Thrilling theatre moments/twists- Page 2

[canmark]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 3:45pm

The most thrilling theatrical moment I ever experienced was during the (2001, I think) Toronto Fringe Festival production of trey anthony's "'da kink in my hair" (which was remounted at least twice in Toronto in larger theatres, and also turned into a TV series).

The play features a number of monologues given by women who are customers in a Caribbean-Canadian hair salon. One monologue is given by a young woman (performed brilliantly by d'bi young) who wears a parka. She's from Jamaica and is now living in Canada with her mother and stepfather (Mr. Brown, a benefactor, who is also sending money back home to the family in Jamaica). She wears a parka because it's so cold in Canada compared to Jamaica, yet she's happy because she has so much more. In Jamaica, she had to share a bed with her grandmother. In Canada, she has her own room and is able to go to school. Her story is very funny, and she speaks with a heavy Jamaican patois. I must admit that I could only understand half of what she was saying, but the largely black female audience was in hysterics.

But then she says something that's seemingly innocuous, yet one immediately senses that the scene has changed. She says something like, "But sometimes Mr. Brown comes into my room."

Suddenly, it feels like the air is sucked out of the entire theatre. The raucous laughter disappears instantly, as the story turns sad and we learn that this girl is being molested. Here, one of the great benefits of her Canadian home (her own bedroom) is being turned against her, as now Mr. Brown is able to abuse her in private.

This was so mesmerizing to me, how the atmosphere of the entire theatre could turn in an instant. I actually went back to see the show a second time because I thought it was a fluke. But it was true. Through trey anthony's words, thorugh d'bi young's performance, and perhaps aided in part by an audience filled with many Jamaican women who could appreciate the humor of this character's experience, but also empathize with the horror of her abuse. It was a riveting moment, a shared experience for the audience, of laughter and sorrow.

Updated On: 5/26/12 at 03:45 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 4:56pm

Patti LuPone's renditions of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and "Rose's Turn".

Always and forever: the curtains parting atop the stairs of the Harmonia Gardens and the beautiful Carol Channing descending to re-join the human race.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 5:13pm

The ensemble of MNEMONIC bringing to life Otzi the Iceman's 4,000-year-old ascent into the Alps. It was the apotheosis of a play that turned tiny moments of human connection into one coup de theatre after another, and its awe-inspiration was effortless. It remains the greatest theatergoing experience of my life.

[AngelorPhantom1359]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 5:36pm

Thrilling moment would have to be Patti LuPone throwing her arms up at the end of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" just before the Casa Rosada rotates.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 6:10pm

And then to have her turn around and proclaim "Listen to that, the voice or Argentina! We are adored we are loved!" demonstrating it was all an act! Nice twist.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 6:15pm

Many moments in M. BUTTERFLY. No, not the revelation that Song is a man. As good as B.D. Wong was, his voice doesn't have a woman's timbre and, anyway, the reviews had all mentioned his part. I was only shocked that the Broadway audience didn't already know.

But the play itself so beautifully demonstrates how our understanding of reality is dominated by social constructions, I thought my head might actually explode at some point in Act II. No other performance of a play has so radically changed the way I think.

***

Probably several moments in FOLLIES, but I'll mention two: the Mirror Dance, of course, the number that showed me how dance can have content even without being strictly representational and showed me what "stopping the show" actually means.

And Prince's original staging of "Two Many Mornings", where Ben caresses Young Sally while Sally mimes being caressed and the spectator realizes what each of Ben and Sally are really thinking. It also solved all the complaints here recently about Sally being "too" crazy because the staging showed, with simple elegance, that she was quite literally living in another world. (And that she wasn't the only one.)

As I much as I like the current revival in LA, I have no idea why a better job isn't done of staging "Too Many Mornings". (It is, however, gloriously sung, perhaps as never before.) Or why "Who's That Woman?" does so little with the concept of mirrors. (What is done instead is wonderful, but still...)

