Inspired by another thread I started, what are your favorite moments in a musical?
I’m sure I’ll think of more as other posts inspire me, but the one of the best moments in any musical is the cue line right before a song starts, especially when it’s really corny. I’m in Little Shop of Horrors right now, and one of the funniest moments in it is Seymour’s cue into “Da-doo”:
Customer: Where did you get it?
Seymour: Well…
(Music starts.)
Seymour: You remember that total eclipse of the sun a couple of weeks ago?
“Doo-wop” Girls: (singing) Da-doo.
I also really like the part in A Chorus Line when Zach is talking to Cassie while One is playing underneath, and he’s saying something like, “Is this what you really want, Cassie?” or something.
Anyway, what are your favorite musical theatre moments?
Uhm, I’ve only been to one musical in my entire life (shows you how cultured I am, hmmph!) and my favourite would be when the Phantom of the Opera starts swinging on the chandelier.
I could turn this thread into 49 pages all my myself, but I think my favorite is…hell, I don’t know. There are so many good ones.
Not from the theatre, but Broadway on Broadway 1993. Davis Gaines starts singing “Music of the Night” in the worst rendition you ever heard. He was very flat and couldn’t seem to get on key. I wondered if it was me, but the guy next to me said “This is terrible.” People started looking away, embarassed. That bad.
When he got to “Slowly, deftly,” his voice was real and it was spectacular. Everyone’s neck snapped back to look at him and their mouths fell open. It was astonishing. He got the biggest round of applause.
Do movies count? The scene in “The Music Man” in the middle of Marion the Librarian when all the kids are dancing in the library. It gives me chills every time I see it.
If it’s in a small theater, the point in “Epiphany” when Sweeney Todd is singing to the audience, “You, sir? How about a shave?” while waving the razor madly about is breath-taking. Particularly if you’re one of the people he’s making eye contact with.
Yup,Winterwren. The best I’ve ever seen that done was a production CG and I worked on in college.The guy playing Sweeney was disabled(had a paralyzed right arm and partially paralyze right leg)and had fallen through the trap door under the barber’s chair the week before in tech rehearsal,so he was doing the show with a horrible scrape up his back and four cracked ribs.When he strutted down the prosenium during the first number,people in the front row kind of leaned back because he looked SO evil. I loved it.
I also really loved Elaine Page(??)as Grizabella in the video version of “CATS”.The end,where she is doing “Memory” just makes me want to cry every time because of the emotion on her face.
IDBB
Les Mis when Valjean sings Who am I? The very ending when it’s a transition from Valjean contemplating to himself if he should confess to when he’s in front of the court confessing - the French flags are unfurled and a courtroom is displayed as he belts ** 2 - 4 - 6 - 0 - 1 ** - it’s awesome!
Little Shop of Horrors - after Seymour realizes that Audrey II’s real intentions -
Seymour: That’s what you had in mind all along, isn’t it? World conquest.
Audrey II - No s**t, Sherlock.
The line is absolutely hilarious, and it comes at a great part of the show.
Another Chorus Line one from the same song - While Zach and Cassie are arguing and the auditioners are quietly reciting the steps to One -
Cassie: You had already left.
Zach: LEFT? (very angrily)
Dancers: left (while turning to the left)
I’m trying to overlook some of the really obvious ones (the barricade in Les Mis, Ascot in MY FAIR LADY):
Ragtime, when Younger Brother is seduced on THE NIGHT THAT GOLDMAN SPOKE AT UNION SQAURE. I also love the “I’m J.P. Morgan my friends…” segment as Morgan crushes the working poor until Harry Houdini magically appears and drives him back.
The mooning scene in the new CABARET.
Please don’t hate me, for I know this musical is among the most spammed, but the AMERICAN DREAM segment of MISS SAIGON (more impressive even than the helicopter) in which a busy street in Bangkok’s red light district becomes a nightclub stage, a Cadillac descends from heaven, then suddenly all goes back to the streets of Bangkok. (For that matter, the white-stage with a statue of Uncle Ho is also cool.)
The letters from John to/from Abigail in 1776.
Javert’s suicide in LES MIS (the way he drowns in the “light” as the bridge ascends.)
