Very moving play experiences

[aces25]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 10:31pm

What are some of your most moving theatre experiences you've had? Which plays really strike you? 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 10:34pm

The one hundred dresses. Was bawling by the end.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 10:39pm

In terms of straight plays, by far the most was the first time I saw THE GLASS MENAGERIE. I had no knowledge of it before hand and it was amazing.

[JoseLee_]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 10:40pm

Bent

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 10:41pm

SIDE MAN

 

One of the greatest plays ever written. 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 10:49pm

Ruined

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:08pm

Everything from Angels in America to Zoo Story.

 

Special mentions:  The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in The Universe, Well, Wit, Bedlam's St. Joan.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:09pm

For me it was the revival of The Normal Heart. 

I have never left a theater that numb before or since. I was a child during the era the play is set in, but as a gay man, I felt it both instructive and important to have seen that production. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:17pm

For me, the biggest ones are

 

King Charles III

Dog Sees God

The Elephant Man

Arcadia

One Man, Two Guvnors

Hand to God

 

I included those 2 comedies because they their sheer funniness "moved" me in such a way that made them incredibly memorable experiences. I've never laughed harder in the theatre than when I saw One Man, Two Guvnors. 

 

 

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:34pm

I've never heard so many people quietly  crying before the way I did at the normal heart. It really was quite the experience. 

Another one for me was death of a salesman from a few years ago. 

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:42pm

I was a mess after The Normal Heart revival. Also, both View From The Bridge revivals (2010 and now) have left me shocked, drained, and shaken. 

[Michael Kras]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:43pm

A play called Lungs by Duncan Macmillian. Two actors, no set, no costumes, no sound cues, no special lighting, no props. Just text and a bare stage. And it's unbelievably beautiful. Literally jaw dropping. 

[jbomb]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:46pm

I think of 3 immediately.!  Watching Salieri (Ian McKellen) slowly come to realize that his musical compositions were nothing compared to the genius work of Mozart (Tim Curry) in "Amadeus"; feeling the tension as Golda Meir (Tovah Feldshuh) waited for Kissinger to call while experienced the sounds of the bombs outside the bunker in "Golda's Balcony"; and witnessing the scene in "Fences" when Troy (James Earl Jones) told his son, Cory (Courtney Vance) that he didn't have to like him. (part of this scene was televised on the Tony Awards)

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 11/19/15 at 11:47pm

It's more commercialized than it used to be, but my first time at Hedwig and the Angry Inch absolutely tore me apart from the inside out.

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 12:03am

in no particular order

RUINED

my first time seeing Mark Rylance on a stage in LA BETE

WIT

THE LYONS

THE PRIDE

 

[Fred Casely]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 1:29am

James Earl Jones in MASTER HAROLD

Mark Rylance in JERUSALEM

Ian MacKellan as RICHARD III

Derek Jacobi in anything

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 2:22am

I have never felt as much as I did at the revival of The Normal Heart. I walked home to the Upper East Side from Times Square because I couldn't bear to be closed in on the subway after I had my heart ripped out. I've never had a theatrical experience like it before or since. 

 

I bawl every time I see Ragtime. I know the show backwards and forwards and it still destroys me. 

 

Michael Urie's performance in Angels in America at Signature was absolutely stunning. That play changed my entire worldview when I was 14 years old, and finally getting to see it live was earth-shattering at that point in my life. (Shoutout to Bill Heck as well, who was a brilliant and moving Joe.)

 

The Doyle revival of Sweeney Todd is what turned me onto Sondheim as a teenager, and my heart has never beat faster in a theater. At 15, it was overwhelming. 

 

The Oldest Boy at Lincoln Center left me feeling like I could have walked back to Queens. It was mesmerizing and haunting. 

 

The revival of The Glass Menagerie was so special, and it made me see the play in a way I never had. 

 

The last revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? transfixed me both times I saw it. Tracy Letts in particular astounded me, but all four cast members were incredible.

 

Seeing John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig and the Angry Inch was like a crazy dream. I kind of still can't believe it happened. He was everything I'd hoped he would be and more.

 

I could go on, but those are the ones that occurred to me immediately.

Updated On: 11/20/15 at 02:22 AM

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 5:24am

The current London production of The Winter's Tale was an incredible, cathartic experience for me... I hardly remember having felt so much during a performance. I was in the very first row of the stalls and at the curtain call the audience was giving a standing ovation and Judi Dench was crying, and I was crying.

Others are Our Country's Good, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake and the London revival of Gypsy.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 5:50am

'Night Mother

The Normal Heart

Equus

Extremities

Bang, Bang, You're Dead

 

One musical I'll throw in: the original production of Sunday in the Park with George.

[jaqs]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 7:54am

Flare path, in the westend. I was at a midweek matinee and I was surrounded by older ladies who kept murmuring in recognition at the description of things (like the German planes sounding different).  For once it wasn't annoying but added to theexperience.

[lotiloti]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 8:02am

Nothing will ever top Derek Jacobi as Cyrano in the 1983 RSC production. I have never known such depth of emotion in a theatre. I wept for at least the last 40 mins, It was filmed & shown by C4, I think in 1985. Would be overjoyed should it be released on DVD/BD.

[AC126748]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 8:13am

The 2003 Broadway revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night, especially Vanessa Redgrave's incredible delivery of Mary's final monologue.

The Off-Broadway revival of John Guare's Landscape of the Body (hence my signature).

Simon Russell Beale in everything I've seen him in, but especially Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard. 

The Normal Heart -- everything about it.

Ivo van Hove's productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, The Misanthrope, and now, A View From the Bridge.

"Lot's Wife" in Caroline, or Change.

"Telephone Wire" in Fun Home.

Everything about Victoria Clark's performance in The Light in the Piazza.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 9:04am

The final scene of THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS. I was gasping for breath.

 

NEXT TO NORMAL. When Dan finally let it all go...I was just water.

 

When the dog comes out at THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 9:06am

Harvey Fierstein -  Torch Song Trilogy

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/20/15 at 9:29am

The final moments of "Grapes of Wrath".

The final moments of "Angels in America: Millenium Approaches".

"The Normal Heart" revival. Somehow it resonated much more to me than the original did during the crisis. Remembering that time was more profound than when we were living it, somehow, and the performances...wow.