just imagine...

Imagine if Sondheim - master of the complicated wordplay - was born 50 or so years later and became a rapper, turning his skills to a more 'machine-gun poetry' sound.

Sondheim has said that rap is remarkably close to musical theater in terms of wordplay and rhythm. He says he tried for something rap-adjacent with the witch's part in the Into the Woods prologue. Here's an excerpt:

he Said, "all Right,"
but It Wasn't, Quite,
'cause I Caught Him In The Autumn
in My Garden One Night!
he Was Robbing Me,
raping Me,
rooting Through My Rutabaga,
raiding My Arugula And
ripping Up My Rampion
(My Champion! My Favorite!)-
i Should Have Laid A Spell On Him
right There,
could Have Changed Him Into Stone
or A Dog Or A Chair...

I mean, some rap has some awesome wordplay going on. Consider this from the Wu-Tang Clan:

I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies
and hypothesis can't define how I be droppin these
mockeries, lyrically perform armed robbery
Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me
Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits
tremendous, ultra-violet shine blind forensics
I inspect you, through the future see millenium
Killa B's sold fifty gold sixty platinum
Shacklin the masses with drastic rap tactics