A Little Night Music: Glamorous Life

[the movie version]

Ordinary mothers lead ordinary lives,
mop the floors and chop the parsley,
mend the clothes and tend the children.
Ordinary mothers, like ordinary wives,
make the beds and bake the pies and wither on the vine.
Not mine!

Dying by inches, every night, what a glamorous life!
Pulled on by winches, to recite, what a glamorous life!
Ordinary mothers never get the flowers, and
Ordinary mothers never get the joys,
But ordinary mothers couldn't cough for hours
maintaining their poise.

Sandwiches only, but she eats what she wants when she wants
Sometimes it's lonely but she meets many handsome gallants
Ordinary mothers don't live out of cases,
but ordinary mothers don't go different places,
which ordinary mothers can't do, being mothers all day.
Mine's away in a play, and she's greener than they.

What if her broach is only glass, and her costumes unravel?
What if her coach is second class, she at least gets to travel.
And sometime this summer, meaning soon, she'll be traveling to me!
Sometime this summer, maybe June, I'm the new place she'll see!

Ordinary daughters may think life is better
with ordinary mothers near them when they choose,
But ordinary daughters seldom get a letter
enclosing reviews.

Gay and resilient, with applause, what a glamorous life!
Speeches are brilliant, if they're short, what a glamorous life!

Ordinary mothers needn't meet committees,
but ordinary mothers don't get keys to cities
Ordinary mothers merely see their children all year,
which is nothing, I hear,
But it does interfere with the glamorous . . .

I am the princess guarded by dragons,
snorting and grumbling and rumbling in wagons.
She's in her kingdom wearing disguises,
living a life that's full of surprises.
And sometime this summer, she'll come galloping over the green.
Sometime this summer, to my rescue, my mother the queen!

Ordinary mothers thrive on being private,
but ordinary mothers somehow, can survive it.
And ordinary mothers never know they're just standing still,
with the kettles to fill,
While they're missing the thrill
of the glamorous life.