Favorite twists in theatre

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 5:20pm

What are some of the best twists/reveals in plays or musicals to you? Naturally, spoilers ahead!

I personally love how in August Osage County the reveal of the cousin relationship turns out to be actually brother/sister then more shockingly, Violet knew all along.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 5:22pm

Wasn't there a thread on this a while back?

Still an interesting topic nonetheless.

Sweeney murdering Ms. Lovett, and then Tobias murdering Sweeney still shocks me every time, even though I always know that it's coming.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 6:14pm

My favorite twists have to be in Deathtrap, unless we're going to include all movies, where the Sixth Sense contains the twist of all twists. (The ones below are from the Deathtrap movie -- the play, which I read eons ago, doesn't have as many).

1st Spoiler: Cliff isn't dead.
2nd Spoiler: Cliff and Sidney planned the whole thing to kill Myra.
3rd Spoiler: Cliff and Sidney are lovers (quite shocking back then).
4th Spoiler: Cliff is actually writing "Deathtrap."
5th Spoiler: Houdini's cuffs really exist, just as Sidney said, and Cliff accidentally uses them to imprison Sidney at the desk.
6th Spoiler (movie only): Helga TenDorp stumbles on the whole thing and takes the unfinished Deathtrap manuscript after Cliff and Sidney are dead, turning it into a hit.

[nicnyc]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 6:37pm

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Christine is The Jackal!

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 6:40pm

I love the Gabriel twist in Next to Normal. If you're not familiar with the show or story, it really hits you deep when it's revealed.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 7:28pm

At the York's reading of CHEER WARS with Sally Struthers and Mary Testa, there was a big twist at the beginning of Act 2. As the show is still in development, I won't spoil it, but I loved it. I literally whispered "Plot twist!" aloud to myself...

[tazber]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 8:12pm

Rupert Holmes' Accomplice was full of twists and misdirections culminating with the fact that you, the audience, ended up being the accomplice.

It is, imo, an underrated gem.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 11:35pm

One of the biggest surprises in theatre is that people actually go see Mamma Mia.

[SharoninB]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 8:47am

Curious Dad kills the dog and his mother is alive

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 9:20am

"I love the Gabriel twist in Next to Normal."

^ Agreed. What made it even better in the Broadway production was the staging carefully clued you in to the twist ahead of the reveal. Knowing nothing about the show before we went, about 10 minutes in, I leaned over to my honey and whispered "I think the son is dead." That's called great direction IMHO.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 9:41am

The Gabe twist is great, and I've always been a fan of the twist at the end of Sweeney. (In fact, I think there's a clue that gives it away early in the original artwork. Sweeney has a bloody razor, but Lovett has bloody handprints clutching at her apron- like someone needed help and didn't get it.)

However, I'll always love the twist at the end of "A Little Night Music," when Fredrika pulls a zipper and accidentally discovers that Madame has been just a bag stuffed full of spiders the entire time.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 9:58am

^ I SO want to see that production.

[Sorry-Grateful]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 10:50am

No matter how many times I see The Mystery of Edwin Drood, I am always surprised by the true identity of Drood's killer. Also, the two lovers in the end. How unexpected. What a twist.

[acekatherineplumber2]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 11:27am

Sorry-Grateful: And the detective, Datchery! I never see it coming.

[JonahKost]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 11:50am

Cabaret anyone? The ending was so chilling and unexpected!

[vassey]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 12:15pm

The staging of the Jeremy Sams Sound of Music has a massive twist in its staging, where after finally allowing the audience to sing along after two hours, at the Salzburg Festival, the stormtroopers****their guns and point them out into the audience, suddenly silencing all of the stalls who have started to sing. Its thoroughly chilling.

[Queen of the Night]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 12:38pm

The end of A Chorus Line--the people Zach calls forward at the end are the ones who DIDN'T get chosen. I love the pause that tells you that they are as stunned by it as the audience is.

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 8:10pm

The Daphne du Maurier novel, Rebecca, which serves as the source material for the non-Broadway, non-off-Broadway, non-West End, German language musical that may or may not ever get produced in English, has two major plot twists that I hope remain. Of course, the big plot twist in the musical is that the planned Broadway run got cancelled after a bunch of tickets were sold.