First Rate Shows with Awful and/or Anti-Climatic Final Scene(s)

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:22pm

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day and she mentioned that she thought GUYS AND DOLLS has a great ending.

But, in my opinion, it has a very boring ending that kind of leaves the audience slightly unsatisfied.

I have always thought that 'Marry the Man Today' plays very much like a number that should be placed at the beginning of Act II. It is a great disservice to such an enchanting show to have the final (non-reprise) song of the show to be such an anticlimatic number.

And then the final number of the show, 'The Happy Ending', is quite unsatisfying to the audience, too.

For such a temendous work of art, I have always felt that Loesser and Burrows should have come up with a ending more owrthy of the show.

They slightly redeem themselves with Nathan's sneeze right before 'The Happy Ending', one of the funniest and most creative "final line" ever.



What other shows do you feel deserve better Finales?

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:24pm

Carousel

Great song to end on. TERRIBLE ending to the script.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:25pm

la boheme....come on, she dies? what a downer!

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:26pm

EDIT: OK, changing my mind. I guess Rent's current ending isn't so bad, considering the alternative is to kill off yet another HIV-positive character.

Updated On: 11/23/04 at 05:26 PM

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:27pm

Jonathan Larson certainly thought so!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:27pm

MY FAIR LADY. That has to be one of the most anti-climatical musicals ever.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:27pm

Double Post. But, I will add something else then. JEKYLL AND HYDE's ending, while not awful or anti-climatic, seems........well...........rushed.

Updated On: 11/23/04 at 05:27 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:28pm

double post, haha

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:49pm

FOLLIES

After two and a half hours of relationship sturm und drang and decades-old regrets and recriminations being hashed over, of couples confessing they never loved each other and married the wrong people, suddenly the Loveland set disappears, we're back to reality, the couples go back to their original partners as if nothing had happened and nothing had been said, they all exchange a couple of hasty goodbyes and sheepishly slink off into the night. Curtain. Huh? What a complete and total cop-out of an ending. Goldman should have been ashamed (and Prince and Sondheim should be ashamed for allowing Goldman to get away with it). So after oblitering the notion of marriage and fidelity and twisting the knife into every one of those middle-aged/elderly couples sitting out there in the audience, you just leave it there with no resolution of any kind? And WHY on earth did those couples decide to get back together at the end (other than it was 11:00 and time for the curtain to drop)?

Look if Goldman/Sondheim want to say ultimately that marriage is crap, that life is disappointing and full of regrets, that "the road you didn't take" would have been better than the one you did then fine, WRITE A DAMN SONG THAT SAYS THAT to end the show. Or else come up with some sort of happy ending. Something. Anything that would make for a satisfactory ending, other than the ghosts of the couples' younger selves waving at each other. That cop-out ending fatally flaws what is otherwise one of the greatest works ever written for the musical theatre.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 5:55pm

Goldman's made changes to the script for its other productions, but has anything ever been done about the ending? Sondheim never seems to be completely happy with his great score (The switching of Uptown/Downtown, Lucy and Jessie, Underneath), but Goldman is content with the way the book is?
And don't get me started on Furth...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 6:02pm

Goldman's long dead and his widow won't allow so much as a comma to be changed of her dead hubby's "masterwork." I suspect Sondheim would LOVE to have somebody good come in and fix it, but he hates confrontation and Bobbi (sp?) Goldman is all about confrontation whenever this subject comes up, so unless she drops dead, I'm afraid we're stuck with that god-awful book. Perhaps the concert version is truly the ideal way to present this score.

[DickonDefysGravity]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 6:10pm

I agree with Guys and Dolls completely!!!

Finians Rainbow
The Music Man
The Mikado

[timote316]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 10:23pm

I wouldnt say the Music Man's is bad, just rushed. Well, the movie's was, I'm assuming its the same...

I've said it before, but I'm not a huge fan of Rent's ending...

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 10:35pm

I disagree with B.B. Wolfe's CAROUSEL - I think the ending is amazingly touching.

