The Mousetrap (Caught In)

        Dm                      C
After all is said and done,
            Bm             D           C 
Not very much will have been either way:
                      Bb                       D
I'm a chronicler of action, I'm an actor in a play.
             Dm              C
I know the lines I have to speak,
            Bm            D                   C
I know that I won't ever quit, or corpse, or dry
                                Bb                               D
but the performance gets so pointless and the days just drift on by...
       Bb         F
Every time that I go to turn the pages of the calendar
        C                  G
in the third act of this twenty-ninth year of the show
      G#           D#
I'm aware of the latest leading lady, and get mad of her -
         A#m          G#                F#
it's perfunctory, but why she'll never know.

Instrumental part:  Dm    C    Bb    A  (the ending sequence is missing?)

         Dm              C
When I began, I had my hopes,
             Bm             D                     C
believed that I could be a leading light of the stage,
                                Bb                              D
but now I've stunned myself to silence, exhausted all my inner rage,
                               Bb                                   D
extinguished all my joy and violence, trapped all my feelings in a cage.
       Bb         F
Every time that I go to turn the pages of the calendar
       C                        G       F
I can see that I'm not really going anywhere -
            G#           D#
all these years I have skirted round experience like a scavenger...
        A#m              G#         F#
can I really feel? - I wonder if I dare?
       A#m                        G#             F#
At the end of the run, will there be anyone who cares?
      A#m                            G#
And behind the actor's pose, heaven knows
                   F#   F   F#
if there's anyone left in there.