1.) "Bring Him Home" from Les Misérables 2.) "The Great Comet of 1812" from Great Comet 3.) "The Proposal/The Night was Alive" from Titanic 4.) "What More Can I Say?" from Falsettos 5.) "How Could I Ever Forget?" from Next to Normal 6.) "Days and Days" from Fun Home
Special mention isn't a Broadway show, but I had to put it here because no musical I've ever seen has made me cry so much. It's called Stop and I saw it at the Edinburgh Fringe a couple weeks ago, and it was unequivocally one of the most emotional shows I've ever seen. I don't think there was more than a couple of minutes where there weren't tears running down my face.
The one song that always reduces me to tears is "Sunday" from SITPWG. It just hits something in me so intensely and it hits again at the very end with the reprise of Sunday, from the bow to George to those last words. Oh, the feels.
Runners up?
--The World was Wide Enough/Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story from Hamilton
--Finale B from Rent
--Go Back Home from The Scottsboro Boys
--Make Your Garden Grow from Candide
Special mention to the a cappella version of Gold from Once and What Would I Do from Falsettos.
Send in the Clowns - especially by Jean Simmons. Streisand is a close second, followed by everyone else (including Sinatra).
New Ways to Dream - Patti Lupone. You can hear the vulnerability in her voice, and I feel for her - especially when she closes with "They can't see where the future lies...they don't recognize a star..." - guaranteed to make my eyes tear.
No One Is Alone - Mandy Patinkin (1990).
When There's No One - Betty Buckley. Pass the tissues.
"Eva's Final Broadcast" -Patti Lupone. "I want to tell the people...of Argentina..I've decided I should decline..." I choke up every time I hear that, and start bawling by the time she's finished. Even in the car. While I'm driving...a 50+ year old man. What can I say?
1a. With One Look 1b. As If We Never Said Goodbye. Both from Sunset Boulevard. The first one because of its melody and powerful score, the second due to the drama of the moment.
2. Ring of Keys- Fun Home. This affected me more than "Telephone Wire"
"Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood" I hear that lyric and I'm choking up almost immediately. That song resonates with you if you've had loss.
1. The Letter - Billy Elliot 2. On My Own - Les Miserables 3. Midnight Radio - Hedwig and the Angry Inch 4. Left Behind - Spring Awakening 5. Empty Chairs and Empty Tables - Les Miserables
I don't know why I'm surprised by Midnight Radio hitting other people's lists. I thought I was weird that this song made me tear up while singing along to it... I just start crying in the middle of it LOL.
Honorable mention to "Hello, Dolly" making me cry with unexpected, overwhelming joy.
I don't usually cry when listening to Broadway songs, but these are a few that will definitely put me in my feelings:
-Stay Alive (Reprise): "Mom, I'm so sorry for forgetting what you taught me"; "I taught you piano". Those lyrics send chills down my spine every time I hear them. On top of that, Eliza screaming at the end destroys me.
-Sonya Alone: It's just such a beautiful, haunting song. I saw TGC with Ingrid and she seemed physically pained while singing this song. Her emotion was insane and the song really stuck with me.
-Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story: "While she's alive we tell your story, she is buried in Trinity Church near you". I recently visited Alexander, Eliza, and Angelica's graves at Trinity Church, so that lyric always gets me. Also, "The orrrrphanage" :'/
-For Good: I graduated high school a little over a year ago and that song is especially poignant now considering I said goodbye to quite a few people knowing I would likely never see them again (friends going their separate ways and going to college all over the country).
-Waving Through a Window: As someone who has struggled with an anxiety disorder for several years, this song always speaks to me. The lyric "Before I make the mistake, before I lead with the worst of me" always hits hard. I think DEH's portrayal of mental illness is problematic, but that song is very, very good. This also applies to Words Fail.