[intro: bustling fairground swirl, vendors calling, strings and winds dancing around the beat] [COMPANY:] Millennial Day! Step right in! Ribbon, trumpet, kettle, violin! Apple tarts! Fresh lemonade! Try your luck! Parade! Parade! [MARLE:] A crown can make a room feel small A busy street can hold it all [verse: Marle slips through the crowd, half-covered by the motion around her] [MARLE:] No lady-in-waiting at my side No polished shoes, no place to hide Just borrowed lace and loosened hair A little less princess in the air [MARLE:] I want the jostle, want the heat Sticky jam and dusty feet A paper pinwheel, cheap perfume A day that doesn’t know my room [COMPANY:] Candied nuts! Fresh bread! Hot tea! Games of aim for half a fee! Bright spun ribbons! Painted masks! Songs for lovers! Fortune asks! [pre-chorus: Marle caught between laughter and ache] [MARLE:] They bump my shoulder, pass me by No one stops to bow or pry And oh, that feels like borrowed wings To want such small, ridiculous things [chorus: full ensemble lift, joyful on top with longing tucked inside] [MARLE + COMPANY:] Let me be one face in the fair One more voice thrown into the air Let me laugh too loud, get lost awhile Trade courtly grace for something guileless [COMPANY:] Hey! Let me run where the banners sway Spend one whole heart on one whole day No golden frame, no guarded gate Just me and the noise and staying late [verse: she sees the ordinary lives she envies] [MARLE:] A father wins a toy by chance His little girl begins to dance A young pair quarrels by the pies Then burst out laughing, side by side [MARLE:] A woman wipes her flour-stained hands And kisses someone from the stands How can a life so plain and small Look like the richest thing of all? [COMPANY:] Clockwork birds! Sweet cream! Roast corn! Silk in blue and satin worn! Gather close! The fiddles play! Make a memory out today! [chorus: bigger and freer, Marle leaning into the crowd’s current] [MARLE + COMPANY:] Let me be one face in the fair One more voice thrown into the air Let me miss a step, make some mistake Find out how a common day can shake me [COMPANY:] Hey! Let me run where the banners sway Spend one whole heart on one whole day No velvet rope, no measured smile Just one good hour that’s truly mine [bridge: the public brightness thins, her deeper hunger comes forward] [MARLE:] They call me lucky, dressed in white Fed by silver every night But silver plates and guarded halls Can turn a living heart to walls [MARLE:] So if I vanish in the din It’s not rebellion, it’s a wish To learn my name without the throne To stand in sunlight on my own [chorus: full company, story-launch energy] [MARLE:] Let me be one face in the fair One more voice thrown into the air Let me choose the road beneath my feet Not every step laid out for me [MARLE:] Let me run where the banners sway Spend one whole heart on one whole day And if the whole world starts right here Then let it start with me this year [outro: fair continues spinning as she slips farther into it] [COMPANY:] Millennial Day! Step right in! Ribbon, trumpet, kettle, violin! [MARLE:] No fanfare now, no gilded role Just this quick drum inside my soul One breath, one turn, one stolen start Guardia wide and bright as art [COMPANY:] Parade! Parade! Millennial Day! [MARLE:] Today, at last, I get to stray
