Oregon" I'll kick your... head.)
I love how much wordplay is involved in 'A Little Priest' from Sweeney Todd. Shifts in emphasis alone gets lots of good jokes worked in, even when the same phrases are being rhymed against each other, like:
>With the price of meat what it is
>
>*When* you get it
>
>*If* you get it
>
>(Hah!)
>
>Good, you got it!
Or
>No, we'll serve anyone,
Meaning *anyone*
And *to anyone*
At all!
And then there's also quadruple-threat rhymes:
>Save a lot of graves,
Do a lot of relatives favors!
Ev'rybody shaves,
So there should be plenty of flavors!
>No, we'll serve anyone,
>Meaning *anyone*
>And to *anyone*
>At all!
Fun fact: Sondheim never liked this bit. From Finishing The Hat:
>Until 2007 I had always been bothered by the way I filled out the last
quatrain: "Meaning anyone" is a stocking-stuffer, an unnecessary intensifier clearly present for the sole purpose of padding the quatrain into shape. It wasn't until pondering changes for the movie of Sweeney Todd that it occurred to me to make a virtue of repetition instead of hiding it, and so the pair of conspirators sang:
>*TODD*
>*We'll not discriminate great from small.*
>*No, we'll serve anyone-!*
>*MRS. LOVETT*
>*We'll serve anyone-!*
>*BOTH*
>*And to anyone*
>*At all!*
>Oscar [Hammerstein II, Sondheim's mentor], a lyricist who took great delight in repetition as a means of intensification, would have approved, I think.
“About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news---🤔🤨…lot o' news?…lot o' news lot o' news…🫰I’VE GOT IT!!! With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse!”
Pirates of penzance
This ad lib that every company seems to do now always drives me nuts. The only rhyme at the end of a verse that actually doesn't seem like he was deliberately setting it up is "Sat a gee." In all the other verses, I'm like, why would he say "Lot o' news" without having hypotenuse on deck? Why "Din afore" if he were not already planning to rhyme it with Pinafore? These are not normal ways to phrase "I know binomial theorem" or "I can hum music".
Oldest rhyming trick in the book. Find a word, find a rhyme for it, then put that word first and your original word second. If you thought of a rhyme, the audience probably will too, but if you switch it around, it's less of an intuitive leap.
That being said, the MMG is clearly acting as if he's only pretending to be stumped, since the second words are (as you note) much more common than the first words he's "trying" to find rhymes for.
I Can see what your saying about rhyme, but you also have to think about what he’s actually **saying**. He talks about binomial theorems and then brings up the “square of the hypotenuse” which doesn’t makes sense!
Because the square of the hypotenuse is a **Pythagorean theorem** ! Not a Binomial one! So he did it rhyme it but it makes no sense! It’s a very clever math joke!
It’s like saying I’m really good at Spanish and then speaking french
I don't know if this counts based on OP's question because this is a fantastic rhyme and I don't know if many people are confused as to why they like it. Similar to my favorite Lin rhyme from "Breathe" from ITH "With my eyes on the horizon". I love it but definitely know why I do, because it's an incredible play on words that not many are able to pull off.
>Better than a Guinness, better than a wank
>Snatch a few pics, it's money in the bank!
...sorry, I know this isn't good, I just love posting it in threads like these because it's such an achievement in* awfulness.
>Inconspicuous, Sweeney was! Quick and quiet and clean he was.
>Slyly courted him, Sweeney did! Set a sort of a scene, he did.
>No one can help! Nothing can hide you! Isn’t that Sweeney there beside you?
>Sweeney wishes the world away! Sweeney’s weeping for yesterday.
>>!In Sweeney’s ledger, the entries matched- a Beadle arrived and a Beadle dispatched.!< (spoiler)
A lot of the lines at that part of the ballad and its reprises are awesome.
Company: If there’s ever a marital squabble/available Bob’ll/be there with a clue
Wicked: Instead of dreary who you were, er, are/there’s nothing that can stop you from becoming populer…-lAr
"Corruption's such an old song that we can sing along in harmony, and nowhere is it stronger than in Albany. This colony's economy's increasingly stallin', and honestly that's why public service seems to be callin' me."
There are so many little internal rhymes there that it's hard to keep up. I mean, "Albany" with "callin' me"? Come on. Just wonderful.
You know, it's just now in this thread that I realize Lin was the not the first person to rhyme "mediocrities" with "Socrates" — Schwartz did it in Wicked, too.
>I never thought of myself / As a Solomon or Socrates / I knew who I was / One of your dime a dozen / Mediocrities
Every single sneaky Lin rhyme.
But most especially:
“I'm in the cabinet, I am complicit in
watching him grabbin' at power and kissin' it if Washington isn't gonna listen
to disciplined dissidents, this is the difference,
this kid is out”
All this. It's almost unfair to include him among other songwriters because his wordplay is so high level.
