Act I: Overture, Sands Of Time

Act I: Rhymes Have I

Act I: Fate

Act I: Bazaar of The Caravans

Act I: Not Since Nineveh

Act I: Baubles, Bangles And Beads

Act I: Stranger In Paradise

Act I: He's In Love!

Act I: Gesticulate

Act II: Night Of My Nights

Act II: Was I Wazir?

Act II: Rahadlakum

Act II: And This Is My Beloved

Act II: The Olive Tree

Act II: Zubbediya, Samahris' Dance

Finale: Sands Of Time

Stage Struck: In The Studio

Stage Struck: Interviews With Alfred Drake, Dorettta Morrow And George Forrest .......... Alfred Drake / Doretta Morrow / George Forrest

Princes come,
Princes go,
An hour of pomp and show they know;
Princes come and over the sands,
And over the sands of time they go.
Wise men come,
Ever promising the riddle of life to know,
Wise men come, Ah,
But over the sands.
The silent sands of time they go
Lovers come,
Lovers go.
And all that there is to know
Lovers know;
Only lovers know.

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I sat down, feeling desolated, bowed my head and crossed my knees--Is fortune really predicated upon such tiny turns as these? Then Fate's a thing without a head. A puzzle never understood, and man proceeds where he is led, unguaranteed of bad or good.

Fate!
Fate can be a trap in our path,
The bitter cup of your tears,
Your wine of wrath!

Fate can be shade of the desert blaze,
Sudden food in a famine found,
The sound of praise!
Incomprehensible and strange,
Fate can play a trick with the twine
To weave the evil and good
In one design!
And so, my Destiny,
I look at you and cannot see
Is it good, is it ill?
Am I blessed, am I cursed?
Is it honey on my tongue or brine?
What fate, what fate is mine?

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Baghdad!

South of the Garden of Eden!

North of the Gulf of Aden!

Where every man and maiden

Celebrates - Baghdad!

When or where
Could you compare
High life
To the life you find here?
Not since Nineveh, not since Tyre,
Not since Babylon turned to mire

For a sin of a kind we never mind here!

Where or when

Ever again
Low life
Like the life well known here?
Not since Nineveh, not since Sidon,
Not since Jericho started slidin'
From the din of a horn that's never blown here!

Our palaces are gaudier,
Our alleyways are bawdier,
Our princes more autocratic here,
Our beggars more distinctly aromatic here!

Where could you
Ever pursue
Your life
With the zeal we feel here?

Not since Babylon read that writing,
Not since Jericho heard that trumpet,
Not since Nebuchadnezzar's hanging garden went to pot,
Not since that town near Gomorrah got
Too hot

For Lot!
Not since Nineveh,
Not since Nineveh!

Baubles, bangles,
Hear how they jing, jing-a-ling-a,
Baubles, bangles,
Bright, shiny beads.
Sparkles, spangles,
My heart will sing, sing-a-ling-a,
Wearing baubles, bangles and beads.
I'll glitter and gleam so,
Make somebody dream so,
That someday he may buy me,
A ring, ring-aling-a,
I've heard that's where it leads,
Wearing baubles and bangles and beads.

She:
Oh why do the leaves
Of the Mulberry tree
Whisper differently now
And why is the nightingale singing
At noon on the Mulberry bow
For some most mysterious reason
This isn't the garden I know
No it's paradise now
That was only a garden
A moment ago

He:
Take my hand
I'm a stranger in paradise
All lost in a wonderland
A stranger in paradise
If I stand starry-eyed
That's a danger in paradise
For mortals who stand beside
An angel like you

I saw your face
And I ascended
Out of the commonplace
Into the rare
Somewhere in space
I hang suspended
Until I know
There's a chance that you care

Won't you answer the fervent prayer
Of a stranger in paradise
Don't send me in dark despair
From all that I hunger for
But open your angel's arms
To the stranger in paradise
And tell him
That he need be
A stranger no more

She:
I saw your face
And I ascended
Out of the commonplace
Into the rare

Both:
Somewhere in space
I hang suspended

She:
Until I know

He:
Till the moment I know

She:
There's a chance that you care

He:
There's a chance that you care

She:
Won't you answer the fervent prayer
Of a stranger in paradise

He:
Don't send me in dark despair
From all that I hunger for

Both:
But open your angel's arms
To the stranger in paradise
And tell me that I may be
A stranger no more.

