Thrilling theatre moments/twists- Page 5

[After Eight]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 6:27am

The "Put on Your Sunday Clothes " number was incredibly thrilling --- and still is! The combination of the music, the gorgeous costumes, the fantastic orchestrations, the way it all built to a crecendo... it transported me to cloud 999. Same with the Dolly finale. Likewise "Each Tomorrow Morning" in Dear World.

Those Jerry Herman musicals sure knew how to fill an audience with elation.

[KathyNYC2]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 6:43am

Certainly the costume changes in Cinderella in the current production.
The moment that has stayed with me all these years - the end of 1776 when the actors wind up in the poses from the famous painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and then a picture of the actual Declaration of Independence is superimposed over the cast - while the church bells ring in the background. (actually there are a lot of awesome moments in a great production of this show).
-Also right before the end of Chorus Line when we learn which actors were selected for the show..I don't remember anyone in the theater breathing much during those moments. Also when Paul gets hurt in the same show.

[logan2]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 7:21am

When I saw the touring production of TITANIC, the end of Act 1 gave me chills. The crew realizes they are heading toward the iceberg and suddenly the stage goes dark and a replica of the ship glides silently across the stage surrounded by a calm, starry sky. It forced a change in perspective as an audience member that still gives me goosebumps.

The next example, that truly changed my life, is going to be hard to explain, but here goes. In the mid 80's, Showtime began airing SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. I wasn't into theatre at the time, having just turned twenty with limited exposure to Broadway. I kept seeing snippets of the first act when I was channel surfing, stopping to watch for a few minutes Patinkin and Peters in their Color and Light duet. I thought it was very interesting, but not for me, so I continued to channel surf.

A few days later, again changing channels, I came upon Act 2 where Marie is singing Children and Art. As I watched, Peters pointed to a woman in the painting and asked Patinkin if he knew who it was and he replied, "That is your mother." When Peters started pointing to all of the women in the painting and singing, "There she is, there she is. Mama is everywhere, he must have loved her so much", I realized tears were streaming down my face. Suddenly, the connection of what I'd seen days before and what I was seeing now made sense. I understood the correlation between having to stand back a distance from the artist's painting, and indeed the whole play, to fully understand what you're seeing.

I immediately checked the TV guide for when it aired next, so I could watch it from beginning to end.

I've been in love with theatre ever since.




















Updated On: 6/6/13 at 07:21 AM

[Matteo]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 11:31am

welcometothetheater, THANK YOU for mentioning Kristine's second act phone call.. that truly, truly, is one of the most magical moments I have ever witnessed in a theatre. Definitely made me understand once again why theatre is what I love.

Not sure if this is thrilling or not, but I was definitely not prepared for the nudity in 'The Testament of Mary". I have NOTHING against nudity, but with being in the front row, a slight warning would have been nice haha

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 12:04pm

I had never seen or read Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? so the moment when George has the gun to the back of Martha's head and it turns out to be an umbrella was a shocking moment for me. I knew he wasn't going to shoot her because I didn't think the rest of the play was like Weekend at Bernie's, but the twist gave me that rush that comes with the relief of nerves.

[dreaming]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 12:30pm

So glad this thread got resurrected.

Some moments on my list:

1. The revelation of the circus tent in the revival of "Pippin"-it is incredibly breath taking when the curtains are drawn back to reveal the performers inside.

2. David Hyde Pierce's monologue in "Vanya and Sasha and Masha and Spike"-I know Ms. Nielsen's has been mentioned, but Pierce's is really amazing as well and as much of a journey I think. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone hold the audience's attention the way he was able to for that really long, complicated monologue.

3. The opening of "The Phantom of the Opera"-My heart still skips a beat when the auctioneer says "perhaps we can frighten away the ghost of so many years with a little illumination...gentlemen!" and then the sparks fly and the opera house comes to life. The opening chords on that organ are amazing.

4. Javert's suicide in "Les Miserables"-This was my first Broadway show. I have seen it a few times since and every time I saw it was blown away by it. (On a simpler note, "Stars" is a pretty cool scene in the musical where the stars are gleaming in the background as he sings one of the most poetically beautiful songs I've ever heard.)