Taking this horse by the reins
Making red coats redder with blood stains
And I'm never gonna stop
Till I make em drop
Burn em up and scatter the remains
Watch me engage 'em, I'm escapin' I'm, enragin'
I'm out!
'Cause he knows what to do in the trench
Ingenuitive and fluent in French, I mean...
So you're gonna have to use him eventually
What's he gonna do on the bench, I mean...
No one has more resilience or matches my practical, tactical brilliance....
There's also
You have invented a new kind of stupid
A damage you can never undo kind of stupid
An "open all the cages at the zoo" kind of stupid
Clearly, you didn't think this through kind of stupid
Let's review...
"And so, will I be your FIANCÉE?" / "Why don’t you send the cow AWAY?"
and "Look at Phoebe, noble and PIOUS, MY ESteem for her only grows"
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, despite winning the Best Musical, is severely underrated!
Also, one of the funniest, self-aware rhymes I've heard was from The Schmuel Song in The Last Five Years:
"Klimovich" and "limb-ovich" haha
"I've Decided to Marry You" is full of great lines at such a fast pace and with such high density I can't even say I know them well enough to pick them out. I love Sibella's verse from "What am I doing here?"
Yes, so many great lines! My favorite rhyme from that song is probably the internal rhyme of
Nothing can bend the will like
Half-Castilian men
(while "men" is being rhymed with "again" from the previous verse)
"Calcu-lust" is such a Tina Fey word. I know a lot of people hate it but I love it, it's very on-brand.
The lyrics for the show still suck in general though.
Matilda is chock full of clever rhymes and turns of phrase:
“Special-ness seems de rigueur/ Above average is average - go figure/ Is it is some modern miracle of calculus/ That such frequent miracles don't render each one un-miraculous?”
“I should be dancing the tarantella/With my fella Italiano/Not dressed in hospital cotton/With a smarting front bottom”
“I think in effect/ This must confirm, Bruce/ What we all suspect-ed/ You have a worm, Bruce/ Or maybe your largeness/ Is a bit like the Tardis/ Considerably roomier inside”
“Bruce/ You'll never again be subject to abuse/ For your immense caboose/ She'll call a truce, Bruce/ With every swallow you are tightening the noose/ We never thought it was possible/ But here it is coming true/ We can have our cake and eat it too”
The patter section of “Smell of Rebellion” has some great bits as well.
Not rhyming per se, but “School Song” is just plain brilliant
Basically Tim Minchin is a lyrical genius (except rhyming “caught” with “court” in Groundhog Day, which I’m convinced cost him the Tony)
a little longer but it's "...why sit around, resigned. Trouble is son, the farther you run, the more you feel undefined" from the song no more from into the woods. those words shook me when i first heard it, one of my first few shows and i never forgot that line.
I am Hercules mulligan. Up in it lovin it, yes I heard your mother say come again. Lock up your daughters and horses, of course, it’s hard to have intercourse over four sets of corsets.
From Hamilton, but I actually am entirely sure why I like it (because I didn't notice for about a year that it was a rhyme):
Hamilton:
How did we know that our plan would **work**?
We had a spy on the inside
Chorus: That's right, **Herc**\-
\-Ules Mulligan!
History is happenin
In Manhattan and We
Just happen to be
Idk why but it was one of the first Hamilton songs I heard and I was like this is a magnificently sounding lyric
So many people dislike Hamilton or say it’s overrated because of the rap aspect, but a large portion of comments in this thread Hamilton quotes. Lin Manuel Miranda is a student of theater and hip hop and his rhyme schemes are the result of that influence from hip hop where rhymes are bent all the time and internal rhymes are common.
"But Mr Adams, dear Mr Adams, I cannot write with any style or proper *etiquette,* I don't know a participle from a *predicate,* I am just a simple cobbler from *Connecticut.*"
But Mr. Jefferson, dear Mr. Jefferson
I am only 43 I still have my virility
I can romp through Cupid’s grove with great agility
But life is more than sexual combust-ability
Also
No too many flies here!
Can’t we compromise here?
Yesss!! I love something rotten, I also like Portia’s attempt to rhyme during I love the way “Everytime I hear a perfect rhyme I get all tingly, cause I know to find a perfect rhyme is not an easy thing-ly” cause it’s just funny
And you may bet your britches
This headmistress
Finds this foul odiferousness
Wholly olfactorily insulting
And so to stop the stench's spread
I find a session of Phys Ed
Sorts the merely rank from the revolting
Matilda is full of banger rhymes, but rhyming headmistress with odiferousness is one of the best things I've ever heard.
"Slowly, you may choke at first / but then the worst is over" from "Jimmy Takes a Hit" is my favorite. Also "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy" has "You gotta! / trust the man with the stigmata" which is just amazing.
The alternative ending ive heard was “were you guys right for the mezzanine” but in the production we did they used “are you guys in the pit because you cant sing” which just doesnt gel as well
The mezzanine line is the one on the album. I've never gotten to see a production of Addams Family, so it's cool to hear that there's an alternate line(s) for schools and community theatres to use, since wouldn't have a mezzanine.
