Posted: 2/18/20 at 7:08am
Production of Maple and Vine in Louisville, KY during the Humana Festival of Plays, when a character says he'll pour a full bottle of Grey Goose down the drain. (B/c they are living in a 1950's style society that they created and GG wasn't invented then)
Posted: 2/18/20 at 9:54am
I saw the Denzel Washington and Viola Davis revival of Fences on Mother's Day and the audience was literally gasping at everything, and it was honestly the loudest audience I have ever heard. It got to a point where you could see Denzel Washington literally rolling his eyes at the audience. Ironically enough, Denzel was on Live with Kelly the following morning and lemented at how audiences need to understand the difference between the theater and the movies.
Posted: 2/18/20 at 4:48pm
I can't believe that no one has mentioned "that moment" toward the end of Act One of Roundabout's NAPOLI, BROOKLYN. It was not so much gasps as the entire audience having a collective heart attack. I would not be surprised if someone really did have one.
Posted: 2/18/20 at 4:49pm
To be fair, I don't think that many people saw Napoli, Brooklyn...
Posted: 2/18/20 at 4:52pm
As others have said, the tour of PROOF had a HUGE gasp upon the final line of the first act, myself included.
And when the show is done well, the reveal of the killer in THE MOUSETRAP is thrilling. Alley Theatre here in Houston has done it twice over the last decade or so and both times that moment has brought lots of gasps.
Posted: 2/19/20 at 12:43am
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - end of Part 1
Honestly the collective gasp shocked me as I figured most within the theater had already read the book/script by the time I got around to seeing the show so the reveal at that point was something I knew was coming but the shock of those around me was massive. And then there was my mother beside me who knew nothing very little about Harry Potter so the name drop went totally over her head and she whispered to me, "What?! What just happened?!"
Posted: 2/19/20 at 1:49am
Greensboro, NC. Early 1970s. Second rate bus and truck company of Applause starring Patrice Munsel and the then unknown Pia Zadora plays the War Memorial Auditorium.
During the title number or She's No Longer a Gypsy, I can't remember which, a couple of chorus boys turn their twerking backsides to the audience to reveal that their costumes have cut outs that reveal their actual butt cheeks.
I have never before or since heard such gasps and consternation in an audience. But remember this was rural Bible belt NC over 40 years ago. I escaped to Manhattan a few months later.
Updated On: 2/19/20 at 01:49 AM
Posted: 2/19/20 at 6:35am
WldKingdomHM said: "End of Act 1 -Proof "
ditto The audience exploded
Posted: 2/19/20 at 10:25am
I doubt it happens anymore but seeing WICKED in the first six months-- there were two pretty audible gasps I remember--
1. Boq emerges as the Tin Man
2. One of the Wizard's guard says (re: Fiyero) "Take him out to that field there. Put him on those poles until he tells us where the witch went."
Posted: 2/19/20 at 10:52am
Posted: 2/19/20 at 3:35pm
Thank you for reminding me of that one! (Napoli Brooklyn). I completely forgot about it. I believe that during Act One, they brought out a display of articles focusing on what really happened, and more people stood there reading them than going to the bathroom.
Updated On: 2/19/20 at 03:35 PM
Posted: 2/19/20 at 5:15pm
In the Heights when Nina comes out to balcony of Benny's apartment in t-shirt.
Posted: 2/20/20 at 5:27am
The end of SHINING CITY (holy crap, WTF)
for me, tho perhaps not others, the reveal of the upper level set/stories in THE PILLOWMAN (i recall that show being a lot of gasps actually)
Posted: 2/20/20 at 9:05am
A few years ago I saw Barbecue at The Public Theater, and there was definitely an element of surprise that I was NOT expecting....
At the end of Act I it is revealed that the whole first act is...I can' remember, but I think it was a movie being filmed and none of it was real? I think? It was definitely a surprise.
Posted: 2/20/20 at 12:12pm
Posted: 2/20/20 at 6:40pm
I love the film. I saw the train wreck of a revival with Quentin Tarantino / Marisa Tomei in 1998. That famous scene when the lights go out; the only light left is the light in the refrigerator, and the fridge door is slowly opened in the Coupe De Theatre moment. The scene misfired in this stunt-casting revival.
Posted: 2/20/20 at 6:55pm
"Night Must Fall" 1999 Lyceum with Matthew Broderick & Judy Parfitt.
Everyone sitting there waiting for the show, chatting, reading the Playbill and BOOM all the lights go out and everyone is in complete darkness as a huge thunderclap hits. Everyone jumped, totally unexpected as the lights come up on a rainstorm outside the drawing room set windows. So cool and that effect would never work today as there would be a hundred phone screens illuminating the room.
Posted: 2/20/20 at 7:51pm
During the 2014 production of The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, when Bess eventually sniffs the "happy dust" from Sportin' Life after resisting the entire show.
Posted: 2/20/20 at 9:00pm
When Jude Law stood up, dripping wet and naked in a bathtub in the daring play Indiscretians.
oh wait, maybe it was ME gasping!
Posted: 2/20/20 at 10:41pm
"Deathtrap"...and the night I saw it there was a large scream after collective audience scream...I turned around and attendants were rushing into the theatre. We were told at intermissionthat a man had had a heart attack but was in stable condition. It was that scary and gasp-inducing....
Posted: 2/21/20 at 8:26am
This thread inspired me to get a ticket through TDF for The Woman In Black, so thank you!! I'm so so curious about it
Posted: 2/21/20 at 8:49am
In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, George quietly takes a certain item from the closet and brings it ever closer to Martha.... then...
Well, if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. This is a "wow gasp" moment in every production of Woolf that I've seen.
Posted: 2/21/20 at 8:53am
Stage Door Sally said: "In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, George quietly takes a certain item from the closet and brings it ever closer to Martha.... then...
Well, if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. This is a "wow gasp" moment in every production of Woolf thatI've seen."
I bought my ticket for Woolf a few days ago. I'm so excited!!
Posted: 2/21/20 at 1:47pm
Let The Right One In at St Ann's Warehouse. Anytime Eli helped defend Oskar, especially when her hand popped out of a trunk she was hiding in and she killed a detective. The gasp from the audience was deafening and I thought the man next to me was having a heart attack. The staging was definitely for the brave.
Posted: 2/21/20 at 2:09pm
Rainbowhigh23 said: "Let The Right One In at St Ann's Warehouse. Anytime Eli helped defend Oskar, especially when her hand popped out of a trunk she was hiding in and she killed a detective. The gasp from the audience was deafening and I thought the man next to me was having a heart attack. The staging was definitely for the brave."
I didn't know that work had been adapted for the stage!
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