I am currently writing an essay about how theater has made an emotional impact on me. Whether it was "A Normal Heart" because it made me see the toll that AIDS has on the individual but their family and friends as well or Jersey Boys during "Fallen Angel" because my friend recently lost her child. There are shows that have made me so happy I have cried as well. Here are a few other shows that have made me tear up. Some I am embarrassed to share
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Billy Elliot
Sondheim Celebration
La Cage
Wicked
Mary Poppins
August Osage County
Hair
Blood Brothers
Love Story
All My Sons
Once Upon A Time At The Adelphi
And came very close at:
After the Dance
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
next to normal
Angels in America
The Coast of Utopia
Passing Strange
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/23/05
Jersey Boys and Next to Normal. Yeah, I said it.
My mom cried at Les Miserables.
Next to Normal
A Chorus Line
Passing Strange
Grey Gardens
Sunday in the Park With Georg
A Tale of Two Cities
Billy Elliot
The Scottsboro Boys.
In order of when I saw them:
1) RENT
2) NEXT TO NORMAL
3) NEXT FALL - This was f'ing brilliant!
4) SOUTH PACIFIC
5) A LIFE IN THE THEATRE - the one section at the end when Patrick Stewart's character attempted suicide by slashing his wrist, but pass it off as an accident.
My mother cried at WOMEN ON THE VERGE primarily because the day before, she found out my father was cheating on her, and the Patti LuPone character (sans the insanity) was the state my mother was in, verbatim.
Swing Joined: 6/18/08
1) RENT
2) Spring Awakening (all time fav show)
3) Mary Poppins
4) Les Miserables
I'm an unapologetic crier. I won't count 'misting up' -- only downright sobbing. The top criers for me have been:
THE GOAT or WHO IS SYLVIA? (Los Angeles)
LES MISERABLES (London, before it was a 'sensation')
THE PRIVATE MESSAGE WHERE BRDWYPHREAK TOLD ME TO NEVER CONTACT HIM / HER (or HIMHER) VIA PRIVATE MESSAGE AGAIN
Okay, that last one admittedly didn't evoke tears.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
Angels in America, A Chorus Line, The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Crucible, Othello, Hairspray, Rent, Into the Woods, Les Miserables, Cirque du Soleil's "O", Wit, The Laramie Project, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, Aftermath, Cirque Eloize's "Rain", Hair, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, tick... tick ... BOOM!, Well.
Just off the top of my head.
I tend to tear up a lot when I go to the theatre. Not outright cry but definitely tear up. It won't even have anything to do with the plot. I think it's my pure love for the theatre and just being there.
The first show that comes to mind for me is South Pacific. The first time I saw it I cried from the moment that sweeping overture touched my soul to the moment where Emil & Nellie's hands clasped under the table.
I cried like a baby after Act 1 the first time I saw Children of Eden...the show is flawed, but damn is (some of) that score beautiful...
Les Mis, Sunday in the Park (Lesson 8/Move On/Finale), Secret Garden, Passion, Ragtime.
Close to tears: Night Music finale (I think you know what I'm talking about...when Frederik confesses his love for Desiree, the music swells, and they embrace), Camelot finale, Music Man (when Harold sings Til There Was You).
And there's something about Betty Buckley...every time I hear her I get chills/almost tears.
Next to Normal-So Anyway always gets me
Ragtime-Sarah's Death/'Till We Reach That Day made me choke up, along with the fact that it was the closing night of a show very near and dear to my heart
A Little Night Music-When Bernadette Peters looked me square in the eye, while weeping during Send in the Clowns, I completely lost it
Les Misérables-Honorable Mention: The first and (so far) only time I saw the show, I began to tear up at the end of 'One Day More'. I was blubbering like an idiot and asking my mom "What the hell did I just see?!" out of sheer amazement
I have only cried 3 times during a show.
The final performance of Next to Normal
and the last 2 times I saw HAIR (Thursday before closing, and closing performance).
It takes a lot to get to me
wow- where to begin?
My first broadway show, Titanic. Then followed by many but the ones I remember without going through my playbills: Ragtime, (Even more in the revival, but it's because the show has grown so close to me over the years, Beauty and the Beast, Les Mis- not the first time, but every time I've seen it since then, I cry at least 3 times. The Scottsboro Boys (balled both times, both at the Vineyard and Broadway), Sunday in the park revival, Rent, Next to Normal.
Special mention to Journey's End. My brother was in Afghanitstan at the time, and we were so unsure about what was going to happen to him, And then that last two minutes followed by the final tableux (you know what I mean if you saw it) had me literally convulsing. I hugged my boyfriend, and just sobbed and sobbed. I've never had such a reaction to a piece of art than I did at that theater.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
I think you meant "bawled" unless Scottsboro boys really turned you on, and having seen the commercial I can see how that might happen.
West Side Story
The Phantom of the Opera
Les Miserables
Love Never Dies
A Little Night Music
Merrily We Roll Along
Sweeney Todd
RENT
Fiddler on the Roof
All for different reasons...
Next To Normal - I cried at several scenes, and as said above, "So Anyway" get's me too.
Billy Elliot - yeah...quite embarassing but true.
Gypsy - Gypsy shouting at Rose (especially in the recent revival) shock me up.
La Cage - Douglas Hodge, sitting in the corner, while Kelsey sang "Look Over There", really struck me and was very poignant (spelling? Sorry!)
Spamalot - More of a sentimental reason, "The Song That Goes Like This" is the iconic song between me and a friend, who i'll never see again, and when i seen the show, i cried at it... yikes! haha
Oh yes, I'll agree with Gypsy. That bow that Angela Lansbury did after Rose's Turn makes me cry everytime.
Understudy Joined: 9/20/08
I very rarely cry at anything. Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby made me cry when I was in high school, because I felt I was growing up too fast and couldn't stop myself. Rent made me cry because I had recently lost a friend and identified with Tom Collins, particularly when he sang, "I'll Cover You".
Billy Elliot, Ragtime, Next to Normal, The Book of Mormon, Angels in America.
LES MISERABLES is the only show that made me CRY.
There have been MOMENTS in other shows that have caught me off guard the first time I saw it live and performers in roles that brought me to tears with their brilliance, but LES MIZ is the most emotional theatrical experience I have experienced... Um... Yeah. Did that make sense? *lol*
THE PRODUCERS made me cry with laughter.
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/11/10
It takes very little to get me to cry. I tear up at pretty much everything, and I'm moved to tears by many.
Next to Normal- I sobbed
Rent- Angel's funeral and the end
Ragtime- ends of act 1 and 2
Yank
Shrek- Who I'd Be; I'm ashamed, but Brian d'Arcy James' voice gets me at that moment
La Cage- Douglas Hodge's "I Am What I Am"
Hair- the end
The Scottsboro Boys
Stand-by Joined: 2/15/10
Beauty and the Beast-I cry. Every. Time.
RENT
Mary Poppins- Step in Time and the ending flying sequence.
The Color Purple
Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan
Cats- With Stephanie J. Block and Ken Page
Wicked
Shrek
South Pacific
9 to 5
I'm a sucker for Overtures too. The minute an overture starts, I usually start tearing up.
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/28/05
I've never actually cried during a show, but I teared up during:
Grey Gardens
110 in the Shade
Light in the Piazza
Gypsy
ALNM
Ragtime
Fiddler
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