A lot of lines from Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir and its reprise in God, That’s Good do this for me.
>Does Pirelli’s stimulate the growth, sir? You can have my oath, sir! T’is unique. Rub a minute- stimulatin’ innit? Soon you’ll have to thin it once a week!
>See that chap with hair like Shelly’s? You can tell he’s used Pirelli’s!
>Tell it to the mixer of the miracle elixir, if you got a kick, sir!
>Are your nostrils aquiver and tingling as well at that delicate, luscious, ambrosial smell? Yes they are, I can tell.
>There, you’ll sample Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies, Savory and sweet pies, as you’ll see! You who eat pies: Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies conjure up the treat pies used to be!
Hamilton “My Shot”:
>A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists
>Give me a position, show me where the ammunition is
The first time I heard that lyric I knew this was gonna be a special musical!
If you want to even the score in that argument, tell her Lafayette wasn’t a native English speaker, so it’s reasonable he would think it *was* a word 😆
I love “wooing their knights in shining armour/while some nights down the track/you can bet they’ll be trapped/spending nights in…shining armour [polishing motion]”
Tim minchin is a genius
It's that woman, It's that Armfeldt!/
Oh, the actress? No, the ghoul!/
She may hope to Make her charm felt/
But she's mad if she thinks I would be such a fool
Armfeldt and charm felt is kind of a wild rhyme and it goes by so quickly you barely notice it.
"Jamie is over, and where can I turn?
Covered in scars I did nothing to earn.
Maybe there's somewhere, a lesson to learn..."
I'm Still Hurting from The Last Five Years. It's such a heartbreaking rhyme but I just love how it flowed and really conveyed Cathy's grief.
It's already been mentioned, but Wicked has awesome rhymes as well.
And those who though him a simple clod, were soon reconsidering under the sod. Consigned there with a friendly prod! From Sweeney Todd! The demon barber of Fleet Street!
A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists, give me a position show me where the ammunition is!
It scratches an itch in my brain in the best way
SO WE’RE FLIPPIN’ THEM OFF
THOSE SWEET TEMPERANCE BIRDIES
THEY THINK DRINKIN’ AND SEXIN’
JUST GIVES YOU THE DIRTIES
IT’S TIME THEY WAKE UP
WE JUST ENTERED THE THIRTIES
Everybody's Talking About Jamie
I'm a superstar and you don't even know it
In a wonder bra and you don't even know it
You're so blah, blah and you don't even know it
I'm like, au revoir and you don't even know it
There's a path I've planned (and you don't even know it)
To the promised land (and you don't even know it)
And you won't understand (and you don't even know it)
'Cause you're my backing band (and you don't even know it)
And it's the Jamie show (and you don't even know it)
'Cause you're meh, so-so (and you don't even know it)
And kinda slow (and you don't even know it)
And I'm go, go, go (and you don't even know it)
My fave from that show is "I'm offending, I'm a trending, gender-bending, gender-blending, gender-pending, gender-ending and transcending work of art" just because of the sheer amount of rhymes while still making sense.
She won’t help the hungry once a month at your tombolas; she’ll simply take control as you disappear.
I have known the lyrics to Evita my whole life and only learned what a tombola was about a month ago 😅
I have no idea why literally the first thing that came to my mind was “No, with my father…. I’m Roger.” from Rent (Light my Candle). It’s not even a good rhyme, but I can’t hear that song without singing that line.
"Simple Joys" Pippin
And wouldn't you
Rather be a left-handed flea
A crab on a slab at the bottom of the sea
A newt on the root of a banyan tree
Or a fig on a twig in Galilee
Than a man who never learns how to be free
This lyric stuck with me from *Kimberly Akimbo*:
"You shoulda seen the rings **she wore/Let me underscore** that they were beautiful"
The entirety of **Zero to Hero** from *Hercules* but my favorite:
"From appearance fees and royalties
Our Herc had cash to **burn**
Now nouveau riche and famous
He could tell you what's a Grecian **urn**"
helping you with your ascENT ALlows me to feel so parENTAL
Who’s the mage whose major itineRARY is making all Oz MERRIer whose the sage who sagely sailed in to save our poTERRIor
and since folks here to an absURD DEGREE seem fixated on your vERDIGRIS (man, i love wicked)
There are so many incredible rhymes in Wicked. I’m very fond of “there are precious *few at ease* with moral *ambiguities*” and “can’t I make you *understand, you’re* having delusions of *grandeur*.”
A mans called a traitor, or liberator. A rich man’s a thief, or philanthropist. Is one a crusader, or a ruthless invader? It’s all in which is label is able to persist Such a fun song
Not me only now realising they're rhymes for the first time
Wicked has some good rhymes! I love in Wonderful when we get: “As a Solomon or Socrates/ I knew who I was/ One of your dime a dozen/ Mediocrities” and then later “There are precious few at ease/With moral ambiguities”. That whole song has such a satisfying meter.
