Alan Menken
The Rosewater Foundation
[ALL EMPLOYEES]
Welcome to a flowing font of truth and good and cash
If you're looking for the loot to toot a flute or cure a rash
If you're down on luck and need a buck we'll fund you in a flash
[ARTISTIC CONSULTANT]
If you'd like to write a piece on Saint-Denis or Delacroix
[FILE CLERK]
If you must research the Church of Christ or works of Myrna Loy
[EXECUTIVE]
Don't be bashful, we've a stashful
[ARTISTIC CONSULTANT]
Don't be timid
[BLANCHE]
Don't be coy
[ALL]
Baring market crashes, floods, or worse, inflation
Baring fiscal flops or fierce devaluation
[APPLICANTS #1 & #2]
In a world where next to nothing comes for free
[BLANCHE]
Bet you'd never thought you'd ever live to see
[ALL]
So divine a shrine to fine philanthropy
As the Rosewater Foundation, NYC
[EXECUTIVE]
We've just handed Norman Mailer fifteen thou to vent his spleen
[FILE CLERK, MAIL-BOY, & ARTISTIC CONSULTANT]
Fly to us! Fly to us!
[BLANCHE]
Here's a grant to Will Durant and to the Reverend Fulton Sheen
[FILE CLERK, MAIL-BOY, & ARTISTIC CONSULTANT]
Apply to us! Apply to us!
[APPLICANT #1]
Me, I'm writing the biography of Butterfly McQueen
[FILE CLERK, MAIL-BOY, & ARTISTIC CONSULTANT]
Here's four grand for Orson Bean!
[ALL]
Drive to town, come down, fill out an application
We're a boon to the artistic population
[APPLICANT #2]
They're as generous as anyone can be
[APPLICANT #1]
As enlightened and urbane as "Camera Three"
[BLANCHE]
We'll support you and we'll serve you herbal tea
[ALL]
At The Rosewater Foundation, LTD
[APPLICANT #1, spoken]
What time was your appointment with Mr. Rosewater scheduled?
[APPLICANT #2, spoken]
10:30 this morning
[APPLICANT #1, spoken]
Mine was for 11. What time is it now?
[APPLICANT #2, spoken]
4:45
[ARTISTIC CONSULTANT]
Here's a copy of *Horizon* to amuse you while you wait
[BLANCHE]
As per usual, the president is just a little late
[BLANCHE & ARTISTIC CONSULTANT]
But unless you'd like to leave and ask for funding from the state
[ELIOT, spoken]
Hey can somebody give me a hand, please? I've got a lot of books here and...
[ALL]
Hail, Eliot Rosewater
President and chairman
Beacon of obliging noblesse
Philanthropist deluxe
Hail, Eliot Rosewater
Rarest of those rare men
[FILE CLERK]
Sir you're late
[BLANCHE]
Your datebook's a mess
[EXECUTIVE]
Your wife called
[MAIL-BOY]
Here's your tux
[ELIOT]
It's a joy to buoy the Iroquois and liberate the Cree
[ALL]
Willingly! Willingly!
[ELIOT]
Help the Idaho Grand Opera to produce Die Valkyrie
[ALL]
Chillingly! Chillingly!
[ELIOT]
And we built a "Y" in Tenafly and two in Tennessee
[ALL]
Yes he did that! Yes-sir-ee!
What a fella, fine example
What a paragon, a saint
So he is, so he is!
What a pal to those who work in prose or poetry or paint
We know he is, we know is!
He's devoted and he's loaded
So we haven't a complaint
And we state without restraint
He's the object of out abject adulation
[ELIOT]
I'm an outright blight of love and inspiration
[ALL]
He's the Rosewater Foundation, I.N.C.!