Forbidden Love (In Gaul) Lyrics — Apple Tree, The

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

• Work: The Apple Tree (Broadway, 1966), Act Two ("The Lady or the Tiger?" segment).
• Placement: After the court spectacle is established, the plot suddenly narrows to two people trying to breathe.
• Characters: Princess Barbara and Captain Sanjar, singing in private while the kingdom stays loud outside the door.
• What makes it stand out: A romantic duet that keeps bumping into class rules, like lovers whispering while the crowd warms up the arena.

The Apple Tree (1966) - stage musical - Non-diegetic. Princess Barbara and Captain Sanjar admit what the kingdom forbids and fantasize about escape. It matters because the show swaps pageantry for pressure: a love song that already sounds like it is running out of time.

After the Act Two parade music and the public rules, this duet feels like stepping into a side corridor where the air is cooler and the stakes are sharper. Sanjar has just come back from war and the court treats him like scenery. Barbara has status, but it plays like a cage with better lighting. Put them together and you get a romance that cannot stretch out - it has to fold itself into quick, stolen lines.

The craft is in the contrast. The earlier numbers sell the kingdom as a party. Here, the party noise becomes a threat, even when you cannot literally hear it. The melody leans into intimacy, but the lyric keeps tripping over rules, titles, and the obvious fact that someone is always watching. I hear it as a duet written with one ear on the door handle.

Creation History

Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick built Act Two as a stylized fable with a Balladeer framing the action, then tightened the focus with this scene for Barbara and Sanjar. Album notes for the cast recording summarize the moment as Sanjar proposing Gaul as an escape route, while Barbara hesitates because giving up royalty is not just a change of address, it is a collapse of identity. That tension is the engine of the song.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

In the "Lady or the Tiger?" section, the Balladeer introduces a kingdom where justice is turned into arena entertainment. After the court shows off its power, Captain Sanjar returns from battle and is left behind as the celebration continues. Princess Barbara comes back, sends away the slave who is helping him, and the two reveal they are in love. Because class rules make their relationship illegal, they imagine fleeing to Gaul as the one place where they might live like ordinary people.

Song Meaning

This is not a love song about feeling safe. It is a love song about bargaining with reality: what would you trade for a life that belongs to you? The duet treats "Gaul" like a spell, a single word that turns danger into possibility. Yet the music also keeps the fantasy on a short leash. You can hear that they want the same thing, but they do not want it at the same price.

Annotations

"No more stolen kisses, no more stolen sighs."

The repetition lands like a vow and a complaint at once. They are not describing romance, they are describing logistics - hiding, waiting, pretending. The phrasing makes love sound like contraband, which fits a kingdom that monetizes judgment.

"In Gaul we'd be so happy."

"Gaul" is doing symbolic work. It is not a postcard, it is a counter-life: a place where their names stop being weapons. Album notes spell out that Sanjar even sells the plan with a comic historical aside about a cousin who served with Julius Caesar, and that little wink keeps the dream from turning syrupy.

The duet also sharpens the fable's theme. The arena story is about a choice with two doors. Barbara and Sanjar are living a version of that mechanism: duty on one side, risk on the other, with a crowd waiting to call it justice. According to IBDB records for the show, this number is explicitly assigned to Princess Barbara and Sanjar, and it plays like the first time Act Two lets the audience see what the kingdom's rules cost a real person.

Rhythm and staging feel

Even on audio, the scene suggests close blocking: two characters moving toward each other, then stopping, then leaning in again. The lyric keeps alternating between what they want and what they cannot have. That start-stop motion becomes its own rhythm, a pulse of desire interrupted by fear.

Technical Information (Quick Facts)

• Song: Forbidden Love (In Gaul)
• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of The Apple Tree
• Featured: Alan Alda, Barbara Harris
• Composer: Jerry Bock
• Lyricist: Sheldon Harnick
• Book: Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Jerome Coopersmith (show credits)
• Music director and conductor: Elliot Lawrence (cast recording credits)
• Producer: Goddard Lieberson (cast recording credit listings)
• Release Date: January 1, 1966 (digital catalog metadata for the cast recording)
• Recording Date: October 23, 1966 (discography session date for this track)
• Genre: Musical theatre
• Instruments: Pit orchestra, duet vocals
• Label: Masterworks Broadway (catalog editions)
• Mood: Tender, tense, aspirational
• Length: About 3 minutes 25 seconds (varies slightly by edition)
• Track #: Commonly Track 12 on the 1966 cast recording sequence
• Language: English
• Album: The Apple Tree (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Music style: Intimate character duet inside a satirical fable act
• Poetic meter: Mixed, speech-led theatre prosody

Frequently Asked Questions

Who sings this number on the 1966 cast recording?

It is performed as a duet by Alan Alda and Barbara Harris, reflecting Captain Sanjar and Princess Barbara in Act Two.

Where does it happen in the story?

It lands after Sanjar returns from battle and Barbara confronts her feelings, with the kingdom's class rules closing in around them.

Why is "Gaul" mentioned?

Gaul is their shorthand for escape: a place far enough away that status might stop deciding who is allowed to love whom.

Is this connected to the arena "two doors" concept?

Yes, thematically. The duet turns the fable into a private version of the same choice: obedience versus risk.

Is the number comic or serious?

It is both. The scene can carry a sly wink, but the stakes stay real because the law treats their embrace as a crime.

Does it appear in later revivals?

Yes. Song lists for the 2006 Roundabout revival keep it in the Act Two sequence for "The Lady or the Tiger?" segment.

Is this a pop single with chart history?

No, it is musical theatre repertoire from a cast album, so its public milestones are tied to the show's productions rather than radio charts.

What is the dramatic turning point inside the song?

The turning point is not a twist, it is a price tag: the closer the fantasy of leaving becomes, the clearer Barbara's loss of identity feels.

Is there an official music video?

Not in the modern pop sense. The most common official upload is the auto-generated audio from the cast recording catalog.

Awards and Chart Positions

The track is theatre-catalog material, so the headline achievements belong to The Apple Tree itself. The original Broadway production earned major Tony recognition, including a Best Actress in a Musical win for Barbara Harris. According to Playbill archives, the 1966 production is often cited as a key Mike Nichols staging from that period, and the cast recording remains the main way most listeners meet Act Two today.

Additional Info

One underappreciated move in this scene is how it changes the audience's role. The kingdom has been teaching everyone to watch. This duet quietly asks you to listen instead - to hear the human cost of a system that treats judgment as entertainment. When the plot later swings back toward the arena, you do not forget that two people tried to step outside the rules and could not find a clean exit.

Catalog metadata also tells a small story. The track shows up as its own cut on major services, and discography entries log it as part of the October 23, 1966 recording session, with Alan Alda and Barbara Harris credited on vocals. That neat documentation fits the show itself: a fable with hard edges, filed cleanly, while the characters inside it are anything but calm.

Key Contributors

Sources

Sources: Masterworks Broadway album notes, MusicBrainz release entry, IBDB show and revival song lists, Overture recording credits, MTI show page, Apple Music track metadata, Musicals 101 lyrics PDF