Favorite magic tricks and illusions in shows?

[aces25]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 1:29pm

What are some of your favorite magic tricks or illusions you've seen in Broadway shows? 

A lot in Harry Potter - especially the transformation and fight scenes. 

The Beast's transformation and the Phantom disappearing at the end always stand out to me. 

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 1:35pm

Even though its was so simple, I remember seeing the tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and the transformation in act two where Ella is back up against the fireplace, and her second ball gown (the gold one), is rip off into the fireplace made me gasp.

[Jarethan]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 2:08pm

The candles coming up through the mist in Phantom ga e me goosebumps the first time I saw it.

Also Dreamgirls has some great costumes changes 25 years before Cinderella, particularly Effie’s rehearsal / performance sequence.

[Lot666]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 3:33pm

Andy Karl in the bed during the "Philanthropy" (I think) scene in Groundhog Day.

The boardwalk posters turning to color and the figures stepping out of them during the "Coney Island Waltz" scene in the original London production of Love Never Dies.

Updated On: 1/11/23 at 03:33 PM

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 3:48pm

While likely the most simple of all the tricks in Cursed Child, the fact that the drawing and writing that cover the entire theatre has been hidden in plain sight for the entity of the show until the reveal really blew me away. Especially since I have seen the 2 part version. So knowing, after the fact, that I had been sitting in a room covered in such marks for at that point 3+ hours really wow'ed me in how simple yet genius it was/is.

[pethian]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 5:01pm

The magic carpet in ALADDIN.

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 5:21pm

So much of Cursed Child! 

The clock gag in The Play That Goes Wrong. I know one part of it, but the other has me stumped. 

Lydia rising near the staircase in Beetlejuice 

[ElephantLoveMedley]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 6:26pm

It's literally just a cherry picker, fabric, and a ton of fog, but Elphaba's flight in "Defying Gravity" always does it for me as a stage illusion. It's just so damn effective every time.

[Bill Snibson]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 6:33pm

I know it's so basic and old-school but the Elsa dress transformation during "Let it Go" was always a crowd favorite and elicited gasps and cheers.

A more recent one was in the recent "Company" revival pre Tick/Tock. Getting Claybourne Elder out of and back into the bed with a body-double not to mention his quick changes throughout that number was pretty impressive.

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 6:54pm

The entirety of “The Ocean at the End of The Lane” in London. The illusion work was mesmerizing. I’d kill to see it again. 

[stoptheworld38]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 7:19pm

Chalk-writing scene in Matilda 

[Jeff Tupolski]

Posted: 1/11/23 at 7:32pm

Charlemagne’s body levitating and disappearing in the Pippin revival

[aces25]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 8:30am

I want to bump this thread to see if anyone else has any other ideas. 

[jkcohen626]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 9:51am

I don't know if this really counts. But, all of the entrances and exits from Getting Married Today and Tick Tock in the last Company revival were amazing! They were all so smooth! 

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 10:21am

It was mentioned before on this thread but a lot of Groundhog Day and Cursed Child got me no matter how many times I saw the shows. 

[jagman1062]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 10:53am

The beast's transformation in Beauty and the Beast was fun, but the first time I saw it, I was in the front, side orchestra, so I was able to see what Terrence Mann was doing from the angle of my seat. It spoiled the spectacle for me. Eight years later, I took my 7-year old nephew and made sure we sat in center orchestra so he would be amazed. He was, but knowing how the illusion is performed, I just smiled.

The opening curtain trick of the 96 revival A Funny Thing... was pretty cool. 

A more recent trick that amazed me is how effortlessly Ramin made that leap from the floor to the lounge chair. 

Updated On: 6/27/23 at 10:53 AM

[Theatrefan2]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 11:06am

Bilbo vanishing, the balrog and so much of the Lord of the Rings musical.

Agree Cursed Child has some great ones too

Beasts transformation in the original 

 

 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 11:09am

pethian said: "The magic carpet in ALADDIN."

I’m pretty sure this is how the magic carpet works.

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 11:21am

jagman1062 said: "The beast's transformation in Beauty and the Beast was fun, but the first time I saw it, I was in the front, side orchestra, so I was able to see what Terrence Mann was doing from the angle of my seat. It spoiled the spectacle for me. Eight years later, I took my 7-year old nephew and made sure we sat in center orchestra so he would be amazed. He was, but knowing how the illusion is performed, I just smiled.

The opening curtain trick of the 96 revival A Funny Thing... was pretty cool.

IA more recent trick that amazed me is how effortlessly Ramin made that leap from the floor to the lounge chair."

Ramin is in such amazing shape but that still amazed me too the last time I saw FG! 

[jpbran]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 11:22am

Aladdin’s greatest trick with the carpet was the lighting. Nothing gives away wires/cables faster than a big spotlight — but you also can’t have the scene just occur in darkness. As far as I can tell, they arranged the lighting to be coming from the carpet itself, lighting the actors from immediately below at a close-up distance that didn’t shine on the wires. Looked seamless from 6th row orch center, and I was amazed at how the set-up kept the cabling almost completely in the darkness.

[uncageg]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 11:35am

A lot in Cursed Child.

The Confrontation mirror in the pre-Broadway tour of Jekyl & Hyde

Not so much a trick or illusion but Sylvia's walk through the window at the end of Finding Neverland.

[morosco]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 12:00pm

Regarding ALLADIN's flying carpet I believe the illusion is created by special motors that rapidly spin the cables that are anchored to the corners of the carpet so that they "disappear" from sight to the audiences eye. An out of sight carriage about the stage rides in tracks and it travels from stage left to stage right. I don't think the carpet is able to move upstage/downstage. 

[Tag]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 12:31pm

morosco said: "Regarding ALLADIN's flying carpet I believe the illusion is created by special motors that rapidly spin the cables that are anchored to the corners of the carpet so that they "disappear" from sight to the audiences eye. An out of sight carriage about the stage rides in tracks and it travels from stage left to stage right. I don't think the carpet is able to move upstage/downstage."

It's basically this, with obviously very specific lighting.
Take a rope or wire, hold each side and spin it really fast.  You'll see (or not see) it disappear.

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 1:11pm

So many from Harold Prince and Maria Bjornson in Phantom: Raoul jumping into the lake, the Phantom disappearing into the chair and leaving his mask behind, the Red Death disappearing into smoke and then running down the stairs a second later. I feel like I am missing some. 

Harry Potter and some fun ones too. One that stands out for me is how they made the theater feel like it was shaking as the hands on the clock raced around? Not sure if I'm remembering that accurately. 

One of the worst illusions is Javert's death in the new Les Miz. That contraption that holds him is so darn visibly as it rolls downstage to him, then up into his coat, then as it pulls him back upstage. You have to be sitting dead center not to see it. 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 6/27/23 at 1:18pm

Phantom4ever said: "Harry Potter and some fun ones too. One that stands out for me is how they made the theater feel like it was shaking as the hands on the clock raced around? Not sure if I'm remembering that accurately."

The Time Turner effect is very, very cool and easily the most ‘high tech’ of the effects in Cursed Child, insomuch as it doesn’t involve old school theatre trickery and sleight of hand. A combination of seamless projection design to make the stage feel ‘wobbly’ and sound design of low-frequency rumbling that makes it feel like your ears are slightly muffled and creates a vibrational atmosphere. Lots of effects in the show were cool, but this was the one that made me say “Wow.”