Favorite or Most Emotional Finale Experiences

What are your all time favorite finales? You know, not just where you clapped and thought"....what a nice evening" but, times when you were absolutely overwhelmed with some sort of emotion. For me, my favorites also happen to be my most emotional. My first experience like this was in June of 1996 at RENT. More recently, I was really overwhelmed during the curtain call of HAIR. Singing "Let the Sunshine in", with my arm around my partner of 12 years, and seeing Saycon Sengbloh herself crying as she took it all in was wonderful. Rounding out my top 3 is "LIGHT". I recently experienced an unexpected loss. Hearing Alice and Louis sing"...the price of love is loss, but still we pay" has been very comforting during a difficult time. Just wondering what some other favorites might be out there...

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Mine would be "Light" as well. The first time I ever cried in a musical.

I had what a friend of mine calls "a little musical orgasm" during "The Color Purple" finale. I had downloaded some of the demos off of the internet prior to seeing the show, so I was familiar with this song. I was not at all prepared for the modulation....with LaChanze's voice soaring above the chorus...sent me right over the edge.

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Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George, without a doubt.

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Cabaret
Sweeney Todd
The Last Five Years

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Gypsy - "Rose's Turn" to the end of the show. Rose's Turn makes me feel a variety of different emotions - happy, sad, feeling like I'm breaking down with Rose, feeling sorry for her, yet also like I want to yell out and cheer for her. Plus, the ending dialogue and when Rose reaches up to the sign chokes me up too.

In the Heights - the Finale, especially the line "I found my island, I've been on it this whole time, I'm home" gets me every time.

Next to Normal - "Light" These are more happy tears. After being overwhelmed with emotion the entire show, the song is very moving and uplifting.

Company - "Being Alive" - almost the same as Gypsy.

Most devastating/moving:

Les Miserables
Blood Brothers
Rent
Falsettos
Tommy
Sunset Boulevard
Marie Christine

Most exuberant/joyous:

Hairspray
The Full Monty
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Mamma Mia (not the curtain call, but there's something about the music to I Have a Dream coupled with the image of that moon that fills me with joy)
Tanz der Vampire

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I always start to cry when Paul is the first dancer to come out and get his solo bow at the start of "One" from "Chorus Line."

Downers......"Miss Saigon," "West Side Story," "The Phantom of the Opera."

The list goes on and on...

Updated On: 10/20/09 at 02:42 PM

The London production of La Cage aux Folles with Roger Allam and Philip Quast: they sit on the steps singing the final reprise of "Song on the Sand", after which they kiss as the curtain falls - simple but effective!



Lots of others. Hairspray's is unbeatable for pure fun and excitement, it's always had a well-deserved standing ovation whenever I've seen it, as soon as the song ends (occasionally before!).

But sometimes the opposite is even more satisfying: sometimes the audience are just stunned into silence so there's quite a long pause before they start to applaud - it takes a while to sink in. The London production of A View from the Bridge with Ken Stott did exactly that, as did the McKellen Waiting for Godot. I think it's more common in plays than musicals, but if they're done right, West Side Story and Cabaret (just to name two) can also have that effect.

Sunday In The Park With George from "Move On" through the end.

"Light" from next to normal

The end of Max Understood (at NYMF)

I always thought that "CABARET" was impossible to beat, but HAIR has done it for me.

*Spoiler*
When the tribe was silently weeping through the isles singing "Let The Sunshine In" as we watched Claude laying lifeless on the American flag, I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I couldn't even shed a tear. I had my shoulders hunched up and I was shivering, because that was the only way I could react to all the power and emotion surrounding me. The show's message and the loss of the character just hit me like a brick wall and I have not gone a single day without thinking about it ever since I saw it. I was so moved and effected by what I saw. It's been over a week since I saw the show and the impact that just that one seen alone had on my life and my way of thinking still hasn't gone away.
*End*

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Definitely Les Mis.

Then again, the whole thing is like a string of finales. Usually all the character deaths come at the end of a show, but in Les Mis, it's just one right after another! There's the finale of Fantine's story (her death), the finale of the Les Amis' story (their death), etc.

A Tale of Two Cities
Les Miserables
Sunday in the Park with George