***

And I agree with Gypsy9 on GYPSY, but since I didn't see Merman, I will add Angela Lansbury's "silent bow" after "Rose's Turn". No wonder audiences used to gasp out loud!

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 6:24pm

Evita: the last few moments of the show when the story about Evita's body is told. The staging in the new revival is especially chilling.
Follies: The transition to Loveland. I have only seen it on video, but it gives me chills every time. One of my favorite moments is when the set is revealed against the boisterous and beautiful opening notes of Loveland as the four leads slowly disappear into the chorus.

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 6:36pm

Elena Roger just slowly descending the stairs towards the balcony of the Casa Rosada in Evita really took my breath away.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 6:43pm

In Mary Zimmerman's production of Candide, when Candide is kicked out of the castle, it is done beautifully. It'll be hard to explain, though, so I'll use pictures to help.

The castle is in a very small section of the stage as the scrim only moves away a tiny bit, so it's like you're looking at one room of a dollhouse


When Candide is kicked out, several things happen at once: the actors take off the table and chairs, the scrim lifts out completely, and the backdrop falls to reveal a dark, giant wooden box-type thing that sort of symbolizes how Candide is lost. The rest of the show takes place in that box with different set pieces, back drops, props, etc.


Also, in that production, during the end of Make Our Garden Grow, flowers suddenly grow all over the set. It was a beautiful moment.



sorry that the pictures aren't great, it's the best I cold do.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 6:45pm

bwayphreak, the video doesn't lie. And I'm sure you can imagine what a coup de theatre "Loveland" was when the show was new and a spectator didn't know it was coming.

(Since I criticized the current revival above, I should add that one thing it handles well is the transition into Loveland. Completely different from the original, but still effective.)

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 9:49pm

best12, that "reveal" moment at the top of the overture in Phantom has always been one of my favorites. I just saw the Vegas production over Easter weekend and was just stunned at how beautiful it was with that enhanced chandelier and the fabrics that extended well beyond the proscenium and into the house.

Some others for me, as a spectator.

Alice Ripley belting out/screaming the "Where is mine? I want mine!" line in "The Tunnel of Love" in Side Show. Her pain in that moment was gut wrenching.

In the original production of Beauty and the Beast, the first time we saw the castle, as well as the ballroom set for the title song (and I'm talking the real ballroom, not the rose garden for the tour and at the Lunt)

In Parade, when the entire ensemble joins in during the opening for "The Old Red Hills of Home."

The opening number of Ragtime.

Some favorites from shows I've worked on

"Oh the Thinks You Can Think" in Marcia Milgrom Dodge's production of Seussical that she has staged for Theatreworks (though really that entire production).

The first time I worked on Carmen, in Act IV the "Les voice! voice la quadrille" with an 80 member chorus, under the direction of Dorothy Danner and Maestro Anton Coppola. Amazing.

"Willamania" from The Will Rogers Follies.

[justoldbill]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 10:34pm

The finale of TURANDOT at the Met. The lovers are reconciled, the chorus is singing away, the emperor and his court start proceeding downstage, the ballet ladies are swaying and sashaying across the stage...
And at the last few orgasmic moments, gold glitter decending from the flies for a truly fairy-tale happy ending. Can't be beat.
Blackout. Tableau. Zowie!

Updated On: 5/26/12 at 10:34 PM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 1:20am

In the original production of Beauty and the Beast, the first time we saw the castle, as well as the ballroom set for the title song (and I'm talking the real ballroom, not the rose garden for the tour and at the Lunt)

What did the ballroom set look like?

[jamiekennywicked]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 10:09am

Thought I'd bump with a few more moments I really enjoy:

When Mother finds Sarah's baby in Ragtime
The few lines the embalmers sing at the end of the Lament in Evita

[quizking101]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 10:42am

"How Could I Ever Forget" in NEXT TO NORMAL....I was a puddle.