The final two scenes of Cabaret. (the Sam Mendes version)
Sally’s art project in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown that leads into “My New Philosophy”
Also, one that needs a bit of explanation…
The off-B’way musical “The Last Session”… story of a singer/songwriter, Gideon, with AIDS who plans to kill himself, holds a last recording session, one of his friends can’t attend, and sends a Southern Baptist bumpkin boy, Buddy in his place.
At one point in the show, Buddy is being particularly nasty and homophobic. Gideon’s friend, Jim, who is recording the session, and is the only one who knows about Gideon’s plans, says over the loudspeaker “Why don’t you take him with you tomorrow?”
Miss Saigon, where we flash back in Act II to the embassy evacuation: Chris is trying to call Kim at the room, “Please Kim
Hear the phone - I can’t get there - Please be home…” while outside Kim is trying to get past the guards, “Please Chris - No one sees - I am lost here - Find me please …”
Into the Woods, during the haunting realization of The Witch in “Children Will Listen.”
King of Hearts, when the inmates take over their jobs again in “After All These Years.”
Les Mis, when Eponine dies in Marius’ arms.
Miss Saigon when Kim puts the Mickey Mouse hat on Tam.
Godspell at the end, when Jesus approaches each and does a word or gesture to recap his interaction with each.
Aspects of Love, when Jenny tremblingly asks Alex to marry her instead of Guiletta.
How did I not post an Into the Woods moment?! I was just in that over the summer, and I guess the best moments is when Milky-White (that was me!) dies. That was so fun to do.
The soft-shoe (All for the Best) number in Godspell-
Judas’s taunting supplication in the title number of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.
The moment when Norma is bathed in a spotlight for the first time in 20 years in SUNSET BLVD, then the way that she takes this great sentimental emotional moment and totally dives off the deep end with it in EVERYTHING’S AS IF WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE.
Tateh holding his little girl and comforting her with “Gliding” in RAGTIME.
The entirety of “Without You” from RENT.
When Don Quixote says “And still thou art my lady…” to the ranting and battered Aldonza in the “I am only Aldonza the whore!” number of MAN OF LA MANCHA.
Company (Stephen Sondheim) concerns Bobby, a '70s New Yorker who appears to be allergic to emotional involvement in any form. The show depicts his relationships with five “good and crazy” involved /attached couples; and it becomes evident that Bobby and his friends are mutual enablers—he gets enough intimacy to keep on avoiding involvement, and they use him as a sounding board to keep on avoiding the problems in their own relationships.
So much for background. The moment I have in mind occurs at the end of the show in a nightclub, when Joanne (an early-middle-aged bitchy type who has already gone through a fair number of husbands) throws her arm around Bobby and says, “Don’t worry, Bobby, I’ll take care of you!” Bobby instantly (instinctively?) replies, “But who will I take care of?” At that instant the tenor of the show changes and all the masks drop. In the song that follows (“Being Alive”), Bobby asks his friends what they get out of their relationships. And they tell him. And for the first time in his life he realizes that he just might want a little bit of the same thing.
For reasons that I won’t go into, I can’t listen to “Being Alive” without more than a few tears. But IMHO it’s what happens immediately before that makes the whole thing worthwhile. Without that abrupt transition, the song simply wouldn’t make sense.
Les Mis - Javert’s Suicide is IMHO one of the best moments ever in a musical… especially Phil Quast’s version on the 10 anniv. concert. (though on Broadway is was unbelieveable too!)
The Producers with the names of the different shows popping up at the end… priceless!
Cabaret - Getting over the fact that the EmCee was Uncle Joey from Full House as he pulled a sailor from the audience to dance… hilarious…
Rent - I agree with “Without You”
Into the Woods - it was just the way Little Red sang the words “To GrandMOTHER’s house!” in that… voice… priceless.
Joseph - getting to sit in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s seat in the Palladium in London and having Jason Donovan smile at us as he ascended at the end. (Long story about begging for change to get these seats even though the show was sold out… remind me to post it sometime… hell of a good story!)
Evita - The opening scene… such a great set up…
Godspell - I saw one production where “Alas, Alas for You” was spoken, not sung, with the music done background as grating electric guitar… stunning… spoken slowly, sadly, yet seething with anger… fantastically done
I loved it.