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Valentine's Day is here and love is all around us. At this most romantic time of the year, we can't help but wonder... what is the greatest Broadway love song ever? BroadwayWorld continues our great tradition of finding that consensus- and this year we have more answers than ever! We've gathered responses from over 1500 performers, composers, industry professionals, and entertainment personalities from all over the world.
This year's list is presented by The Notebook, now in previews on Broadway. Based on the best selling novel that inspired the iconic film, this new musical follows Allie and Noah, both from different worlds, as they share a lifetime of love despite the forces that threaten to pull them apart, in a deeply moving portrait of the enduring power of love.
Performer
Fade
This might be a bit grim but I think “Married” from Cabaret is one of the most beautiful love songs out there. Its melody and lyrics are so uncomplicated but the message is profound: A dark, despairing existence can change dramatically simply because someone else has chosen to love you and spend their life at your side. I think it’s very powerful.
Performer
Tuck Everlasting | The Phantom of the Opera
When I was about three years old I was in a production of Carousel, and "If I Loved You" has since been my favorite. However, there is a sentimental song in Tuck Everlasting called "Time" that makes me a basket case. Last year I hid under the piano when it was sung during rehearsals so the cast wouldn't know I was sobbing...although if they see this they'll be looking for it once we start back with rehearsals. ;)
Performer
Jersey Boys | Mary Poppins | The Boy from Oz | Oklahoma!
My favorite love song is “The Next Ten Minutes” from The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown. The lyrics are so amazing! I swore I’d never sing that song unless I was singing it with the woman I was going to spend the rest of my life with, and in 2015 I sang it with my then fiancée Desirée Davar. I had tears in my eyes. Now we are married and expecting!
Performer
Hey | Look Me Over! | The Play That Goes Wrong | Assassins
"Someone to Watch Over Me," by the Gershwins. Nowadays everyone's obsessed with being "strong," but this simple ballad cuts right to the fear, vulnerability, and longing that we all feel, ultimately, underneath those proclamations of strength.
Performer
Girl from the North Country
I think my choice would be “If I could tell Her” from Dear Evan Hansen. It’s the first musical my daughter fell in love with, and first song she memorized. I love Hansen’s awkward confession of love for Zoe, using her the memory of her dead brother. I know it’s off beat, but totally comedic and endearing. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Performer
Shucked | Ink | Head Over Heels | War Horse
"Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors. They are both coming into their own and realizing their love for each other.
Performer
Puffs
"I Got Lost In His Arms" from Annie Get Your Gun. Beautiful melody about the vulnerable surrender and indescribable nature of falling in love.
Performer
A Christmas Carol | A Time to Kill | Coram Boy
Adam Guettel's "Hero and Leander" is one of my favorite love songs of all time. It tells the story of the myth of Hero swimming across the river every night to meet his lover and one night in a storm he drowns in the waves. It expresses all of the passion of a true love affair.
Performer
The View Upstairs
"What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line. I love this song for its multiple meanings. It could very well tell the story of a romantic relationship — a person honoring the past, while bravely looking forward to the future. And, at the same time, it tells the story of sacrifice and joy that artists make as they pursue a life in the theatre. … and also, I may have had my first kiss when this song was playing the background
Performer
Matilda | Brief Encounter | Red
"Till There Was You." Not only are the lyrics to this song brilliant and all-encompassing, but the bridge of the song where he talks about the sweet fragrant meadows of dawn and dew is a perfect melding of melody, lyric, and movement. The way that the melody leads the chord progression to that perfect beautiful moment where he raises the fifth and hangs suspended there for a brief second is unparalleled in almost any song ever, let alone a Broadway song. I have to give it up to Mr. Wilson. Not only is he a man called Meredith, but the guy could write!
Performer
Application Pending
"I've Never Said I Love You" from Dear World. The song was blaring in my head when I first said those words (at the tender age of 29). ("Kiss Her Now," also from Dear World, blared in my head during my first kiss, but for a slight change of pronouns.)
Performer
Frozen | Les Miserables
My favorite Broadway love song is “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera because it’s my favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber show, and I probably listen to that one on repeat the most.
Performer
American Psycho | Kinky Boots | Wicked
"Say it Somehow" from Light in the Piazza. Love is the ultimate universal language. Also, because Matthew Morrison.
Performer
HAIR
Though it's from an off-Broadway show, THE FANTASTICKS, the song "They Were You" is my favorite love song. It is sung after Matt and Luisa have been hurt and taken advantage of, and this make their love even stronger and more pure. It is so beautiful!
Creative
Jersey Boys | The Addams Family | Peter and the Starcatcher
For 2009, I'm gonna go with the Comden/Green/Styne "Make Someone Happy." In an austerity year, it's nice to have a good, schmaltzy ballad to plant your feet and lay into. In a year of paradox, its philosophy is simultaneously simple and fraught with complications. In a time of big national ambition, it's a good, solid personal goal.
Performer
PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT
I'd say "I Have A Love" from WEST SIDE STORY. When the harmonys are pitch perfect, it can still bring a tear to my eye...50 years later.
Performer
Bandstand | Once | Company
To pick one love song is tough, but if there is one thing I have learned about love- it is that it isn’t easy or magic. It is real, messy, simple, complicated and a choice. I think that is beautifully human. So I choose "Marry Me a Little."
Marry me a little,
Love me just enough.
Warm and sweet and easy,
Just the simple stuff.
Keep a tender distance
So we'll both be free.
That's the way it ought to be.
I’m ready. I’m ready now.
Sondheim is such a genius with the way he captures the essence of love. Complicated, simple, and a choice.
Performer
Cabaret | Death of a Salesman | Life (x) 3 | 1776
"Embraceable You." Especially when sung slowly. Listen to Nat or Billie- yummy. Love the lyrics. "You and you alone bring out the gypsy in me." Plus it has the word "naughty." And ya gotta have a little "naughty" on Valentine's Day, don't ya think?
Performer
Days of Wine and Roses | Anything Goes
It's got to be "If I Loved You" from Carousel. It's just such a classic.
Performer
Straight | Beautiful: The Carole King Musical | Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark
"Can You Feel the Love Tonight"- The Lion King. Hands down this is the most romantic, catchy, and love-filled song on Broadway. Those lions love each other so much! And those harmonies? I mean, come on!
Performer
White Christmas | Children and Art | Dracula | Amour | My Fair Lady
'Moonfall'
Performer
Falsettos | Lempicka | Wicked
"Unexpected Song" from Song and Dance. Andrew Lloyd Webber, I love it.
Performer
An American in Paris
That's a tricky question, but I really love "If I Loved You" from Carousel. It makes my heart explode! I think we've all at one point in our lives had feelings for someone and been without any idea how to explain it to them. It's so beautiful! Especially when Patrick Wilson sings it... :)
Industry
Artisic Director of the Public Theater
"Some Enchanted Evening" from SOUTH PACIFIC
Performer
Rocktopia | Tarzan | Little Shop of Horrors | Jekyll & Hyde | Les Misérables
My favorite Broadway love song is Rodgers + Hammerstein's classic from Carousel, "If I Loved You." I sang it to my wife. She's still with me for 25 years. Oh my god, I don't know why! But, yes. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's a classic and that's what we're doing in Rocktopia: you can't deny a classic.
Performer
Recording artist
It's "Burn" because the melody is so clever and the lyrics are so true to the story. It's very fun to sing.
Performer
Trip of Love | Red Eye of Love
"Anything But Lonely" from Aspects of Love - Because for the eighth year in a row I'm mostly likely going to be spending Valentine's Day on my couch eating ice cream and watching Steel Magnolias.
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