The company’s 2018 production of Princess Ida provided a second opportunity to reuse a cell phone song, as had been done with the 2016 production of Iolanthe.  As company members reviewed the song, however, it struck them as being slightly dated with its references to “electric gadgets” and “pagers.”  Holly Windle revised the 2006 version to bring it a bit more up to date.

Sung to the tune of “If You Give Me Your Attention, I Will Tell You What I Am”
          King Gama’s song from Act I
Written by Holly Windle
Performed by Scott Benson and the Company

If you give me your attention, and obey my plain request,
          It will spare you recognition as an irritating pest.
Please stow away devices that might ring or cast a glow.
Neglect your email messages and focus on the show!
It doesn’t help our acting or our clarity of tone
When the beauty of the moment is destroyed by someone’s phone.
          So silence all those gizmos that you really do not need.
And wait till intermission to peruse your Facebook feed.

So just turn them off!
Just turn them off!
Just turn them off!

Sung to the tune of “If You Give Me Your Attention, I Will Tell You What I Am”
         King Gama’s song from Act I
Written by James Ahrens
Performed by James Ahrens and the Company

If you give me your attention, I will tell you what to do,
        Turn off electric gadgets that you brought in here with you.
It makes it somewhat difficult when we begin to sing,
And the pagers start to twitter and the cell phones start to ring.
It doesn’t help our acting or our clarity of tone,
When someone spoils the moment with the ringing of a phone.
        We hate to be impertinent and tell you what to do,
But we know that if there’s ringing you’ll be irritated too.

So turn them off!
So turn them off!
Turn cell phones off!