You're Gonna Love Tomorrow
An intimate revue that sheds light on lesser-known Sondheim masterpieces, as well as his illustrious career.
Show Essentials
7
Roles
PG13
Rated
1
Act

Full Synopsis

You're Gonna Love Tomorrow is a revue that features some of Sondheim's most popular songs, along with songs that received their New York premiere when this show was first presented in 1983. The highlights from Sondheim's catalog include such musicals as The Frogs, Saturday Night, Pacific Overtures, Company, Anyone Can Whistle, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along.

The songs are as follows:

"Invocation"
"It's That Kind of Neighborhood"
"Saturday Night"
"This Is Nice, Isn't It?"
"Saturday Night – Reprise"
"Poems"
"What More Do I Need?"
"Another Hundred People"
"With So Little to Be Sure Of"
"Pretty Little Picture"
"The House of Marcus Lycus"
"Echo Song"
"There's Something about a War"
"Fear No More"
"Being Alive"
"You're Gonna Love Tomorrow"
"Love Will See Us Through"
"The Miller's Son"
"Johanna"
"Not a Day Goes By"
"Someone in a Tree"
"Send in the Clowns"
"Old Friends"

Casting
← Back to You're Gonna Love Tomorrow
Cast Size: Small (Up to 10 performers)
Cast Type: Ensemble Cast
Dance Requirements: None

Character Breakdown

Man 1
Calm and confident. Often sarcastic. A bit of a dreamer and very much a storyteller.
Gender: male
Age: 30 to 55
Vocal range top: B5
Vocal range bottom: A3
Man 2
Romantic and sincere. Often very tongue in cheek funny. A salesman.
Gender: male
Age: 40 to 60
Vocal range top: G5
Vocal range bottom: A3
Man 3
Blinded by love. Naïve and hopelessly optimistic. Endearing. Strong.
Gender: male
Age: 25 to 40
Vocal range top: B5
Vocal range bottom: B3
Man 4
Strong, striking and confident but at times boyish. Upbeat. Loving and passionate.
Gender: male
Age: 25 to 35
Vocal range top: A5
Vocal range bottom: B3
Woman 1
Sweet, naïve, youthful but not dumb. Blinded by love. Can be scheming.
Gender: female
Age: 18 to 24
Vocal range top: B5
Vocal range bottom: B3
Woman 2
Charming, and seductive southern belle. Sweet and nostalgic. Strong but weathered and broken-hearted.
Gender: female
Age: 28 to 40
Vocal range top: G5
Vocal range bottom: G3
Woman 3
Strong and wise. Perhaps a little jaded at times but other times quiet cheerful and optimistic. Passionate.
Gender: female
Age: 30 to 45
Vocal range top: B5
Vocal range bottom: G3
Full Song List
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Invocation and Instructions to the Audience
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Saturday Night
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Isn't It?
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Saturday Night (Reprise)
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Poems
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: What More Do I Need?
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Another Hundred People
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: With So Little to Be Sure Of
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Pretty Little Picture
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: The House of Marcus Lycus
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Echo Song
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: There's Something About a War
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Being Alive
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: The Miller's Son
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Johanna
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Not a Day Goes By
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Someone in a Tree
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Send in the Clowns
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow: Old Friends

Show History

Inspiration


The title, You're Gonna Love Tomorrow, comes from the title of a song in one of Sondheim s most famous musicals, Follies. The show, You're Gonna Love Tomorrow, was meant to be a revue of Sondheim's work, featuring songs that showed his most romantic, most openhearted side, making this the least "cold" of the various Sondheim compilations.

Productions


The original production of You're Gonna Love Tomorrow was created for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. It played two standing-room-only concerts at the Sotheby auction hall on March 3, 1983, with an original cast that included George Hearn (Sweeney Todd) , Cris Groenendaal (Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Passion), Liz Callaway (Merrily We Roll Along, Miss Saigon), Judy Kaye (What about Luv?, The Phantom of the Opera), Bob Gunton (EvitaSweeney Todd) and Victoria Mallory (A Little Night Music, Follies).

Cultural Influence

  • An original concert recording of You're Gonna Love Tomorrow was released by RCA Victor under the title, A Stephen Sondheim Evening.
  • The musical, Follies, from which the revue's title song, "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow," originated, is one of Sondheim s most prominent. It has a book by James Goldman and was originally directed by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett. It was nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning seven.
  • Stephen Sondheim is a master of the American musical theatre. He is the winner of an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (more than any other composer), eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award.

Trivia

  • Seven of the featured songs made their New York premieres when You're Gonna Love Tomorrow debuted, including two from The Frogs, the show Sondheim wrote in 1975 to be "staged" in the Yale University swimming pool.
  • You're Gonna Love Tomorrow is one of five licensed Sondheim revues originally produced between 1976 (Side by Side by Sondheim) and 2010 (Sondheim on Sondheim).
  • In both performances at Sotheby's, the evening ended with a surprise visit, Angela Lansbury (Sweeney ToddAnyone Can Whistle) came on stage to sing "Send in the Clowns," accompanied by Sondheim himself.
  • You're Gonna Love Tomorrow was originally staged as a concert organized by The Whitney Museum in 1983 in Stephen Sondheim's honor – the same year that he was elected to the American Institute of Arts and Letters.

Critical Reaction

"This is a delightful 90 minutes of mostly Stephen Sondheim's lesser known songs from his solo musicals."
– The Examiner

"His breadth of human insight and his inventiveness show why Mr. Sondheim is widely and appropriately regarded as a musical genius, even with this grouping of mostly rarely heard songs, many of which come from musicals that were originally considered flops. Most composers would die to have flops like these."
– Cincinnati Enquirer

"The words that immediately come to mind to describe this production are clever, sweet, friendly, likable, pleasant, charming, sincere, cute, enjoyable, quaint, self-deprecating, jaunty (debonair would be a bit of a stretch) and not too long."
– Los Angeles Times

Connect

Billing

Requirements

You must give the authors/creators billing credits, as specified in the Production Contract, in a conspicuous manner on the first page of credits in all programs and on houseboards, displays and in all other advertising announcements of any kind.
Percentages listed indicate required type size in relation to title size.
YOU'RE GONNA LOVE TOMORROW
 
A Stephen Sondheim Evening
 
 
Music and Lyrics by
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
 
Continuity by
Paul Lazarus
 
Musical direction by
Paul Gemignani
 
Orchestrations by
Tom Fay
 
As performed for the Whitney Museum of American Art
Composers' Showcase
Produced and Directed by Paul Lazarus

Video Warning

In accordance with the Performance License, you MUST include the following warning in all programs and in a pre-show announcement:

ANY VIDEO AND/OR AUDIO RECORDING OF THIS PRODUCTION IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

Included Materials

ItemQuantity Included
LIBRETTO/VOCAL BOOK10
PIANO CONDUCTOR'S SCORE2

Production Resources

Resource
HOW DOES THE SHOW GO ON-10/CS
HOW DOES THE SHOW GO ON?
REFERENCE RECORDING

STANDARD ORCHESTRATION

InstrumentationDoubling
BASS
GUITAR
PERCUSSIONBELL TREE , BELLS , BONGO , RACHET , SUZU , TRIANGLE , VIBRAPHONE , XYLOPHONE