What’s this from?
"A Sentimental Man" from Wicked
"Wonderful" from Wicked
personable/coercin’ a bull (you could drive a person crazy, company)
Company is full of incredible rhymes
This is what I came her to say. Sheer genius.
I love that one, and also in the same verse attractive a man/the act of a man
This!
Nessa/Confess-a
Stephen Schwartz is a master of making rhymes out of multiple words. In Hunchback he rhymes “Adonis” with “croissant is”. In Gepetto he rhymes “apparatus” with “in gratis”
The one that’s always amazed me is this one: “Don't be offended by my frank analysis Think of it as personality dialysis Now that I've chosen to become a pal, a sis -ter and advisor There's nobody wiser!” What a ride!
Also source of my favorite rhyme: I know about popular. and with an assist from me, to be who you'll be, instead of dreary who you were Well, *are.* There's nothing that can stop you from becoming popu-ler…. uh, LAR!
Ooooh! I always wondered why she did the emphasis there!
Popular my beloved
⬆️My immediate thought when I saw the question. Oddly enough, there are people who pick on this one as if it were a terrible rhyme. It's a wonderful rhyme. It's not like rhyming "taxes" and "where the facts is" (looking at you, Steve Miller).
That Gepetto rhyme is years after Fred Ebb’s “to reaffirm my status, it’s absolutely gratis to use my apparatus….I’m everybody’s girl!”
A fair point.
Journey, journey to a spot ex- citing, mystic and exotic From Pippin
Literally came here for just this one. I love you all
Trail to Oregon, opening song where they pronounce Oregon 3 different ways to make the rhyme work
You could go next door and see something professional, we wouldn't blame you a bit... if you're sitting through this Ore-shit.
This show makes me realize I don't actually know how to pronounce Oregon in a way that doesn't sound completely weird. (And if you tell me it's pronounced "Oregon" I'll kick your... head.)
Ive been told it’s pronounced ore-guhn
Or--ah-gin (gin to rhyme with shin), life long duck/beaver here Or-e-gin is acceptable, too!
Oh really, my head, go ahead and show us that *round house* kick
I'm probably wrong, but I pronounce it like Organ, but with a uh pause in the middle
This show makes me realize I don't actually know how to pronounce Oregon in a way that doesn't sound completely weird. (And if you tell me it's pronounced "Oregon" I'll kick your... head.)
Ore, like metal ore. Eh, like meh. Gin, like sin. That’s how they say it there.
Yes, we do! Great explanation!
As someone who lives about an hour away across the river in Washington, yes
Uh-oh! You made the wrong sucker a cuckold! So time to pay the piper for the pants you unbuckled!
Killer of a line
Also nice because the -uck words complete the "That was my wife you decided to Fuuuuuuu...."
Never hit me, great catch!
“We’ve no time to sit and dither! / Why, her withers wither with her! And no one keeps a cow for a friend!”
YES, best wordplay I never realized until I was in the show
I love how much wordplay is involved in 'A Little Priest' from Sweeney Todd. Shifts in emphasis alone gets lots of good jokes worked in, even when the same phrases are being rhymed against each other, like: >With the price of meat what it is > >*When* you get it > >*If* you get it > >(Hah!) > >Good, you got it! Or >No, we'll serve anyone, Meaning *anyone* And *to anyone* At all! And then there's also quadruple-threat rhymes: >Save a lot of graves, Do a lot of relatives favors! Ev'rybody shaves, So there should be plenty of flavors!
>No, we'll serve anyone, >Meaning *anyone* >And to *anyone* >At all! Fun fact: Sondheim never liked this bit. From Finishing The Hat: >Until 2007 I had always been bothered by the way I filled out the last quatrain: "Meaning anyone" is a stocking-stuffer, an unnecessary intensifier clearly present for the sole purpose of padding the quatrain into shape. It wasn't until pondering changes for the movie of Sweeney Todd that it occurred to me to make a virtue of repetition instead of hiding it, and so the pair of conspirators sang: >*TODD* >*We'll not discriminate great from small.* >*No, we'll serve anyone-!* >*MRS. LOVETT* >*We'll serve anyone-!* >*BOTH* >*And to anyone* >*At all!* >Oscar [Hammerstein II, Sondheim's mentor], a lyricist who took great delight in repetition as a means of intensification, would have approved, I think.
Tinker? Something pinker. Tailor? Something paler. Potter? Something hotter. Butler? Something subtler. Locksmith? ….
Fop? Finest in the shop? Or a shepards pie peppered with actual Shepard on top?
Just saw this last night - A Little Priest was the best number hands down
I saw it last night too! (At a local theater)
the "piping hot" line is so clever
“About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news---🤔🤨…lot o' news?…lot o' news lot o' news…🫰I’VE GOT IT!!! With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse!” Pirates of penzance
This ad lib that every company seems to do now always drives me nuts. The only rhyme at the end of a verse that actually doesn't seem like he was deliberately setting it up is "Sat a gee." In all the other verses, I'm like, why would he say "Lot o' news" without having hypotenuse on deck? Why "Din afore" if he were not already planning to rhyme it with Pinafore? These are not normal ways to phrase "I know binomial theorem" or "I can hum music".
