Musicals with singing ghosts
Musicals with singing ghosts
ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#1Musicals 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
#2Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:08pm
Follies (do the past selves actually qualify as ghosts?)
Yes.
ErinDillyFan
Broadway Star Joined: 7/14/06
#3Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 2:11pmInto 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.
#4Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:02pmCinderella'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.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#5Musicals 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
#6Musicals 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?
Wynbish
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/27/12
#7Musicals 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.
#8Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:38pm
Steel Pier had a ghostly lead.
In My Life was narrated by two ghosts.
#9Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:42pm
Grey Gardens
Updated On: 5/28/12 at 03:42 PM
#10Musicals 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."
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
NJBway
Understudy Joined: 1/6/12
#11Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 3:59pmin young frankenstein they sing in "Join the family business"
michellek45
Leading Actor Joined: 5/20/11
#12Musicals 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.
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#14Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:20pmDepending 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.
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#15Musicals 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
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#16Musicals 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
#17Musicals 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)
Unknown User
Joined: 12/31/69
#19Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 5:37pmParade- Mary Phagan and then Leo Frank at the end of the show.
Eponine72
Swing Joined: 1/7/12
#21Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 6:28pmRagtime- Sarah and Coalhouse.
#22Musicals with singing ghosts
Posted: 5/28/12 at 6:29pmRagtime- Sarah and Coalhouse. Actually most if not all the people who sing in the epilogue since they are commenting on their lives.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#23Musicals 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.
#24Musicals 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.
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