Text: Jennings and Keller. Susan's House. The Best Hamlet.

New York City, West 51st Street, studying Shakespeare
You on the stage there, you all the rage there
How could I get near

I took your voice class, I took your scene class
I learned motivation
You taught me subtext, how best to read scripts
I gained concentration

You were the best Hamlet
You hid your confusion inside the illusion
You were the best Hamlet
And I so regret that I?ll never play Ophelia

Summer stock in Maine, I was apprenticing
Soon we became friends
You played Malvolio, you played Iago
I was your stage hand

That night in the prop room, you still in costume
I poured out my feelings
You were so sorry, I was so naive, how could I not see

You were the best Hamlet
You hid your confusion inside the illusion
You were the best Hamlet
And I so regret that I?ll never play Ophelia

The roles that you played in life and on stage
Showed who you wished to be
But when the curtain was drawn, your audience gone
Look in the mirror, who did you see?

So many roles played, so much that you gave
For love of the theatre
The one part denied you, the one deep inside you
No one could go there

All that you taught me, the lesson that saved me
Stays with me forever

You were the best Hamlet
You hid your confusion inside the illusion
You were the best Hamlet
And I so regret that I?ll never play Ophelia No, I?ll never play Ophelia