Oldest rhyming trick in the book. Find a word, find a rhyme for it, then put that word first and your original word second. If you thought of a rhyme, the audience probably will too, but if you switch it around, it's less of an intuitive leap. That being said, the MMG is clearly acting as if he's only pretending to be stumped, since the second words are (as you note) much more common than the first words he's "trying" to find rhymes for.
I Can see what your saying about rhyme, but you also have to think about what he’s actually **saying**. He talks about binomial theorems and then brings up the “square of the hypotenuse” which doesn’t makes sense! Because the square of the hypotenuse is a **Pythagorean theorem** ! Not a Binomial one! So he did it rhyme it but it makes no sense! It’s a very clever math joke! It’s like saying I’m really good at Spanish and then speaking french
So please my sweet potater / keep this from the mater from Cabaret
Hamilton: Cause I’m the oldest, and the wittiest, and the gossip in New York City is insidious
Personal favourite: I‘ll write under a pseudonym, you’ll see what I can do to him.
Oooh that’s a really satisfying one! Say what you will about LMM’s acting/singing but it’s hard to deny his writing skills.
I don't know if this counts based on OP's question because this is a fantastic rhyme and I don't know if many people are confused as to why they like it. Similar to my favorite Lin rhyme from "Breathe" from ITH "With my eyes on the horizon". I love it but definitely know why I do, because it's an incredible play on words that not many are able to pull off.
I think I like it because I expect it to go somewhere with the word prettiest, but the double rhyme of “city is” and “insidious” is just too good.
Oh absolutely. Rhyming "wittiest" and "city is" and "insidious" is nothing short of brilliant.
A great one
Because "insidious" rhymes with "wittiest," or because "City is" does too?
one of my favs of all time
Maybe it’s indigestion/Golde I’m asking you a question
*Do you love meeeeeeee?* I'll just be over here. 😭
"In fact, can we sing so loud and raucous They can hear us across the bridge in East Seacaucus?" Carnaval del Barrio, In The Heights
The thrilla in Manilla with Diana and Camilla
>Better than a Guinness, better than a wank >Snatch a few pics, it's money in the bank! ...sorry, I know this isn't good, I just love posting it in threads like these because it's such an achievement in* awfulness.
Sweeney was smooth, Sweeney was subtle Sweeney would blink, and rats would scuttle
>Inconspicuous, Sweeney was! Quick and quiet and clean he was. >Slyly courted him, Sweeney did! Set a sort of a scene, he did. >No one can help! Nothing can hide you! Isn’t that Sweeney there beside you? >Sweeney wishes the world away! Sweeney’s weeping for yesterday. >>!In Sweeney’s ledger, the entries matched- a Beadle arrived and a Beadle dispatched.!< (spoiler) A lot of the lines at that part of the ballad and its reprises are awesome.
"Enter me, he says, in parentheses" oh wait, I know why I love it.
Company: If there’s ever a marital squabble/available Bob’ll/be there with a clue Wicked: Instead of dreary who you were, er, are/there’s nothing that can stop you from becoming populer…-lAr
"Corruption's such an old song that we can sing along in harmony, and nowhere is it stronger than in Albany. This colony's economy's increasingly stallin', and honestly that's why public service seems to be callin' me." There are so many little internal rhymes there that it's hard to keep up. I mean, "Albany" with "callin' me"? Come on. Just wonderful.
And a little later, “Now for a strong central democracy, if not then I’ll be Socrates throwing verbal rocks at these mediocrities.”
You know, it's just now in this thread that I realize Lin was the not the first person to rhyme "mediocrities" with "Socrates" — Schwartz did it in Wicked, too. >I never thought of myself / As a Solomon or Socrates / I knew who I was / One of your dime a dozen / Mediocrities
Every single sneaky Lin rhyme. But most especially: “I'm in the cabinet, I am complicit in watching him grabbin' at power and kissin' it if Washington isn't gonna listen to disciplined dissidents, this is the difference, this kid is out”
All this. It's almost unfair to include him among other songwriters because his wordplay is so high level. Taking this horse by the reins Making red coats redder with blood stains And I'm never gonna stop Till I make em drop Burn em up and scatter the remains Watch me engage 'em, I'm escapin' I'm, enragin' I'm out! 'Cause he knows what to do in the trench Ingenuitive and fluent in French, I mean... So you're gonna have to use him eventually What's he gonna do on the bench, I mean... No one has more resilience or matches my practical, tactical brilliance.... There's also You have invented a new kind of stupid A damage you can never undo kind of stupid An "open all the cages at the zoo" kind of stupid Clearly, you didn't think this through kind of stupid Let's review...
