Evening Star
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Starlight…star bright
Where are the stars tonight?
I have a wish
This man
He seems to care
Look!
There’s the Evening Star!
Please guide my heart tonight
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Once beneath this evening star a girl
A child
Was hopeful as an orchard in the spring
Found her perfect boy and took his love to heart
Was there once such innocence…?
Now I see a chance that I might love again
Surely if I trust this lucky star
Then I will be
The woman that I never was
I can’t believe I truly loved before
Yes I will have a love at last
The kindness of a gentle soul
Protection in a broken world
Two lovers safe within each other’s arms
Yes I will be alive at last
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Starlight…star bright
Sustain me through this night
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And I will be his Evening Star
Evening Star
The first self-consciously dramatic song I ever wrote got written because I was living in Connecticut way back in 1991 and read about a musical theater workshop in Manhattan – the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop – that had participants write, as an assignment, a ballad for Blanche DuBois from Tenessee Williams’ "A Streetcar Named Desire."
I thought about it some, and then one day at work (packing flowers into boxes for a wholesale florist, as I recall), Evening Star popped into my head.
The song is meant to be sung by Blanche towards the end of Scene Five, at dusk, just after Stella and Stanley have left for the Four Deuces, and ends with the paper boy ringing the door bell, collecting for the Evening Star.
Subsequently, I used Evening Star as an audition piece to get into the BMI workshop. They liked it.
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My sister Dana Culligan sang this version for me way back in 1991.