Musicals with singing ghosts

#1

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:02pm

I found a strange pattern in the last 4 of 5 musicals I have seen.

High Spirits
The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County
Titanic
The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden (different production)

All but, Titanic have singing ghosts (and you could argue that all characters in Titanic are singing ghosts).

So how may other shows have singing ghosts?

I have thought of a few...
Ghost
Les Miserables
Addams Family
Lavender Girl
The Lawnchair Man
A Christmas Carol

Others that are questionable:
Follies (do the past selves actually qualify as ghosts?)
Fiddler on the Roof (does what Grandma Zietel do qualify as singing?)
Death Takes a Holiday (are the characters ghosts or saved from death?)

Updated On: 5/28/12 at 02:02 PM

#2

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:06pm

INTO THE WOODS

#3

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:08pm

Follies (do the past selves actually qualify as ghosts?)

Yes.

#4

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:11pm

Into the Woods kept coming to mind, I thought it was because I saw the same lead play the ghost of christmas future in A Christmas Carol and the Witch in Into the Woods. But, I can't remember the specifics of the singing ghost in Into the Woods.

#5

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:02pm

Cinderella's Mother is a ghost and has several small singing moments throughout the show...I believe the role is often played by the actress playing Rapunzel, but I may be wrong.

#6

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:18pm

Grandma Tzeitl isn't the only singing ghost in Fiddler, there's also Fruma Sarah. Of course they only appear in a dream, and a fabricated one at that, so I'm not sure if they truly qualify as ghosts.

The Baker's Wife and, perhaps also Jack's mother, appear briefly after they are dead, no?

Updated On: 5/28/12 at 03:18 PM

#7

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:36pm

Yip Harburg said that characters in musicals sing when reality is heightened beyond the capability mere speech to express it.

So it makes sense that ghosts would sing.

He also said that characters in musicals dance when reality is heightened even more, to the point where mere singing can't express it.

So the question is: How many musicals are there in which ghosts dance?

---

#8

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:37pm

Depending on how the scene is portrayed, in Urinetown, Bobby's part of Tell Her I Love Her could be a ghost singing, or just Little Sally remembering what he told her.

#9

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:38pm

Steel Pier had a ghostly lead.

In My Life was narrated by two ghosts.

---

Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco. Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!

#10

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:42pm

Grey Gardens

Updated On: 5/28/12 at 03:42 PM

#11

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:53pm

Sarah and Coalhouse's ghosts at the end of Ragtime {"Wheels of a Dream (Reprise}".

ETA: Eva at the end of "Oh What a Circus." The libretto says: "A non-descript GIRL moves through the pageantry of the funeral. She sings as the voice of the dead Evita."

---

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia

Updated On: 5/28/12 at 03:53 PM

#12

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:59pm

in young frankenstein they sing in "Join the family business"

#13

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:08pm

Everything Gabe says in Next to Normal - though he could be considered a figment of Diana's imagination instead of a ghost.

Does "Mama Look Sharp" in 1776 count? The boy comes onstage and talks to the people in the room (janitors, maybe?), but then he sings that song in first person and it's just about him.

#14

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:09pm

Carousel

#15

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:20pm

Depending on how you view Gabe is NEXT TO NORMAL he can be seen as a ghost or a manifestation of Diana and Dan's grief.

#16

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:34pm

Teen Angel is Grease
Clarence, and in a "never been born" form, George, in It's A Wonderful Life

#17

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:34pm

Teen Angel is Grease
Clarence, and in a "never been born" form, George, in It's A Wonderful Life

#18

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:41pm

Spring Awakening
Book of Mormon (if you count the people in the Hell Dream?)
Billy Elliot (the mom)
Little Shop of Horrors (at the end)
Assassins (Lee Harvey Oswald scene)
The Story of my Life
Sunday in the Park with George (depending on how you interpret that last scene)

#19

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:45pm

Silence: the musical

Clarice's dad

#20

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 5:37pm

Parade- Mary Phagan and then Leo Frank at the end of the show.

---

"I think lying to children is really important, it sets them off on the right track" -Sherie Rene Scott-

#21

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 5:48pm

Miss Saigon - the ghost of Thuy

#22

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 6:28pm

Ragtime- Sarah and Coalhouse.

---

"I think lying to children is really important, it sets them off on the right track" -Sherie Rene Scott-

#23

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 6:29pm

Ragtime- Sarah and Coalhouse. Actually most if not all the people who sing in the epilogue since they are commenting on their lives.

---

"I think lying to children is really important, it sets them off on the right track" -Sherie Rene Scott-

#24

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 6:58pm

Great to Be Alive had a family residing in a mansion with ghosts.

Casper, the musical had Casper, the ghost.

#25

Musicals with singing ghosts

Posted: 5/28/12 at 6:59pm

I don't consider the characters in Follies or in Grey Gardens to be ghosts. I consider them to be shadows of the past, for want of a better term. I consider a ghost to be the spirit of a deceased person which is, for some reason, stuck in this world. With the exception of Joe Kennedy and Mr Beale, none of those characters are deceased...a big difference in my mind.

---

Art has a double face, of expression and illusion.