Great First Act Closers

Ragtime "Till We Reach That Day"

Act One of Dreamgirls basically does end with "And I Am Telling You". There is a brief onstage song for the Dreams, "Love Love You Baby," as Essie is pulled upstage on the set, but usually, the audience is screaming so much at that point, you never do hear "Love Love You Baby". It was a strategy concocted to drive you out of your mind because you can't really applaud for "And I Am Telling You" but you go nuts anyway. Pure Michael Bennett, I think. I doubt that "One Night Only" was ever in Act One...but the early drafts of Dreamgirls were very different, so if anyone knows more about the show's workshop development, please clarify.

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except that she doesn't fly...just lifts up...LOL...

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Craig Rubano, who was Marius on Broadway and is a delightful cabaret singer now, has a CD titled "Finishing the Act" which has some nice choices.

Give My Regards to Broadway (George M!)
Welcome to the Theater (Applause)
Anything Goes (Anything Goes)
The Impossible Dream (Man of La Mancha)
Before the Parade Passes By (Hello, Dolly!)
Take the Moment (Do I Hear a Waltz?)
You're Nothing Without Me (City of Angels)
There's Always One You Can't Forget
(Dance a Little Closer)
Who Can I Turn To? (The Roar of the Greasepaint -- The Smell of the Crowd)
My Own Best Friend (Chicago)
All at Once You Love Her (Pipe Dream)
Song of Love (Once Upon a Mattress)
Dear Friend (She Loves Me)
Nobody Told Me (No Strings)
Sunday (Sunday in the Park with George)
Where Do I Go? (Hair)
Now You Know (Merrily We Roll Along)
Momma, Look Sharp (1776)
Father to Son (Falsettos)
Climb Ev'ry Mountain (The Sound of Music)

www.craigrubano.com

Updated On: 4/6/04 at 10:12 AM

IMPOSSIBLE DREAM ~ Man of La Mancha.
sheer brilliance.

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i was WAITING for someone to mention Wicked... LOL!!!

oh!!! Plum, yes!!! Sunday!!!!

"I Am What I Am" from TWGM

and

"Before The Parade Passes BY" from TWHM (as if I had to mention it!)

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I would definetly agree with "Defying Gravity" and "Till we Reach That Day" and the Act I Finale of "Little Shop".

I do not agree with "My Own Best Friend" from Chicago- I think that's one of the weakest. The song isn't that great, and the two of them just standing there singing was not my cup of tea.

Otherwise:
"I'm Free/Heaven Help Me"-Footloose
"Act I Finale"- Into The Woods
"Go, go, go Joesph"- Joseph

"And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" always closed Act One of DREAMGIRLS (and "One Night Only" was always in Act Two), but early in previews, Michael Bennett added the "button" of the Dreams doing about six measures of "Love, Love You Baby" to the end of the scene, for both practical and artistic reasons. Artistic because Bennett's staging was purely cinematic, full of lightning quick scene changes and "editing" techniques that were straight out of the movies. The close of act one was a "wipe/dissolve" effect -- to the audience in the Imperial Theatre it was as if the image of Effie White, sitting backstage at her make up table, holding that last note, suddenly freeze-framed, the "camera" zoomed out (the pallette under Effie and her table was quickly pulled upstage and out of sight) and the image faded to black. Simultaneously, cut to the Dreams onstage in Vegas. As the lights come back up to full, they're dancing and singing in front of a shimmery gold lame curtain --Effie and backstage have disappeared. An amazing coup de theatre.

The effect was also practical in the sense that the audience reaction was so overwhelming (the standing ovation typically started a little over halfway through the number and there was pandemonium in the audience by Jennifer's last note), Bennett actually had to come up with a way to quickly cut it off, lest he risk calls for Holliday to return to the stage for bows, encores, etc..... (the role was a killer for Holliday and she often exhausted and vocally spent by intermission and needed to rest). Bringing the Dreams back on briefly (roughly 15 seconds) helped remind the audience that they were watching a dramatic show and not Jennifer Holliday in concert. Additionally, on the Dreams last note (and the last refrain of the offstage chorus' "Showbiz is just showbiz"), Bennett had the curtain dropped as quickly as possible and the second it hit the stage, the house lights were immediately brought up to full. The audience instantly stopped applauding, as if awakened suddenly from a dream, and stood there squinting and blinking, numb and disoriented, trying to get their bearings as intermission began.

It's the best Act One closer I've ever seen, and it continued to elicit nearly the same audience response after Holliday left the show and a parade of replacements and understudies took on the role both on Broadway and on tour (including a few less than stellar singers). The song is so powerful and (more importantly) the momentum Bennett built into the everything leading up to that climactic final scene, all but guarantees that it'll stop the show no matter who's playing Effie.

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I was wondering when someone would start a thread on this subject....

CHICAGO dose not end act one with "My Own Best Friend". It ends with the brief reprise of "All That Jazz" sung by Velma after Roxie announces she's going to have a baby and then Billy says he wants the best doctor in town for his poor client and for someone to pick her up. Get the LONDON cast recording to hear it.

Act one finales I'm surprised no one has mentioned;

TITANIC ~ sure we all knew it was going to end with them hitting the iceberg, but the ship sailing across the water so beautifully was just awesome. And I still don't know how they did it, anyone know how they made the water look so real?

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA ~ Of course.

RENT ~ dauh...I love RENT. "Viva La Vie Boheme!"

JEKYLL & HYDE ~ Lighting the bishop's body on fire...c'mon that was AWESOME!

THE PRODUCERS ~ very nice.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST ~ When he runs out on the balcony to finish the song! Breathtaking!

AVENUE Q ~ It's just nice.

THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL ~ "The Riddle" cool....

SUNSET BOULEVARD ~ "Happy new year, darling...."

CATS ~ Gorgeous.

H2$ ~ love it.

THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE ~ poor Millie...

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM ~ "Do you have anything to say?" "INTERMISSION!"

CABARET ~ "Tomorrow belongs to me!"

SEUSSICAL ~ "How Lucky You Are!"

COMPANY ~ nice.

MISS SAIGON ~ Sure the helicopter is better, but the act one finale is cool too with the boat people and all....

A CHORUS LINE ~ should be a two act show....

PUTTING IT TOGETHER (B-way) ~ I just liked it. Simple, elegant, there.

SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE` ~ I love that song!!!!! "SAVED" Awesome....

SHERRY! ~ It's funny! Chaos!!!

MARTIN GUERRE ~ I'm the only one who liked this show...

CARRIE ~ C'mon! Scary!!!

I could go on and one...let me think of some more...

Updated On: 4/6/04 at 03:53 PM

For the 900th time:

TWGM= "The World's Gayest Musical" (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES)

TWHM= "The World's Happiest Musical" (HELLO, DOLLY!)

....didn't you learn anything in school?

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