Stop

Click here to read the feature on PEOPLE.COM with Sutton Foster!

From Playbill’s Track-By-Track Breakdown (3/27/20):

“STOP”
This is the one that gets me the most, honestly. I wrote this song in 2012, when I think many of us were writing about how the world was speeding up too much and we were more connected to our electronic devices than to each other. It didn’t feel like such an original idea at the time. We all knew it was true: the essence of humanity is not going to be inside your phone. And yet as each year went by, I found myself getting more and more sucked into my own little cloud of digital information. I made a remark on Facebook several years ago that my tombstone was going to be engraved with the words, “She answered a lot of email.” And yet the world spun faster and faster. About a month ago I remember saying to my husband that it all was unsustainable—the schedule, the money, the pace, the obligations, the output, the expectation—and that something would have to give soon or we would break. And now look at us. Here we sit in social isolation, forced to step back from the rigors of the life we led just weeks ago, while a virus races around the globe. I’m not sure I’ve ever written a more prescient lyric.

Stop. It’s your human obligation
and the way to save a nation that’s forgotten what it needs.

I was music directing Sweet Charity Off-Broadway in 2016 on the night of the election, and so in some ways I feel like Sutton Foster and I are war buddies. We’ve been through it. A lot changed for me when the world cracked open the next day, but one thing I decided was that I want to make opportunities to create work with the people I love. That’s what it’s all about.

LYRICS:
IF A DAY HAS TWENTY-FOUR HOURS
AND YOU SPEND A THIRD OF THEM ASLEEP,
HALF OF WHAT REMAINS YOU WILL SPEND WORKING,
AND THE REST ARE YOURS TO WASTE OR KEEP.
I AM SPENDING FAR TOO MANY HOURS
PUSHING LITTLE BUTTONS ON MY PHONE.
WHY AM I AFRAID OF SILENCE?
WOULD IT BE SO BAD TO BE ALONE?

STOP.
THERE’S A WORLD THAT YOU ARE MISSING–
DEEPER THOUGHTS YOU KEEP DISMISSING.
THERE’S A YOU INSIDE THAT NEEDS TO GET SOME AIR.
STOP.
FIND THE TIME TO FEEL THE WIND BLOW.
DO IT NOW, BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW
HOW LONG IT WILL BE THERE.

WHEN I WAS A GIRL, I WAS FEARLESS.
RAN LIKE I WOULD NEVER TRIP AND FALL.
LIVED WITHOUT THIS NEED FOR APPROVAL.
STILL BELIEVED THAT I COULD HAVE IT ALL.
WHAT I WOULDN’T GIVE TO FEEL THAT FREEDOM!
FIGURE OUT WHAT’S ME, AND PUT IT FIRST.
LIFE A LIFE AS BIG AS MY POTENTIAL.
WALK INTO TOMORROW UNREHEARSED…

STOP
TRYING TO PLEASE THE FOLKS AROUND YOU.
LET YOUR SOLITUDE ASTOUND YOU.
MAKE A LIST OF THINGS YOU ALWAYS SAID YOU’D DO.
STOP
SECOND GUESSING ALL YOUR CHOICES
AND DISCOVER WHAT THE VOICE IS
THAT’S BURIED INSIDE YOU.

I WANT TO REDEFINE THE RULE BOOK–
DEFY SOCIETY’S CONTROLS.
HOW CAN WE EXPECT TO FIND OUR SOUL MATES
WHEN WE CANNOT EVEN FIND OUR SOULS?

STOP!
READ A BOOK COVER TO COVER.
REMINISCE ABOUT A LOVER.
FIND AN OPEN ROAD AND FOLLOW WHERE IT LEADS.
STOP!
IT’S YOUR HUMAN OBLIGATION
AND THE WAY TO SAVE A NATION
THAT’S FORGOTTEN WHAT IT NEEDS.

TURN OFF ALL THE NOISE POLLUTION.
START A QUIET REVOLUTION.
PLACE YOUR FOCUS ON THE LIFE BEYOND YOUR SCREEN.
YOUR SUCCESS IS IN YOUR POWER
IF YOU START THIS DAY, THIS HOUR!
YOU ARE IN CHARGE; NOT YOUR MACHINE.

TURN EVERYTHING OFF
AND SEE HOW YOU FARE.
STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM
THE PEOPLE WHO CARE.
WHATEVER YOU’RE SEEKING
IS ALREADY THERE.
STOP.
STOP.
STOP.