Favourite Scene Transitions?

[aces25]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 5:30pm

Do you have any shows that have particularly favourite scene transitions? Sometimes these little moments can be the best part of the musical! 

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 5:34pm

Oh great idea for a thread! I love how in the current King and I revival how the ship breaks apart into sections and are moved around during the second half of Whistle a Happy Tune!

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 5:36pm

 

From miss. Honey singing this little girl go into the 3rd part of the story. I also love the transition going into the smell of rebellion scene for I'm here.

[ZellMorrowsPledge]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 5:52pm

Wicked transition from the Catfight to No Good Deed is my favorite of all time. Also the dialogue after My House to the Trunchbull scene in Matilda

[nolanativeny]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:04pm

I have always loved in WICKED the transition from Wicked Witch of the East into Glinda and Fiyero's engagement ball into Wonderful. Previous poster mentioned another WICKED one; I think the show in general has some great ones. Like No One Mourns into Dear Old Shiz, with the students running onto the stage while Glinda looks on melancholically, then Elphaba's first entrance. 

[Nettik]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:07pm

In the show that must not be named, the moment that really got me onboard with the show and the structure was the transition from "Story of Tonight" into "The Schuyler Sisters." Burr rushing on with that light cue and the contemporary rap chord is jarring, but in a great way.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:14pm

I'm going to get hate for this, but I actually loved the way the original Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde transitioned from Jekyll's study to the park during "Someone Like You." I thought it was just perfect the way everything came together with the movement of the scenery at that particular part of the song.

[ZellMorrowsPledge]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:22pm

I change my mind. The greatest of all time is the "It was great to have you home" into "Edges Of The World" from Fun Home. Magical but so simplistic.

[steven22]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:23pm

Most recently, the scene leading into Telephone Wire in FUN HOME...gives me chills every time. 

[After Eight]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:26pm

I loved the younger/older Patrick transition scene in Mame. 

 

As as well as every other scene in Mame, which, incidentally, will have its 50th anniversary this month.

[ZellMorrowsPledge]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:27pm

steven22 said: "Most recently, the scene leading into Telephone Wire in FUN HOME...gives me chills every time. 

 

"

Best moment in musical theater. It completely rips your heart out of your chest and throws it around

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:29pm

Too many to name from Michael Bennett's original staging of Dreamgirls.

[ggersten]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:41pm

Gypsy - as newsboys and june age in the strobe light

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 6:58pm

NOWaWarning said: "Too many to name from Michael Bennett's original staging of Dreamgirls.

 

But the transition from 'And I Am Telling You..." to "We're Your Dreamgirls" has to be one of the absolute greatest ever, if not the greatest.  

I have to to admit that I don't usually remember specific transitions, but that one is incredible.  The audience wants to tear the house down for Effie and Michael Bennett won't let them. 

God, do I hate Fun Home.  With the exception of Telephone Wire and that stupid about Joan, I loved the score...just hated the show...so I didn't notice any of the transitions.

 

Updated On: 5/2/16 at 06:58 PM

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:09pm

Another WICKED one - I love Dancing Through Life into the Popular scene. 

 

I thought that the transition from the opening number into the first office scene in 9 to 5 was great, with the desks coming on from all different directions. 

[Tag]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:18pm

Pretty much anything from the mega musicals of the late 80s/early 90s.  The transitions in the title song of Phantom, the barricades coming on in Les Mis, etc.

The transitions in Voulez Vous in Mamma Mia were pretty well executed between Sofie talking with the different fathers.

The entire Chip on Your Shoulder sequence in Legally Blonde was so well conceived, to transition time and major plot points.  Jersey Boys does this well too in the Angel Cried/I Still Care/Trance sequence and later during Beggin'.

 

[sarahb22]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:20pm

In the original Les Miserables, after all of the students are killed on the barricade the orchestra starts a very slow, quiet rendition of 'Bring Him Home.' Javert and the other police appear, combing the dead bodies for Jean Valjean.  While they're searching, the turntable/barricade rotates and we see the other side, the spotlight on the dead bodies of Enjolras and Gavroche as the song reaches a crescendo.

The turntable rotates again, and now we see Javert sitting alone on the deserted barricade, staring glumly at the ground as he tries to figure out how Valjean got away.  At length he spots the grate in the floor (entrance into the sewers) and goes down into it, which leads into the scene in the sewers and "Dog Eat Dog."

I always loved that set of transitions for its sheer cinema-like movement, and the power of those images. It's not the same now, without the turntable. Not at all.

[Tag]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:24pm

I thought that the transition from the opening number into the first office scene in 9 to 5 was great, with the desks coming on from all different directions. 

Probably one of the best staged (technically as well) openings of a show in recent memory.  That button of the office coming together was perfect too.  Too bad the rest of the show didn't match those first 5 minutes!

[bct14972]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:28pm

I found the transition into "Loveland" in the recent "Follies" revival to be one of the most thrilling moments in the theatre I've ever witnessed.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:41pm

The transition in the Broadway production of Hedwig from "Wicked Little Town (Reprise)" to the start of "Midnight Radio" gave me chills and broke my heart every time I saw it. Stunning.

[Kgshrauder]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:45pm

I love the transition from "Disney" to Hell in Book of Mormon.

[Littleshopofcarrie]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:47pm

BroadwayConcierge said: "The transition in the Broadway production of Hedwig from "Wicked Little Town (Reprise)" to the start of "Midnight Radio" gave me chills and broke my heart every time I saw it. Stunning.

 

"

YES!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 7:58pm

But the transition from 'And I Am Telling You..." to "We're Your Dreamgirls" has to be one of the absolute greatest ever, if not the greatest.  

 

You must be getting song titles confused.  Effie's final long note at the end of "And I Am Tellng You" is cut-off/interrupted by a quick dropping curtain as The Dreams glide on stage singing a few seconds of "Love, Love You Baby" as the curtain comes down to end Act 1. The title track "Dreamgirls" is performed earlier in Act 1.  

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 8:24pm

As for brilliant changes, I agree with the poster above about Baby June and Louise turning into their young adult selves under a strobe light. Gave me chills every time.

And speaking of Robbins, I would add the transition to the gym in WEST SIDE STORY. Though I was watching from the stage manager's desk in the wings (during the 1980s), the falling streamers still took my breath away!

As far as I know, Jerome Robbins more than anyone was responsible for inventing stage equivalents to movie cuts, cross-fades and the like. It was as if his early training were not in ballet but with Cecil B. DeMille.

Updated On: 5/2/16 at 08:24 PM

[TFMH18]

Posted: 5/2/16 at 8:49pm

A (very) recent one: In Bright Star when we see Alice Murphy the editor transition to her younger self, and we watch her transform on stage before our very eyes. It's one of the most beautiful moments I've witnessed in the theatre.