Revels 2010. In this song, the homely Sarafina sings a lament about how her mother keeps trying to use her as a fundraising tool for the University of Chicago by foisting her on wealthy suitors (I promise you I don’t write the plots for these shows.)
Some girls have mothers who drag them to soccer games
Hooting and howling, galore,
Then there are others who thrust their girls on the stage,
And wait in the wings as their ingénue sings,
And then rush them out the stage door.
Oh how nice it would be
If my mom would do that to me,
But rather than preening, routinging, and primping,
My mother sees me as ripe for the pimping.
So how’s a plain maiden, maternally laiden,
Expected to act like a whore?
Mother you are dreaming,
Mother, I am screaming,
Men at banks will guarantee
That they don’t want a girl like me.
Mother I am trying,
But Mother, I am dying,
How I wish that you could see
The lure you want is just not me.