West Side Story works not despite the lyrics, but because of them. Divorced from their dramatic context, the words to There's a Place for Us are unbearably trite, but within the play itself, they draw the audience in to the universal experience of longing, desire, and romantic love.
I Am Unworthy of Your Love, another Stephen Sondheim piece, is similarly effective. Taken by itself, it's a somewhat overstated expression of romantic infatuation. Nonetheless, it clearly states moods and feelings most of us have felt at some point in our lives. What makes this song amazing is that it's a duet between Squeaky Fromme and John Hinckley from the musical Assassins, about actual and would-be presidential assassins. In just under four minutes, Sondheim universalizes their respective pathological obsessions with Charles Manson and Jodie Foster, and makes us empathize with obviously deranged lunatics. That's something which perhaps only music, and the popular music form in particular, can accomplish.
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