Saddest moment in musical- Page 4

[SNAFU]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 3:58pm

When you realize there isn't an intermission in Br'klyn where you can gracefully leave at.

[jv92]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 4:46pm

I don't really cry at sadness-- I cry when I'm moved, which is different from being sad. And so many things in musicals are cloyingly sad. I will say that nothing has been more upsetting, to me at least, than the last ten minutes or so of Grey Gardens.

Sweeney Todd doesn't move me-- it thrills me. The ending is sort of sad if you take it literally, but I don't. Rent is cloying to me. Next to Normal is very sad, but I don't know if I've bawled in it, or even cried. I may have teared up.

But I tend to cry more often when things are touching or moving-- the end of Ragtime, the end of Sunday in the Park with George, the end of King and I, Soliloquy in Carousel (if done right). Those get me. Tony dying in West Side Story doesn't. Besides, he's not really the most developed character. If Louise died at the end of Gypsy, maybe I'd cry.

[bwayboi4life42]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 7:20pm

*SPOILER ALERT*

1) Leo's hanging in PARADE
2) Ti Moune's death in ONCE ON THIS ISLAND
3) Alfie getting beat up in A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE

[mikey2573]

Posted: 1/11/11 at 8:57pm

The end of Act 1 of CHILDREN OF EDEN when God embraces Eve.
The end of COME TO MY GARDEN/LIFT ME UP in THE SECRET GARDEN when Collin falls asleep in his mother's arms.
THE LETTER REPRISE in BILLY ELLIOT (THE LETTER in Act 1 is bad enough, but the reprise is a killer).
The Act 2 reprise of the porch scene in Act 2 of CAROUSEL and the IF I LOVED YOU reprise.

[tj-dancer]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 10:22am

Parade - particularly Sh'ma, and the finale
Rent - I'll cover you (reprise)
Les mis - Gavroche death
Ragtime - Sarah death/End of Act 1
Passion - No-one has ever loved me
Billy Elliot - The Letter, and when Billy's dad crosses the picket line

[JRybka]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 4:42pm

There are many sad parts in a musical but there are only a very few times when I did the whole stupid/ugly Oprah cry...

The End of "Blood Brothers" w/ Petula Clark
Sarah's Death in the REVIVAL of "Ragtime" (I saw the original and don't remember if I bawled or not)
and
"Will I?"/"I'll Cover You (reprise) from "Rent" (Two days after finding out I was HIV+)
and I'm Here from "The Color Purple"
Those four times are when I really thought I may not be able to finish I weas crying so hard...

I have gotten the "chills, saddness, sorrow, little tears" a lot of times...

Send in the Clowns from "A Little Night Music"
I am What I am "La Cage Aux Folles"
For Good "Wicked"
Most of "Chess"

[Jon]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 5:00pm

Sad moments:

Sweeney's "Oh no!" on recognizing Lucy

Sancho after Quixote's death in MAN OF LA MANCHA: "My master is dead."

Not-sad-but-makes-me-cry moments:

The priest giving Valjean the candlesticks in the prologue of Les Miz

In THE FANTASTICKS, the dialogue after "They Were You" when the fathers see the Boy and Girl back together:

Hucklebee: Look - they've come back!
Bellamy: It's a miracle! Let's tear down the wall!
Ell Gallo: No - leave the wall. You must always leave the wall. (into "Try to Remember" reprise)

In I DO, I DO, after the two actors have applied their old age make-up (on stage)and walk slowly toward each other as the music swells.

[tjjster]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 5:10pm

In the Los Angeles production of Parade, at the end of the show Lucille gets handed a handkerchief by the reporter (Britt Craig?) She goes to pick it up and Leo's wedding ring, which was folded up in it, falls to the stage.

[Wishing Only Wounds]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 6:17pm

ECT scene(s) (tied with 'Sing A Song of Forgetting) in Next to Normal
Letter in Billy Elliot
Sarah's death in Ragtime
When Sweeney finds out who the Beggar Woman is

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 6:56pm

To those who said Gavroche's death...I started laughing hysterically last Saturday when I saw it...Is that bad?

