Act I: Folies Bergиres
Liliane Montevecchi/Raul Julia/Stephanie Cotsirilos
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Lyrics
Le cinema today is in a crisis.
Directors are so existentialistes.
The movies are not worth their entrance prices
If no one sings a love song when he's kissed.
Contini! I want a musical!
Love cannot be love without "le singing",
A string, a clarinet, a saxophone.
Take a lesson from this old Parisian
And the finest entertainment she/he has known.
Folies Bergères
What a showing of color, costume, and dancing!
Not a moment in life could be more entrancing
Than an evening you spend aux Folies Bergères.
Folies Bergères,
Not a soul in the world could be in despair when he
is glancing
At the fabulous stage des Folies Bergères.
Think of the footlights bright and gleaming,
Le strip-tease, le can-can we all adore.
Life is too short without dreaming,
And dreams are what le cinema is for.
Folies Bergères
La musique et la danse, le son, la lumière!
Les petits jolis seins des belles bouquetières
Sur la belle passerelle des Folies Bergères.
Pas de mystère
Le spectacle est tout a fait découvert.
(Necrophorus steps forward.)
The trouble with Contini, he's the king of
mediocrities,
A second-rate director who believes that he is
Socrates.
He never makes a "movie" or a "picture" or a "flick"
He makes a "film"-get it? -a "film".
A typical Italian with his auto and biography,
A mixture of Catholicism, pasta, and pornography,
A superficial, womanizing, moderately charming Latin
fraud.
Guido Grazie!
Necrophorus Prego!
And what are his movies about?
Just beauty, truth, death, youth, love, life,
anguish, angst.
Thanks to him we have boredom at the movies.
Guido Grazie!
Necrophorus Prego!
La Fleur (reclaiming spotlight) Darlings!
La Fleur
Folies Bergères
La musique et la danse,
le son, la lumière!
Les petits jolis seins
des belles bouquetières
Sur la belle passerelle
des Folies Bergères.
Pas de mystère
Le spectacle est tout a
fait découvert.
Et pas trop cher
Viens ce soir avec moi
aux Follies Bergères!
Necrophorus
The trouble with
Contini, he's the king
of mediocrities,
A second-rate director
who believes that he is
Socrates.
He never makes a "movie"
or a "picture" or a
"flick"
He makes a "film"-get
it? -a "film".
A typical Italian with
his auto and biography,
A mixture of
Catholicism, pasta, and
pornography,
A superficial,
womanizing, moderately
charming Latin fraud.
And what are his movies
about?
Just beauty, truth,
death, youth, love,
life, anguish, angst.
Thanks to him we have
boredom at the movies.
Viens ce soir avec moi aux Follies Bergères!
(NOTE. The following instrument music may be used to
accompany a boa dance, as in the original Broadway program she dances with the boa!)
La Fleur
I love it! (she dances with the boa, rapping
herself in it. A waltz, then all join in a can-can.)
All
Follies Bergères
The music, the lights, and the laughter,
The answer to what you are after
Each night at the Follies Bergères.
Follies Bergères -
La Fleur (to Guido) To your modern ideas I simply
compare one derriere
All At the Follies Bergères!
The answer to what you are after,
The music, the lights, and the laughter
Of the Follies Bergères!
La Fleur So! There you are! This is what I want!
Guido You're joking.
La Fleur No, I'm not joking! When you signed the
contract, you signed to do a musical! I want le
singing! I want le dansing! I want a musical! Do it!
Blackout
SCENE: IN THE CATACOMBS OF THE SPA
Our Lady of the Spa Signor Contini, His Eminence has
granted your request for an interview ... It's the
oldest part of the spa. Rumor has it that several
saints are buried in these catacombs. It offers the
Cardinal the kind of privacy he needs when he comes for
the baths ... Don't stay too long; he isn't well. Your
Eminence, Signor Contini is here. (Guido reads both his
own lines and the Cardinal's.)
Guido I am very grateful for you granting me this visit.
Cardinal What can I do for you, my son?
Guido Do you believe in God?
Cardinal (taken aback) Excuse me, are you a Catholic?
Guido Oh yes. Very much so. Not as much as I would like to
be, or as much as you would like me to be, I'm sure.
But I'm certainly trying.
Cardinal Try harder.
Guido Well, I don't know how! Father, look, I'm confused.
I've reached a point in my life where I don't know
which way to turn anymore. And it's affecting me in
peculiar ways. (A church bell rings.) Father, I have
been seeing things of late-people, visions. Sometimes
they remind me of my early days in school, and I think
that what I'm seeing must be the work of the Devil. (A
Nun and Four Boys pass in the background.)
Cardinal My son. If you can believe in a world in
which you can see the Devil, surely you must also
believe in a world in which you can see an angel. (The
Nun and Boys exit. Guido's Mother rises.)
Guido Mama