ABC Café / Red & Black - Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Students

The time is near

So near it’s stirring the blood in their veins!

And yet beware

Don’t let the wine go to your brains!

We need a sign

To rally the people

To call them to arms

To bring them in line!

Marius, wake up!

What’s wrong today?

You look as if you’ve seen a ghost

Some wine and say what’s going on!

A ghost you say, a ghost maybe

She was just like a ghost to me

One minute there, then she was gone!

I am agog!

I am aghast!

Is Marius in love at last?

I’ve never heard him 'ooh' and 'aah'

You talk of battles to be won

And here he comes like Don Juan

It’s better than an opera!

It is time for us all

To decide who we are

Do we fight for the right

To a night at the opera now?

Have you asked of yourselves

What’s the price you might pay?

Is this simply a game

For a rich young boy to play?

The colours of the world

Are changing day by day

Red: the blood of angry men!

Black: the dark of ages past!

Red: a world about to dawn!

Black: the night that ends at last!

Had you seen her today

You might know how it feels

To be struck to the bone

In a moment of breathless delight!

Had you been there today

You might also have known

How your world may be changed

In just one burst of light!

And what was right seems wrong

And what was wrong seems right!

Red

I feel my soul on fire!

Black

My world if she’s not there!

Red

It’s the colour of desire!

Black

It’s the colour of despair!

Marius, you’re no longer a child

I do not doubt you mean it well

But now there is a higher call

Who cares about your lonely soul?

We strive towards a larger goal

Our little lives don’t count at all!

Red: the blood of angry men!

Black: the dark of ages past!

Red: a world about to dawn!

Black: the night that ends at last!

Listen everybody!

General Lamarque is dead!

Lamarque!

His death is the hour of fate

The people’s man

His death is the sign we await!

On his funeral day, they will honour his name

With the light of rebellion ablaze in their eyes

With their candles of grief we will kindle our flame

On the tomb of Lamarque shall our barricade rise

The time is here!

Let us welcome it gladly with courage and cheer

Let us take to the streets with no doubt in our hearts

But a jubilant shout

They will come one and all

They will come when we call!