Broadway Love and Kisses On Valentine’s Day 2023

Shows currently on Broadway are full of romantic or at least sexy moments, as these scenes and shots from a dozen of them attest:

click on any photograph to read the caption.

From Funny Girl:

Fanny:How can you walk in, change my whole life, and walk right out again? 
Nick:I promise to walk right back in as soon as I can do it with a fortune in each hand.
Fanny: Last time took a year.
Nick: This is nothing like last time.
Fanny: Yeah? What’s different? 
Nick: I love you
Fanny:You mean it? You’re not just blowing me off with some curtain line. 
(He kisses her deeply. )

From & Juliet:

Francois: I just proposed to Juliet. 
May:You must be so in love. You two just met. 
Francois: I’d never even kissed a girl before. 
May: But still, you’re moving forward
Francois: No regrets. 
May: You’d never kissed a girl before?
Francois: It’s true. 
May: So you’ve got nothing to compare it to. 
(They look at each other. The energy is palpable. They kiss, tentatively, then both pull back, surprised…sing lyrics of “I Kissed a Girl” then kiss again)…
May: Okay, but you know that I’m not a girl, right? If that’s what you–
Francois: It doesn’t matter to me. I just like kissing you.

From Kimberly Akimbo:

Kimberly:….That stuff with my dad was kinda humiliating. 
Seth: He was just doing his job. Telling me to not kiss you and  stuff?
Kimberly: Yeah, we don’t really need to talk about it.
Seth: Okay, yeah, that makes sense. (pause)
I was thinking though – um, if you wanted me to, I’d do it anyway. 
Kimberly:What? 
Seth: I know he’s supposed to be protective and everything, but you might want to do something that he thinks you don’t want to do. So if you wanted to be like, kissed or whatever, then I’d totally do it. 
(beat)
As a friend, you know? Like if you just wanted someone to practice on?
(beat) 
But not if you didn’t want to, obviously. I‘m just saying, I’m not afraid of your Dad. 
I mean I am, but I’m assuming you wouldn’t tell him, so in that case I wouldn’t be. Afraid of him, I mean. 
(no response)
I don’t want you to think that that’s why I’ve been hanging out with you. I wasn’t even thinking about kissing you until your Dad brought it up. But then when he did, I was like, huh. So…I don’t know. I guess…if you ever want to, just let me know. 
Kimberly: Okay. 

From Leopoldstadt

Hermann has commissioned the painter Gustav Klimt to do a portrait of his wife Gretl

Hermann: Look at you! He should be paying me.
Gretl: No, no – then how would I know my portrait is because you love me? 
Hermann: It is.
Gretl: Kiss me, then, on the mouth, nobody’s looking. 
Hermann: Yes, they are. 
(Gretl laughs, then ambushes him with a fleeting kiss on the lips, and hurries out. Hermann is pleased.)

A later scene: Gretl is having an affair with Fritz, on whom Gretl’s younger relative Hannah had a crush, which is how Gretl and Fritz met.

Gretl: You should see her, Fritz, before she leaves. Make love to her. 
Fritz: Don’t say things like that. 
Gretl: If I give you back to her perhaps it will make up for stealing you from her, and I won’t go to hell. 
Fritz: You don’t believe in hell. 
Gretl: I do now, now that I’m a sinner. You’re my first big sin. I’m not going to come here anymore. At least I won’t have to live in terror of being seen. I don’t know what’s happened to me. 
Fritz: I know what’s happened to me. You didn’t steal me, I stole you. 
Gretl: Yes, you did. I gave you no reason to pursue me, no reason at all. I was irreproachable. You were unforgivable. If Hanna wasn’t such an innocent she would have noticed. … Honestly. I’m too old for you, that’s true. I belong with Hermann, and I love him. I’m going home to show him I love him. 
(She is getting dressed now.) 
Fritz: Don’t get dressed. Show me first.
Gretl: No. I’m serious. You’re my last gentile. 
Fritz: You love me, don’t you, Gretl? 
Gretl: I’m mad about you, but love is something else …

From Pictures from Home

Larry has been visiting his parents Irv and Jean for a photography project, and just witnessed an argument between them.) 
Irv: Larry, let me tell you something. Living together. Being alive. Being alive side-by-side. It’s messy, OK? You get in scraps. You get in each other’s way. You wake up in the morning, first thing you do is check yourself to see if there’s any mess left over from the day before. If there is, you clean it off, you do whatever, you apologize, then you get ready for another day of messy. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it’ll be a sparkling day of wonderfulness. Those happen too. But you personally, you’re in our home probably more than you should be, and so you’re seeing a lot of the mess. You can’t judge us for that. Especially in light of the fact that you come down here looking for our real life, and you find it! But I’ll tell you about mess, Larry. You know what mess is? It’s intimacy. Intimacy is a big fat fucking mess. But I’ll tell you another thing. It’s love, too. OK? This thing you think you’re capturing? This evidence? This mess? It’s love

From Some Like It Hot


A scene between millionaire Osgood and Jerry, who has become Daphne, after Osgood has proposed (a scene that makes a lot more sense if you’ve seen the movie on which the musical is based):
Daphne: But before we marry, I need to tell you something.
Osgood: What is it, mi amor?
Daphne: Well to begin with, I doubt your mother will ever approve of me. I have a terrible past. I
smoke, I drink.
Osgood: Not nearly enough for her tastes, I assure you.
Daphne: I can never have children.
Osgood: We can adopt.
Daphne:You don’t understand.
Osgood: Daphne, I do understand, and I think you’re perfect.
Daphne (singing): Osgood, nobody’s perfect
Osgood: Well, that may be true/But Daphne’s perfect for Osgood/And Osgood perfect for you.
(They kiss.)

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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