Knocked My Socks Off

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From the Broadway show “Fun Home the Musical,” with the amazing Sydney Lucas.

ALISON:
[Spoken]
You didn’t notice her at first but I saw her the moment she walked in
She was a delivery woman
She came in with a hand cart full of packages,
She was an old school butch.

SMALL ALISON:
Someone just came in the door.
Like no one I ever saw before.
I feel…
I feel…

I don’t know where you came from.
I wish I did
I feel so dumb.
I feel…

Your swagger and your bearing
and the just right clothes you’re wearing
Your short hair and your dungarees
And your lace up boots.

And your keys oh
Your ring of keys.

I thought it was s’pposed to be wrong
But guess I’m okay with being strong
I want…to…
You’re so…

It’s probably conceited to say,
But I think we’re alike in a certain way
I…um…

Your swagger and your bearing
and the just right clothes you’re wearing
Your short hair and your dungarees
And your lace up boots.

And your keys oh
Your ring of keys.

Do you feel my heart saying hi?
In this whole luncheonette
Why am I the only one who sees you’re beautiful?

[Spoken]
No, I mean

[Sung]
Handsome!

Your swagger and your bearing
and the just right clothes you’re wearing
Your short hair and your dungarees
And your lace up boots.

And your keys oh
Your ring of keys.

I know you
I know you
I know you

8 thoughts on “Knocked My Socks Off”

  2. Okay, this is another post of yours that has prompted me to emerge from my ongoing hiatus. Have you seen this show? I saw it in 2013 when it was first staged off-Broadway at the Public theater. I snagged a $20 ticket for a partial view seat, but the woman sitting next to me, a Public theater member, pitched a fit about my seat and I got upgraded at no charge to a premium seat. Sweet! As for the show, I loved it. Next month, Milton and I are seeing it on Broadway … for significantly more than $20 and from seats that might suck out loud.

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    • I’ve read a lot about it and Alison Bechdel. Did you see this on the NYT:

      Included in this are performances from five other Tony nominated actors/singers. Kristin Chenoweth is a hoot and I’d also love to see “Something Rotten,” based on this clip. You are so lucky to get to see these shows, even if the seats do suck out loud. 🙂

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      • New York has serious Tony awards season fever. Milton and I have seen many of the nominated shows, but he saw “On the 20th Century” without me! (We had a disconnect, and he feels pretty ill about that snafu.) He said it was excellent. We saw “Something Rotten”. It was good and very entertaining, but not what we consider a great show. The three male leads are wonderful. Thus far, our favorite shows this season have been Lincoln Center’s revival of “The King and I” where they pull out all the stops, the theater is made to look like you’re entering Siam and there is a steamboat that takes the stage. Very impressive staging. But, we were also completely blown away by “An American in Paris”, a dance-drunk theatrical adaptation of the Gene Kelly film that has been wonderfully updated by the writer Craig Lucas. The music is all George Gershwin. It is so romantic and Broadway at its best. In summer, a show we saw off-Broadway earlier this year at the Public theater about Alexander Hamilton and the founding of the country, called “Hamilton”, transitions to Broadway. It is the most exquisite new musical we have seen in this entire millennium. Milton was moved to tears three times and I had a lump in my throat the size of Rhode Island. The music is exactly what he hates: hip-hop and rap. But this is hip-hop and rap like you’ve never heard it before. It’s melodic and memorable. This show is pure genius and we are looking forward to seeing it again on the Great White Way. Which is a funny thing to say since the mastermind behind this show is Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Puerto Rican guy. This entire story is told with a cast that’s almost entirely populated by people of color (George the Third and George Washington are played by white dudes). It was brilliant and he wrote the book, the music, directed it and plays Alexander Hamilton. He is a musical theater visionary.

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  4. [Picks jaw up from floor] Thank you for writing all of that! You and Milton are my kind of people. I think my love of musicals must be genetic. My mother used to go to the movies when she was a kid in the early 1930’s (she got in free because her cousin worked there) and she would see all the musicals and then re-enact the dance numbers on the way home.

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Okay. Your turn!