(A champagne bottle pops.)
[ARTIE, spoken]
Hey, Gillis! We'd given up on you! Where you been keeping that gorgeous face of yours?
[JOE, spoken]
In a... deep freeze
[ARTIE, spoken]
Jesus, Joe, what are you wearing?
[JOE, spoken]
It's quite a crowd
[ARTIE, spoken]
Yeah, I invited all the kids doing walk-ons in DeMille's latest picture
[BETTY, spoken]
Where have you been hiding? I called your apartment. I called your ex-agent. I was about to call the Bureau of Missing Persons
[JOE, spoken]
They always know where to find me
[JEAN, sung]
By this time next year
I'll have landed a juicy part
[STEVE, sung]
1950 will be my start
[RICHARD T, sung]
No more carrying spears!
[MARY, sung]
I'll be discovered
My life won't ever be the same
Billy Wilder will know my name
And he'll call all the time
[KATHERINE, sung]
'Til he does, can one of you guys lend her
A dime?
[ALISA, sung]
Just an apartment
With no roaches and no dry rot
[ANITA, sung]
Where the hot water comes out hot
[TOGETHER, sung]
That's my Hollywood dream!
[RICHARD A, sung]
Your resolution...
[JOANNA, sung]
Is to write something that gets shot
With approximately the plot
I first had in my head
[MYRON, sung]
But you'll get rewritten even after you're dead
[ARTIE, sung]
It's a year to begin a new life
Buy a place somewhere quiet
Somewhere pretty
When you have a young kid and a wife
Then you need somewhere green far from the city
It's rambling old house with a big apple tree
With a swing for the kid and a hammock for me
[BETTY, sung]
I have some good news
It's Dark Windows
[JOE, sung]
You don't let go
[BETTY, sung]
I gave Sheldrake an outline, Joe
And he's swallowed the bait
[JOE, sung]
Well, hallelujah
[BETTY, sung]
While you've been buying your fancy clothes
I've been making a lot of notes
Now there's work we should do
[JOE, sung]
Betty, you're forgetting that I gave it
To you
You remind me of me long ago
Off the bus, full of ignorant ambition
Thought I'd waltz into some studio and achieve overnight recognition
I've seen too many optimists sinking like stones
Felt them suck all the marrow clean out of my bones
[BETTY, sung]
I love Dark Windows
But I can't write it on my own
Can't we speak on the telephone?
All my evenings are free
[ARTIE, sung]
Hey, just a minute
I'm the fella who bought the ring
[BETTY, sung]
Artie, this is a business thing
It's important ot me
You'll on location in Clinch, Tennessee
Please make this your New Year's resolution for me
[ENSEMBLE, sung]
By this time next year
I will get my foot in the door
Next year I know I've gotta score
An amazing success
By this time next year
I will get my foot in the door
Next year, know I'm going to score
An amazing success
Cut to the moment
When they open the envelope
Pass the statuette to Bob Hope
And it's my name you hear
We'll be down on our knees
Outside Grauman's Chinese
Palm prints there on the street
Immortality's neat!
This time next year
This time next year
We'll have nothing to fear
Contracts all signed
Three-picture deal
Yellow brick road career
Hope we're not still saying these things
This time next year!
[JOE, spoken]
You know what, I think I am available next year. In fact, I'm available right now
[BETTY, spoken]
Joe, that's great
[JOE, spoken]
Hey, listen. Can you put me up for a couple of weeks?
[ARTIE, spoken]
It just so happens we have a vacancy on the couch
[JOE, spoken]
I'll take it
(JOE runs to a telephone and rings up MAX.)
[MAX, spoken]
Yes?
[JOE, spoken]
Max, it's Mr. Gillis. I want you to do me a favor
[MAX, spoken]
I'm sorry, I cannot talk now, Mr. Gillis
[JOE, spoken]
No, listen. I want you take my old suitcase—
[MAX, spoken]
I'm sorry! I'm attending to madame
[JOE, spoken]
(beat) What do you mean?
[MAX, spoken]
She found a razor in your room, and she cut her wrists!
(The ensemble sets off several party poppers.)
[ENSEMBLE, spoken]
Happy new year!
[ENSEMBLE, sung]
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne
We'll take a cup of kindness yet
For the sake of auld lang syne
