Fun Rhymes From Children’s Broadway Musicals
Let me know about any I missed
- Prologue (Into the Woods)
[LRRH]
I sort of hate to ask it
But do you have a basket?
This type of rhyme, which rhymes a single multisyllabic word with multiple monosyllabic words, is called a broken, or mosaic rhyme. You’ll find a lot of them in Hamilton, but before Lin-Manuel Miranda, there was Sondheim. Not so coincidentally, Miranda uses the same rhyme in reverse order in Cabinet Battle # 2 (We signed a treaty with a King whose head is now in a basket / Would you like to take it out and ask it?”)
2) Strike That Reverse It (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
[Willy Wonka]
I’d love to rhyme a riddle or two
but there’s so much time, so little to do!
I love the way this rhyme slips off the tongue. The version of the song sung by Christian Borle is really fun, with a great supporting cast. (The “this tempo is preposterous” always makes me laugh).
3) Naughty (Matilda)
[Matilda]
Just because you find that life’s not fair, it
Doesn’t mean that you just have to grin and bear it
If you always take it on the chin and wear it
Even if you’re little, you can do a lot, you
Mustn’t let a little thing like, ‘little’ stop you
If you sit around and let them get on top, you
Tim Minchin is very talented and thus gets a pass for his repetition rhyme and also for leaving rhymes at the end of line, after a comma, instead of at the beginning of the next line, where they belong. I say this tongue in cheek, I love the rhyme in this song.
4) Popular (Wicked)
[Glinda]
And when someone needs a makeover
I simply have to take over
Don’t be offended by my frank analysis
Think of it as personality dialysis
To be who you’ll be
Instead of dreary, who you were… well, are
There’s nothing that can stop you
From becoming popu-ler… lar…
Great rhymes all the way through. It’s so meta for a character to be aware of their rhyming, or rather, non-rhyming.
5) Hard Knock Life (Annie)
[ANNIE]
Don’t it feel like the wind is always howl’n?
[KATE AND TESSIE]
Don’t it seem like there’s never any light!
[DUFFY AND JULY]
Once a day, don’t you wanna throw the towel in?
When searching for rhymes, the English language becomes very malleable, I like this transformative rhyme, where the pronunciation is modified to make it a rhyme.
6) Defying Gravity (Wicked)
[Elphaba]
Dreams, the way we planned ‘em
[Together]
Glinda, If we work in tandem
This rhyme combines broken rhyme with transformative rhyme. A winning combination.
7) I Think I Got You Beat (Shrek)
[Fiona]
And every morning I would boil it.
No choice I had no toilet.
[Shrek]
You’re just whiney
I had a flaming hiney
There probably aren’t too many instances of songs written by adults that contain rhymes for toilet and hiney.
8) Agony (Into the Woods)
[Prince]
The task’s unachievable, mountains unscalable
If it’s conceivable but unavailable
Double the rhyme, double the fun!
9) Story of my life (Shrek)
[Big Bad Wolf]
They tore my cotton granny dress,
And called me a hot and tranny mess.
It’s not easy to rhyme five syllables.
10) It Takes Two (Into the Woods)
[Baker and his wife]
It takes just a bit more and we’re done
We want four, we had none
We’ve got three, We need one
It takes two
Multiple rhymes, plus, the Count from Sesame Street would approve of this one.
Can you think of any great rhymes that I have missed?
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@ 2022, Rob Dods