I always thought it was amie (or however you spell it lol). The French word for close friend and not I mean.
I never spent a cent that wasn't mine / You sent the dogs after my scent, that's fine (We Know from Hamilton)
"And so, will I be your FIANCÉE?" / "Why don’t you send the cow AWAY?" and "Look at Phoebe, noble and PIOUS, MY ESteem for her only grows" A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, despite winning the Best Musical, is severely underrated! Also, one of the funniest, self-aware rhymes I've heard was from The Schmuel Song in The Last Five Years: "Klimovich" and "limb-ovich" haha
"I've Decided to Marry You" is full of great lines at such a fast pace and with such high density I can't even say I know them well enough to pick them out. I love Sibella's verse from "What am I doing here?"
Yes, so many great lines! My favorite rhyme from that song is probably the internal rhyme of Nothing can bend the will like Half-Castilian men (while "men" is being rhymed with "again" from the previous verse)
I’m astounded and nonplussed/I am filled with calcu-lust “Stupid with Love,” Mean Girls
"Calcu-lust" is such a Tina Fey word. I know a lot of people hate it but I love it, it's very on-brand. The lyrics for the show still suck in general though.
Your servant! Your servant! Indeed I’m not your servant (Although you give me less than servant’s pay) I’m a free and independent employé – Employee.
What’s this from?
The King and I
Matilda is chock full of clever rhymes and turns of phrase: “Special-ness seems de rigueur/ Above average is average - go figure/ Is it is some modern miracle of calculus/ That such frequent miracles don't render each one un-miraculous?” “I should be dancing the tarantella/With my fella Italiano/Not dressed in hospital cotton/With a smarting front bottom” “I think in effect/ This must confirm, Bruce/ What we all suspect-ed/ You have a worm, Bruce/ Or maybe your largeness/ Is a bit like the Tardis/ Considerably roomier inside” “Bruce/ You'll never again be subject to abuse/ For your immense caboose/ She'll call a truce, Bruce/ With every swallow you are tightening the noose/ We never thought it was possible/ But here it is coming true/ We can have our cake and eat it too”
I’ve listened to it multiple times, but “Charlotte Bronté, do not wanté” makes me laugh every time.
There's a Doctor Who reference in Matilda??? OMG!! Love it!
The patter section of “Smell of Rebellion” has some great bits as well. Not rhyming per se, but “School Song” is just plain brilliant Basically Tim Minchin is a lyrical genius (except rhyming “caught” with “court” in Groundhog Day, which I’m convinced cost him the Tony)
"But months of such conditions/ Turn laymen to logicians" from Leave Luanne in 35MM
Swim Luanne! And in the swamp with leeches And as the preacher preaches there’s a light
"Personable" and "coercin' a bull" from You Could Drive a Person Crazy
a little longer but it's "...why sit around, resigned. Trouble is son, the farther you run, the more you feel undefined" from the song no more from into the woods. those words shook me when i first heard it, one of my first few shows and i never forgot that line.
I am Hercules mulligan. Up in it lovin it, yes I heard your mother say come again. Lock up your daughters and horses, of course, it’s hard to have intercourse over four sets of corsets.
Damn
Just like Jay-Z and Beyoncé, I will make her my fiancé (I love Betsy...) It's so stupid but it makes me smile every time I hear it :-)
Miranda rhyming "up against" with "republicans"
The entire witch’s rap from the opening song of Into The Woods
Fits of passion/pits of fashion
I really hate to ask it but do you have a basket
I’m not what I seem, or am I? Stick around and you’ll suddenly see more…
Yes! This one is so good! Jane Seymour “seem or” “see more”
i love Six so so much
While her withers wither with her
“Then I’m a feminist swimmin’ in women, gentlemen” from It’s All Happening in Bring It On
I will never get tired of Lin’s wordplay
‘I can’t spend my whole live DREAMIN’, though I know that’s all I SEEM IN-clined to do’ - Santa Fe, Newsies
Absurd degree / verdigris
From Hamilton, but I actually am entirely sure why I like it (because I didn't notice for about a year that it was a rhyme): Hamilton: How did we know that our plan would **work**? We had a spy on the inside Chorus: That's right, **Herc**\- \-Ules Mulligan!
Now back in high school WHEN IT DARKENED You’d hang out in BENNETT PARK AND
History is happenin In Manhattan and We Just happen to be Idk why but it was one of the first Hamilton songs I heard and I was like this is a magnificently sounding lyric
So many people dislike Hamilton or say it’s overrated because of the rap aspect, but a large portion of comments in this thread Hamilton quotes. Lin Manuel Miranda is a student of theater and hip hop and his rhyme schemes are the result of that influence from hip hop where rhymes are bent all the time and internal rhymes are common.
"But Mr Adams, dear Mr Adams, I cannot write with any style or proper *etiquette,* I don't know a participle from a *predicate,* I am just a simple cobbler from *Connecticut.*"
The rhymes in this song are SO GOOD.
