Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?- Page 2
Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
#25Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 7:14pmMy favorite though was when John Cameron Mitchell came back for a weekend to play Hediwg, I think he was working on the film version at the time, The Jane was full of Hed Heads. Everyone was a fan. We were all there to see him, it was electric. It was more like a performance of Rocky Horror. It was super interactive. He kept prompting the crowd to shout out the lines, it was so much fun.
#26Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 7:19pm
I didn't experience it personally, just via the magic of technology.
But the ovation Idina received for her final-final Broadway show when she came back in the red track suit for the last scene was pretty much 6+ solid minutes of screaming.
#27Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 7:19pmHairspray in June 2003. Drama Desk, OCC, and Drama League awards had already happened and the show had just cleaned house. The Tony's were about a week away and things were looking good. It was just a really enthusiastic, happy crowd who seemed genuinely excited to be at the show. And the cast just rode that energy. I didn't love everything about the show, but I loved how just entirely into everyone was.
#28Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 7:36pm
I'll never forget the first preview of the ultimately ill-fated revival of Ragtime. There was long, thunderous, applause when the curtain rose after the lights dimmed to reveal Coalhouse at the piano with the cast gathered around him.
The final performance of the Night Music revival was pretty special, too. There was a sense among the audience, an unspoken feeling, that this would be Stritch's last appearance on a stage and it was as if everyone wanted to thank her for her career. And she was letter perfect that afternoon- totally on her game. At curtain call, unbeknownst to her, Bernadette and the rest of the cast stepped back to let Stritch have a solo bow and that's when the place really erupted. In a very Stritchian way, she ate it up, while pretending not to (repeatedly gesturing for everyone to stop clapping). Bernadette spoke, and then Stritch, again in a very Stritchian way, said "Now it's my turn to talk!" and proceeded to run through her own list of thanks, which allowed her to poke a little fun at herself (she gestured upwards and said "And Hugh Wheeler, I swear I never changed a single word!"). It was an afternoon I won't ever forget.
Updated On: 12/12/14 at 07:36 PM
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#29Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 7:40pm
Both involved fight sequences
Knockout
Golden Boy - Sammy Davis Jr
Poster Emeritus
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#30Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 7:46pm
Betty Buckley in Sunset Boulevard. Once she got to the lyric "I've come home at last.." the BB Fan Club went nuts and nearly ripped the seats apart.
Carol Channing in Hello Dolly. The last Broadway revival, she's driven on in the streetcar hiding behind the newspaper and everyone in the Channing Fan Club went nuts. I mean, who did they think was behind that newspaper? Barbra Streisand?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#31Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 8:14pmFOLLIES. Winter Garden Theatre. Closing night-7/1/1972. Trust me-I was there. No one looked more stunned at the response than Alexis Smith.
Well-well-well-what-do-you-think-of-that-I-have-nothing-here-to-pay-my-train-fare-with-only-large-bills-fives-and-sevens....
#32Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 8:19pmShia Labeouf's first performance in Cabaret. The reaction was so ecstatic that the police had to come and it even got media attention.
#33Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 8:44pmPriscilla closing night was pretty off the hook. Since we stopped the performance mid-show, not after a musical number, for what I recall being a 7-ish minute standing ovation.
Jarethan
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/10/11
#34Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 9:19pm
Follies closing night
Gypsy closing night with Angela Lansbury. The best rendition of Rose's Turn that I have ever seen
Final preview of Over Here, mainly because the audience was so surprised to be loving a show they thought would be a silly nothing.
Moon for the Misbegotten, with Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst...both times...immediate stomping standing ovation (in a period where they were very rare, unlike today when they are indiscriminately annoying)
First preview of the Mame revival that flopped. It flopped because of terrible management...opened in the summer with no notice and terrible advertising. It was the only time I ever saw an audience applauded (stomped really) for so long that the cast came out for a final bow in front of the curtain with the house lights already up.
