Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
#1Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 11:46am
I've been looking through the playbills I've collected over the years and got to thinking ... what plot twist/special effect etc. you have witnessed in a theatre has solicited the loudest gasp?
Spoilers ahead!
I think the biggest I've encountered was during the Donmar Warehouse production of "Appropiate" when
... in the middle of the argument scene, Ainsley comes running down the stairs in the KKK hood.
52889j
Featured Actor Joined: 12/8/15
#3Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 11:59am
The very last second of Paradise Blue at Signature Theatre.
#4Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:02pm
Quinn's fatal decision near the end of The Ferryman. It was amazing.
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#5Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:02pm
In Martin McDonagh's THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE --
when Wee Thomas appears.
One of the biggest gasps and hardest laughs I've ever heard from an audience.
#6Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:03pm
Not seen personally, but any slime tutorials I’ve watched of Ragtime, during the finale prologue, when Mother has her moment. Everyone always gasps or sobs.
paciencia y fe when she reveals she won. Always a bit of a gasp goes through the audience.
Come From Away when he says “and that’s how we started speaking the same language” the audience all around me were shook.
Fordham2015
Broadway Star Joined: 4/3/17
#7Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:08pm
The end of Blackbird, when
Ray's daughter appears
Fordham2015
Broadway Star Joined: 4/3/17
#8Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:08pm
The end of Blackbird, when
Ray's daughter appears
#9Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:13pm
GRAND HORIZONS --- end of Act 1.
#10Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:16pm
broadway86 said: "Quinn's fatal decision near the end of The Ferryman. It was amazing."
Yep, this was it for me. Loudest gaps could’ve been from me however lol. I nearly got out of me seat in pure shock.
#11Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:23pm
WldKingdomHM said: "End of Act 1 -Proof"
Same here.
#12Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:27pm
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
end of Act Two
"You don't get it, do you? I'M RUNNING THINGS NOWWWWWW!!!" (blackout)
Gasps, cheers, applause, exhaling, intermission.
--Aristotle
#13Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:28pmAugust: Osage County. By a landslide.
CT2NYC
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/7/17
#14Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:30pm
2 times during Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, when...
Dolores Umbridge is revealed at the end of Part I, and when Snape tells Scorpius that Cedric Diggory killed Neville Longbottom, in Part II.
LarryD2
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/1/14
#15Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:32pm
Updated On: 2/12/20 at 12:32 PM
carolinaguy
Broadway Star Joined: 10/13/06
#16Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:34pm
For me, the loudest gasps were during the original production of Miss Saigon. I saw it very shortly after it opened in NY, and Kim's final act produced a collective gasp that nearly rattled the chandeliers.
KathyNYC2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/2/10
#17Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:36pm
A long time ago in a production of Wait Until Dark. The female lead is blind and she is being attacked by the "bad guy" in her apartment and she is trying to hide from him. She has turned off the lights to give herself an advantage so everything is very dark on stage, the audience is squinting trying to see what's going on.......but then the attacker opens another door where both he and the light crash back into the scene.
The gasp was so loud from the entire audience...people were embarrassed enough to start giggling a bit before everything was back to order. I don't think I have ever heard a gasp again quite like that one.
#18Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:42pm
When Orpheus turns around to look at Eurydice, end of Hadestown.
JustAnotherNewYorker
Broadway Star Joined: 12/20/16
#19Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:48pm
DiscoCrows said (relating to Hadestown):
When Orpheus turns around to look at Eurydice, end of Hadestown.
I'm always surprised at how many people aren't familiar with the source material of the shows they see. I recall, at a talk at the Strand by David Malloy and Rachel Chavkin relating to the Great Comet (book release of the big red book?), a gasp when David mentioned that
later in the novel, Pierre and Natasha get married.
Perhaps I can see this for a very long novel like W&P before you see it, but if you're so invested in the show that you go to a book signing/talk, maybe read the book?
I agree about the Ferryman, btw. Big shock.
#20Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:51pm
Not Broadway but the Cromer directed production of Our Town at the Barrow Street Theatre - when the set changed from nothing to hyper naturalism (you could smell breakfast being made) it blew my socks off.
Also, OBC Sweeney Todd...
When Sweeney cuts beggar woman's throat.
Rosette3
Stand-by Joined: 3/17/19
#21Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:58pm
Mike Barrett said: "broadway86 said: "Quinn's fatal decision near the end of The Ferryman. It was amazing."
Yep, this was it for me. Loudest gaps could’ve been from me however lol. I nearly got out of me seat in pure shock."
Same here. I went into completely blind so it was definitely a shock and I audibly gasped haha.
MollyJeanneMusic
Broadway Star Joined: 3/10/19
#22Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 12:58pm
“And that is when I remembered...I didn’t want to have a kid.”
*cue the falling baby toys*
(Mike Birbiglia’s The New One)
#23Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 1:03pmRe: Hadestown’s plot, I don’t think the myth is one that is taught repeatedly in school unless you’re deeply into classics or art history. I only knew of it vaguely from high school, which was over 20 years ago. I remembered it partway through the show, but I’m guessing a lot of people have forgotten it or just never knew.
a-mad
Featured Actor Joined: 8/25/11
#24Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 1:05pm
WldKingdomHM said: "End of Act 1 -Proof"
You beat me to the punch... ^ THIS!
Wildcard
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/21/06
#25Loudest gasp you've heard in the theatre
Posted: 2/12/20 at 1:16pm
The Woman in Black, after the flashlight goes out
Videos