11 O'Clock number question- Page 6

[RevolutionaryCostume]

Posted: 4/9/07 at 12:41am

I'd say "What You Own" is the 11oclock from RENT.
Wicked's would be "No Good Deed"

My favorites:

"Another Winter In A Summer Town" - Grey Gardens
"The I Love You Song" - 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
"Superstar" - Jesus Christ Superstar
"The Meek Shall Inherit" - Little Shop of Horrors
"I'm Going Home" - The Rocky Horror Show

~Jacob.

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 4/9/07 at 2:45am

"Hello Dolly" happens much too early in the show to be an 11 o'clock number---I'd say "So Long Dearie" is closer to the generally accepted definition of an 11 o'clock.

I'd pick "For Good" over "No Good Deed" as Wicked's 11 o'clock.

[A NeW Musical BRaIN]

Posted: 4/9/07 at 4:06am

ok, I didn't read through all the pages of this thread, so I'm not sure if I'm repeating what someone else already said. But just to set the record straight. The 11 o'clock number is a song near the end of a show. The term does not come from the actual "time" it happens as in literally 11:00pm at night. In this case, at matinees you'd have to call it the 5 o'clock number or something like that.
If you look at the whole show like a clock. 1 being the beginning and 12 being the end, 11 o'clock comes right before the closing of the show. That's where it takes place.

Examples:

"Any Thing You Can Do..." (Annie Get Your Gun)
"Gimme Gimme" (Thoroughly Modern Millie)
"Pity the Child" (Chess)
and probably the most obvious...
"Suppertime" (You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown)

and judging by the length of Charlie Brown, I don't think "Suppertime" ever lands around 11 o'clock in the evening. Audiences at that show are probably in bed by that time.

[Weez]

Posted: 4/9/07 at 12:26pm

This thread REALLY reminds me of something Bill Bryson said in a book once:

"Indiana, meanwhile, calls itself the 'Hoosier State' and has done for 150 years. No one has ever satisfactorily deduced (possibly because who after all cares?) where the term comes from, though I can tell you from experience that if you mention this in a book 250 people from Indiana will write to you with 250 different explanations and the unanimous view that you are a dunce."

You see the connection, right? o_O

[CFK]

Posted: 4/9/07 at 12:35pm

A agree that the number is to jolt the audience. I think My favorite has to be "Ain't it Good" from Children of Eden.


and RE: all the wicked discussion, I can't remember who it was, maybe it was Julia Murney, but she jokingly said that Elphaba's 11 O'clock number is at 8:15...I found that humorous.

[jv92]

Posted: 4/9/07 at 12:48pm

several of JV's examples are moot.
Gee, thanks.


"Run Freedom Run" is NOT an 11 O'Clock number.
It certainly is.

Krupke is too throwaway to be the 11 O'Clock number, I don't know what you're smoking.
I wasn't smoking anything, thank you very much and it can depend. I consider it the 11 o'clock number since it perks up the audience in a way, though others consider A Boy Like That to be the 11 o'clocker. That makes sense too.

It's also debatable that Company and Mame are mere musical comedies (and it's definitely "Being Alive" not "The Ladies Who Lunch").
Mame is a musical comedy. I'm sorry. It has a lot of heart, but all Jerry Herman musicals do and I consider them to all be musical comedies. Musical comedies don't have to be heartless.
Company is also a musical comedy, though an intelligent one. Perhaps now Being Alive plays like the 11 o'clock number, but back in the day, when Elaine Stritch came onstage and The Ladies Who Lunch, it was the 11 o'clock number. She was the female star attraction with the big number.

I found your post to be quite obnoxious and completely rude, Roninjoey.

[defyingravity11]

Posted: 4/9/07 at 1:18pm

Before they put "A Change in Me" in Beauty and the Beast, what was the 11 o'clock number?

[Copeman63]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 1:25am

My fav 11 o'clock numbers are:
The Winner Takes It All - Mamma Mia!
I Know Where I've Been - Hairspray
I Know the Truth - Aida
Ragtime - Ragtim
No Good Deed - Wicked
Kiss Of The Spider Woman - Gimme Gimme - Thoroughly Modern Millie

[JsnWse]

Posted: 4/11/07 at 1:42am

Suppertime - from YAGMCB

[RyToast1]

Posted: 10/28/07 at 5:27pm

Does anyone think that "Someday You Might Love Me" from Zanna Don't would be that shows 11 o'clock number?

