The Hunchback of Notre Dame the Musical - Out There Lyrics

FROLLO
The world is cruel
The world is wicked
It's I alone whom you can trust
In this whole city
I am your only friend

I who keep you, teach you, feed you, dress you
I who look upon you without fear
How can I protect you boy
Unless you always stay in here
Away in here...?
Remember what I taught you, Quasimodo.
You are deformed

QUASIMODO
I am deformed

FROLLO
And you are ugly

QUASIMODO
And I am ugly

FROLLO
And these are crimes for
Which the world shows little pity
You do not comprehend

QUASIMODO
You are my one defender...

FROLLO
Out there they'll revile you as a monster

QUASIMODO
I am a monster...

FROLLO
Out there they will hate and scorn and jeer

QUASIMODO
Only a monster...

FROLLO
Why invite their curses and their consternation?
Stay in here!
Here you will be happier by far
You don't know how fortunate you are...

Once I was as blessed as you,
A novice priest in service to
This holy church which was, I knew
My sanctuary
Latin, Greek, Theology,
The study and austerity
I prayed it would forever be
My sanctuary
Oh, then my duty called
Paris was burning
Sin, vice, corruption ev'rywhere
For me to rout
Out there...

QUASIMODO
You are good to me, master. I'm sorry.

FROLLO
I see the great unwashed are beginning to congregate.
It appears that I will have to dip my handkerchief in perfume and hold it to my nose to get me through this day.
Well then, I must be off.

Out where it's dark

LONI
Out where it's bright

FROLLO
Out where it's dirty

CHARLES
Out where it's busy

FROLLO
Out in that morally debauched
And putrefied world

GARGOYLES
There's such a wide world to share

FROLLO
I am so thankful for our sanctuary

ANTOINE
If you go out, it can remain our secret

FROLLO
Our secret sanctuary

GARGOYLES
Oh, if this once you go

FROLLO
I've kept you pure

GARGOYLES
Out in the air

FROLLO
Year after year

ANTOINE
It may be right...

CHARLES
It may be wrong...

LONI
But you will know...

FROLLO
Knowing that you're...

GARGOYLES
How you would fare...

FROLLO
Always
In here...

GARGOYLES
Out there...

QUASIMODO
Safe behind these windows
And these parapets of stone
Gazing at the people down below me
All my life I watch them
As I hide up here alone
Hungry for the histories they show me
All my life, I memorize their faces
Knowing them as they will never know me
All my life, I wonder
How it feels to pass a day
Not above them
But part of them

And out there
Living in the sun
Give me one day out there
All I ask is one
To hold forever
Out there
Where they all live unaware
What I'd give
What I'd dare
Just to live one day out there

Out there among the millers
And the weavers and their wives
Through the roofs and gables I can see them
Ev'ry day they shout and scold
And go about their lives
Heedless of the gift it is to be them
If I was in their skin
I'd treasure ev'ry instant

Out there
Strolling by the Seine
Taste a morning!
Out there
Like ordinary men
Who freely walk about there
Just one day and then
I swear, I'll be content
With my share
Won't resent, won't despair
Old and bent, I won't care
I'll have spent one day
Out there!