Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan, India Adams & The MGM Studio Orchestra
Fred Astaire
India Adams
Fred Astaire & Jack Buchanan
Arthur Schwartz
The song was written for the 1953 musical film The Band Wagon, in which highbrow actor Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan) bands with playwrights Lester and Lily Martin (Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray) to convince song-and-dance man Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire) that there’s no difference between what the...
(Verse)
[JEFFREY]
Anything that happens in life
Can happen in a show
You can make 'em laugh
You can make 'em cry
Anything, anything can go
(Chorus)
[JEFFREY]
The clown
With his pants falling down
Or the dance
That's a dream of romance
Or the scene
Where the villain is mean
That's entertainment!
[LILY]
The lights
On the lady in tights
[LESTER]
Or the bride
With the guy on the side
[JEFFREY]
Or the ball
Where she gives him her all
[JEFFREY, LESTER, AND LILY]
That's entertainment!
[LILY]
The plot
Could be hot
Simply teeming with sex
[LESTER]
A gay
Divorcee
Who is after her ex
[TONY]
It could be Oedipus Rex
[JEFFREY]
Where a chap kills his father
And causes a lot of bother
[LILY]
The clerk
Who is thrown out of work
[LESTER]
By the boss
Who is thrown for a loss
[TONY]
By the skirt
Who is doing him dirt
[ALL]
The world is a stage
The stage is a world
Of entertainment!
(instrumental break)
[ALL]
The doubt
While the jury is out
Or the thrill
When they're reading the will
Or the chase
For the man with the face
That's entertainment!
[LILY]
The dame
Who is known as the flame
[JEFFREY]
Of the king
Of an underworld ring
[TONY AND LESTER]
He's an ape
Who won't let her escape
[ALL]
That's entertainment!
It might
Be a fight
Like you see on the screen
A swain
Getting slain
For the love of a queen
Some great Shakespearean scene
Where a ghost and a prince meet
And everyone ends in mincemeat
The gag
Might be waving the flag
That began
With a Mr. Cohan
Hip hooray
The American way!
The world is a stage
The stage is a world
Of entertainment!
That’s Entertainment! was written by Arthur Schwartz & Howard Dietz.
Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray, Jack Buchanan, India Adams & The MGM Studio Orchestra released That’s Entertainment! on Sat Nov 28 1953.