imported>Fambam44 at 16:46, 18 June 2025

2025-06-18T16:46:25Z

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{{Infobox song
| name = The Boy From...
| cover =
| alt =
| type =
| artist = [[Linda Lavin]]
| album =
| released = 1966
| format =
| recorded =
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = {{hlist|[[Bossa nova]]|[[Parody]]|[[Musical theatre|Musical]]}}
| length =
| label =
| writer = [[Stephen Sondheim]]<br>[[Mary Rodgers]]
| producer =
}}

"'''The Boy From...'''" is a song with lyrics by [[Stephen Sondheim]] and music by [[Mary Rodgers]], originally performed by [[Linda Lavin]] in the 1966 [[Off-Broadway]] revue ''[[The Mad Show]]''.<ref name=song>[https://www.sondheimguide.com/other.html#Mad "'Mad Show'"], SondheimGuide.com. Accessed May 8, 2025.</ref>

==Synopsis==
The song is essentially a [[parody]] of "[[The Girl from Ipanema]]"<ref>Suskin, Steven. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_3mOZv6OaUIC&dq=Sondheim+%22The+Boy+from...%22&pg=PA266 "Stephen Sondheim"] ''Show Tunes'', Oxford University Press US, 2010; {{ISBN|0-19-531407-7}}, p. 266</ref> and [[bossa nova]] style in general. The [[melody]] and [[lyrics]] are relatively close to the original, and Lavin's original delivery of the song was reminiscent of [[Astrud Gilberto]]'s simple, breathy style.

The song's context differs from the original in that it is sung in reference to a male character. Though both songs are about unrequited desire for the title character, the humor of "The Boy From..." stems partly from the fact that the narrator is completely oblivious to her would-be crush's blatant [[homosexuality]],<ref>Banfield, Stephen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dLf1_FutpusC&dq=Sondheim+%22The+Boy+from...%22&pg=PA28 Listing] ''Sondheim's Broadway Musicals'', University of Michigan Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-472-08083-0}}, p. 28</ref> as, for example, illustrated in the song's second bridge: "Why are his trousers [[vermilion]]? / Why does he claim he's [[Castile (historical region)|Castilian]]? / Why do his friends call him Lillian? / And I hear at the end of the week, / he's leaving to start a boutique."

The other humorous aspect of the song comes from the fact that every verse ends with a repetition of the extremely long name of the title character's hometown (hence the title), a fictional village called "Tacarembo la Tumba del Fuego Santa Malipas Zacatecas la Junta del Sol y Cruz" ("Cruz" pronounced as "cruth" with [[distinción]]): with the narrator becoming slightly more out-of-breath with each verse. This is only enhanced by the ending, where the narrator laments that her beloved is "moving to Wales / to live in [[Llanfairpwllgwyngyll]]gogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch."

Sondheim wrote the song's lyrics under the [[pseudonym]] of "Esteban Ria Nido", which Sondheim described as "a part-translation and part-transliteration of my name."<ref>{{cite book|page=xi|title=The Almost Unknown Stephen Sondheim|publisher=Rilting Music, Inc.|date=2016}}</ref> In ''The Mad Show'''s [[playbill]], the lyrics were credited to "[[pen name|Nom de Plume]]".<ref>{{cite book|page=36|last1=Rodgers|first1=Mary|last2=Green|first2=Jesse|date=2022|title=Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers|publisher=Farrar, Straus, and Giroux}}</ref>

==Other performances==
"The Boy From..." was also featured in the 1976 [[musical revue|revue]] ''[[Side by Side by Sondheim]]'',<ref>[http://www.sondheimguide.com/sideby.html#OP "'Side by Side by Sondheim' listing"] Sondheim Guide, accessed July 3, 2011</ref> performed by [[Millicent Martin]].

In 2020, 54 years after she debuted the song, [[Linda Lavin]] performed it again as part of ''[[Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Celebration|Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration]]''.<ref>{{cite news | last=Willman | first=Chris | date=April 27, 2020 | title=Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Audra McDonald and More Salute Stephen Sondheim in Birthday Tribute | work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] | url=https://variety.com/2020/music/news/stephen-sondheim-birthday-celebration-jake-gyllenhaal-meryl-streep-1234590377/ | access-date=May 2, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last=McNulty | first=Charles | date=April 27, 2020 | title=Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday bash reminds us why his music remains so radical | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-27/stephen-sondheim-90th-birthday-celebration | access-date=May 2, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last=Brantley | first=Ben | date=April 27, 2020 | title=Review: For Sondheim's 90th Birthday, a Collage of Aching Voices | work=[[The New York Times]] | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/theater/take-me-to-the-world-sondheim-review.html | access-date=May 1, 2020}}</ref>

The song was included in the 2022 revue [[Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends|''Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends'']].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-24 |title=Old Friends Stephen Sondheim in the West End & Gala Concert: Full Song List {{!}} West End Theatre |url=https://www.westendtheatre.com/117491/news/old-friends-stephen-sondheim-gala-concert-full-song-list/ |access-date=2025-03-02 |website=www.westendtheatre.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IOBDB title|3545|The Mad Show}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boy From, The}}
[[Category:Songs from musicals]]
[[Category:Songs written by Stephen Sondheim]]
[[Category:1966 songs]]
[[Category:Musical parodies]]
[[Category:Bossa nova songs]]

The Boy From... - Revision history

imported>Fambam44 at 16:46, 18 June 2025