Sondheim's Hats

[Almira]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 8:37pm

Was playing a game with friends where we tried to remember all of Sondheim's hat references in lyric.

This is what we came up with:

"Does anyone still wear a hat?" COMPANY

"Very young and very old hat" FOLLIES

"Let me get my hat and my knife!" A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

"A bowler hat" PACIFIC OVERTURES

"Finishing the hat" SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

"Can't you hide it with a hat?" INTO THE WOODS

Are there others?

[Pippin]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 9:17pm

"Yes thank you, George for That.....and for the Hat" - also from Sunday

[artscallion]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 9:40pm

"Giorgio, please stop pulling my hat down over my head!"
Fosca - Passion.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 9:44pm

"Get a feathered hat for the baby." -GYPSY

"Hats off, here they come, those beautiful girls." -FOLLIES

Updated On: 3/13/12 at 09:44 PM

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 10:34pm

"Sure, you could say 'hey, here's your hat'" in Gypsy

[Felm_heart]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 10:35pm

I can't be bothered to scour the internet for a source, but Sondheim has spoken specifically about his use of hats. Completely paraphrasing this, but it went something along the lines of ... "Because I mention hats so often, no doubt some graduate student will write a dissertation on the subject. Well I can save them the trouble and tell you that it's just because of the jaunty nature of the word, and the amount of words it rhymes with." Or something. He was using hats specifically to make a bigger point about over-analyzing his work. I think I might have read it in one of lyric books, come to think of it.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 10:37pm

I like the island Man-HAT-tan.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 10:39pm

I know you do!

[justoldbill]

Posted: 3/13/12 at 10:48pm

Actually, the reference from GYPSY goes, "True, you could say, 'Hey, here's your hat'". (The "true-you" and "say-hey" word-play is important enough to notate.)