Broadway Lyrics

Hard To Be The Bard

SHAKESPEARE:
My days are so busy it's making me dizzy
There's so much I gotta do
There's lunches and meetings and poetry readings
And endless interviews
Gotta pose for a portrait
And how I deplore sitting there for eternity
Then it's off to the inn
Where my innkeeper friend
Wants to name a drink after me
Then it's back to my room, where I resume
My attempt to write a hit
Just me and my beer and the terrible fear
That I might be losing it

And it's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE & MANSERVANTS:
It's really, really hard
So very very hard

SHAKESPEARE:
I make it look easy but honey believe me
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's so

SHAKESPEARE & MANSERVANTS:
Incredibly hard
So inconceivably, unbelievably hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's hard to be the bard

[spoken] Honestly, I don't know how I do it. There's only so much of me to go around

I've got so many fans
With so many demands
I can hardly go take a piss

MANSERVANTS:
He can't pee

SHAKESPEARE:
Be it theater-freak or
The autograph-seeker
They all want a piece of this

MANSERVANTS:
Gimme, Gimme

SHAKESPEARE:
It's a cross that I bear
I'm like Jesus, I swear
It's a burden but I suffer through it

MANSERVANTS:
He is suffering

SHAKESPEARE:
It's all part of the game
The trappings of fame
But somebody's gotta do it

MANSERVANTS:
So he does it

SHAKESPEARE:
And I know, I know, I gotta go
And get back to my pen and ink
Oh don't make me do it
Don't make me go through it
Can somebody get me a drink?

Cause it's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's really really hard
It's sexy but it's hard
This bar that I'm
Raising to be this amazing!
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's so

SHAKESPEARE & MANSERVANTS:
Annoyingly hard
So unavoidably, un-enjoyably hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's hard to be the bard, baby

[spoken] Ugh. I know writing made me famous, but being famous is just so much more fun. You see...

What people just don't understand
Is that writing's demanding
It's mentally challenging and it's a bore
It's such a chore
To sit in a room by yourself

Oh my god, I just hate it!

And you're trying to find
An opening line or a brilliant idea
And you're pacing the floor
And hoping for just a bit of divine intervention
That one little nugget that one little spark
Then Eureka! You find it you're ready to start
So now you can write, right? Wrong!
You're not even close, you remember that damn it
Your play's gotta be in iambic pentameter!

So you write down a word but it's not the right word
So you try a new word but you hate the new word
And you need a good word but you can't find the word
Oh where is it, what is it, what is it, where is it!
Blah-blah-blah, ha ha, ah-ha -UGHHHHHHHH!

VALET:
Sir

SHAKESPEARE:
Hello

VALET:
You asked for information on what Nicholas Bottom is writing. Our spy is here with the news

SHAKESPEARE:
Did he see me losing it?

VALET:
He's half blind, sir

SHAKESPEARE:
Oh, good. Then he only saw half of it. You see what I did? Ha ha

VALET:
Oh, yes, yes, yes, wonderful

SHAKESPEARE
Speak, man. What news?

EYEPATCH MAN:
I saw Nick Bottom, I did. He paid a soothsayer to foresee what Shakespeare's greatest play would be

SHAKESPEARE:
That sneaky little thief! Why doesn't he come up with his own ideas!?

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
No. It is, isn't it?
It's really the worst

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
Makes me wonder why I didn't think of that first

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
Hard to alleviate the pressure to create

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
Hard to do something as good as the last thing I did that was already great

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

SHAKESPEARE:
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
So hard that he is stealing from the bard

SHAKESPEARE:
Well I'll hoist him by his petard
All that I need is a clever disguise

MANSERVANTS:
Clever disguise

SHAKESPEARE:
I'll make him pay for his devious lies

MANSERVANTS:
Devious lies

SHAKESPEARE:
Let him do all the tedious stuff
The work that's terribly and unbearably hard

[spoken] All right, Nick Bottom. I think Shakespeare needs to find out what Shakespeare's next big hit will be!

Cause it's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard
It's totally hard

SHAKESPEARE & MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

MAN SERVANTS:
It's hard
It's totally hard

SHAKESPEARE & MANSERVANTS:
It's hard

MANSERVANTS:
It's hard
It's totally hard

SHAKESPEARE:
I've got fortune and fame
Everyone knows my name
I can't help it it's still freaking hard

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