Live, Laugh, Love

[BEN]
When the winds are blowing.

[CHORUS] Yes!

[BEN]
That's the time to smile.

[CHORUS] Oh!

[BEN]
Learn how to laugh
Learn how to love
Learn how to live
That's my style
When the rent is owing.

[CHORUS] Yes!

[BEN] What's the use of tears!

[CHORUS] Oh!

[BEN]
I'd rather laugh
I'd rather love
I'd rather live
In arrears.

Some fellows sweat
To get to be millionaires
Some have a sport
They're devotees of
Some like to be the champs
At saving postage stomps.

Me, I like to live
Me, I like to laugh
Me, I like to love.

Some like to sink
And think in their easy chairs
Of all the things
They've risen above
Some like to be profound
By reading Proust and Pound.

Me. I like to live
Me. I like to laugh
Me. I like to love.

Success is swell
And success is sweet
But every height has a drop
The less achievement
The less defeat
What's the point of shovin'
Your way to the top?
Live 'n' laugh 'n' love 'n'
You're never a flop
So when the walls are crumbling.

[CHORUS] Yes!

[BEN] Don't give up the ship.

[CHORUS] No.

[BEN]
Learn how to laugh
Learn how to love
Learn how to live
That's my tip
When I hear the rumbling.

[CHORUS] Yes!

[BEN] Do I lose my grip!

[CHORUS] No!

[BEN]
I have to laugh
I have to love
I have to live
That's my trip.

[ALL]
When the wind is blowing
That's the time to smile
When the rent is owing
Never lose your style.

[BEN]
Some get a boot
From shooting off cablegrams
Or buzzing bells
To summon the staff
Some climbers get their kicks
From social politics.

Me. I like to live
Me. I like to love...
(He momentarily forgets his lyric.)

Some break their asses
Passing their bar exams.

Lay out their lives
like lines on a graph...

One day they're diplomats-
Well, bully and congrats!

Me, I like to live
Me, I like to love...

(He goes blank again.)
Me, I like-me, I love-me
I don't love me!
(Ben begins to rove.)

[CHORUS]
Success is well
And success is sweet
But every height has a drop
The less achievement
The less defeat
What's the point of shovin'
Your war to the top!
(The company sings bits of songs heard previously. Everything
we've seen and heard all evening is going on at once, as if the
night's experience were being vomited. Ghosts, memories and party
guests--all there. The cacophony is terrible, and we can barely hear
Ben as he races from one group to another screaming into the
chaos.)

[CHORUS]
Now, if you see Lucy "X,"
Youthful, truthful Lucy "X,"
Let her know she's better than she suspects
Now if you see Jessie "Y," etc.

[BEN]
Phyllis!