ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

[Intro: grand piano flourish]

[Spoken, playfully]
Ladies, gentlemen…

[Backing Vocal]
And everybody magnificent in between!

[Guitar sting]

[Verse 1: jaunty piano, sly vocal]

I met a rose in a railway bar
Wearing moonlight like a movie star
She said, “Darling, don’t inspect the seed
Just tell me if you like the flower you see”

Well, I nearly spilled my little glass
She laughed and let the moment pass
Said, “History’s such an awful bore
Are you courting me or keeping score?”

[Piano run]

I said—

[Backing Vocals]
Ooooh!

[Lead]
Why would I interrogate the dawn
About what color night it started from?

[Pre-Chorus: drums enter]

The moon has worn a thousand faces
The sea has changed a thousand places
But darling, when you take my arm

[Backing Vocal]
Alarm! Alarm!

[Lead, laughing]
That’s the only transformation causing harm

[Chorus: enormous harmonies]

A ROSE IS A ROSE WHEN IT’S KISSING MY CHEEK
A STAR IS A STAR WHETHER BOLD OR UNIQUE

You can tell me about yesterday
If yesterday insists

But I’m rather more concerned, my love

[Pause]

With the architecture of your kiss

[Backing Choir]
Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!

[Lead]
Call it fate
Call it flair
Call it cosmic underwear

[Guitar flourish]

Whatever road brought you here tonight
Darling, you arrived just right

[Verse 2: bouncing bass, cabaret feel]

There was a tailor on Mercury Street
Who swore every soul had matching feet
He measured everybody heel to toe
Then fainted when the universe said “No”

[Saxophone squeal]

So I bought myself a crooked shoe
Painted one red and the other blue
And danced with you beneath the sign:

“NO REFUNDS ON THE GRAND DESIGN”

[Backing Vocals, theatrical]
Oh, scandal!
Oh, horror!
Oh, somebody fetch the mayor!

[Lead]
Tell him love has rearranged the furniture
And frankly I don’t care

[Pre-Chorus]

The butterfly won’t show its files
The comet doesn’t justify its miles
And nobody asks the champagne grape

[Whispered Backing Vocal]
What were you before?

[Lead]
Before they celebrate

[Chorus]

A ROSE IS A ROSE WHEN IT’S KISSING MY CHEEK
A STAR IS A STAR WHETHER BOLD OR UNIQUE

You can tell me about yesterday
If yesterday insists

But I’m rather more concerned, my love
With the architecture of your kiss

[Operatic Backing Vocals]
Blueprint!
Lipstick!
Mystery!
Bliss!

[Lead]
I’ve never fallen for a birth certificate

[Guitar hit]

But I have fallen hard for this

[Instrumental Break: piano and guitar trading increasingly ridiculous flourishes]

[Piano solo]

[Guitar answer]

[Piano faster]

[Guitar faster]

[Saxophone barges in]

[Spoken]
Oh, now you’re just showing off.

[Bridge: slow, dreamy, celestial synths]

Suppose the stars could change their names
Would heaven burn with lesser flames?

Suppose the river changed its course
Would anybody sue the source?

Suppose a caterpillar said
“I’ve reconsidered wings instead”

Would you stand beneath the summer sky
And shout—

[Backing Choir, pompously]
“EXPLAIN YOURSELF, BUTTERFLY!”

[Silence]

[Lead, softly]
I wouldn’t.

[String swell]

I’d watch her fly.

[Huge drum entrance]

[Verse 3: triumphant]

So wear the dress
Or wear the suit
Wear the crown
Or wear the boots

Change the key
Rewrite the part
The orchestra still knows the heart

[Backing Vocals]
Ba-da-da-da!

[Lead]
Yesterday can keep its photographs
I’ve got tonight and all your laughs

And if the world demands a chart

[Backing Choir]
A chart!

[Lead]
I’ll draw one arrow to my heart

[Final Chorus: key change, massive choir]

A ROSE IS A ROSE WHEN IT’S KISSING MY CHEEK
A STAR IS A STAR WHETHER GENTLE OR FREAK

Let the historians argue
Let philosophers insist

I’m conducting my research, darling

[Pause]

On the architecture of your kiss

[Choir]
THE ARCHITECTURE!

[Lead]
Columns of laughter

[Choir]
THE ARCHITECTURE!

[Lead]
Windows of bliss

[Choir]
THE ARCHITECTURE!

[Lead]
An unnecessarily elaborate staircase—

[Music stops]

Leading directly…

To this.

[Kiss sound]

[Explosive guitar chord]

[Final Refrain]

You can change the costume
You can change the scene
You can change the name upon the old marquee

But when the spotlight finds you
Standing next to me

[Choir rising]
Who you are
Who you are
Who you are

[Lead]
Is the woman that I see

[Outro: slowing piano, layered vocals]

Rose by any other name

[Backing Vocals]
Still a rose

[Lead]
Star by any other sky

[Backing Vocals]
Still it glows

[Lead]
Love by any winding road

[Soft Choir]
Still arrives…

[Final whispered vocal]
And darling…

You look marvelous.

[Grand piano crash]

[End]