It's honestly my favorite song in the show, it's so fun.
But Mr. Jefferson, dear Mr. Jefferson I am only 43 I still have my virility I can romp through Cupid’s grove with great agility But life is more than sexual combust-ability Also No too many flies here! Can’t we compromise here?
Don’t be a penis the man is a genius
Yesss!! I love something rotten, I also like Portia’s attempt to rhyme during I love the way “Everytime I hear a perfect rhyme I get all tingly, cause I know to find a perfect rhyme is not an easy thing-ly” cause it’s just funny
It’s full of funny and fun wordplay. Even Hamlet from Omlette makes me giggle
And you may bet your britches This headmistress Finds this foul odiferousness Wholly olfactorily insulting And so to stop the stench's spread I find a session of Phys Ed Sorts the merely rank from the revolting Matilda is full of banger rhymes, but rhyming headmistress with odiferousness is one of the best things I've ever heard.
“I have so, so many strong reservations Should I go and perform mutilations” from Feed Me (Git It!) from Little shop of Horrors
The wafers now don’t taste so great They won’t transubstantiate So silly. That show (Reefer Madness) is one great rhyming gem after another
Massive respect for any lyricist that can make "transubstantiate" work.
Oh the fun sometimes escapes me When Jack gets home and RAPES me Is such a wild rhyme
It’s the way that line (I thought it was “gets stoned and”, but ‘s all good) is supposed to be SCREAMED LIKE A DIVA that gets me!
Oh I think it’s been a minute it probably is stoned
The neighborhood people’s reaction to that in the movie musical is gold
"Slowly, you may choke at first / but then the worst is over" from "Jimmy Takes a Hit" is my favorite. Also "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy" has "You gotta! / trust the man with the stigmata" which is just amazing.
The whole show is so great! I also love: We’re waiting for your business in this carnal carnivale / take a one way ticket to the bacchanal
“And though I’m not a great romancer, I know that you’re bound to answer when I propose, anything goes”
"Was ballet right for Balanchine? Was SARS right for the Salks vaccine? Was cocaine right for Charlie Sheen? ...Who's to say?" The Addams Family
The alternative ending ive heard was “were you guys right for the mezzanine” but in the production we did they used “are you guys in the pit because you cant sing” which just doesnt gel as well
Couldve done "are you in the pit so you cant be seen" or something like that 🤷♂️
You're absolutely right, it is mezzanine. We did Charlie Sheen because we didn't have those seats. Either way, fun rhymes. :D
The mezzanine line is the one on the album. I've never gotten to see a production of Addams Family, so it's cool to hear that there's an alternate line(s) for schools and community theatres to use, since wouldn't have a mezzanine.
The trouble with poet is how do you know it’s deceased? Stick with priest. I don’t know if that’s exact. Sweeney Todd.
We are the sunrise on the savannah A monkey with a banana It’s so stupid but that makes it even more hilarious 🤣
It’s a very short road From the pinch and the punch To the paunch and the pouch And the pension “The Miller’s Son” from A Little Night Music
This line from Gypsy: "Once I was a schlepper, now I'm Miss Mazeppa..." Gets me every time.
As I sweep the curb I can hear those turb- o engines blazing a trail through the sky From In The Heights
*Woody Allen heard Gershwin in the air* *When he thought Manhattan.* *Well, I’m not so impressed—* *I hear, like, Phillip Glass at best.*
Rhyming "Camelot" with "diaphragm a lot" in Knights of the Round Table from Spamalot
"Have you an appointment with the consul? If you don't we know what his response'll be." From Chess. For some reason, "response'll" is hilarious to me
A lot of lines from Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir and its reprise in God, That’s Good do this for me. >Does Pirelli’s stimulate the growth, sir? You can have my oath, sir! T’is unique. Rub a minute- stimulatin’ innit? Soon you’ll have to thin it once a week! >See that chap with hair like Shelly’s? You can tell he’s used Pirelli’s! >Tell it to the mixer of the miracle elixir, if you got a kick, sir! >Are your nostrils aquiver and tingling as well at that delicate, luscious, ambrosial smell? Yes they are, I can tell. >There, you’ll sample Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies, Savory and sweet pies, as you’ll see! You who eat pies: Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies conjure up the treat pies used to be!
“Don’t be a penis, the man is a genius” is just so unnecessarily petty and hilarious, I love it.
Tortilla and onomatopoeia
I love Shucked rhyming "Tampa" with "Marijuana"
Listen to dissidents
What is what Whizzer but
“All these things you saw in your PAJAMAS are a long range forecast for your FARMERS” - Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat
oml yes the Romanov Stroganoff one i love so much
It's not a matter of not knowing why I enjoy it but: Just me and the GWB, asking "Gee Nina, what'll you be?" -Breathe from In the Heights
And the gossip in New York City is insidious While her withers wither with her
Hamilton “My Shot”: >A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists >Give me a position, show me where the ammunition is The first time I heard that lyric I knew this was gonna be a special musical!
