An ad-libbed bit in "Xanadu" when an ornery fly began to attack Whoopi Golberg, Mary Testa and Curtis Holbrook onstage.
Their interaction and on-the-fly remarkas, capped with Whoopi changing the into of "Fool" from "Fi! Yeah, Fi!" to "Fly! Yeah, Fly!" while Curtis chased after the fly and successfully squished it to an ovation from the audience.
I think I cried the most during Mark Richard Ford's I'll Cover You (Reprise) in RENT. I used to get really choked up during The I Love You Song in Spelling Bee.
Also Passing Strange, HAIR, Spring Awakening (specifically DDS, especially with John Gallgher) and Grey Gardens made me cry too.
For me it's a tie between Xanadu and Avenue Q, both for different reasons. With Avenue Q it's mainly what's in the text of the play itself. With Xanadu, it's all in the fantastic performances (okay, and somewhat to be attributed to the great book) from every person on stage. Both have me in stitches.
The hardest I ever laughed was the first act of the original "Noises Off" with the divine Dorothy Loudon. I laughed so loud that, at intermission, some lady a few rows in front of me was just GLARING at me. It was fitting that I didn't laugh OUT LOUD during the second act, as it all takes place backstage.
It's not the hardest I ever cried, but the most I ever cried was at "The Larramie Project". I wasn't sobbing, but the tears just poured down my face.
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
the last thursday show of RENT when Justin came out as "Pussy Galore" without the wig.
crying: Marcus Paul James' ICY Reprise in RENT Alabanza (which i know i probably spelled wrong) ITH.
"Sometimes on the strip, the dreams you come in with, ain't the dreams you leave with" ~Rock of Ages
"I'm a butterfly, trivial and small, and in the greater scheme of things, I don't mean much at all." ~The Story of My Life
"Forget Regret, or life is yours to miss." ~Rent
Laughed: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. No matter how many times I went. Cried: Second time at Spring Awakening during "Left Behind". A kid at my school had just died and it really hit me hard because I saw what the parents were going through(ish).
Second City made me laugh hysterically. I couldn't stop laughing the first time I saw AVENUE Q.
As for crying: I was bawling in the second act of PASSING STRANGE. I got a little choked up during "Nine People's Favorite Thing" at [tos]. The first time I listened to the In the Heights OBC, after having seen the show, I started crying during "Atencion" and "Everything I Know."
"If there is going to be a restoration fee, there should also be a Renaissance fee, a Middle Ages fee and a Dark Ages fee. Someone must have men in the back room making up names, euphemisms for profit."
(Emanuel Azenberg)
The hardest I ever laughed was probably at Spelling Bee. Not necessarily because it was funnier than the amusing moments in other shows, but because blatant laughter was more appropriate for that show than most I've seen.
Actually, I probably laughed harder at Mirror-Blue Night from Spring Awakening. But I was polite enough to keep it entirely stifled.
The hardest I ever laughed was at The Scarlet Pimpernel during the handkerchief and hat dance in "The Creation of Man" and the following scenes in which Percy was acting all foppish in order to hide his true identity. I don't think I've ever laughed more at any other show. Not even at a Mel Brooks show.
I was cracking up during Second City in Chicago, and both Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and [title of show] had me in stitches as well.
I'm not one to cry much during a show, but I did cry during the last 15 minutes of Grey Gardens, and "A Way Back to Then" in [tos] had me tearing up a little as well.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
Closing performance of Roundabout's Sunday In The Park With George in June. I always cried during "Move On", but I was literally sobbing at closing.
VERY close second (practically tied) was closing of Next to Normal ~ another one that always got me, but at closing when Diana was talking with Natalie at the end, Alice broke and sobbed audibly during that pause I turned into a total puddle.
Experience live theater. Experience paintings. Experience books. Live, look and listen like artists! ~ imaginethis
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!