Favorite play endings

[Fantod]

Favorite play endings#1

Posted: 3/10/15 at 6:35pm

I've seen threads before about musical finales, but never one about plays.

Our Town
The Glass Menagerie

[macnyc]

Favorite play endings#2

Posted: 3/10/15 at 6:35pm

The Piano Lesson

[bfreak]

Favorite play endings#2

Posted: 3/10/15 at 6:37pm

A Raisin in the Sun's ending is simply amazing. And how it was presented in the most recent revival was simply breathtaking! The audience stood up before the curtain dropped.

[Unknown User]

Favorite play endings#3

Posted: 3/10/15 at 6:38pm

An Inspector Calls!

[sarahb22]

Favorite play endings#4

Posted: 3/10/15 at 6:40pm

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Favorite play endings#5

Posted: 3/10/15 at 6:44pm

The last exchange between Maggie and Brick in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF always gets me. And yes, the ending of A RAISIN IN THE SUN in the last revival was perfection, as was the entire production really.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

[After Eight]

Favorite play endings#6

Posted: 3/10/15 at 7:17pm

The final moment in Mary, Mary. I was filled with such happiness; but when the curtain started to fall, my happiness turned to a mixture of panic, disbelief, abd despair in the realization that this magical experience was now coming to an end. How willingly I would have fallen to my knees to plead with the theatre gods to stay that curtain, if I thought my pleas would be answered. Alas, I was wise enough to know that one can't stop the clock from striking midnight.

And just this season, the loving revival of the play Gigi offered as its ending a family tableau which packaged all the good things in life into one little moment and tied it with the most perfect of bows.

When the theatre is good, it can offer magic to which nothing else can compare.

[GavestonPS]

Favorite play endings#7

Posted: 3/10/15 at 7:43pm

"[F]allen to my knees to plead with the theatre gods" is archaic, After 8. Nowadays, we just say blow job.

[GavestonPS]

Favorite play endings#8

Posted: 3/10/15 at 7:53pm

As for favorite play endings, I'd include the following:

M. BUTTERFLY
HEARTBREAK HOUSE
MOTHER COURAGE
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

[JoseLee_]

Favorite play endings#9

Posted: 3/10/15 at 7:58pm

The Trip to Bountiful
The Price
The Nether
Peter and the Starcatcher
War Horse

[After Eight]

Favorite play endings#10

Posted: 3/10/15 at 8:13pm

Uh, YOU say that --- and would think of something like that. You, and people with minds and language as foul as yours.

And one other thing. This is a public forum. If you don't know what is proper language for a public forum, then you should refrain from posting in one.

[Robbie2]

Favorite play endings#11

Posted: 3/10/15 at 8:41pm

Powerfully dramatic endings:
August:Osage County
M. Butterfly

"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new." Sunday in the Park with George

[Bilbo3]

Favorite play endings#12

Posted: 3/10/15 at 8:44pm

Dog Sees God

Countdown til Jordan comes on raging about how much loves me! 3..2..1...

[willep]

Favorite play endings#13

Posted: 3/10/15 at 10:34pm

Jerusalem

[acekatherineplumber2]

Favorite play endings#14

Posted: 3/10/15 at 10:42pm

All My Sons.

[jv92]

Favorite play endings#15

Posted: 3/10/15 at 10:47pm

WHO'S AFRIAD OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE
OUR TOWN
THE SEAGULL
THE LITTLE FOXES

[NoName3]

Favorite play endings#16

Posted: 3/10/15 at 11:43pm

Mary, Mary?

MARY!

Seriously, two of my favorite straight play act endings are the second act endings of two three act plays:

Love! Valour! Compassion! - "Answered prayers."

The Little Foxes - Regina: "I hope you die. I hope you die soon. I'll be waitin' for you to die." [And just then Horace has a not unexpected heart attack and eventually dies after trying to crawl up the stairs for his meds while Regina just stands there and watches.]

Updated On: 3/11/15 at 11:43 PM

[ads08]

Favorite play endings#17

Posted: 3/10/15 at 11:50pm

I know it's not the actual ending, but the ending of Act 1 of CURIOUS INCIDENT is one of my all time favorite moments.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Favorite play endings#18

Posted: 3/10/15 at 11:55pm

Beauty Queen of Leenane

"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman

[AEA AGMA SM]

Favorite play endings#19

Posted: 3/11/15 at 2:04am

I love the ending of Marisol by Jose Rivera. The title character has a monologue that's filled with some beautiful imagery that is characteristic of the magic realism genre.

[theatremom2]

Favorite play endings#20

Posted: 3/11/15 at 9:29am

From years ago 'Wonder of the World'. Two women, in a barrel, stuck by a rock on the edge of Niagra Falls, enjoying the view and wondering what to have for breakfast. Very existential.

[imeldasturn]

Favorite play endings#21

Posted: 3/11/15 at 9:34am

Wit, Three Tall Women, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Tempest, The Pillowman, People, Amadeus, Waiting For Godot.

Updated On: 3/11/15 at 09:34 AM

[LarryD2]

Favorite play endings#22

Posted: 3/11/15 at 9:47am

The Glass Menagerie
Mary Tyrone's final monologue in Long Day's Journey Into Night
The final scene of John Guare's Landscape of the Body
Septimus and Thomasina dancing in Arcadia

[PJPan]

Favorite play endings#23

Posted: 3/11/15 at 9:48am

The Pillowman, for sure. I love that last speech.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - the movie version ending is my favorite, but it's such a wonderful desperate plea for Martha that just reading it chills me.

[Auggie27]

Favorite play endings#24

Posted: 3/11/15 at 9:55am

NIGHT, MOTHER. The penultimate line: "Jessie, child, forgive me. I thought you were mine." So stunning in its ability to poetically capture the entire Kubler-Ross scale.

"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling