Scariest Moment in a Musical- Page 4

[Jennifer Lynn]

Posted: 12/1/05 at 6:27pm

Emcee4ever, that sounds like quite an ending! As effective as the 1998 revival model is, I'm iffy about the idea of the Emcee appearing in a concentration-camp uniform. I always saw the Emcee as a symbol of the evil that was beginning to pervade Germany--not a victim of it.

My alma mater, in 1997, did a production that bowled me over. And remember, this was a year before the revival took the world by storm...but Joe Masteroff had actually been to the school to speak to the director and cast.

The Emcee introduced the ending montage with his snippet of "Wilkommen." Then the other characters had their bits of dialogue. After the reprise of Cabaret, the cast went into a reprise of "Tomorrow Belongs To Me"...and it was then that I noticed that yellow Stars of David and pink triangles had appeared on some of them. Then the back curtain went up to reveal a huge swastika on the back of the stage. Smoke began to pour in, and recordings of flames and gunfire filled the auditorium. Slides of Holocaust scenes and victims (Anne Frank among them) were projected onto the wings, finally dissolving into the words "NEVER FORGET" and "NEVER AGAIN". The "marked" characters onstage walked robotically into the smoke. The stage went dark...and then the Emcee, grinning, his makeup looking like a death's head, strolled onstage to chirp, "Meine Dammen und Herren...where are your troubles now? Forgotten? I told you so! Here, we have no troubles...here, life is beautiful!" Then, "Auf Wiedersehen...a bientot...and I wish you all a very good night!" He snapped a "Heil Hitler" salute which turned into a theatrical bow as the final drumroll sounded.

I had nightmares about the Emcee that night.

There are two productions cropping up in my area next year...I can hardly wait to see what they'll do with them.

[Emcee4ever]

Posted: 12/1/05 at 6:33pm

That's an amazing ending to Cabaret!

Though I'm partial to the revival and to the one we did at school. :p

[Act0r721]

Posted: 12/1/05 at 9:20pm

"West Side Story"? Anyone?

I saw it when I was young and didn't know. Oh, Tony!! I jumped so high.

[Emcee4ever]

Posted: 12/3/05 at 11:22am

I also felt a little nervous when the Emcee and the Kit Kat Girls in Cabaret sang 'Money'-- just the way they maniacally grabbed for the money ang how they sang it faster and faster.

[Emcee4ever]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 6:36pm

Oh yes, I also jumped when the brick crashed through Herr Schultz's window in Cabaret. That was a loud crashing sound!

[guitargeek0624]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 7:21pm

I would probably say the chandelier going up/falling down in Phantom, but I knew to expect that, so it wasn't really that scary. I'd say when the "wall" of fire went up at the end of "Wandering Child" in Phantom...it was more startling, though. I could feel the heat in the 7th row. Pretty cool.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 7:25pm

Betsy Joslyn singing "Green Finch and Linet Bird" in Sweeney.

(Okay, a cheap shot... but not undeserved.)

[elvenprincess971]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 7:42pm

"Confrontation" from Jekyll and Hyde. I dont know, but that song when you are seeing it live was just freaking INTENSE and it scared me, lol.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 8:15pm

Okay... honest answer this time.

I saw the first national of "1776" when I was a (very) young kid, and when Rutledge sang "Molases to Rum" and did his whole slave auction thing while the lighting turned blood red through the window slats... It scared the crap out of me. I never forgot it.

Many years later, I got to play Rutledge, and had a rare chance to "confront my childhood fears." It was awesome. And yes, they had the blood red lighting come through the slats in the windows during my auction monologue. So very evil... and way cool.

[grizzabella]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 9:45pm

Interesting, Best12bars. Thinking about this topic, the "Molassas Rum and Slaves" number came to my mind, too. I think the scariest theatre experience I've ever had was years ago, as a teenager. I went to a production of a straight play called "The Brig." It was staged in the round and when you arrived, the ushers seated you - well away from anyone with whom you arrived. Then the play unfolded, and you felt some of the incipient violence and isolation of the denizens of the Brig of the title. It was extremely intense, the lighting was kept dark and I was scared silly. After all these years, I can't really tell you the plotline of the play, or who wrote it, but I can attest to the unsettling atmosphere which was very effective.

