Evening Primrose: When? - Stephen Sondheim

Ella look at me, this way Ella, Ella concentrate hard

Ella, hear me and turn before I deal another card

No don’t look at me, don’t look up, Charles

If you look at me, then I will look at you, happily

And they will see how much I like you

When will I ever see you, Ella

When will we meet, when will we speak

When will I once again touch your cheek, when…

When will we meet, I long to know, Charles

How do you dance?

How do you smoke?

What is a party?

What is a joke?

But when…

I pass, I pass, I pass the hours planning

Things to teach you

I pass the hours planning

Ways to reach you

When, when, when

One heart, one heart

One heart is beating wildly

Can she hear it?

One heart is beating wildly

Charles is near it

When…

When will we be alone together

When will we meet?

When will we be alone together?

When can we speak?

When will we meet?

When can I once again touch your cheek?

When can we speak?

When can I once again touch your cheek?

When?

Ella gay as a tarantella

Pure as larks singing a capella

Let my poem be your umbrella

Ella, poets who suffer pain

Should fall in love with girls named Jane, not Ella

When will we meet I long to know

What songs do you like?

Where are you from?

Have you been married?

Why did you come?

When?

When Ella, when I long to teach your

Eyes how to read, hands how to write

Lips how to spell, but night after night

When…

I see you scouring and mending, pale and dreamy

Bending and pretending not to see me

When, when, when…

I see you smile at me in Notions while I’m cooking

Cover your emotions, Charles, they’re looking

When…

When will we ever be together?

When is the time?

When will we ever be together?

Where is the place?

When is the time?

When will I once again touch your face?

Where is the place?

When will I once again touch your face?

When, when, when, when, when…

When will we meet I long to know

What songs do you like?

Where are you from?

Charles, am I ugly, Charles, am I dumb

Charles, do you like me?

Charles, could you love me?

Charles?

Harkins absent: the daylight darkens

Ella what kind of coward am I, this I will not allow

Ella, what if they do their worst, I’ll see you first

We’ll be together…

Now Ella, now girl, I shall show your

Hands how to touch, eyes how to glow

Lips how to kiss, I’ve so much to show

Then you will blossom, then you will grow

And then.

then… then…