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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
AMERICAN IDIOT | PASSING STRANGE
"One Hand, One Heart" from WEST SIDE STORY.
Performer
Six | The Devil Wears Prada | Scotland PA | Head Over Heels | Groundhog Day
My favorite Broadway love song is "Without You" from Rent. I think the simplicity of the melody and repetition is such a great depiction of longing and love.
Performer
The World of Extreme Happiness | Pacific Overtures | Thoroughly Modern Millie | M. Butterfly
I am constantly cycling through love songs! But my current favorite Broadway love song is "Love Will Stand When All Else Falls" from Memphis. It perfectly articulates attachment, time, obstacles, perseverance and the temporary nature of all things.
Performer
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | The Crucible
“You're All I Need To Get By by Ashford and Simpson. From Motown The Musical. This song has been in my top 10 of love songs for ever. Released as a single by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell in the late 60s. When I saw Motown The Musical on Opening Night on Broadway, April 2013, so many of the songs lifted my heart but when this song started I had tingles and felt so blissfully happy. I think I joined in a little too loudly and irritated my immediate neighbors in the dress circle. Great lyrics, great chords great love song”
Performer
Carousel | The Phantom of the Opera
My favorite Broadway love song is not really a love song, but when my husband proposed to me, he booked a hotel room with a grand piano and he had me play and sing “Defying Gravity” for him. That was his proposal idea. So, I have to say that’s my favorite Broadway love song.
Performer
Diana | Anastasia | Cinderella | Nice Work if You Can Get It | Sweeney Todd | Wicked | Mamma Mia!
My favorite Broadway love song comes from Very Warm for May by Jerome Kern. It's "All the Things You Are." How could I not love that song? It's the most gorgeous song ever written.
Performer
Once | To Be Or Not To Be | 110 In The Shade | Spamalot
My favorite Broadway love song would have to be Johanna, "Sweeney Todd" Stephen Sondheim as sung by the Amazing Victor Garber. The lyrics, lyrics, lyrics. Such a plaintive yet defiantly optimistic love song. Oh and Victor also KILLS it!!
Performer
The Prom (National Tour)
"What About Love?" from The Color Purple. I just love that it captures a moment of the risk being there, but what about the thing that we gain? What about this beautiful connection that we can have? It captures that beautifully.
Performer
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark | The Boy from Oz | Hairspray
So many beautiful, sensual, powerful, touching songs, but OH the towering feeling when my love Mark (Berman) serenades me from his piano with "On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady.
Performer
Once | Feston | Twelfth Night | Working
"If I Fell" from Beatlemania. It's nice to know that something you liked as a child is still great.
Director
We're Gonna Die | A Strange Loop
My favorite Broadway love song is "Delovely" by Cole Porter. I like it because it makes me feel those butterflies that people talk about all the time. I think I feel them when I hear that song.
Performer
Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark | The Addams Family | Wicked
"Best Worst Mistake" from If/Then
Performer
ANYTHING GOES
For me, my favorite Broadway love song is "You Are Love" from SHOW BOAT
Performer
The Ferryman | The Last Ship | Somebody's Daughter
"The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance" from The Last Ship. I love the song, it's not so much a traditional love song as much as it is a meeting of minds between a father and son and finally getting to connect for the first time.
Performer
Kinky Boots | Mamma Mia!
“Somewhere” from West Side Story. West Side Story has always been one of my favorite shows. The melodies and lyrics link up so perfectly with the emotional journey of the story. I did the show in college and maybe it was the time in my life or that particular moment onstage, but ever since, "Somewhere" has been one of those songs that sort of stops me in my tracks for a minute wherever I hear it. Beautiful.
Creative
Henry and Mudge The Woman Upstairs | The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown | Wrong Number
"Bewitched" from Pal Joey has always been one of my favorite Broadway Love song. But now that Once is a stage musical maybe "Falling Slowly."
Performer
How to Succeed | The Apple Tree
My favorite Broadway love song? I am going slightly creepy with a side of unrequited and saying 'Her Face' from Carnival. On first listen, it creeps one out a bit because of the age difference of the characters in the show, but even out of context it's the best song about loving someone you can't have; well let's not say "can't have," they just happen to love someone else maybe at that moment. Great lyric, delicious melody. It's like a big juicy slice of Christmas ham.
Performer
Natasha | Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
Honestly, right now it would be “No One Else” from The Great Comet! It's a gorgeous sentiment, and the string orchestrations that maestro Malloy crafted to accompany Natasha send me straight to heaven every night. I also adore “Wait” from Sweeney Todd.
Performer
Come From Away | Into The Woods | Memphis
“My Time of Day” from Guys and Dolls.
While it’s not about love of another person of which he sings, the swooning nostalgia for a time and place in this city gets me every time.
Performer
A Night with Janis Joplin
Overall favorite Broadway love song is "Somewhere" from West Side Story. I love this song!
Industry
Kritzerland Records | Author | Producer/Director/Composer/Lyricist
Okay, my unconventional choice for most beautiful B'way love song ever written will be "Once Upon A Time" from ALL AMERICAN by Strouse and Adams. It's rueful, but there is just something so achingly romantic and sweet about the look back at first love - so, I'm choosing it and that's that.
Performer
Broadway Dreams | Fosse | Dance of Death | Barry Manilow's Harmony and Sweet Charity
Wow, there are so many great Broadway love songs, but if I had to pick one today it would be "Loving You" from PASSION. The lyrics are pure and honest to me and I love the line, "loving you is not a choice..."
Performer
Murder for Two
My favorite Broadway love song is still "Some Other Time" from On the Town, which was how I voted last year! However, now it's an even more relevant response, since Elizabeth Stanley and company's rendition from the current revival is absolutely one for the ages. A bittersweet, beautiful moment of stillness in the midst of so much divine chaos, it's one of the best and most mature love songs ever written.
Creative
Superhero | Next to Normal | Bring it On | If/Then
"Being Alive" from Company. Every time I hear that catharsis of that song and someone realizing in something so gargantuan in such a beautiful, heartfelt way just always stops me.
Performer
Hamilton | If/Then | In the Heights
"Suddenly Semore" from Little Shop of Horrors.
Performer
Dead Outlaw | Beautiful | Bye Bye Birdie
One of my favorites is from Dead Outlaw and it's called "A Stranger". It is sung to the dead body of her lover, which I think is something you don't see onstage everyday... a love song with a corpse!
Performer
Sunday in the Park with George | She Loves Me | Les Misérables | Hair
My favorite Broadway love song is “And I am Telling You I’m Not Going”. Love can be forceful and complicated, and that song is forceful and complicated, and it’s an amazing showtune and an amazing standalone song.
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