[James2]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 10:26pm

I jumped when Shuler Hensley yelled and shot the gun in the scene in "Oklahoma!" where he sings "Lonely Room."

[LorelaiGilmore]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 11:24pm

the childcatcher in Chitty i thought was freakishly dark for a childrens show, but it didn't scare me, until i swear i heard him say my nickname, then i got just a bit creeped out

[Marquise]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 11:27pm

Barbra Streisand in EVERYTHING

[wickedwitchofthechest]

Posted: 12/15/05 at 11:52pm

Sweeney Todd gives me nightmares. All of it. I do love it, though.

The scene in Phantom where he's shooting fireballs out of his staff frightened me greatly the first time I saw it, at the tender age of eight.

And even just in the clip from the Tony Awards, Mandy Patinkin as Burrs in The Wild Party made me want to curl up with my teddy bear and never sleep with the lights out again.

[Mamie]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 12:04am

I had a completely different train of thought when I saw this subject. Truthfully, the scariest moment in a musical that I think I've ever seen was watching Michael Berresse hanging by his heels from the top of that back stage set in "Kiss Me Kate". I have a little bit of fear of heights and this just totally freaked me out. When I went back to see the show, I had to close my eyes.

[SuddenlyTrey]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 3:06am

idina menzel getting ready to sing...anyone?

[jimmirae]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 5:26am

When "Sweeney Todd" first opened at the Uris (now Gershwin), there was a creepy guy that came out and played the organ while the audience was still being seated and every once in a while there was some business with these grave diggers and such and while all that was going on before the lights even went down it was CREEPY - You KNEW something "Not very Nice" was about to happen there.

[Kitzarina]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 9:44am

The whistle from "Sweeney Todd" scared me so much I almost crashed my car the first time I heard it. I had kept cranking up the volume so I could hear the organ and then...WHAM!

Other things that freak me out: Tobias at the end of Sweeney when he's using the grinder, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" in the Cabaret revival (also the ending and when they threw the brick through Herr Schultz' window), and Frume Sarah in Fiddler. I was about 7 when I first saw that show and it scared the crap out of me.

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 9:49am

Idina Menzel screaming the score of Wicked it still gets me everytime! j/k


Why is the chandeler scray....like in the beginning because it surely isn't scary when it falls

[algy]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 11:24am

Richard O'Brien as the Childcatcher in the OLC of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I don't know how its done in NY, but when they were winching him up in the net he was fighting and gurning and screaming the whole way, it was awesome. I saw Lionel Blair *shudders* about 18 months later, and it was nothing like as scary - he didn't fight or anything - I think he must have been scared of the height!

[nydirector2]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 12:45pm

Fantastical characters like the Phantom, Hyde, etc. don't scare me as much as real people or real hatred. Having said that, I think the court room scene from Parade when the entire cast apart from Leo, Lucille, Craig, and the Judge are screaming to kill or hang the Jew. Tom Watson's character in general is just scary.

One of the scariest things I've ever seen on stage was Eartha Kitt performing at Broadway Bares. It was like watching thr Crypt Keeper do burlesque.

[jasobres]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 12:59pm

I would have to say that one of the scarier moments in a musical, and I don't know if this has been posted already, would have to be the beginning of Wicked with that big Time Dragon puppet.

[hot_brdwy_diva]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 1:03pm

I remember when I was little, going to see a production of the Wizard of Oz. The flying monkeys jumped off the stage and ran around in the audience. Scary stuff.

[sweeneyfan]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 2:23pm

That moment at the end of (insert the name of any over-blown musical here),when the audience, like lemmings, rises as one... not because it is good, but because everyone else is...

[inlovewithjerryherman]

Posted: 12/16/05 at 3:09pm

"Lonely Room" can be REALLY scary, as can the end of Cabaret.

In the production of the latter that I'm in right now, at the end of the Emcee's goodbye monologue, searchlights flash over the stage a la concentration camp and we of the ensemble form a straight line. Then, during the drumroll, one searchlight goes over each of our faces one by one, as we each fall in order, gunned down by a firing squad.

It's creepy.

I love Cabaret.

Also, when I was really little , I cried in horror the entire way through Cats.

After seeing the show years later, I'm not sure if it was from agony or fear.

the second time, def. agony.