5. The song "Cabaret" in the 1998 revival. I saw Natasha Richardson play it to utter perfection-the song is a journey-and you could see the journey she took right on her face and in the delivery of that song.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 12:47pm

Celia Keenan Bolger levitating in Peter and the Starcatcher
Alan Cumming taking a bite out of the apple in Macbeth, indicating Banquo's murder

[gchris11]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 12:54pm

The beginning of The Bodyguard.

[eperkins]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 1:02pm

In the original production of Follies, the scene change from the half demolished theatre to Loveland - which happened in about 5 seconds flat. Astonishing. I will never forget it.

[TrChSpHa]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 1:29pm

Hedda's suicide in the recent London production of Hedda Gabler starring Sheridan Smith -- really how it was staged -- is still one of the most haunting moments in theatre I've ever seen.

Center stage, behind those doors, is another large room, separated by the glass windows. In the final scene, as George and Thea work on rebuilding the manuscript and Hedda gets further trapped into Judge Brack's blackmailing, she locks herself into that room -- where she's taken the other revolver.

During Brack's "the only rooster in the yard" banter, Hedda sits down in that large oak chair on the left, hiding her completely. And just as you hear a very loud BANG, blood splatters onto the window. (And I jumped about ten feet into the air). This production takes it even further, with George, Bertha, and Brack running into the room and Brack smearing his bloodied hand onto the window as he cries over Hedda's body.

While all of this is going on, Thea stares out into the audience as she quietly gathers the manuscript notes. Then the curtains on stage right blow in as the door flings open and she runs off stage.

Other moments would probably be:

-The last ten minutes of Venus in Fur, from when Vanda and Thomas switch roles to the moment Vanda takes out the real fur shawl.

-Foal Joey in War Horse, as well as Joey and Albert's reunion.

-"School Song," the Amanda Thripp hammer-throw, and Miss Trunchbull strolling down the aisles to the stage in the scene leading up to the "spelling test" in Matilda.

-Adrian Lester (as Ira Aldridge) putting on the white-face makeup in the final moments of Red Velvet.

-André Braugher's final moments onstage in The Whipping Man.

-Imelda Staunton's performance as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd was chilling, especially the moment in "Not While I'm Around" where she decides she has to turn on Tobias. An Olivier Award well-deserved.

-Definitely not something I loved, but Crown's rape of Bess in the recent Porgy & Bess revival left me with such a gross, uneasy feeling. Also the moment Bess washes the 'happy dust' off of her hand -- the audience applauded when I saw it, imagine the reaction right after she began snorting if from the ground.

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 4:40pm

In the final scene of the FLOWER DRUM SONG revival, several of the actors step forward, in character, and announce the name of the city in which they were born, which always moved me greatly. At the final performance, however, I noticed that the cities were different, and that, instead of just a few actors, it was everyone in the entire cast, each stepping forward for just an instant to announce the city of their own birth. It was awe-inspiring.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 5:09pm

TrChSpHa, that shot of the Hedda set is magnificent.

Here're a few of my oldest thrills and some newer ones:

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC ('73): Boris Aronson's birches parting to reveal the Chateau, but also the quiet stillness as Glynis Johns sat in that red dress center stage and began "Send in the Clowns." When you'd never heard the song before,"Don't bother, they're here" was the goosebump moment.

PIPPIN ('73): Ben Vereen completing the opening of "Magic To Do" on an empty stage and finding the corner of the red handkerchief on the deck, which as he pulled upward, slowly became Tony Walton's magnificent rope construction of the palace set.

A CHORUS LINE: "At The Ballet", when Maggie hits her high note and the periaktoi rotate to the mirror side as the company moves through their ballet combination. Tharon Musser's sidelight created sculptures of the corps as the horns in the pit soared.

HELLO DOLLY (I saw Pearl Bailey in '76): In the Act II finale, Pearl's parade around the passerelle in her white wedding dress. Pure joy.

AIN'T MISBEHAVIN': After an evening of jokes and joy and revelry, just seeing those 5 great performers standing still center stage and delivering "Black and Blue". No fancy staging, no set changes, just raw emotion.

BILLY ELLIOTT (West End): When "Solidarity" first overlaps the worlds of the cops, the strikers and the little girls in brilliant and novel combinations, my hair stood on end. I hadn't felt musical theater come so alive in years. Then they topped it mid-number when Billy completes his first arabesque. "....Tummy....Chin." When he reaches for those perfect pirouettes at the climax, I was a puddle. Still am.