#35Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 10:02pm
- Pippin September 2013 - Thunderous applause when the orchestra started up, standing O after No Time At All
- Guys and Dolls concert at Carnegie Hall - The crowd was literally buzzing before the show
- Hedwig with NPH the week before he left
- Wicked Tenth Anniversary
"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Claudia Draper
Featured Actor Joined: 6/14/11
#36Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 10:28pmStreisand. New Years Eve '93. MGM grand. Her return to stage after 27 years.
#37Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 10:50pmFor me it was closing night of In The Heights. Flags, sing alongs, dancing in the seats. The ovation for the final Carnaval was incredible.
Julie Yard
Stand-by Joined: 8/29/13
#38Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/12/14 at 11:58pmI'm at the wrong end (again!) but waiting for the start of a Broadway preview of BOM on my birthday. The house was packed with South Park fans ready to have a good time. It was electric. Great, great night of theater.
Dolittle
temms
Broadway Star Joined: 7/21/04
#39Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/13/14 at 3:19am
Glittergrrl, JCM's return to "Hedwig" is exactly what I was going to post! I was there at the third of the three shows and it was pretty incredible. Everyone in the audience knew every word of the show, so there were a lot of added extras. I remember that every one of Tommy's prerecorded speeches had an extra line, and there was a whole section where she read a poem about her "taint".
The opening line was changed slightly to: "Ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not… and I get the feeling you will… HEDWIG!" followed by the loudest roar I've ever heard two hundred people make.
#40Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/13/14 at 4:51pm
Probably the SCOTTSBORO BOYS soon after they announced closing. Somewhat documented here:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1025261&mobile=on
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
The Other One
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/1/08
#41Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/13/14 at 5:02pm"The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby" New Year's Eve and Day, 1981-82. Their closing weekend, and I've never felt a theater more joyous.
Curious3
Understudy Joined: 11/14/14
#42Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/13/14 at 5:50pmFarewell performance of soprano Renata Scotto at the Metropolitan Opera. This was a performance of FEDORA with Placido Domingo. I left after the 30 minute mark of applause and at least 15-20 curtain calls.
sctrojan65
Featured Actor Joined: 10/24/14
#43Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/13/14 at 9:50pm
Crazy For You….first act finale, "I've Got Rhythm." Wasn't opening or closing night. Just a typical night in the theater. But it was such an energized number, the audience went pretty wild in appreciation.
Sunset Boulevard…Glenn Close…Shubert Theater….LA. "As If We Never Said Goodbye." In the same place in the song that someone mentioned with regard to Betty Buckley above.
Saturday Night Fever….I will admit, the house rocked from start to finish the night I saw that one.
Updated On: 12/13/14 at 09:50 PM
#44Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 12/13/14 at 9:54pmI'd say my best were at A Little Night Music with Bernadette and Elaine and the OBC of Nice Work when I saw it. Both audiences at these shows cheered very enthusiastically for the leading players, the curtain call was amazing to see, and most if not all of the jokes in both got great responses.
http://puccinischronicles.wordpress.com
#46Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:00pm
Mine was American Psycho's closing night. There's a recording out there somewhere, but the audience was so incredibly enthusiastic.
bfreak
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/6/11
#47Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:05pmI was at Hamilton the night it won the Pulitzer Prize. When Lin-Manuel Miranda entered, the applause was unlike anything I've ever seen and went on for about 2 minutes straight through. It was a terrific moment to see everyone become so thrilled at seeing the man who created such a wonderful piece as he starred in it and was celebrated for it.
BroadwayBeebe
Featured Actor Joined: 2/10/16
#48Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:06pmBette Midler’s first preview in Dolly immediately springs to mind. Maybe my favorite night ever in a theatre.
droosychap
Swing Joined: 9/28/17
#49Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:11pm
The opening night of The Humans ties with the opening night of Springsteen on Broadway.
Openings are always special but those are 2 that had a special feeling in the air that night.
Patty3
Featured Actor Joined: 2/24/07
#50Most enthusiastic audience you have experienced?
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:16pm
The Wednesday matinees of Hamilton the day after the 2016 Election. Some of the lines really stood out and it was as if the audience was waiting for them to be spoken. The applause that almost stopped the show was King George coming out after Yorktown and singing "What Comes Next".