My vote would have to go to WICKED. First, let's say that I don't think it's a first rate show, but most of you probably know that about me now. Act Two actually starts to redeem itself until you find out that the Wizard is actually Elphaba's father. It is among the absolute WORST writing I have ever seen on stage, and I actually started to get caught up in the story and enjoy myself until they start talking about the green bottle, and it makes absolutely no sense. To make it even worse, shortly after that Elphaba pops through a stage door and they try to make everyone believe her death was "faked." If this is true, that would mean that Dorothy would have had to been in on the "trick" with her and Fiyero which I don't buy for a second. Then then entire cast is onstage singing about how she's dead with her standing right next to them. The fact that people STILL find the show amazing after that point is mind boggling to me. It could have ended so gloriously.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 11/23/04 at 10:57pm

I believe (I may be wrong), that Goldman's widow didn't want the brilliant 2001 Paper Mill Playhouse production to move to B'way because it didn't do her husband's 'masterpiece' "justice".

The score is what tells the story in FOLLIES, and I don't for one second beleive Goldman contributed anything of value to the story or FOLLIES as a whole, if anything he was detrimental to its overall state.

Forgive me for being disrespectful, but Goldman's widow needs to get a grip on reality.

[Jon]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 12:06am

OKLAHOMA. After they've sung the title song, it just keeps going and going.... with the stupid trial, et cetera, et cetera.

OK - Curley killed Judd - it was self-defense. Everyone agrees - now can we just end the damn show????

[mint0621]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 12:10am

I hate the ending for Grease. Come on, the girl changes for a guy? I know it happens in real life, but to glorify it in a musical...psh. Goes against every feminist cell in my soul...

[lullabyofbroadway28]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 1:01am

Thoroughly Modern Millie- There's a huge build up on Dorthy and Grayson's love and then all of a sudden he's gay and she loves the other Chinese guy. Also they resolve the whole show in the last 5 minutes.

[CattleCall]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 3:23am

When I saw it, I thought the ending to Wonderful Town was ridiculous, but it was over a year ago, and honestly while sitting here, I can't for the life of me remember what it was! But I know I thought it was bad.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 3:25am

I agree - I saw WT the week it opened, so I can't remember either, but I remember sitting there and thinking "this can't be the finale, this can't be the finale...." And sure enough, it was. It truly is a crappy, crappy ending. It's like they gave up and decided to end the show in the middle of act two.

Does no one agree with me about WICKED? I feel like a loner on this one!

[paradox_error]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 7:52am

Any Gilbert & Sullivan. The Act 1 finales are always so wonderful, but the act 2 finales leave so much to be desired. They are just the reworking of a number that appeared in the act 1 finale or one of the other good songs. The Mikado for instance has a wonderful 10 minute act 1 finale, but the minute and a half reworking of "For he's gone and married Yum-Yum" is hardly enough to end the wonderful show. Also the way it ends by just cutting off and saying "well everything is satisfactory" is a pain. The same goes for Iolanthe. The Act 1 finale is 16 minutes long and just wonderful, but the act 2 finale is just a reprise of "if you go in"...hardly satisfactory.
i think the act 2 finales spoil G&S

[paradox_error]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 7:53am

double post Updated On: 11/24/04 at 07:53 AM

Posted: 11/24/04 at 8:14am

> If this is true, that would mean that Dorothy would have had to been in on the "trick" with her and Fiyero which I don't buy for a second.

I'm very much one of the last people who will defend Wicked, but of all of the disappointments in it I actually enjoyed the ending. I don't think it means Dorothy would have had to been in on it. Fiyero could have just never told her, pretended the whole scarecrow thing all along, and then when Dorothy threw water at Elphaba she would have used magic to make it *look* like she was melting, all the while Dorothy being this pawn.

Yeah, it's possible to call it forced. But I do think there's possibility for the logic to actually make sense.

[elphaba.scares.me]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 11:08am

CITY. OF. ANGELS.

I get the impression that many people on this board may not have been born yet when it opened in 1990, but it's always been one of my faves. Fantastic show/score. Genius lyrics. The ending, though? Eek.
Updated On: 11/24/04 at 11:08 AM

[Craig]

Posted: 11/24/04 at 11:20am

I don't agree re: City of Angels. I think the ending works within the device of the show.

The ending I thought was ruined in a show because they removed key elements to the original premise was My Favorite Year. By removing the gangsters from the show (which were in the movie) there was no REAL reason Swann needed to "save the day".