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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
Legally Blonde
It's a toss up between "As Long as You're Mine" from WICKED (and that may be bc when Norbert Leo Butz sings it...I Melt!) and "Sunrise" from IN THE HEIGHTS.
Performer
Grease: You're The One That I Want | Thoroughly Modern Millie | The Fantasticks | Beauty and the Beast
"The Next 10 Minutes" from THE LAST 5 YEARS.
Performer
Legally Blonde
The most romantic broadway song ever (to me) would have to be (PS... this is a very hard question to answer because I have so many) But the first song that comes to my mind is Only Love...lol! From The Scarlet Pimpernel.. I know that it isn't super romantic... but there is such a romantic note behind it all...so i say ONLY LOVE from THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL... final answer :)
Performer
Cinderella | 9 to 5 | Les Miserables | Avenue Q
As I've gotten older (though not necessarily wiser) I realize that "love" is different from "romance" so I'm going to pick William Finn's "What Would I Do" from Falsettos and Rodgers and Hart's "Everything I've Got" from By Jupiter as serious and humorous takes on complicated but profound relationships.
Performer
Chicago | Les Miserables in Concert
There are so many songs I love, but I'd have to say "Something Wonderful" from THE KING AND I is definitely one of the most romantic ones I've heard.
Performer
Kimberly Akimbo
“Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me” from Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. It’s a gorgeous song that explains exactly how we all feel about it. I was never a big fan of Valentine’s Day, so this song is for everyone who also isn’t big on Valentine’s Day. “As they say in the song, you done me wrong”. Dump him!
Performer
Ain't Too Proud | Beautiful | Guys and Dolls | The Color Purple
My favorite Broadway love song is “When I First Saw You” from Dreamgirls and it’s because it’s one of the first love songs that I learned from a Broadway show and it’s such a powerful song and a very tender moment, and a moment where Curtis is really trying to let Deena know just what she means to him, and it’s a very tenuous moment in the show so I love that song a lot.
Performer
Mr. Saturday Night
Omg easy! "Elaborate Lives" from Aida hands down. Heather Headley and Adam Pascal. Love me some star crossed lover storytelling. It’s either that or "Wheels of a Dream" from Ragtime. No better love story than a Heather Headley + Audra McDonald mashup!
Creative
Significant Other
That's easy, it's "Would You Light My Candle?" I was a total Renthead as a kid, I love that song, I could perform it for you right now but I'm not going to, perfectly in tune with all the right words. I love that song.
Performer
The Robber Bridegroom | Peter and the Starcatcher | Avenue Q | Phantom of the Opera
"If Ever I Would Leave You"- from Camelot
Performer
Cinderella | Mame | On the Town | Thoroughly Modern Millie
When I was a girl, I had a lovely white stuffed elephant that played "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific. Both the music and the elephant were very consoling to a rather overwrought eight year old. I have always loved the song and even now think of it unexpectedly. "Who can explain it? Who can tell you why? Fools give you reasons, Wise men never try."
Performer
Girl from the North Country
“Sarah Brown Eyes” from Ragtime, because it embodies so perfectly the feelings one has in finding their true love, and reminds me of my beautiful wife.
Industry
Founder/President The Hartman Group PR
"On The Street Where You Live" from MY FAIR LADY.
Performer
The Phantom of the Opera | How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying | The Music Man
William Shakespeare put it best: “The course of true love never did run smooth.” To me, love songs aren’t just schmaltzy songs about love, they are songs about hope. We all hope for love....and hope keeps us going. Songs like “I Loved You Once in Silence” and “Somewhere” are amazing classics, but I am so drawn to “Falling Slowly” from Once.
Performer
Come From Away | Billy Elliot | Annie
Thirty some years ago I played the sea captain who delivers Anna to Siam and comes and picks her up at the end of The King And I. During the intervening 3 hours, I would play gin with the actor playing the ambassador but we would always pause our game to listen to the beautiful love duet "I Have Dreamed". You can't do better than Rogers and Hammerstein.
Performer
The Phantom of the Opera | Les Misérables |
My favorite love song from Broadway is “People Will Say We’re in Love”. I just think there is nothing more musical theater than Rogers & Hammerstein, and I’m from Oklahoma and I kind of get the redneck thing, so that’s my favorite song.
Performer
How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
I think its a tie for me between "A Quiet Thing" from Flora and the Red Menace - its so simple and sweet and perfect - and "All the Wasted Time" from Parade. Its just such an honest and tragic love song. I'm a huge sucker for the tragedy, and what a beautiful melody!
Performer
Fanny | Oklahoma! | The Sound of Music | Wish You Were Here
The most romantic song I think is "My Heart Stood Still" (from A Connecticut Yankee) because this describes how I felt when I saw my husband to be for the first time! I guess it was love at first sight.
Performer
Billy Elliot
"If I Loved You" from CAROUSEL by Rodgers and Hammerstein is just a perfect piece of musical theatre writing. If the lighting is clean, the set is evocative, and the actors are true, a transcendent moment awaits... the QUESTION of love, followed by a hazarded diversion, several attempts at denial, ending finally and inevitably with the ANSWER of love... all in the most courageous nine-minute scene, which,
instead of swelling to two voices booming in harmony at the top of their ranges, ends with Julie's gentle line, "You're right about their being no wind. The blossoms are just coming down by their selves. Just their time to, I reckon." SMOOCH! That's love at its best!!
Performer
Man of La Mancha | Dear World | A Little Night Music
I think this year I would have to say “It Only Takes A Moment” from Hello, Dolly! With this year's revival, I was reminded of how incredible Jerry Herman’s simple melodies are - no one can write like him.
Performer
Days of Wine and Roses
"Where or When" by Rodgers and Hart because I love the idea that: I know you and that we're connected, but I can't tell you what the moment was.
Performer
The Curious Incodent of the Dog in the Night-Time
"Not A Day Goes By" by Stephen Sondheim. Not sure if it's a love song per se, but it sure is a song about love lost.... It's just absolutely heartbreaking every time I hear it. And, for my money, Bernadette Peter's version is a bolt of lightning smack through the center of my heart.
Performer
Six | The Color Purple
My favorite love song is "All I Ask of You," from The Phantom of the Opera. The orchestrations are just so beautiful.
Performer
Motown | Caroline | or Change | The Lion King
I just love "Somewhere” from West Side Story. Classic.
Performer
Come From Away | Rent | Jesus Christ Superstar | The Scottsboro Boys
Easy. My favorite Broadway love song would have to be “Without You” from RENT.
Performer
Frozen | The Robber Bridegroom | Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella | Peter and the Starcatcher | Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
“Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat” from Cats
Performer
The Phantom of the Opera
"Say it Somehow" from The Light in the Piazza. The combination of such a beautiful, sweeping melody and the story of two young lovers finding a way to communicate without words is so incredibly romantic I can hardly stand it. It is one my most favourite duets to sing.
Performer
Dancin' | Funny Girl | Hadestown | Summer | Motown
My favorite Broadway love song is "Sunrise" from In the Heights. It captures the feeling of new love, with all its uncertainty, and how we are often being pulled in many different directions, by our responsibilities, expectations, and obligations. It's also just a gorgeous song, sung beautifully by the legends Mandy "the Beast" Gonzalez and Christopher Jackson. Swoon!
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