Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
#1Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 4:02pm
What is your favorite final moment of a broadway show? One of mine would have to be the final moment of the Phantom of the Opera, with Meg holding the Phantom mask up or the 2008 revival of Gypsy when the lights went out on the ROSE sign.
Updated On: 12/28/13 at 04:02 PM
#2Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 4:22pmI think Wicked has a great final moment. Also in Sweeney when Todd and Lovett rise from the dead.
#2Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 4:29pmJekyll and Hyde and Dracula with Emma and Mina both losing their loves. The final chords in both shows are so chilling.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#3Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 4:40pmThe Broadway production of The Normal Heart. I get chills just thinking about it. Same goes for the most recent revival of Hair.
wicked4l
Broadway Star Joined: 5/19/06
#4Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 4:48pmWicked is probably my favorite. I love the silhouette of Fiyero and Elphaba walking into the mist. The current revival of Pippin is also pretty powerful with Theo up on the trapeze.
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#5Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 5:00pmI thought the final scene in The Drowsy Chaperone was very effective.
indytallguy
Broadway Star Joined: 7/13/08
#6Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 5:09pm
Floyd Collins walking off into the distance with the sound of his voice repeatedly echoing around him has stuck with me for more than a decade.
And while not nearly as emotion-inducing as the penultimate moment at the close of the first act, the blank white canvas at the end of Sunday in the Park with George is a favorite.
KathyNYC2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/2/10
#8Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 5:21pm
I am not a huge fan of all aspects of Matilda = but the final cartwheel off the stage is about a perfect moment as I can imagine.
Also love the final moment of Ragtime, when the child of each family all walk on stage together.....and She Loves Me when Georg and Amalia realize who they are to each other.
But the most "goosebumps" moment for me is the finale of 1776 with the scrim of the actual Declaration of Independence being superimposed with all the men signing it as in the famous painting of the event...with the orchestra and bells honoring the moment. Now that was Theater...with a capital T.
#9Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 5:32pm
1776 indeed! When well-executed, chills of the highest order.
I may be in the minority, but THE NANCE's ending was spectacularly memorable for me. A livelihood shatters to an end as the very theatre itself seems ready to collapse. A gasp-inducing flourish of obsolescence.
JERUSALEM also was one of the most thrilling final moments, with Mark Rylance pounding his entire damaged and bloody soul into that drumbeat and what seemed like the entire audience yearning to hear giants' footsteps or see the leaves of the trees shake. Maybe it was just me, but it felt all-encompassing.
Also, I know I raved about Geoffrey Rush in EXIT THE KING on here recently, but the literal last gasp of his performance is seared into my memory.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
PositivelyEmerald
Stand-by Joined: 7/24/11
#10Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 5:38pm
Scottsboro Boys. Hands down the most powerful moment I've seen.
The revival of evita was alsoo well done.
Updated On: 12/28/13 at 05:38 PM
#11Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 8:05pmFew things can beat the image of the characters from "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" bowing to George in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, as well as the final moment of the show. Then there's the "Hi, girls, Ben, Sally" moment in FOLLIES, which just kills me every time.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#12Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 8:47pm
Great question.
Miss Honey and Matilda cartwheeling toward their house
Violet crawling up to Johnna in the attic - August: Osage County
Mary Poppins flying out over the audience
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
#13Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 8:55pm
Has to be SUNDAY for me, specifically the '08 revival. All the other characters leave the stage and suddenly the entire stage is a bright, pure white.
"White: a blank page or canvas. His favorite--so many possibilities." *ding* ("Sunday" interval)
#14Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 9:23pmSo much this. I enjoyed the show but wasn't wowed by it. But when George ir facing the audience and reading from the notebook as the set erases itself was awesome, but his gasp as he turned around and saw the infinite possibilities, It flipped me into a fan. Literal chills in the final moment
Huey's Pop
Featured Actor Joined: 4/19/05
#15Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 10:14pmRent and In The Heights had very emotional, stirring final scenes.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#16Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 10:36pmThe end of Will Rogers where he walks off into the light.
Poster Emeritus
TheatreKid3
Broadway Star Joined: 3/25/12
#17Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 11:09pm
When the music swells at the end of BILLY ELLIOT as Michael rides off and Billy walks away, I lose it every time.
MARY POPPINS' final flight is also one of the most captivating endings in all of modern musical theatre IMO.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#18Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 11:12pmThe return of the mermaid in Big Fish
Poster Emeritus
#19Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 11:19pmWicked has my favorite final moment of a show. In the Heights, Carousel, Next to Normal, and Les Miserables are also powerful for me.
#20Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/28/13 at 11:56pm
most of my favorites have already been said (particularly the Scottsboro Boys. one of the most incredible final moments I've ever seen)
I'd also add:
Parade
The Story of my Life
Man of la Mancha
Dog Sees God
Porgy and Bess
Emmaloucbway
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/16/11
#21Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/29/13 at 12:00am
I really love the reworked finale used in the current revival of Pippin.
Also love Scottsboro Boys.
And Mary Poppins. Pure theatrical magic.
#22Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/29/13 at 12:17am
I think that the best finals are from the sound of music. The heavenly nuns chorus
along with the view of the von trap family walking on the hills for Switzerland, and
also the last scene from Les Mis. Those two always move me to tears
Stand-by Joined: 12/31/69
#23Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/29/13 at 12:43amSHE LOVES ME all the way. It's so perfect and fills me with such happiness as Amalia looks at him and realizes he is Dear Friend, and then they embrace as the curtain falls. Perfect release of dramatic tension. I just watched the '78 TV version last night so it is very fresh in my mind.
#24Favorite Final Moment of a Show?
Posted: 12/29/13 at 1:19am
Wicked's ending pisses me off because I'm more in love with the ending of Maguires book.
But I adored Big Fish's ending. And I weirdly loved Next to Normals ending as well. And Billy Elliot and Les Mis. I'm an emotion seeker, I love to be moved at the end!
