Thrilling theatre moments/twists — Page 4

About the hole Dan seeing Gabe thing. It's just a way to look at it!
I always saw that Dan has never seen Gabe before. But starts to loosing it, when Diana leaves him. For me 'I am the one (reprise)' is the first time Dan sees Gabe!

But that's just my interpretation. And that's why I love Next to Normal. And yes it's one of the most thrilling theatre moments!

Martin McDonagh is turning up a lot in here

That's what I love about his plays -- the twists and shock, while inside there is so much heart and feeling

And his characters always seem so real -- you care about them so much

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Updated On: 7/9/12 at 06:01 PM

Glad JERUSALEM and McDonagh have been getting love in here. Great moments from both, I co-sign whole-heartedly.

In terms of thrilling, honestly, one of my favorite audience reactions was the audible gasp heard when I saw REASONS TO BE PRETTY when Sadoski told Piper Perabo to go home. I personally felt like it wasn't just watching man grow up before your eyes, it was watching a playwright mature right in front of me too. Neat moment, that.

It's hardly a twist or anything of that sort, but "thrilling" it was indeed: pretty much the entirety of Geoffrey Rush's performance in EXIT THE KING. A truly titanic and all-consuming achievement. Utterly spellbinding.

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For Younger Brother. Zach and Cassie are downstage, near the peak of their argument, as the chorus upstage goes through their routine mechanically and quietly. Cassie has just said something that hurts Zach deeply.

Cassie: "I'm sorry - I had no right to judge." [pause] "Why are we doing this? I mean, we must be over this by now, aren't we?"

Chorus, quietly: "One smile an suddenly nobody else will do"

Zach: "I am" [he really isn't]

Chorus, almost silently: "You know you'll never be lonely with you know who"

Cassie: "Then don't feel you owe me any favors. Just treat me like every body else".

Zach, losing it: "Is that really what you want from me? "[points to line] "Is this what you really want to do?"

They turn up stage to watch as the line comes to life, singing full-throated, music building, lights up:

Chorus : "One moment in her presence, and you can forget the rest, for the girl is second best to none, son. Oh, sigh - give her your attention. Do I really have to mention, she's...the...one! [stands still and shouts] "ONE! ONE! ONE! ONE! " [whispers and crosses upstage as the lights fade on them] "One. One. One One".

At the very end of the 1st act of Grey Gardens. After Ebersole finishes singing Will You out to the audience/party guests on the lawn, the floor beneath her suddenly pulls her away from us upstage. The future, decrepit house front closes, cutting her off from us almost as if the house is swallowing her.

One Last Kiss from Follies. All anyone ever needs to see to understand the entire show.

Sunday from Sunday in the Park. Reduces me to blubbering tears, every time, no matter how many times I see it and no matter how much I don't expect to cry again. And I can't for the life of me explain why. The words are benign enough. Maybe it's the shear beauty of the music and the closure of the moment. I know squillians of people who are affected in the same way. So it's not just me.

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A few recent moments On and Off-Broadway-- not exactly twists, but thrilling moments for me:

The finale of THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (I won't give it away, since it seems to be playing the provinces as of late)

Michael Cerveris as the "bad" brother in ROAD SHOW doing a softshoe upstage, while his mother sings of his charms despite his absence to the "good" brother, Alex Gemignani

Jane Alexander's last lines and exit at the end of THE LADY FROM DUBUQUE

Certain moments in the last revival of RAGTIME really impressed me, but for some reason I'm stuck with the staging of "New Music" and the Emma Goldman number

Linda Lavin's reading of "A little girl down the hall died, but I got a box of Jordan almonds!" in THE LYONS-- Hysterical laughter, and then the audience (me included) thinking, "Wait, we laughed at that?"

Jan Maxwell's "Could I Leave You?" and ESPECIALLY Danny Burstein's "The Right Girl" in the recent FOLLIES

Nearly all of the last ...VIRGINIA WOOLF? revival, because it was such a refreshing take on the play. I think when the audience realized that George was the one in control (rather than Martha, as usual) may have been the moment that got me. One of his first scenes with Nick maybe?

Clifford's return causing Myra's heart attack in Death Trap.

The Act I curtain of the New National Theatre of Tokyo's Pacific Overtures when the American flag unfurled all the way from the back of the house to the stage at Avery Fisher Hall and enveloped the audience.

When Dorothy Collins stood on state with that beautiful grey dress singing "Losing My Mind", a revelation! Bernadette wasn't as bad as people say, but "LMM" was the highlight of her performance - she brought the crazy, Dorothy brought the longing!

Again for Younger Brother
Opening number of ACL on the Tonys

Christine Ebersole's "Another Winter in a Summer Town" and the moments of Mary Louise Wilson screaming for her to come back before you know whether or not she actually does. Also, the window framing her face at the end of both acts.

The last twenty minutes of Wit. Certainly not a twist, but gut-wrenching all the same.

Kristine Nielsen's phone call in the second act of Vanya and Sonia

Dan and Gabe at the end of Next to Normal.

The beauty of the wedding sequence and the final moments of the recent Last Five Years revival.

The Act I finale of Ragtime.

Sutton Foster's dazzling "I Get A Kick Out of You" at the top of Anything Goes and the Act I finale.

The sequence in War Horse near the end of Act I when the general is blown off of his horse by a grenade and "flies" offstage.

Paul's monologue in A Chorus Line

"I Am What I Am" in La Cage

The latter half of the second act of The Normal Heart, beginning with Emma's monologue

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Updated On: 6/6/13 at 01:01 AM

Absolutely those final 15 minutes of JERUSALEM. Really the final act made me sob (both times I saw it) from the slow dance through the end of the play, but the end was unbelievable.

**Spoilers**

When he's pounding on the drum and all of a sudden you can hear the wind and start to see the trees move. Then the distant rumbling getting louder and louder and then a black out... Just the ambiguity of whether it was the demolition trucks or he summoned the giants. I had chills!

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Three that haven't been mentioned yet:

*One that stuck with me: In John Doyle's Revival of Sweeney Todd, Tobias delivering his final monologue as he is being guided back into a straight jacket....and then, as he is gagged, you realize that the gag is the muffler Mrs. Lovett was knitting him. I remember thinking "They don't even need the final ballad. Bring the curtain down right here."

*One that struck me recently: The Moment the curtain rose in act two of Peter and the Starcatcher, and after an hour spent in a dark, claustrophobic set it was suddenly a vast opening field of translucent blue.

*One that will always stick with me: I doubt many here saw it, but the final moments of the San Francisco Opera's Ring Cycle in 2011, directed by Francisca Zambello. In this production, the rheingold (which is stolen in the first opera to be forged into a magic ring) was a giant gold cloth the Rhinemaidens played with, billowing up and running under it like a game of parachute. After the gold is stolen and turned into a ring, the next time we see the Rhinemaidens is three operas and nearly a week of opera-going later, and in Zambello's production, they were seen wading through their river, now full of plastic bottles, their white dresses turned black with grime. So almost at the very end, when they retrieve their gold, and one of them came rushing downstage with that gold cloth and thrust it aloft, you bet your sweet bippy that I cried like a child.

Always thought the knife dance scene in Martin Guerre where the villagers murder each other was pretty breathtaking.
My personal favourite is from a long time back 1986 Chess with Tommy Korberg in Endgame - his performance sent shivers down yours spine and the whole scene was beautifully staged.