John Kander Coffee Shop Nights
Cioffi (spoken): Detectives have no opening night, Miss
Harris.
We make our entrance after the curtain has fallen on
someone else’s life.
Niki (spoken): It isn’t wrong to be married to one’s
work, is it?
Cioffi: Uh, no. No, not at all. Sometimes it’s no
Honeymoon.
I love my job
I really do
And if I say so myself
I’m good at it too
I catch the bad guys
Well, most of the time
So it’s a good life
A perfectly good life
Not exactly sublime
When I’ve finished my work
And I crawl into bed
I reflect as I turn out the lights
That the day that’s to come
And the week that’s ahead will be
Lunch counter mornings
And coffee shop nights
Lunch counter mornings
And coffee shop nights
Niki(spoken): Well, it’s reassuring to have such a
dependable schedule,
like matinees every Wednesday
Cioffi(spoken): Or Brisket and broad beans each
Thursday
Niki (spoken): With your friends
Cioffi: With, uh, yeah, well…
I like my pals
The guys on the force
We’re not very social
They’re all married of course
Sometime we go bowling
Or have a few beers
So it’s a fine life
A perfectly fine like
I’d give it two cheers
‘Cuz sometimes I think
At the end of the day
When I’ve read the last burglar his rights
That the life that I lead
Is a little bit grey
With its lunch counter mornings
And coffee shop nights
Lunch counter mornings
And coffee shop nights
Niki (spoken): But your acting roles. Well, don’t they
make for a change?
Cioffi(spoken): Oh, Miss Harris, each year from May
23rd to the 12th of June,
when I turn my life over to the Swallow Street
Players, that’s more than a vacation for me.
It’s an overture of hope. It’s the curtain rising on
the greatest joy of my life.
(singing)
But the rest of the year
The life that I lead
That’s a little bit grey
There are plenty of low days
And not many highs
Mostly lunch counter mornings
And coffee shop nights
Cioffi (spoken): I don’t mean to sound forward, but
might I walk you home?
Niki(spoken): Oh, I’d be delighted, but you said we’re
not allowed to leave.
