SCENE: Annie and six other shabbily-dressed orphans, Kate, Tessie, Duffy, July, Molly and Pepper, gather around a crate-top in a dingy dormatory. A game of rapid chess is in progress. Annie and Molly take turns slamming down the pieces and whacking the timer, while the kibitzers exclaim wildly. Annie triumphantly delivers mate, Molly throws back her head and hands in dismay, and all the girls the skip out into a chorus line, Annie in center.
[ALL] It’s the gambit life for us!
It’s the gambit life for us!
[ANNIE] Steada endgames…
[ALL] We play tricks!
[ANNIE] As if chess were…
[ALL] Pickup sticks!
It’s the gambit life!
[ALL] Got no game to speak of, so
It’s a pawn-down row we hoe!
[ANNIE] Playin good in…
[ALL] Steada great!
[ANNIE] Takin perp in…
[ALL] Steada mate!
It’s the gambit life!
[ANNIE] Don’t it feel like your compensation’s lacking?
[KATE AND TESSIE] Like a game without a gambit’s one big yawn?
[DUFFY AND JULY] Do you really have to always be attacking?
[MOLLY AND PEPPER] It’s easier than learning rook-and-pawn!
[ANNIE] We don’t care if our pawns are weak and silly,
We don’t care if our king goes on a walk,
We’ll sac our knights and bishops willy-nilly,
[ALL] 'Cause the only thing that matters is the clock!
Ohhhhhh!!!
Speedy slashing life!
Timer bashing life!
Sacking bluffing life!
Mate or nothing life!
[MOLLY] Chess for us done froze, you see…
[ANNIE] Back in eighteen sixty three!
[ALL] And it’s really quite a shame
Playing chess with half a game!
[MOLLY, sober demeanor, English accent in imitation of 19th-Century master Samuel Boden] “In a gambit you give up a Pawn for the sake of getting a lost game.”
[ALL] Pull the whiskers from his chin!
Stick his horsie with a pin!
Sack your bishop, then just win!
Playing solid is a sin!
[MOLLY (pointing to chessboard)]
Play the Evans!
Play the Latvian!
Play the Blackmar-Diemer!
Play any gambit you can think of!
[ALL]It’s the gambit life for us!
It’s the gambit life for us!
And it’s really quite a shame
Playing chess with half a game!
It’s the gambit life!
It’s the gambit life!
It’s the gambit life!
