The five best 11 o'clock numbers in Broadway history- Page 3

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 5:12pm

Would "No Good Deed" be considered an 11'O Clock number? I always thought of it as being one.

I also have always thought of "The Meek Shall Inherit" to be one too.

[moncruzz]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 5:42pm

Yay! and billy elliot gets Electricity?

[Kad]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 6:10pm

I don't really think of "Meek Shall Inherit" as an 11 o'clock number- Little Shop doesn't really have one, in my opinion (if "We'll Have Tomorrow" were still included, I suppose that'd be it). The show's relative short length puts it a place where there isn't a need for a big 11 o'clock.

I too share the opinion that the 11 o'clock is not the same as the rousing finale. Typically, I'd say that, in most cases, the 11 o'clock isn't the finale at all- usually the penultimate number.

[BwayTday]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 6:34pm

I have always regarded an 11 o'clock number as an emotional power ballad (or even uptempo).

I have a lot of ones (under my definition) that I like but one that really sicks out is Cabaret. I love, love, love everything about that song. Oh and of course Rose's Turn, but I never really viewed it as a 11 o'clock number interestingly. Updated On: 4/29/11 at 06:34 PM

[Hank]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 6:42pm

I'll go along with "Rose's Turn", "Being Alive", and "Gimme, Gimme", but in reverse order.
And would like to add "Il Adore" (Taboo) and "I'm Going Home" (Rocky Horror) as 4 and 5.

[ahhrealmonsters]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:15pm

There are 2 different questions going on here: what's the best 11:00 number and what is an 11:00 number?

11:00 numbers have many purposes, different for a show, and in the time period. Historically, the term came about because musicals, which were known to run very late, needed a pick-me-up/energy song to keep people awake- I believe this comes from the vaudeville era at the turn of the century.

Like others have said, today (especially post Lehman Engel/BMI/"the formula"), the 11:00 number comes towards the end, at around the halfway point or slightly after of the second act. In response to the protagonist's "I want" song, s/he has the chance to get it... for a cost, and has the "make a deal with the devil" moment, and when s/he doesn't take it, here's the realization. The perfect example is "No Good Deed", a direct response to "The Wizard and I".

This doesn't hold true to all musicals and their 11:00 numbers, but I find, dramaturgically, this is when it's strongest. In Next to Normal, while there's no "I Want" song (you can argue that "I Miss The Mountains" is, but I think part of the show is that she doesn't know what she wants), I think "Maybe" is the 11:00, as that's Diana's turning point, confrontation with her daughter, and realistically, that's when she makes the choice that results in "So Anyway". Similar thing can be said with the title song in "Cabaret"- that's when Sally is making her decision.

[dreaming]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 7:48am

In next to normal, "I Miss the Mountains" is definitely the "I want" song. She says "I miss my life" which really could be argued to be her "want"-she wants her life back. "So Anyway" is her means of getting her life back.

[THDavis]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 9:22am

I really don't care for Fly, Fly Away at all.

As for as production numbers go, I'd nominate Heaven (Septet) from Carrie. (You all saw that one coming)

I'm Here - Color Purple

Get Out and Stay Out - 9 to 5

[gypsy4]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 10:32am

Roses Turn: Gypsy
A Change In Me: Beauty and The Beast
I know where I've Been: Hairspray
Electricity: Billy Elliot
Anything Can Happen: Mary Poppins

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 11:40am

I think a real 11 o'clock # is hard to come by because it has to fit all that criteria.... It's gotta be what Kander and Ebb call "A Screamer" and be towards the end of a show (around 11 o'clock pm) but not THE end of it because the song is a revelation to the character or the plot of the show... so the audience expects that something will come from the revelation.... and it has to be so ****ing catchy that everyone is humming it when they leave... I've always been told it's the penultimate number, but not all shows have one. the best examples I can think of are:

MEMORY - cats
WHAT I DID FOR LOVE - a chorus line
SEND IN THE CLOWNS - a little night music

(seems like with a really good 11 o'clock song a show can stay open quite a while)

some other examples though not as famous or good:
GET OUT AND STAY OUT - 9 to 5
GIMME GIMME - Millie

I like this argument about BEING ALIVE. Is it one or not? All signs seem to point to YES, except that the show suddenly ends afterward.... Hasn't that always been the main complaint about Company???? Don't people want to know what happens to Bobby after his big revelation? And yet we're robbed of that... The song has built up this great expectation for some amazing ending that never comes...

