brb watching this on a loop for all of eternity. RU-vid read my mind, I was going to go scour her Instagram for the video of her rehearsing this on stage at the Gershwin and it magically showed up on autoplay here!
All of your life you wake up to the taxis and the chimes To the bathroom with the roaches and the breakfast with the Times And you subway to school with kids whose folks all live in twenty blocks In a high-rise rented carton or a co-op brownstone box, with double locks West End Avenue Babies in carts and poodles barking West End Avenue. Planning your day around the parking You tell yourself, "I will be free." West End Avenue You won't get me All of your life you watch the shrinks and lawyers on parade Watch the brokers in their worsted and the ad men in their suede While upstairs a soprano tries to sing the waltz from "La Boheme." And you watch 'em and you listen and you judge and you condemn You're not like them West End Avenue Delis and laundromats and gay bars West End Avenue Only a block away from Zabars But you were meant to really fly. West End Avenue, Good bye, good bye And then suddenly you're out there on your own But you forgot that free could also mean alone And when all that freedom gets too much for you Ooh, what do you do? You pack up your boots and blue jeans and your records and your pride And you tell yourself you ventured and you tell yourself you tried So it's back to the surly doormen and the canopies you go And the buses seem to chuckle and the towers seem to crow "We told you so." West End Avenue Find me a golden cage to perch in West End Avenue Open your arms to one more urchin Who's crawlin' back to mama's den West End Avenue You win again!
I'm jaded by Idina Menzel having originated the role of Elphaba, and thus the song as well, but Ms Vosk did an INCREDIBLE job here. I love the emotion, playfulness, pining, and pain all together she brings to the song. She definitely made it fun, at the same time. She gave Ms Menzel a run for her.........talent.