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 1/12/11 at 6:59pm

Yes.

[ManInChair2000]

Posted: 7/31/16 at 10:01pm

Happy/Sad from The Addams Family has definitely made me cry.

The end of The Drowsy Chaperone.

Far from the Home I Love from Fiddler on the Roof.

I Confess from Footloose. I saw a production about a month ago and ugly cried.

"Christine, I love you." in Phantom.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/31/16 at 10:27pm

(Wow, what a thread pull...!)

But, to update it...that thing that happens in Act II of Hamilton. Y'all know.

[sydney16]

Posted: 7/31/16 at 11:30pm

^^^^ Agreed, although for me it's most of Act II of Hamilton.

Also "Telephone Wire" from Fun Home, "Left Behind" from Spring Awakening, and "Welcome Home" from The Bandstand (I've been patiently waiting for a cast album to come out ever since I saw the show).

Updated On: 7/31/16 at 11:30 PM

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 2:30am

Maybe and How Could I Ever Forget and I Am The One reprise (and many other songs) from Next to Normal
Inutil and Everything I Know from In The Heights
Anthem reprise from Chess
If I Loved You reprise from Carousel
For Good from Wicked
Finale from Les Mis

[AHLiebross]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 2:33am

Thanks for reviving this thread, ManinChair.

Several of mine were mentioned in 2011:

The ending of Les Miz, when JVJ dies and Fantine welcomes him into heaven, as the reprise of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" Plays

Kim's suicide in "Miss Saigon." I only heard the cast album and realized I couldn't emotionally handle the actual musical.

Billy Bigelow's return as a ghost in "Carousel"

The king's death in "The King and I."

The ending of "Fiddler on the Roof."

The ending of "Camelot."

The ending of "Man of La Mancha."

"Christine, I love you" through the end of "The Phantom of the Opera."

Audrey

[WestCoastActor/Director]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 2:41am

**Spoiler!

For me it was in the original Broadway cast of Falsettos, when Whizzer dies, Marvin is standing there helpless and his son Jason takes his hand.

[nicnyc]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 3:12am

When Sarah dies in Ragtime - and when Coalhouse is shot as he surrenders in Ragtime.  

 

[AngusN]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 6:26am

'Something's Are Meant to Be' in Little Women; I'm a wreck. 

[The Other One]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 7:17am

The Hamiltons learning to live with the unimaginable.

Louise meeting Billy in Carousel is up there, too.

Someone posted earlier that Tony's death in West Side Story didn't register with him/her because Tony is not the show's most developed character.  Maria is, though, and her reaction to it is heartbreaking.

[godlessondheimite2]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 9:32am

Pretty much from "Days and Days" onward, Fun Home becomes a free-fall of sadness and it's magnificent.

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 11:08am

For wondrful musicals of the past like Milk and Honey, Hello, Dolly!, The Student Gypsy, and so many others, the saddest moment was when the curtain fell. A magical experience had ended --- and what could be sadder than that?

 

Sadly, with today's critics' darlings, the final curtain is the only happy moment in the show, and it can't come quickly enough. It fact, with these, the curtain should never even go up!

[Kad]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 11:23am

The Student Gypsy.

Which ran 16 performances in 1963.

Seriously?

[Ellen2]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 12:10pm

"There's a world" as I saw it performed in the dutch version of Next to Normal. For an idea of that production, here's a compilation made by the production company. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pe95HZnWH4  The snippet of that song starts at 03:05


The end of Blood Brothers got to me as well

Updated On: 8/1/16 at 12:10 PM

[Harrisonmlewis]

Posted: 8/1/16 at 3:44pm

A couple that people haven't mentioned that really got me are the Everlasting Ballet from Tuck Everlasting and "Words Fail" from Dear Evan Hansen.