Hammerstein's "If I Loved You" is more complicated than it looks. A descendant of Hammerstein's "Make Believe," "If I Loved You" is about coyness. Billy *does* love Julie Jordan. He can't say that. Pretending he does *not* love Julie, he suggests that he is going to weave a "counterfactual tapestry," but what he sings is (in fact) the truth.
If I loved you..
Time and again, I would try to say...
All I'd want you to know...
If I loved you...
Words wouldn't come in an easy way.
Round in circles I'd go...
Billy is of course predicting the future; he will be a very flawed husband, more flawed than the portrait he offers in his song. Julie understands this -- and, regardless, she says yes. Yes to everything.
We're often most articulate when we're wearing a mask. Billy can find the perfect words to describe reality...but only when he is role-playing:
Longing to tell you -- but afraid and shy --
I'd let my golden chances pass me by...
This sad and funny (and relatable) dimension of Billy's psyche is (again) on display in "Soliloquy," when Billy reveals the depth of his love for a child who does not exist yet:
Like a tree, he'll grow...
With his head held high..
And his feet planted firm on the ground.
And you won't see nobody dare to try...
To boss him or toss him around!
Barbra Streisand is a surprisingly effective Billy -- on her first Broadway solo album.
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