Most Haunting Broadway Melodies?

[romgitsean]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:34am

What songs just give you that surrealist spine-chilling feeling that make you just love musical theatre even more?

Mine are:

Tell Me, Tell Me from Lolita, My Love
Lolita from Lolita, My Love
No One Is Alone from Into the Woods
Eve Was Weak from Carrie
When There's No One from Carrie
Finale: Pippin from Pippin
Poor Thing from Sweeney
Final Sequence from Sweeney
You Don't Know from Next to Normal
All For Laura from Woman in White

EDIT:

One Song Glory from Rent (especially when Adam Pascal performs it live...ha... -dies-)
I Don't Care Much from Cabaret (same as above, minus the live part)
I'll Cover You (Reprise) from Rent
Goodbye Love from Rent
Evermore Without You from Woman in White
Mama Look Sharp from 1776
Somewhere That's Green from LSOH
We'll Have Tomorrow from LSOH (cut song)

Arguably, Tell Her I Love Her from Urinetown if you ignore the campiness when it's staged. It is a really pretty song.

And of course, the overplayed, Seasons of Love.

Updated On: 12/27/09 at 03:34 AM

[philly03]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:48am

Evermore Without You - Woman in White
All For Laura - Woman in White
Our Children - Ragtime
When There's No One - CARRIE
Finding Wonderland - Wonderland
I Can't Recall / Finale - A Tale of Two Cities
If Dreams Came True - A Tale of Two Cities
Someone Like You - Jekyll & HYDE
I'll Forget You - The Scarlet Pimpernel'
Simple - Nine
Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again - Phantom of the Opera
Home - Phantom
Updated On: 12/26/09 at 03:48 AM

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 4:01am

Perpetual Anticipation from A Little Night Music has always creeped me out!

[Elke]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 4:16am

The Overtures of South Pacific and The Phantom Of The Opera
If I Can't Love Her (Beauty & The Beast)
I Miss The Music (Curtains)
The Flesh Failures / Let the Sun Shine In (Hair)
Someone Like You (Jekyll & Hyde)
One Day More (Les Misérables)
96,000 (In The Heights)
America (West Side Story)
Somewhere (West Side Story)
New Music (Ragtime)
Draußen ist Freiheit (Tanz Der Vampire)

[jewishboy]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 4:32am

Irving Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance" (Follow the Fleet)
Stephen Sondheim's "All Things Bright and Beautiful" (Follies)

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 5:45am

I agree with Perpetual Anticipation.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 7:21am

The reprise of "Everybody's Got The Right" at the end of Assassins

[rmusic11322]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 8:40am

Mamma Mia Overture

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 9:52am

Perpetual Anticipation is a good one.
I would also like to add the end of You Should be Loved from Side Show. It's always so scary when I listen.
Also, perhaps the Lament and Stay With Me from Into the Woods. Both of them are powerful songs.

[quizking101]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 12:24pm

"How Could I Ever Forget" from Next To Normal
"Goodbye Love" from RENT

[changinandhow]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 12:26pm

One of the first ones that pops into my head is the opening notes of Come Look At the Freaks from Side Show.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 1:22pm

I agree with Perpetual Anticipation, and would also add The Factory Girls / Come Up to My Office.

[broadwayrob]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 2:40pm

Rebecca Luker's opening vocal line on "I Heard Someone Crying" from The Secret Garden.. chills EVERY single time. Not to mention the entire rest of the song.

[Kingtito132]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:11pm

I have to agree with "Wish You Were Somehow Hear Again" From Phantom...Opera.

Also most of "Once On This Island" gets me ever time. Especially "Forever Yours" and its reprise and "Pray". The music for those songs and the Leitmotif style underscoring for Papa Ge is just chilling.

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:14pm

"Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again"
"You Don't Know"
"You'll Never Walk Alone"
"The Letter" (the staging of it really creeps me out)
"Soon It's Gonna Rain"

[singtopher]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:15pm

The Theme from Sunset Blvd.

[BroadwayNorth2]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:16pm

"How Glory Goes" is a hauntingly beautiful off Broadway melody... does it count?!
...and you can add several Adam Guettel tunes from Floyd Collins and Piazza to the list, for that matter! Updated On: 12/26/09 at 03:16 PM

[James885]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:18pm

"The Confrontation" from Jekyll and Hyde

"The Greatest Star Of All" from Sunset Blvd.

[jagfkb]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 3:37pm

The two most haunting:
Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George
Til we Reach That Day from Ragtime

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 4:09pm

"You Don't Know" does often give me chills, but I wouldn't call it a haunting melody as much as haunting lyrics and performance. I think if a song gives you chills, it isn't necessarily haunting, but just impacting. Also, haunting melodies don't necessarily give you chills. Some haunting songs that come to my mind are Phantom of the Opera, the opening number from Sweeney Todd (don't remember its name), and Unusual Way.

[orlandog]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 5:07pm

"Family" from Dreamgirls is definitely a beautifully haunting ballad.

[zepka102]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 5:11pm

"Your Daddy's Son" from Ragtime gives me chills. I'm sure there's more but that stands out the most right now.

[AC126748]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 5:12pm

Even when sung poorly (and I've heard it butchered more than a few times), "Every Day A Little Death" never fails to send a chill down my spine. Also, "It Don't Make Sense" from Parade.

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 5:22pm

It has to be, "Music of the Night", Phantom.
And definitely, "Reflection", from A Tale of Two Cities.

I also think "I Dreamt a Dream" is quite haunting in a different way... Updated On: 12/26/09 at 05:22 PM

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 12/26/09 at 5:24pm

Also from Parade, Sh'ma/Finale. Doubly chilling for the story is true.

Spoiler below, I suppose.
Donmar Sh'ma/Finale