Album: If/Then: A New Musical (2014)

A Map Of New York

[Stephen:]
Think of each plaza, pier, and public park
How many sit there empty, lonely, dark
Think of it, for tomorrow's sake
Think of how you and I can make our mark

You and I,
we can draw a brand-new grid
Everything that you dreamed of as a kid
Give it a year, and go with me
Soon enough, you'll say "Look what we two did"

You've always had the right dream
We've always made a tight team
Now at last you're back,
exactly where you ought to be
So let's make a map of New York you and me

[New Yorker:]
Twenty-two Reade, a building, sidewalk, shade

[Another New Yorker:]
Now a memory that for Beth will never fade

[Beth:]
And I could be planning city sites
Where memories just like this one might be made

[Writer:]
Thirty-three Bond,
where I wrote my first book

[Chef:]
Greenwich and Moore,
where I learend how to cook

[Young Woman:]
The Center Street courts
I intern there

[Beth:]
The joy of this job is everywhere I look

[Messenger:]
That market was my first job

[Elena:]
That diner was my worst job

[Those Six:]
And everywhere around me are these lives I left behind

[Foreman:]
The Tunnel where I laid rail

[Realtor:]
The co-op where I made my first sale

[All Eight:]
They make a map of New York in my mind

[Anne:]
Put a sticker on the map where you landed that first day

[Kate:]
Put a pin on the bridge

[Lucas:]
On the train

[Anne:]
On J.F.K

[Beth:]
On the street where I swore I'd afford a place some day

[Kate, Anne, Lucas, & New Yorkers:]
Ev'ry avenue and place,
ev'ry building, ev'ry face
Of the lovers and the friends,
the beginnings and the ends
Make a map of NYC,
where I've been and who I'll be
And you'll find me

[Liz:]
And you're feeling adrift, alone, apart
Then suddenly life will somehow start
And a map of New York is written on your heart

[New Yorkers:]
On your heart
On your heart

[Beth:]
I'm too old for all that shit
to be told I'm selling out
Then again, all these years,
did I lose what I'm about?
On the street, in the cold,
it's so hard to fight the doubt

[Beth & New Yorkers:]
Then you hear the tunnel hum
With a rain about to come
And you surface to the street
And you fall into the beat
You can trace a line to me
On that map of NYC
Right where I should be

[Stephen:]
Think of how human life will ebb and flow

[Stephen & Beth:]
People, and how they'll come and how they'll go
Remember the things we hoped and planned

[Stephen:]
Remember them, and believe them, and you'll know

[Beth & Stephen:]
We'll know

[Beth, Stephen & New Yorkers:]
We never walk a straight line
We never check a street sign

[Beth & Stephen:]
But it's in the detour that we truly find our way

[Stephen & New Yorkers:]
We always know the way home

[Beth & New Yorkers:]
As long as we can stay here we're home

[Beth:]
And we make a map of work

[New Yorkers:]
Love and loss and life

[Stephen:]
And we make a map of play

[New Yorkers:]
We find our way

[Stephen & New Yorkers:]
And we make a map of New York ev'ry day

[New Yorker:]
Ending the night at 23rd and Third

[Another New Yorker:]
Liz and her date,
who's hanging on every word