Favorite Finales?

[michellek45]

I really love finales from Broadway shows, and they're often one of the best songs in the score. Just wondering what some people's favorites are.

Mine include:
Wicked's finale- even though I think the show is "eh," the finale is gorgeous
Les Miserable finale- that "Do You Hear the People Sing?" reprise gets me every time
Wand'rin' Star from Paint Your Wagon- though it's not quite the end of the show, it's the last song, and it's got excellent lyrics

[broadwaydevil]

Have to agree with you on Les Mis...but my favorite finale of all time goes to my favorite musical: Sweeney Todd. Absolute brilliance.

[Katt1721]

The finale for Cabaret (specifically the 1998 revival) was one of the first ones that came to mind

[broadwaydevil]

Also - on a much lighter note, I love Hairspray's finale!

[SondheimFan5]

- A Chorus Line
- Ragtime
- The 3 big Learner and Loewe finales: Camelot (don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot...RUN BOY! RUN!), Brigadoon (big choral finale and kiss and great orchestration), My Fair Lady (where the devil are my slippers?)
- 42nd Street (Reprise by Julian "naughty...gaudy...baudy...sporty...)
- Les Mis
- I find the Little Night Music finale to be so haunting when done well (starting with the always-get-goosebumps "and, of course...Frederika... to the end)
- The Producers
- The King and I

[jacobsnchz14]

I liked the finale sequence in the NINE film... although some of the movie wasn't all as great as the trailer made it, I really enjoyed the way the ending was staged.

[bwayphreak234]

The Book of Mormon
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
The Scarlet Pimpernel

[MermansMan]

Sweeney Todd pops into my mind first. La Cage always has a fun finale. I also love the ending of Gypsy. When done right, it gives me chills.

[sergio_27]

I love the finale of "next to normal". It ends full of energy.

[ChiChi]

I really like The Color Purple finale.

[bwayphreak234]

I also love the Young Frankenstein finale.

[LW2]

Hi...
Girls...
Ben...
Sally...

[broadwayguy2]

Nothing sends an audience out the doors on a high quite like Hairspray's "You Can't Stop the Beat".... and U can't neglect the finales of Ragtime and Parade..

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Sunday in the Park with George beats everything else listed in this thread so far. The show isn't for everyone, but I can't get within 10 feet of the finale without feeling at least a little catch in my throat.

[fingerlakessinger]

I'm just gonna say it...
WICKED's finale still is one of the VERY few finale's that brings me to tears. To me...the way they blend "No One Mourns the Wicked" and "For Good" into this one beautiful piece of music is just amazing. The best part to me is when Glinda and Elphaba sing perfect harmonies on "because I knew you..." and the ensemble join in quietly "No One mourns the Wicked." And it's such a simple set up...Glinda is in the bubble and Elphaba is on the ground and simply walks upstage...no big bang...just the ensemble tying up the show basically.
AND...Next to Normal is pretty epic.
Ragtime
Phantom
Sunday in the Park With George
Into the Woods

[Gaveston2]

I agree that "You Can't Stop the Beat" is one of the all-time great finale numbers.

But for sheer dramatic impact, I love the ending of MAN OF LA MANCHA: as Cervantes climbs the stairs to meet the Inquisition, the formerly cynical prisoners take up the refrain of "The Impossible Dream."

The point of course is that storytelling (and by extension, theater itself) can change people.

[chewy5000]

Titanic - Sheer Choral Brilliance

Assassins (Basically the entire sequence form Another National Anthem, through November 22 to Everybody's Got The Right - Something Just Broke ruins it)

[loudshroom]

Nobody's mentioned Tommy ("Listening to You...") yet?

[Nettik]

For me, my favorite finales are:

Sunday in the Park with George (and when they sang "Sunday" at the Stephen Sondheim birthday concert, you bet tears were streaming down my face! Such a powerful song.)

Fiddler on the Roof

Ragtime

Into the Woods

Sweeney Todd

Hair

[henrikegerman]

A rousing reprise of "Life Is" can almost save even a bad production of Zorba.

But I'd have to say it's Fanny alone in her dressing room reprising "Don't Rain On My Parade."

[bwayrose7]

-I too find the Wicked finale very moving, especially the "because I knew you"
-Les Mis- "to love another person is to see the face of God" is such a beautiful thought to end with
-For sheer joy, Hairspray
-I love how "where the devil are my slippers?" in My Fair Lady makes me melt every time
-Hair, for mixing a gut wrenching image of death with a haunting idea of hope

[songanddanceman2]

Hair
Hairspray
Carrie

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Light in the Piazza . . .

[Mister Matt]

Les Miserables
Rent
Hairspray
The Full Monty
Tanz der Vampire
Hair
Tommy
Blood Brothers
In the Heights
Book of Mormon

[charlesjguiteau]

Not to be too pedantic, but there IS a difference between a final scene and a FINALE, isn't there? To my mind My Fair Lady has a final scene (and a perfectly lovely one too); Hello Dolly has a finale: a boisterous reprise of 4 favorites from the score sung by the entire company as our heroine promenades down the passarelle in a WEDDING DRESS for God's sake.

Some of my favorite Finales:
Carousel
Candide
110 in the Shade (that thunderclap of rain gives me chills every time)
Sunday in the Park with George
The Secret Garden
Rent

Some of my favorite final scenes:
The King and I
My Fair Lady
West Side Story
She Loves Me
Fiddler on the Roof
1776
Pippin (for the quiet scene FOLLOWING the "Think About the Sun" pseudo-finale)
A Little Night Music