What is your favorite floor elevator stage entrance/exit?
Updated On: 12/18/13 at 03:52 PM
First thing that comes to mind is Show Off, from Drowsy Chaperone.
All That Jazz
I second the velma-vator and add
Frank in Rocky Horror
The Lady of the Lake in Spamalot.
The Genie entrance/exit in the upcoming Aladdin is probably the only good thing about the show.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
At Trinity Rep, for several years they did A Christmas Carol. They have a small model of Big Ben rise up to stage level and Scrooge flies over the clock. Such great imagery. Such great magical theater.
I enjoyed the two bookend floor elevator entrances and exits in Mary Poppins- her almost toaster-like shooting up from behind the family in Act 1, and the gleefully absurd sequence when she sends the rival nanny to hell in a birdcage in Act 2.
Ursala's death in Little Mermaid.
Featured Actor Joined: 12/9/08
Gregory Hines entrance in JELLY'S LAST JAM. Unforgettable.
The Witch's exit in the 2002 revival of Into the Woods, at the end of "Last Midnight".
Double post...
Updated On: 12/18/13 at 08:46 PM
^ YES! I LOVED how she swirled into the deck in a flurry of red fabric after shedding her skin and hair. So creepy.
Seconding "Show Off" from Drowsy, if only because the exit itself is mentioned in the lyric.
Lola's entrance in the Damn Yankees revival.
Broadway Star Joined: 3/5/04
Chita as Velma in original Chicago..........thrilling
I have to agree with the Witch's exit at the end of Last Midnight in the 2002 Into the Wood's revival. It was very creepy and the visuals (her tearing off her hair and bits of her dress) with the spinning downward was just fantastic. I must say that I didn't like much about this production but this was definitely a highlight. And I know that you can find clips of this scene. But believe me when I say that it can not compare to have seen it done live. I didn't see any of it coming and it was just wonderfully shocking. The Witch's transformation was also handled with the same elevator. However, for that it lifted and spun her into the air. Two fantastic stage effects.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
"Lola's entrance in the Damn Yankees revival."
It's been so long that I only remember how they did it on tour, which did not involve a trap, as I recall. From my recollection of the tour there was a set piece (maybe a furnace/boiler) in Applegate's apartment that had doors that swung open with a mylar shimmer curtain inside through which we first see Lola extending just one leg, then the rest of her followed.
Now I'm racking my brain trying to remember if it was different on Broadway, but that is coming up on 20 years since I saw it! (which is crazy to think of in and of itself)
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
"Now I'm racking my brain trying to remember if it was different on Broadway"
I think wasn't Bebe brought up from underneath the stage. Was she on a piece of furniture? A bed or sofa? I can't remember.
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/21/06
Red Death in the Phantom of the Opera
Sweeney's rise from the grave in the original production of Sweeney Todd.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/30/08
morosco - I second that. Everything about the original SWEENEY was breath-taking.
Stand-by Joined: 5/4/08
I loved the entrance of the 'Greek Chorus' in Legally Blonde.
The exit of the mine workers in Billy Elliot at the ending of 'Once we were kings' is absolutely thrilling and gives me goosebumps every time!
It's a movie but it all comes back to this:
I'm melting, melting. Ohhhh, what a world, what a world. Who would have thought that some little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness.
I love the Witch's entrance in "The Wizard of Oz" even more than the melting-it scared the crap out of me as a kid.
I also love the Mine Workers' exit in Billy Elliot as well as the original entrance of Sweeney Todd (saw that as a kid, too, on TV, and it really scared me).
An addition-the Phantom's Act 2 entrance is pretty cool.
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