I Don’t Want to Know (from Dear World)

[JERRY HERMAN, spoken]
Three in a row... was I spoiled? Three in a row... I thought you just wrote a musical and it ran for seven years. But the seventies took me right back down to earth

First, I wrote a show called Dear World, a musical—oh, you were there? The musical version of Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, in which, by the way, Angela Lansbury won her second Tony Award in a musical of mine. But when we got to Boston to try the show out, every conceivable thing that can go wrong with a musical did. Songs were being changed, I had to— I had to replace two songs in forty eight hours, cast members wеre being hired and firеd, and scenes were being changed nightly. It was sturm und drang, I promise you

But when I look back at that time today, it's fascinating that my favorite song from the score, and the song that I feel best captures the spirit of the Giraudoux heroine, was written in a Boston hotel room in an atmosphere of absolute chaos

[KAREN MORROW]
If music is no longer lovely
If laughter is no longer lilting
If lovers are no longer loving
Then I don't want to know

If summer is no longer carefree
If children are no longer singing
If people are no longer happy
Then I don't want to know

Let me hide every truth from my eyes
With the back of my hand
Let me live in a world full of lies
With my head in the sand

For my memories all are exciting
My memories all are enchanted
My memories burn in my head with a steady glow
So if, my friends, if love is dead
I don't want to know

[LEE ROY REAMS]
If music is no longer lovely
If laughter is no longer lilting
If lovers are no longer loving
Then I don't want to know

If summer is no longer carefree
If children are no longer singing
If people are no longer happy
Then I don't want to know

Let me hide every truth from my eyes
With the back of my hand
Let me live in a world full of lies
With my head in the sand

For my memories all are exciting
My memories all are enchanted
My memories burn in my head with a steady glow
So if, my friends, if love is dead
I don't want to know

[LEE ROY & KAREN]
La da da
La da da da da
La da da
La da da da da
La da da
La da da da da da da