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Happily Ever After

posted Friday June 25th, 2010

You can’t really see the veil in this photo, but above is Sophie, practicing to be The Bride in this week’s dance recital. She will be performing (something, I’m not sure what) while Annabelle sings along to a song called “Happily Ever After,” from a musical called “Once Upon a Mattress.”

The most interesting thing about this musical (which I’d never heard of,  it came out in the late Nineties and I think had a run of about five minutes) is that it starred Sarah Jessica Parker, who actually sings in it. She’s not half-bad. That could be because I’m tone-deaf myself. (Or because I still heart SJP, even after SATC2.)

We were almost to dance yesterday morning when I realized we’d forgotten to listen to the CD the teacher had sent home for Annabelle to practice to. Damnit, one more thing for the Bad Mom list, I thought, as I popped it in the stereo. There was just enough time to listen once before we got to the studio.

It’s a clever song. (I’ll put the lyrics in below, I couldn’t find a clip from the musical to post.)

At the end, Annabelle sighed and said, “You got your happily ever after, Mommy!”

I smiled. “Yes, I did,” I told the girls. “And I got you two!”

I hope the sweet moment made up for the typical rushing around that took place as we headed out the door. The words “happily ever after” lingered in my head, as I bid the girls farewell and went about the day’s business.

Happily ever after. Let’s be honest: What a fucked up term. All day I wondered, will Annabelle get her happily ever after? Will Sophie? (That’s a loaded one, I know.)

My parents’ 46th wedding anniversary is Monday. How many people do you know who can say that? It’s getting so rare. In my little world, the past year has been an avalanche of break-ups and divorces, one sad piece of news after another.

I have my own pretty strict definition of “happily ever after” (what do you expect, given my parents’ own happy ending?) and that’s not to say every moment is happy (that’s another blog post entirely, but chances are, reader, you know what I mean from personal experience).

But this past year, as I’m easing closer to the official mark of mid-40, I’ve realized there are other definitions. There have to be.

I’ll be thinking about that this weekend, as I attend the second wedding of a dear college friend. I remember his first like it was yesterday — the  most perfect wedding I’ve ever attended. Chicago, 1993. Lovely, low-key, Jewish, and let’s be honest: very expensive. I will never forget how the sun broke through the clouds and poured through the skylight of the historic building in Lincoln Park, just as the bride and groom said their vows. The couple couldn’t decide on a dessert, so they chose them all, and we passed exquisite pastries around the table and remarked on how perfect it all was, how perfect they were. How happily ever after.

And then she changed her mind. There’s a lot more to it than that, I’m quite sure, but was never privy to. In any case, this weekend, I’ll attend what I realize is my first second wedding. It will be a happy occasion, but I’m not so sure I’ll wish anyone a “happily ever after.”

Too much pressure.

“Happily Ever After,” from “Once Upon A Mattress”

Winnifred: “And so it was that soon after his encounter with the dragon Fafner,
young Prince Waldere fell into the enchanted mud and, before long, his head grew back, hmmm,
whereupon he married the Princess Gunthere…
and they lived happily ever after.”
(She closes the book) We’ll I’m glad.

Winnifred: They all live happily, happily, happily ever after.
The couple is happily leaving the chapel eternally tied.
As the curtain descends, there is nothing but loving and laughter.
When the fairy tale ends the heroine’s always a bride.
Ella, the girl of the cinders did the wash and the walls and the winders.
But she landed a prince who was brawny and blue-eyed and blond.
Still, I honestly doubt that she could ever have done it
without that crazy lady with the wand.
Cinderella had outside help!
I have no one but me… Fairy godmother, godmother, godmother!
Where can you be? I haven’t got a fairy godmother.
I haven’t got a godmother. I have a mother…
a plain, ordinary woman!
Snow white was so pretty they tell us
that the queen was insulted and jealous
when the mirror declared that snow white was the fairest of all.
She was dumped on the border but was saved by some men who adored ‘er;
Oh, I grant you, they were small.
But there were seven of them!
Practically a regiment!
I’m alone in the night.
By myself, not a dwarf, not an elf, not a goblin in sight!
That girl had seven determined little men working day and night just for her!
Oh sure! The queen gave her a poisoned apple.
Even so she lived happily, happily, happily every after!
A magical kiss counteracted the apple eventually…
Though I know I’m not clever I’ll do what they tell me I hafta!
I want some happily ever after to happen to me!
Winnifred maid of the mire, has one simple human desire
Oh, I ask for no more than two shoes on the floor next to mine.
Oh… Someone to fly and to float with
to swim in the marsh and the moat with as for this one…
Well, he’d be fine.
But now it’s all up to me…
And I’m burning to bring it about.
If I don’t I’ll be stuck with goodbye and good luck and get out!
But I don’t wanna get out! I wanna get in!
I want to get into some happily, happily ever after.
I want to walk happily out of the chapel eternally tied.
For I know that I’ll never live happily ever after ’til after I’m a bride!
And then I’ll be happily happy,
Yes, Happily happy!
And thoroughly satisfied!
Satisfied! Satisfied!
Oh Yeah!

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Tags: Filed under: family, Uncategorized by Amysilverman

10 Responses to “Happily Ever After”

  1. Once Upon a Mattress actually came out in the 50s! and SJP was one of the original Annies on Broadway! What a fun story. I hope the girls had fun in their show.

  2. whoops! thanks, chris. i always tend to think that SJP’s career began with LA Story but of course i know that’s not true. and — interesting about Once Upon a Mattress. i wish i could get ahold of a movie version — is there one? we just have the one song in this morning’s “broadway revue”.

  3. Try Youtube for a clip, or possibly Amazon for a video. I believe Liza Minelli starred in a version that was on TV when I was much younger. The story is based on the “Princess and the Pea,” and is awfully funny. YOur girls would probably love it. You might also look for Leslie Ann Downs’ version of Rodgers & Hammersteins’ “Cinderella.” That was also a big hit when I was a kid, and both the music and her voice were wonderful. Very much a sing-along show.

    I’ve never commented before, but love reading your blog. Hugs to all of you from SC.

  4. I consider myself to be pretty happily married, but even I don’t recommend anyone putting “Till death do us part” in their wedding when I do my pre-marital counseling (I’m ordained ya know).

  5. Hmmm… my parents are 50 years but it’s hard to define it as perkily happy, more like enduring:) Having married at 41 it’s doubtful I’ll be married that long- it’s damn hard too!
    I have the Rodgers and Hammerstein version of CInderella- soo… good. “In my own little corner in my own little room…..” Perfect for brides/princesses in training!
    She looks beautiful!

  6. I’m satisfied with just “ever after” ;-) though it has only been 11 years. Must be the season though, because quite a few long-termers have been dropping off over the past couple years… sad.

    I love the picture of Sophie The Bride.

  7. [...] I’ve already mentioned once or twice, we went to a wedding last weekend. It was truly lovely, but I did walk away missing one [...]

  8. Wow. You have some really snotty friends. I would NEVER have pointed out to you that you were wrong about the origins of this musical or about Sarah Jessica Parker’s career.

    (Okay. So I came to this “comments” section to do precisely that. I’m a bitch!)

    R

  9. But the nonsnotty part is that it was Carol Burnett’s big break, which I knew you’d actually want to know.

  10. Mmmm, and it’s Lesley Ann Warren in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. It was made for TV in 1965 and I loved it to death every year when they’d show it. Never knew Ginger Rogers played the Queen, speaking of shameful musical ignorance.

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