Shaw Lyrics > Frogs, The

DIONYSOS:
I knew that I could do it
I knew it, I knew it.
I knew they'd all pooh-pooh it,
And indeed they did.

I knew if I stuck to it,
I'd somehow get through it.
At times I thought, "Oh, screw it!"
But proceed I did,
And oh, you kid -- !

I just met Shaw!
I got to meet Shaw!
There isn't any doubt
The man's without
A single flaw!

I talked to Shaw,
I said to him, "Shaw,
The world is in a crisis."
He said, "Listen, Dionysos,
What you need is Shaw.
I'll go with you," says Shaw.
"I happen to be free,
And who could be
A bigger draw?"

That instant generosity,
That's Shaw!
The verbal virtuosity,
That's Shaw!
The fearless animosity,
That mind with such velocity --
All right, there's the pomposity,
But that's just Shaw.
[Reluctantly]
And maybe some verbosity,
But still you'll be
In awe.

[Commotion inside PLUTO's palace, growing louder]

DIONYSOS:
And here comes Shaw!

[Music continues under as the palace doors open and the Great Man enters.
He holds up his hand. Music stops]

SHAW:
Dionysos, your arrival is most fortuitous.
My fellow playwrights I fear have lost the art of conversation,
but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.

[The SHAVIANS enter laughing; music resumes]

DIONYSOS:
He has no use for piety
Or notions of propriety.
He'll show us our society
In ways we never saw.

[Music stops again]

SHAW:
I'm sick to death of the Underworld. It is like sitting for
all eternity at the first act of a fashionable play before the complications begin.

[The SHAVIANS murmur admiringly; music resumes]

DIONYSOS:
The world will soon be dancing "The Shaw."

DIONYSIAN:
How do you dance the Shaw?

DIONYSOS:
[To the SHAVIANS]
Tell him.

SHAVIANS:
First you think.
Then you comment.

[Music stops momentarily as they all murmur something brief
and judicious to each other; then it resumes]

SHAVIANS:
Then you think.
Then you discuss.

[Music stops again as they babble to each other more animatedly;
two loud chords halt the discussion and music continues]

SHAVIANS:
Then you read,
Then you make a quip.

[Music stops]

SHAW:
All great truths begin as blasphemies.

[Music resumes]

SHAVIANS:
That's how you dance "The Shaw."

DIONYSOS:
[Front, spoken in rhythm, as music continues]
Isn't he amazing?
Isn't he adorable?
[to the SHAVIANS]
Couldn't you die?
Well, you already have.
Still --

SHAVIANS:
Words can dance,
Thoughts can dance,
Syllables can samba.
Sentences can waltz around in your mind.
Epigrams can leap and bound,
Simply from the way they sound --

[Music stops]

SHAW:
Patriotism is the conviction that this country is superior to all other countries
because you were born in it.

[Music resumes]

DIONYSOS:
Even when he's not profound,
He's so refined!

[Music stops]

SHAW:
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

[Music resumes]

SHAVIANS:
Shaw will show the way,
Shaw is for today.
Take him off the shelf.

DIONYSOS:
Everything he writes
Dazzles and delights --
He told me so himself.

[Music stops]

SHAW:
When a man knows nothing and thinks he knows everything,
that points clearly to a political career.

[Music resumes]

DIONYSOS:
[Spoken in rhythm]
Couldn't you just put him on
Toast points and eat him for lunch?
[Singing]
I'll show them Shaw!

SHAVIANS:
First you think...

DIONYSOS:
I want to share Shaw!

SHAVIANS:
Then you reason...

DIONYSOS:
I'm sure of Shaw!

SHAVIANS:
Then you think.
Then you digress...

SHAW:
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures
is not to hate them but to be indifferent to them;
that is the essence of inhumanity. Next!

SHAVIANS:
Such sanity, humanity,
Who cares about the vanity?
His work is just so literate,
It leaves you all atwitter, it's
Got gravity and levity,
That's why it's got longevity.

DIONYSOS:
A little short on brevity --
Is that against the law?

DIONYSOS, SHAVIANS:
We still need Shaw!
I'm [He's] bringing back Shaw!
The world will have an orgy
Of Georgie
Shaw!
Last Update: June, 10th 2013