See him smiling,
Hear him humming,
He's in love!
Joyful, jaunty,
Dreaming dazzled
He's in love!
Stars have invaded his eyes.
Silver bells in his voice
Sing a hymn to the her he dreams of!
Watch him wooing,
Purring, cooing,
He's a dove!
Sighing, doting,
Flying, floating,
High a bove!
Though you're suspecting
It's April affecting him so,
No.
Can't be, can't be,
Not him, not he,
He's in love,
and it's really love,
Because I'm in love and I know!

When you tell a story
Amorous or gory
You can tell it best if you gesticulate

Suppose the mighty Sinbad
Meets a Djinn who's been bad
They can guess the rest if you gesticulate

A tongue is a tongue
And a lung is a lung
In a tale you can shout or sing
Without the gesture? Nothing!

Should Scherazade
Undulate her body
That can be expressed if you gest...
Can be assessed if you gest...
She'll be undressed if you gesticulate

If I tell you I was walking by the sea
and found a genie in a bottle, that's trite!

Right! For practically everyone has seen a genie someone had to throttle...in a bottle!

Right! But if I say the bottle was soooo teeny
And sooooo was the genie

Until with trembling hand, I pulled the cork
And threw the jug and covered up my eyes

And the smoke began to curl
And the smoke began to swirl
And it curled and it swirled
And it swirled and it curled
As higher it did rise
Till it was sooooo high
And soooo was the genie
Then two great arms reached down
And liftd me up, up, up
Into the sky

And we did fly, the genie and I
We did sail, did sail....

Is this a tale? This is a tale!
Are you impressed? We are impressed!

You see, you see, you seeeeee

For the facile finger
Listeners will linger
They will be impressed if you gest...
Applaud with zest if you gest...
If it's a question of a story, gory, Sinbad, Djinn bad, bottle, smoke, genie, arms, fly, high, sky..
I state, reiterate, gesticulate
With your hands!

Play on the cymbal, the timbal, the lyre;
Play with appropriate passion.
Fashion songs of delight and delicious desire
For the night of my nights.
Come where the so well beloved is waiting,
Where the rose and the jasmine mingle
While I tell her the moon is formating
And 'tis sin to be single!
Let peacocks and monkeys in purple adornings
Show her the way to my bridal chamber,
Then get you gone 'til the morn of my mornings
After the night of my nights!
'Tis the night of my nights!
'Tis the night of my nights!

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On days when my lord feeleth restless
And bored with his sword and his plume
His handmaiden hath what he needeth
And what doth he need?

Rahadlakume!

On nights when my lord looketh listless
And black is the hue of his gloom
His handmaiden hath what he lacketh
And what doth he lack?

Rahadlakume!

Tis sweet with the meat of a lichee nut
Combined with a kumquat rind
The kind of confection to drive a man out of his Mesopotamian mind

And lo, if my lord feeleth faithless
And wanders by night from his room
His handmaiden fanneth her fires
And out of the pan rises a tantalizing perfume

He scenteth the scent
He turneth his face
His previous place, in her embrace
He does resume

And love is in bloom
The while they consume

Rahadlakume!

Dawn's promising skies
Petals on a pool drifting
Imagine these in one pair of eyes
And this is my beloved

Strange spice from the south
Honey through the comb sifting
Imagine these in one eager mouth
And this is my beloved

And when s/he speaks and when s/he talks to me
Music! Mystery!
And when s/he moves And when s/he walks with me
Paradise comes suddenly near

All that can stir All that can stun
All that's for the heart's lifting
Imagine these in one perfect one

And this is my beloved
And this is my beloved

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