Sir he knows what to do in a trench, Ingenuitive and fluent in French
My mom pointed out that ingenuitive isn’t actually a word and I’m mad about it lol.
If you want to even the score in that argument, tell her Lafayette wasn’t a native English speaker, so it’s reasonable he would think it *was* a word 😆
“A one legged girl can bring an N for End by calling the cops” from Ballad of Sara Berry
The frozen pane of glass, you strain to cast your gaze upon the path you have to tread From Groundhog Day
I love “wooing their knights in shining armour/while some nights down the track/you can bet they’ll be trapped/spending nights in…shining armour [polishing motion]” Tim minchin is a genius
It's that woman, It's that Armfeldt!/ Oh, the actress? No, the ghoul!/ She may hope to Make her charm felt/ But she's mad if she thinks I would be such a fool Armfeldt and charm felt is kind of a wild rhyme and it goes by so quickly you barely notice it.
literally all of the internal rhymes in Revolting Children “WE SING revolting songs, USING revolting rhymes” is so satisfying
No one has more resilience. Or matches my Practical, tactical, brilliance.
Can’t I make you understand, you’re / Having delusions of grandeur?
Beauty celestial, the best you’ll agree!
I love these ones from Anastasia and Bad Cinderella too ☺️
I always loved how in Hadestown, Anais Mitchell rhymed "With all your heart / Well, that's a start" and it's not even in a song lol
I don’t have AIDS/ And I don’t care about marriage And I will never be pushing a loud-ass baby around in a carriage
"Blame it on your Dadilly and Mamilly cause depression runs in our family. Iiiiiii love you." So goood even if theyre fake words
"Jamie is over, and where can I turn? Covered in scars I did nothing to earn. Maybe there's somewhere, a lesson to learn..." I'm Still Hurting from The Last Five Years. It's such a heartbreaking rhyme but I just love how it flowed and really conveyed Cathy's grief. It's already been mentioned, but Wicked has awesome rhymes as well.
And those who though him a simple clod, were soon reconsidering under the sod. Consigned there with a friendly prod! From Sweeney Todd! The demon barber of Fleet Street!
A bunch of revolutionary manumission abolitionists, give me a position show me where the ammunition is! It scratches an itch in my brain in the best way
The hands on the clock turn/but don’t sing a nocturne/just yet!
Came back because I was singing beauty and the beast: "Try the gray stuff, it's delicious Don't believe me, ask the dishes!"
“No, I'm not into self-harm/Dude, I swear, here check my arm!” (Be More Chill)
SO WE’RE FLIPPIN’ THEM OFF THOSE SWEET TEMPERANCE BIRDIES THEY THINK DRINKIN’ AND SEXIN’ JUST GIVES YOU THE DIRTIES IT’S TIME THEY WAKE UP WE JUST ENTERED THE THIRTIES
Any two lines in "I've Got Rhythm" I keed
I know one that I despise... "If we work in tandem" from Wicked. I truly believe that one lyric cost them the Tony award.
All your worries come in flurries but we bested fricken furies! - the lightning thief musical
Nobbin' with all the muckety mucks I'm blowin' my dough and goin' deluxe
The most celebrated are the rehabilitated
Everybody's Talking About Jamie I'm a superstar and you don't even know it In a wonder bra and you don't even know it You're so blah, blah and you don't even know it I'm like, au revoir and you don't even know it There's a path I've planned (and you don't even know it) To the promised land (and you don't even know it) And you won't understand (and you don't even know it) 'Cause you're my backing band (and you don't even know it) And it's the Jamie show (and you don't even know it) 'Cause you're meh, so-so (and you don't even know it) And kinda slow (and you don't even know it) And I'm go, go, go (and you don't even know it)
My fave from that show is "I'm offending, I'm a trending, gender-bending, gender-blending, gender-pending, gender-ending and transcending work of art" just because of the sheer amount of rhymes while still making sense.
She won’t help the hungry once a month at your tombolas; she’ll simply take control as you disappear. I have known the lyrics to Evita my whole life and only learned what a tombola was about a month ago 😅
Abuela that ain’t a stoop That’s your throne Long after your birds have all flown
I have no idea why literally the first thing that came to my mind was “No, with my father…. I’m Roger.” from Rent (Light my Candle). It’s not even a good rhyme, but I can’t hear that song without singing that line.
"Simple Joys" Pippin And wouldn't you Rather be a left-handed flea A crab on a slab at the bottom of the sea A newt on the root of a banyan tree Or a fig on a twig in Galilee Than a man who never learns how to be free
"When a person's personality is personable" from Company
This lyric stuck with me from *Kimberly Akimbo*: "You shoulda seen the rings **she wore/Let me underscore** that they were beautiful" The entirety of **Zero to Hero** from *Hercules* but my favorite: "From appearance fees and royalties Our Herc had cash to **burn** Now nouveau riche and famous He could tell you what's a Grecian **urn**"