[Stephen Sondheim, explaining
How the number would be performed]

She looks up
Something odd is happening on the stage
And then she goes back to playing
And she starts to sing

Thirteen, fourty-four, twenty-seven
Twenty, thirty-four, seventy-five

Grandmother says numbers are matters of moment
To people whose moments don't matter enough
Grandmother says numbers are food for the foolish
Who take all the minutiae of life on a cuff
Grandmother says lots of inscrutable stuff...

Thirteen, fourty-four, twenty-seven
Fourty, twenty-three, seventy...

The stage becomes darker
She gets up from the piano

I do believe I can smell the jasmine, oh!
And next comes the frog she listens
There should be a - Ah! she hears it
Now the stars...
And sure enough, the stars twinkle
And from behind her come what we call our Liebeslieders people, the vocal quintet
She sings the numbers and on each number
A person appears from behind the trees on the stage
And you gradually realize that each number
Is the age of one of the characters on the stage
She sings the numbers
The quartet or quintet sings the the word "numbers"
And the people on the stage
As they are introduced in trios
Sing the word "time"

Twenty
Fourty-four
Eighteen
Numbers
Time

Fourty
Thirty-four
Twenty-seven
What are they?
Time

They all start asking questions
Which have no answers
But just the individual characters
What shall I wear?
What about the mail?
Where is my parasol?
How did I fail?

Time
Fourty-eight
Time
Twenty-three

Why were you there?
Did you see me weep?
Who shall I sleep with?
How shall I sleep?

Time
Thirtheen
Time
Seventy-five

Now they are all starting to dance

Questions
Time
Numbers
Time
Lessons, appointments
Hellos and farewells
Photographs, calendars
Nights in hotels

Twenty
Twenty-four
Numbers
Questions
Time

Card games
Coffee cups
Thirty-thousand
What are they?
Time

More questions
All the questions are tumbling over each other

Time

[He hums the melody]

Time

And it starts to swirl around the stage
They gradually leave one by one
And end up with all of their numbers
And the last comment that Fredrika makes
Is that all numbers add up to one