I like this thread. lol.

[canmark]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 12:58pm

Well, I do agree with "Rose's Turn."

"Cabaret" from Cabaret.
"One Night Only" from Dreamgirls.
"The Best of Times" from La Cage aux Folles (or is that the finale? I haven't seen it lately and can't remember if that's how the show ends or not.)
"Memory" from Cats.
"Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar.
"This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific.

[littlegreen2]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 5:22pm

Definitely Rose's Turn!

Memory from Cats
The Music and the Mirror from A Chorus Line (I know a lot of people said What I Did For Love but I find this song to be the show's 11 o'clock number... Does anyone agree?)
Being Alive - Company

[jv92]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 6:57pm

My favorites-

"Rose's Turn"
"Another Winter in a Summer Town"
"If He Walked into My Life"
"The Ladies Who Lunch"

My problem with adding "Send in the Clowns" is...what about "The Miller's Son?"
Doesn't that actually get the 11 o'clock spot?

[Skywalker3]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 7:52pm

Some other perfect 11-o'clock numbers are:
Legally Blonde - Legally Blonde
The Wall - Shrek
Love Sneaks in - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Suspended in Time - Xanadu

May not be the best songs ever.. But to me it are very clear 11 o'clock songs!

[wiggum2]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 9:14pm

"yeah, Gothampc, but no one leaves the theatre humming "Lot's Wife"

That's funny, Lot's Wife is the ONLY song I remember(and listen to) from Caroline, or Change

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 10:24am

I really think no list should be with out " Be on your own
" from Nine.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:27am

Can't believe nobody has mentioned Judy Holiday singing I'm Going Back as the final number in Bells Are Ringing.

[ASentoni]

Posted: 5/2/11 at 6:44am

I think I have a tendency to think of an 11:00 number as the one that smacks you around a bit emotionally, dramatically or theatrically; or kind of like a "period" to the show's "sentence."

I agree with a whole lot of the ones mentioned earlier, so I won't repeat them, but here are some of my favorites to add:

"Fable" - Light in the Piazza (yes, yes, I know it's the final number, but I think it's also the 11)

"The Writing on the Wall" - Mystery of Edwin Drood (see above...)

"I Was Here" - The Glorious Ones

"How Could I Ever Know" - Secret Garden

"How Glory Goes" - Floyd Collins (I think this is the 11:00 number, isn't it? It's such a devastating song, and I know, again, it's the final number, but: Wow....)

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 5/2/11 at 2:08pm

Personally, I consider I Can't Make This Movie to be the 11 o'clock number from Nine instead of Be On Your Own.

[chrisanegron]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 2:01pm

I think The Winner Takes It All from Mamma Mia! Is the "winner"

[MusicalTheatreGeek2]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 2:46pm

My top 5 are:

5) No Good Deed - Wicked
4) I'm here - The Color purple
3) Roses' turn - Gypsy
2) Being Alive - Company
1) Back to before - Ragtime

And before reading this thread I had never reay given much thought to what an 11 o'clock number was, but I always just assumed it was the number in the last 15 minutes or so where one of the main characters (usually female) has some emotional turn around and belts their face off!

[TheatreKid3]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 3:14pm

^ I would argue that Wicked's 11 o'clock number is "For Good". They don't have to be rousing belty songs - a lot are, but they all aren't.

[btales]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 3:45pm

ALL THE WASTED TIME

[darreyl102]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 4:15pm

Hairspray's 11 o'clock number is I Know Where I've Been, YCSTB is the finale.

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 4:20pm

I love "I Know Where I've Been"! Cried all three times I heard Sandra Marvin sing it on the UK tour