Non-Finale Musicals

[Archnem7]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 2:37am

So, it occured to me last nght that Gypsy doesn't have a Finale...Are there any other musicals that don't have Finale's?

[blaxx]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 2:58am

Andrew Lloyd Webber has a few shows with no real "finales", such as JCS, Phantom or Evita.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 5:13am

I'm assuming we're talking about shows that end without singing?

Aida
Billy Elliot
Chicago
A Chorus Line (The reprise of "One" is actually the Bows.)
Fiddler on the Roof
The King and I
A Little Night Music
Matilda
The Music Man
My Fair Lady
Promises, Promises
West Side Story

I'm sure there are more...

[newintown]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:05am

Most of the shows mentioned here have numbers at the end of the score called "Finale" (or "Curtain Music" or some variant).

They just aren't sung "closing numbers." Two different things. A finale doesn't need to be a new sung song or a sung reprise. Sometimes, an orchestral swell and a bit of staging and/or dialogue (a la Gypsy or My Fair Lady) is the best choice to bring in the curtain.

Updated On: 5/31/13 at 09:05 AM

[jnb9872]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:13am

On the flipside, 1776 has a "Finale" explicitly labeled and yet it is in no way a "closing number." It's one of my favorite Finales, as it happens, because it is the perfect way to end that particular show.

Updated On: 5/31/13 at 09:13 AM

[ajh]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:15am

Miss Saigon doesn't have a finale as such (how can you do a megamix after she shoots herself?!). Neither does Follies, unless you count a tiny reprise of "Hey up there! etc." from Waiting For The Girls Upstairs. Also, doesn't Company end with no music at all. I wish also that Billy Elliot ended just with Billy going up the centre aisle, leaving his friend onstage alone with his bike, rather than bringing on all the tap dancing miners. The real ending of the show is beautiful and moving; the tacked on finale's just naff.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:17am

Pick a Sondheim. Any Sondheim.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:29am

But Playbilly, what about ITW?

A Chorus Line has one of the most iconic finales ever.

[newintown]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:47am

"A Chorus Line has one of the most iconic finales ever."

Exactly - although it is, technically, the Bows, it's also definitely a finale.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:52am

"Pick a Sondheim. Any Sondheim."

INTO THE WOODS
ASSASSINS
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

All have finales.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 9:58am

And Sweeney Todd, I believe

[chewy5000]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 10:06am

The only Sondheim without a 'finale' is the 2006 revival of Company. Even the original had a finale.

Sure, he doesn't go the Jerry Herman route, but they all have some sort of substantial musical conclusion.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 10:44am

SPOILER ALERTS (obviously)

Your question is open to interp. But, In addition to those already mentioned (though I may repeat some of them) consider the following very memorable final curtains:

Fiddler on the Roof (a heartbreaking exit), South Pacific (incidental singing gives way to a heartbreaking entrance, a silent reunion, and a blissfully simple meeting of hands across a not so crowded table), My Fair Lady (a dry remark provides the controversial but so very persuasive change from the source material), Triumph of Love (a satisfying one-liner), Sunset Boulevard (a classic line from the classic movie), Promises, Promises (another classic line from another classic movie), Raisin (a classic exit from the classic play), Follies (exits of the principles give way to the best moment of the show as the four leitmotif lines are poignantly repeated by their ghosts, leaving us to wonder about what's next for their older selves), Company (blow out the candles, Bobby, and make a wish), 42nd Street (Julian alone on stage, a single ghost light casting his shadow on the wall, croons acapella the tonic line of the title tune), On The Twentieth Century (discovering that each has tricked the other, Lily and Oscar first scream at each other, then laugh, then lovingly fall into each other's arms), Carnival (Lili sees the puppet is trembling, lifts it off Paul's hand, Paul confesses his love for her, they follow the carnival).







Updated On: 5/31/13 at 10:44 AM

[Jon]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 11:08am

I Do, I Do - after the last song, there is some dialogue, and the actors exit(Michael carrying Agnes over the threshold).

[darquegk]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 11:49am

The revival of Promises Promises added a small vocal coda, a mini-reprise of I'll Never fall In Love Again that leads into the famous cards line. If I remember, it did similar things throughout, making the musical feel less like a play with music and more like a full book musical.

And the "finale" song in Company has always been bow music, hasn't it? An encore, not a finale.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 11:57am

What about Pippin, the ultimate non-finale musical? Even in its new ending, it has no real closure.

[kieranbec]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 12:15pm

"Pick a Sondheim. Any Sondheim."

Passion also has a finale.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 5/31/13 at 12:46pm

OK.I was Sondheim-mistaken.