The very final scene in South Pacific where Emile returns, and he and Nellie are sitting across from each other. They then grab each other's hands under the table and smile, exchanging no words.

The popsicle scene toward the end of WIT

"Dice Are Rolling" from EVITA

[chewy5000]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 10:55am

When I saw Next To Normal, the big moment in terms of audible audience reaction was when the Doctor reminds Diana about Gabe after her memory loss.. The collective gasp there was amazing.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 12:12pm

Mary Poppins Final Flight

Beauty and the Beast- If I can't love her. I Loved the quick scene change from inside to outside during the musical interlude. There was something about it that gave me goosebumps.

Billy Elliot's final exit through the audience

Peter Pan Act one Flying sequence.

[theatrefreak0109]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 12:32pm

The end of It's a Hit when they reprise Old Friends gives me chills every time.

[muchadoabout_me2]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 2:04pm

Danny, I am SO on board with you. Everything about that production was so captivating. I also loved the transformation from bubble bath to full attire during "Glitter and be Gay."

Here's a clip of "Make Our Garden Grow" from the MZ production at the Huntington in Boston, starting with the flowers emerging. One of the most powerful moments I've experienced in a theatre.
http://youtu.be/txvq4KI43P8

[ksbergslien]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 2:32pm

So many times in N2N got me.
Especially at the end of There's A World when the Doctor reveals that Diana was found with razor blade wounds to her wrists and forearms. Most of the audience clearly had not seen the show before, including myself, and you could hear the shock.

I only saw the revival, but the Opening in A Chorus Line always gets me.

In Once, when they are standing upstage on the platform looking down at the city and Girl says "I love you" in Czech and Guy has no idea. I found that to be very emotional because there are no subtitles in the movie at that part, and I didn't put it together that that's what she really said.

I thought The Destruction in the Carrie Revival was so great! Also, When There's No One and when Margaret stabs Carrie. I knew it was supposed to happen, but I was really really not expecting it, and it surprised much of the audience as well.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 3:08pm

Maggie Smith scampering up a trellis--with the swift dexterity of Michael Beresse!--as Amanda in the 1975 revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives.

It was the moment at the beginning when Amanda sees her ex-husband on the adjacent balcony. Maggie Smith performed a perfect triple take, at the climax of which she ran in the other direction, hit the ivied terrace wall and climbed up the trellis, until she reached about 15 feet.

Then she just sort of hung there, until the audience stopped laughing, which was a very, very long time.

I don't know that I'll ever see anything funnier onstage in my entire life.

[willep]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 3:43pm

For me: the scene in Jerusalem where Phaedra and Rooster danced to "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." That whole show was brilliant, but that moment, to me, was one of the greatest I have seen on stage.

I also agree with ksbergslien about the bluff scene in Once. Love that scene.

[Jake01]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 10:56pm

Two from "Doubt", within minutes of each other:

Sister Aloysius: He's got your son.
Mrs. Muller: Let him have him then.

and

Mrs. Muller: Maybe some of them boys want to get caught. Maybe what you don't know is my son is... that way.

Got BIG gasps from the audience when I saw it.

[jdrye222]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 11:14pm

Two that immediately come to mind, in terms of just breathtaking moments...

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS Finale when all the boys turn around in blackface.

and... (don't shoot me) - towards the end of AIDA when the tomb is slowly shrinking and the final dot of light from the tomb becomes the brightest star in the sky and the whole stage is filled with stars..... Anyone else love that moment? or is it just me? I thought it was beautiful stagecraft, using lighting and set and music for exactly what theater wants it to be.


Updated On: 6/30/12 at 11:14 PM

[Jake01]

Posted: 6/30/12 at 11:34pm

Jdrye222, that ending of "Aida" was pretty damn amazing. And when the star drop rose, revealing the tomb exactly where it had been, only now as an artifact in a museum? Brilliant. Bob Crowley is a genius.