The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
#0The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 5:36pm
I don't know about anyone else, but I think Wicked is extremely sad....though I don't really know 100% what happens in the finale.
Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Mis are also 2 of them.
You've gotta have heart AND music
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#2re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 5:38pm
Wicked? Hardly.
I'd say...Hairspray, when it's over and you have to back to reality is a pretty sad conclusion to come to.
I'd have to say Sweeney Todd was pretty sad at the end. Also Parade.
Not a musical but the play Anne Frank with Natalie Portman was beautiful and not a dry eye in the house.
BSoBW2: I punched Sondheim in the face after I saw Wicked and said, "Why couldn't you write like that!?"
#3re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 5:40pmSo what exactly happens at the end of wicked then? I thought it was sad that the 2 girls were split up. But not as sad as the others. West side story is a good one too.
You've gotta have heart AND music
#4re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 5:51pm
I think I'd have to go with West Side Story on this one.
Le Miz and JCS, have the relgious connections to a hevenly afterlife. So for many folks (myself included) could be viewed as a happy ending.
Barbara
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
#5re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 5:56pmyah I agree with JCS and also Cabaret kinda is.
"Take a breath. Take a step. Take a chance. Take your time." -L5Y
#6re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 6:08pmWest Side, Parade, and Passion is kinda of depressing as well
"Did you know that if you take the first two vowels in Olive and rearrange them it spells I-Love?"-Spelling Bee
"It's night like this that hotel bars were specifically made." Light In The Piazza
#7re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 6:14pmAH I forgot about Passion!
You've gotta have heart AND music
NativeNewYorker
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/29/03
#8re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 6:20pm
West Side Story is SO heartbreaking, but it does leave you with a little hope that the kids all learned a hard lesson and will change their ways and stop hating.
I cry like a maniac every time I see Carousel...I guess it's not really sad, but touching...when Billy goes, "I loved you, Julie...know that I loved you." I used to watch the movie and see productions of that with my dad all the time, and he has passed away, so the fact that it's about fathers dying and it was "our" musical makes it unbearable for me.
I can't think of any that are really "sad." So many are moving and end on a hopeful note, even if there are tragic events.
I didn't see Anne Frank on Broadway, but I saw a school production of the same version a few months ago...VERY touching. The speeches the father and Mrs. Van Daan gave towards the end were so sad.
Juliette Capulet
Featured Actor Joined: 5/28/03
#9re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 6:22pm
Roméo et Juliette - de la Haine à l'Amour, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables...
Tendres Baisers,
Juliette Capulet
#10re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 6:34pmCome on now people, I would have thought this would be first! Miss Saigon has got to be one of the most heartbreaking shows all together. But I will tell you, it was as if the entire audience was one person when Kim committed suicide... there was this huge gasp then sobs cou be heard throughout the entire theater... quite moving that show was....
#11re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 6:39pmParade, and I think Last 5 Year is too. Along with all the ones mentioned above
Broadway Star Joined: 12/31/69
#12re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 6:48pm
I thought the ending of the new version of CABARET was very sad.
I thought the ending of J&H was sad too.
DofB5
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/12/03
#13re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 7:01pm
I sob buckets at the end of POTO and Le Miz butthen I can sob buckets at the start of a play, the middle of a play, a tv movie, a sad song...
D
#14re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 7:06pmaww, heck I cry at a mall opening.
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#15re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 7:26pm
I have to agree with Miss Saigon. I saw it on Broadway and didn't expect to be moved as much as I was.
Also, Sweeney Todd.
thirdrowcenter
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
#16re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 7:30pmCabaret, Les Miserables, Bat Boy
jo
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#17re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 7:39pm
A BEAUTIFUL GAME is the saddest and most poignant musical I have ever seen.
It never got to Broadway - and what a pity.
#18re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 7:40pmI would say that Les Miz is just a sad musical all together. It's not the ending thats the most emotional in that show, but it is a pretty depressing show all together. A good one piece though. I thought Aida was a pretty sad show, even though they do meet again in their reincarnated selves. It was still a sad ending. I'm sorry though, how can POTO be sad? I was happy with the ending, and didnt really feel remorse for the phantom (because hes jus a physcotic murderer). Thats how i felt it.
"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D
sabrelady
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
#19re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 8:05pm
Parade is right up there.
But i always found Chorus Line sad too.When Sheila gives Zach(The audience) that look....betrayal.
#20re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 8:12pm
Well, thanks for ruining Miss Saigon for me, brdwaybabie. 
.
What about Ragtime when Coalhouse gets shot? That was devastating it seemed to me.
Godspell is pretty sad as well. I was in that show, and I cried every night; the end is pretty tear-jerking, when the disciples say goodbye, and he gets crusified.
Hank
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
Benzy92
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/24/03
#23re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 8:21pmLes Mis, of course! I agree with Ragtime, definitely, and also JCS.
"The stage is where I live and come alive and act out all the things that go on in my life. It's not just what I do for a living, it's my shrink and my love affair. No one in my life has ever or ever will kiss me on the mouth like this lover called my relationship with my performance."
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#24re: The Saddest Ending Musicals Of Our Time
Posted: 5/5/04 at 8:27pmJekyll & Hyde
Poster Emeritus
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