Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:16pm
The Wednesday matinees of Hamilton the day after the 2016 Election. Some of the lines really stood out and it was as if the audience was waiting for them to be spoken. The applause that almost stopped the show was King George coming out after Yorktown and singing "What Comes Next".
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:19pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:34pm
Mine would have to be:
Rock of Ages Broadway closing night
The Color Purple Broadway Revival closing night
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:38pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:39pm
The closing night of The Color Purple revial or basically any closing performance.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:48pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:50pm
Jarethan said: "
First preview of the Mame revival that flopped. It flopped because of terrible management...opened in the summer with no notice and terrible advertising. It was the only time I ever saw an audience applauded (stomped really) for so long that the cast came out for a final bow in front of the curtain with the house lights already up.
"
I wasn't at the 1st preview, but what ended up being the final Saturday matinee. It was my very first Broadway show ever! The audience stood as one after "Bosom Buddies." They wouldn't stop until Angela and Anne Francine finally took a bow. 17 year old me thought that was what always happened at Broadway shows. Of course, now I appreciate how rare and special that was.
I was also at the closing performance of Next to Normal, and I get goose bumps just thinking about that audience. It was very emotional for everyone in the theater. From the second row, you could see how much the cast loved it and how difficult it was at times for them to keep it together. Magical.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:51pm
Closing night of In The Heights was like nothing I could ever imagine. Still have the special Playbill!
Posted: 2/6/18 at 1:55pm
The two biggest audience responses I've witnessed were in London. The closing performance of The Beautiful Game. Lloyd Webber was sitting a few rows behind me and the applause for Our Kind of Love literally stopped the show until Hannah Waddingham acknowledged the audience with a small bow. Then, Harry Potter just a few weeks into its run. At the very first visual "magic" effect, the audience went BONKERS. From then on, it was an exciting love-fest from the audience.
On Broadway, I think the most enthusiastic audience was probably Hamilton during the first week of previews. Also, Rent just a couple of weeks after it won the Tony.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 2:40pm
The strongest audience reactions I've seen have been:
Glenn Close in the March 9, 2017 performance of Sunset Boulevard. The applause started with her line "You there! Why are you so late?" and marked almost everything she did thereafter. "With One Look" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye" caused people to leap to their feet with shouts of "Brava!".
Sierra Boggess, Ramin Karimloo, et al., in the March 5, 2011 final performance by the original London cast of Love Never Dies. Karimloo's "Till I Hear You Sing" and Boggess' "Love Never Dies" both brought the show to a halt (Ms. Boggess sunk to the stage floor and wept openly). In both cases, the applause went on for so long that it had to be forcibly ended by the orchestra conductor in the manner that music is played at awards shows to end long speeches.
Both the 25th and 30th anniversary performances of Phantom of the Opera were also landmark events. Shouts and applause greeted the uncovering of the chandelier, the boat journey during the title song, and the "Masquerade" scene. There was also thunderous approval for the performances of "Think of Me", "Music of the Night", and "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again".
Updated On: 2/6/18 at 02:40 PM
Posted: 2/6/18 at 2:46pm
The Evita revival for Ricky Martin. I still do not understand it.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 2:52pm
CT2NYC said: "HELLO, DOLLY! with Bette, during previews. I never thought I'd see so many 50/60-somethings losing their sh*t simultaneously."
Ha! This, exactly. I think I was equally excited about the audience energy as I was about the show. The (60-something) woman next to me started sobbing and literally clutched her pearls when the ensemble entered in "Put on Your Sunday Clothes." I don't know how many shows I've gone to where there's wild applause mid-overture just from hearing the melody of the title song.
My other two memorable ones were Pippin (revival) in previews... there was a seriously palpable energy in there. Also the closing night of [title of show] on Broadway, for obvious reasons, and Sara Bareilles' last (original last) Waitress performance - it was quite the ovation after "She Used to Be Mine."
Posted: 2/6/18 at 2:54pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 2:55pm
JudyDenmark said: "The (60-something) woman next to me started sobbing and literally clutched her pearls"
Posted: 2/6/18 at 3:00pm
Certainly the closing performance of Comet. It's the most in sync I've ever felt with an audience, and most emotionally connected to any group of people I've been in a room with - we stood for Malloy at the top of the show, a two minute standing ovation for "Dust and Ashes," around the same length during "Balaga"/"The Abduction." Cheers for every principle during their entrances. And of course we all cried along with the performers during the last two songs. Magical and heartbreaking.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 3:06pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 3:57pm
Sutton Foster's final performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and I'll get to relive it next week in the reunion concert.
Also I like to attend Tony Tuesday performances of shows I really liked, and the that stands out is Anything Goes revival, also with Sutton.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 4:03pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 4:03pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 4:49pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 4:51pm
The two that come to mind for me are 1) Bette in Hello, Dolly! (the title number, in particular!), and 2) the closing performance of The Color Purple revival.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 5:23pm
Two performances were really the most intense audience reactions I have ever seen-
1. Barbra Streisand in 1994 opening night at MSG
2. Bette in Dolly
Both electrified the audience beyond belief.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 5:29pm
Posted: 2/6/18 at 5:48pm
The first 12 minutes of War Paint.
I must say that the audience at Spongebob is a little too nuts. Entrance applause for every person who walked onto that stage. A little much.
Posted: 2/6/18 at 6:43pm
Wickedmonkey332 said: "For me it was closing night of In The Heights. Flags, sing alongs, dancing in the seats. The ovation for the final Carnaval was incredible."
Cane here to say the same thing.
