The Boy From...

"The Boy From..." is a song with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and music by Mary Rodgers. It was originally performed by Linda Lavin in a 1966 Off-Broadway revue entitled The Mad Show.[1]

The song is essentially a parody of "The Girl from Ipanema"[2] and bossa nova style in general. The melody and lyrics are relatively close to the original, and Lavin's original delivery of the song was reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto's simple, breathy style.

The song's context differs from the original in that it is sung in reference to a male character. Though both songs are about unrequited desire for the title character, the humor of "The Boy From..." stems partly from the fact that the narrator is completely unaware of her crush's blatant homosexuality,[3] as, for example, illustrated in the song's second bridge: "Why are his trousers vermilion? / Why does he claim he's Castilian? / Why do his friends call him Lillian? / And I hear at the end of the week, / he's leaving to start a boutique."

The other humorous aspect of the song comes from the fact that every verse ends with a statement of the title character's hometown (hence the title), a fictional Spanish village called "Tacarembo la Tumba del Fuego Santa Malipas Zacatecas la Junta del Sol y Cruz" ("Cruz" pronounced as "cruth" with ceceo) - with the narrator becoming slightly more out-of-breath with each verse. This is only enhanced by the ending, where the narrator laments that her beloved is "moving to Wales / to live in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch."

Sondheim wrote the song's lyrics under the pseudonym of Esteban Río Nido,[1] which is a literal Spanish translation (from German) of his name.

"The Boy From..." was also featured in the Sondheim tribute revue Side by Side by Sondheim (1976),[4] in which the singer was Millicent Martin.

References

  1. 1 2 "'Mad Show'" Sondheim Guide, accessed July 3, 2011
  2. ↑ Suskin, Steven. "Stephen Sondheim" Show Tunes, Oxford University Press US, 2010, ISBN 0-19-531407-7, p.266
  3. ↑ Banfield, Stephen. Listing Sondheim's Broadway Musicals, University of Michigan Press, 1995, ISBN 0-472-08083-0, p. 28
  4. ↑ "'Side by Side by Sondheim' listing" Sondheim Guide, accessed July 3, 2011


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