Featured Actor Joined: 4/10/11
What is the loudest thing you've heard in a live show, whether it be a weapon, instrument, sound system, voice etc.
BAD COMPany in concert.... i thought my ears were going to start bleeding.... terrible sound....
Act 2 of "Buddy-The Musical". 3 weeks later my ears were still ringing
The last few lines of the song "The Winner Takes It All" in Mamma Mia on Broadway. Had to cover ears
Pre-show music to Fuerza Bruta. I didn't know if I was going to be able to stay for the show.
Finale of Grand Hotel. The work staff characters come out in grimy clothing, singing, while carrying these big milk crates with tons of metal utensils in them directly downstage. Then they slam them down on the stage with the force of sumo wrestlers...right next to the floor mics. The ensuing sound could be heard on Alpha Centauri. I grabbed my head, covered my earlobes and prayed for the inner earthquake to subside before I was certain it would lead to aneurysm.
Eden Espinosa screaming at me for 2 hours in BKLYN.
The opening steam whistle in the original production of SWEENEY TODD. Scared the crap out of the audience. Maybe the most perfect instant tone-setter I've ever experienced.
Stritch
Tie between the gunshot in the 2009 revival of West Side Story or when I went to see Phantom, the candelabras broke, it sounded a tree falling...
I second the Sweeney Todd factory whistle. Scared the crap out of me as well...even my second viewing when I knew it was coming up- it got me again. Such a terrible sound!
Featured Actor Joined: 9/13/08
The off-broadway production of Toxic Avenger. Definitely lost some hearing from that horrible sound design.
Front row at Jersey Boys in London. I could feel my eyeballs jiggling during "Dawn."
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
LuPone's belch during Anything Goes.
Pretty much the entirety of RENT.
The beginning of Lysistrata Jones.
The one night only collaboration of "Rock of Idiots". Not to be confused with its far quieter counterpart, "Americans of Age".
I agree about the Entr'acte of Mamma Mia! It was so loud and unexpected.
As for actually during a show, the machine guns used in Tommy were deafening.
I love that Entr'acte for Mamma Mia! I thought it was a pretty clever way to energize the audience while making them shut up at the same time. Always makes me laugh.
^ That is true. It actually is one of my favorite parts of the cast recording. I just had no better thing to post.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
The machine gun fire in the opening of TOMMY.
When I saw Hedwig in London. I believe it was Michael Cerveris? It was so loud you had no clue what they were singing. Was not enjoyable. So many people had their hands over their ears.
The gunshot that ends Gavroche's life in LES MIZ...
OH lordy, how could I have left this one out...
Whoopi Goldberg letting her frog out on The View.
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