Frank Loesser
Coffee Break

[MAN, spoken]
Coffee break!

[MISS KRUMHOLTZ, spoken]
It's about time

[BUD, spoken]
There's no coffee

[ENSEMBLE, spoken, variously]
No coffee?
No coffee?
No coffee?
No coffee?
No coffee?

[ENSEMBLE, spoken]
Oh!

[BUD]
If I can't take my coffee break
My coffee break, my coffee break
If I can't take my coffee break
Something within me dies

[ENSEMBLE]
Lies down and something within me dies
[SMITTY]
If I can't make three daily trips
Where shining shrine benignly drips
And taste cardboard between my lips
Something within me dies

[ENSEMBLE]
Lies down and something within me dies

[ENSEMBLE, spoken, variously]
No coffee
No coffee
No coffee
No coffee
What? Ah!
No coffee
No coffee

[ENSEMBLE, spoken]
No coffee!

[SMITTY]
That office light doesn't have to be fluorescent
I'll get no pains in the head
That office chair doesn't have to be foam rubber
So if I spread, so I spread
But only one chemical substance gets out the lead
[ENSEMBLE]
Like she said
If I can't take my coffee break
My coffee break, my coffee break
If I can't take my coffee break

[SMITTY & BUD]
Gone is the sense of enterprise

[ENSEMBLE]
All gone and something within me
Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, ah!

[ENSEMBLE]
If I can't take my coffee break

[SMITTY & ENSEMBLE]
Somehow the soul no longer tries (Coffee, coffee)

[BUD & ENSEMBLE]
Somewhere I don't metabolize (Coffee, coffee)

[SMITTY & BUD]
Something within me

[SMITTY, BUD & ENSEMBLE]
Coffee or otherwise
Coffee or otherwise
Something inside of me dies