The five best 11 o'clock numbers in Broadway history

[chanel]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 9:58am

Agree?

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2011/04/the_five_best_1.php#more

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 10:00am

I'd put "Fifty Percent" on that list.

[dreaming]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 10:04am

I'd put "What I Did for Love" and "Another Winter in a Summer Town" on there, too.

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 10:15am

Really? "Gimme Gimme" and "Fly, Fly Away?"

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 10:25am

The title of the article is misleading, as in the article itself he says these are his favorites, which does not necessarily have to mean that they are the agreed upon best ever.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 10:52am

Gimme, Gimme and Fly, Fly Away? No way. I second dreaming's choices. Also, Being Alive and Rose's Turn aren't 11 o'clock numbers. They are the FINAL numbers. The 11 o'clock number in Company is Ladies Who Lunch.

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:00am

Cabaret? I Was Here? This Nearly Was Mine? Fifty Percent?

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:12am

"Gimme, Gimme and Fly, Fly Away? No way. I second dreaming's choices. Also, Being Alive and Rose's Turn aren't 11 o'clock numbers. They are the FINAL numbers. The 11 o'clock number in Company is Ladies Who Lunch."




by your logic, Rose's turn can't be an 11 o'clock number.

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:14am

What about "It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish" or "Brotherhood of man"?

this article has no sense of history at all.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:22am

Back to Before?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:30am

Musto is suffering from hardening of the brain cells.

What I Did For Love

Send in the Clowns

Updated On: 4/29/11 at 11:30 AM

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:37am

Right Pippin, that's why I wrote that...

While it's not a rousing number, No One Is Alone is a pretty kickass 11 o'clock number,

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:44am

I don't think that an 11 o'clock number has to be "rousing". It just has to be memorable. It's the song that they want the audience to leave humming.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:46am

Also "Move On" from Sunday.

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:52am

LoL!! wow, I haven't had my coffee yet, and apparently have a selective reading problem.

my bad!

But, IMO, Rose's Turn IS in fact an 11:00 number. Sometimes the final number can be the 11:00 number, Like "You Can't Stop the Beat and "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag" I think Rose's Turn fits in this category.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:53am

Another one-

If He Walked into My Life.

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:58am

yeah, Gothampc, but no one leaves the theatre humming "Lot's Wife"

the traditional point of an 11:00 number was to wake the audience up for the last bits of the show, make 'em happy and leave humming the tune.

Not all shows have 11:00 numbers anymore. I would say as of late, more don't than do.

I don't consider Lot's wife to be an 11:00 number, but that's just my opinion. Mainly because that score is mostly sung through and it's harder to seperate the songs from eachother, which traditional musicals with book scenes could do alot easier. Caroline or Change's "Lot's Wife" is more of a piece of a coherant whole, than a stand alone number, Like "Cabaret".

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:58am

But, IMO, Rose's Turn IS in fact an 11:00 number. Sometimes the final number can be the 11:00 number, Like "You Can't Stop the Beat and "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag" I think Rose's Turn fits in this category.

See I think the trouble is that people don't distinguish between showy, show-stopping numbers at the end of a show and the 11 o'clock number. By definition, the 11 o'clock number is a song in which the main character has some kind of revelation or undergoes a major emotional moment that brings the musical to a climax. For Rose's Turn, though it's the last number, it does this so I guess I'd be ok considering it an 11 o'clock number. For Hairspray, You Can't Stop the Beat is just the finale. There is no character development. Same with Hot Honey Rag. For a final number to be an 11 o'clock number, there has to be some kind of character development.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:08pm

"By definition, the 11 o'clock number is a song in which the main character has some kind of revelation or undergoes a major emotional moment that brings the musical to a climax."

By that definition "Let Me Entertain You" could then be considered. It's the point where Louise realizes she must break away from her mother and create her own identity.

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:09pm

I see your point, but for some shows, IMO, that is not the main criteria. For example, "Wrong Note Rag" from Wonderful town. The number is great and rousing, but nothing emotional really happens, no one learns anything.

Same with "Brotherhood of Man" Finch is not learning anything or going through any emotional changes, he's just trying to dig himself out of a hole.

also, Oklahoma!! - just a song about Oklahoma, and "Tap Your troubles away" from Mack and Mabel. Sometimes the purpose of the song is just to be pure fun, not to create an emotional awakening.

But it does work for many other shows, like If he walked into my life, and What I did for Love.


But I don't think that quiet ballads can be considered 11:00 numbers. 11:00 should be uptempo. I would never call "No One is alone", or "No One Has Ever Loved Me" an 11:00 number, But I would call "Make Them Hear you" or "Back to before" ones, becauase at least the orchestra swells, and the audience gets excited at the end. Just how I think of what an 11:00 number should be.

Updated On: 4/29/11 at 12:09 PM

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:24pm

The 11 o'clock number should act as the bookend to the 'I want' number (if there is one) - the character has got to the other end of his or her arc and is no longer the person they were at the beginning of the show.

Good example of this bookending would be The Wizard and I v No Good Deed and Goodbye My Love/What Kind of Woman v Back to Before.
Updated On: 4/29/11 at 12:24 PM

[jasonf]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:37pm

According to tvtropes.com

There's quite a list of numbers here:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheElevenOClockNumber

[bjh2114]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:39pm

By that definition "Let Me Entertain You" could then be considered. It's the point where Louise realizes she must break away from her mother and create her own identity.

YES! THIS!!! I think I would probably consider this the 11 o'clock number in Gypsy.

By that definition "Let Me Entertain You" could then be considered. It's the point where Louise realizes she must break away from her mother and create her own identity.

Right, and I wouldn't consider that an 11 o'clock number.

But I don't think that quiet ballads can be considered 11:00 numbers. 11:00 should be uptempo.

Who says?

[tazber]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:41pm

I always thought the 11 o'clock number was supposed to be a showstopper to wake the audience up and give them something to sing on the way out.

[Pippin]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 12:58pm

I'm just saying if it's not uptempo or at least a powerful ballad ala "Walked into my life" or "back to before" it's not really an 11:00 number. It's a lovely song near the end of a musical, nothing more, nothing less.