[RyToast1]

Posted: 10/28/07 at 5:44pm

Anyone???

[EganFan2]

Posted: 10/28/07 at 6:22pm

What about "Reviewing the Situation" from Oliver?

[allofmylife]

Posted: 10/29/07 at 6:59am

Reviewing the Situation is classic 11:00. As is "Betrayed" from The Producers. THAT'S the definition of tour de force.

[artscallion]

Posted: 10/29/07 at 8:58am

ANewMusicalBrain: "If you look at the whole show like a clock. 1 being the beginning and 12 being the end, 11 o'clock comes right before the closing of the show."

This has always been my understanding of the term. It doesn't have to do with actual time, but with the song's placement in the show. My idea of the perfect example of an 11 O'Clock number is "The Miller's Son" from A Little Night Music. It has nothing to do with who is the big star and it's usually not the last song. It is the BIG (usually solo) number near the end of the second act that everything has built up to.

While it's difficult for me to define it exactly, it either comments on or illuminates what's come before it, or it is the culmination of the buildup that come before it. It's often followed by another song that wraps everything up.

I haven't read the whole thread so I may be repeating (or contradicting) what's already been said.

[logan0215]

Posted: 8/26/08 at 5:08pm

bump, to accompany the current "11th hour" thread

[dramarama2]

Posted: 8/26/08 at 5:32pm

Wouldn't 'Empty Chairs & Empty Tables' be Les Miserable's 1l o'Clock number?

I've always thought of an 11 o'Clock number as an emotional moment of realization or change in a character. After the barricade scenes and Javert's suicide, les mis really does pick up to a lighter finish after the song.

[logan0215]

Posted: 8/26/08 at 7:45pm

I think the "waking up the audience" definition is the rule of thumb.

Eleven o'clock is close to the end of a show which started at 8:30, and if it were to represent the resolution or final number, it would just be categorized as the "finale." Therefore, I think the 11 o'clock number is the last BIG (not in size only, but in content/performance) number of the evening before the resolution/finale.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/26/08 at 8:28pm

I def. don't agree with the whole 'waking up the audience' idea. That doesn't make sense. I don't think "For Good" from Wicked wakes up the audience at all. I'm sure there are plenty of shows that don't have them - like Beauty and the Beast before "A Change In Me." I think the best example is "Lot's Wife" from Caroline, or Change. It's a song that is usually at the end of the show that sort of reveals the shows theme, and also is a moment of realization for the main character. Also, it's usually a solo.

[logan0215]

Posted: 8/26/08 at 8:52pm

But that's not what an 11 o'clock number is. It is not solely for the main character to reveal themselves, although that may happen in it.

It is in place for when people start looking at their watches and saying "is this over yet?" Then it excites them for the finale, thus its placement ALMOST at the end of the show, but not THE end of the show.

[Inigomontoya]

Posted: 8/27/08 at 8:52am

From what I understand the 11 o'clock number(now being refered to as the 22:30 number) is ussualy placed just after the second half of the second act, and it Is ussualy something really big, some say to wake the audince, but other says that it's that people would remember it more, since it's near the end of the musical.
For example In spamalot the 11 o'clock number is You won't succeed, not Diva's lamant.

But then again I might be wrong:)

[Weez]

Posted: 8/27/08 at 8:57am

An 11 o'clock number isn't *at* the end of the show, it's *near* the end of the show, *before* the finish. 'For Good' isn't so much an 11 o'clock number as 'No Good Deed'. People are citing 'Fable' as being their favourite 11 o'clock number when 'Let's Walk' is more likely from that show.

I refer y'all back up to my Bill Bryson quote. XD

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 8/27/08 at 9:30am

"Ain't it Good" from Children of Eden is my favorite.

I also belive "Move On" from SITPWG would qualify and is a favorite.

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 8/27/08 at 3:40pm

The term "11 O'clock number" does come from the actual time. Shows started at 8:30 before the 80's rolled in, and most shows were usually about 2:45 - 3 hours long. Therefore, most "eleven o'clock numbers" would be at around 11:00 pm, before the curtain was lowered at around 11:15 or 11:30.

[FosseNazi]

Posted: 9/6/13 at 4:43pm

I Love To Cry At Weddings (NOT Brass Band, sorry) - Sweet Charity
In the Same Boat - Curtains
Shall We Dance - The King & I
?Without You? - My Fair Lady
Join the Circus - Barnum
The Best of Times - La Cage aux Folles
Make Me Happy - Lippa's The Wild Party