AMERICAN IDIOT: The moment 20 minutes into Act I when the boys topple the scaffolding over to become the bus to take them to New York. The build to the arrival in New York was superbly theatrical, even if little in the rest of the show (with the exception of the Act II flying sequence) could match it.

THE NANCE: After an evening of vaudeville hilarity and repartee mixed with bathos, nothing prepared me for the shame Nathan Lane demonstrates when late in Act II he is reduced to going onstage in drag as the washed up prostitute Hortense. Standing under a streetlamp he still nails the comedy in every line, but you feel the character screaming on the inside. Brilliant, and they should have ended the play there.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 5:11pm

The final scene in the cabin of "The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" is the best choreographed, most startling and bizarre scene I have seen on stage.

[gossipguy215]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 7:27pm

Nickhutson, when In "Merrily We Roll Along" do we find out it was all Charley's memories? Was this the new production?

The first time I saw "Sunday in the Park With George", I also sobbed during "Children and Art". That song is probably the most moving part of Musical Theatre as a whole, especially as the same actress (Bernadette) plays the both parts, and is talking about "herself".

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 9:48pm

The 1997 Jekyll & Hyde confrontation scene.

[CJ N2N]

Posted: 6/6/13 at 10:09pm

I was lucky enough to see a local colleges' production of Neil LaBute's The Shape Of Things in March. The final two scenes when (spoiler!) it was revealed that all he was was her thesis was shocking, chilling and heartbreaking. Especially since the actors actually sat in the audience and you could hear Adam's weeping. Also, the final moment of Adam sitting in front of a screen, replaying 30 seconds of Evelyn whispering in his ear as he silently breaks into tears for the one girl he ever gave his whole heart and body too...

I get chills just thinking of it.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 6/7/13 at 1:15am

Thrilling moments: The Dance at the Gym in Jerome Robbins Broadway

One Day More in the first national tour of Les Miz in Boston

La LuPone singing Anything Goes. My heart was racing!

La LuPone doing Everything's Coming Up Roses in Gypsy

Who's That Woman in the Follies revival

Updated On: 6/7/13 at 01:15 AM

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 5/15/14 at 12:19pm

Figured I'd bump.

- When Ella runs back for the slipper in the current Cinderella revival.

Nothing more exciting to add, unfortunately.

[madbrian]

Posted: 5/15/14 at 12:44pm

The first moment Audra opens her mouth in Lady Day...

[Phillytheatreguy10]

Posted: 5/15/14 at 1:06pm

Spoiler: When Francesca runs to Robert when she is with her family in "Bridges" there was audible gasps and I've heard other reactions to the same moment, it definitely got me!

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 5/15/14 at 1:40pm

There was one moment in David Lindsay-Abaire's KIMBERLY AKIMBO that took my breath away. SPOILER AHEAD: The title character, played by Marylouise Burke, was a lonely teenage girl suffering from a disease a lot like progeria, that caused her to age four and a half times as fast as normal. Thus, Kimberly was trapped inside the frail physical body of an elderly woman. For most of the play Burke dressed as a teenage girl, and because she was such a wonderful actress you actually believed that she was that young. But at one point, for the purpose of the plot, Kimberly was forced to dress up as an old lady. When Burke slowly walked onstage in her senior citizen clothes, it was startling AND heartbreaking, and it really hit home that she suffered from this disease that was going to kill her prematurely.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 5/15/14 at 1:50pm

I haven't read the entire thread but surely someone has mentioned Deathtrap, yes? And Laura's entrance and exit in the recent revival of The Glass Menagerie?

[PapaGe]

Posted: 5/15/14 at 2:04pm

When Christina DeCicco sang the line "I'm their savior" in the recent revival of Evita (I saw it with Elena Roger too but it didn't have the same hair-raising effect).

Gentleman's Guide spoiler: When it becomes obvious Sibella and Phoebe are working together to free Monty.

[OtherDaryl2]

Posted: 5/15/14 at 3:42pm

The mirrors turning to reveal the deco starburst in the A Chorus Line finale.

The change of scenery from Act 1 to Act 2 in Noises Off - also, the change of scenery in Another Time at Steppenwolf.