Can be from watching a show, stage door, any experience in the theatre that you will never forget.
Mine are when Alice Ripley brought me to tears in her performance as Diana in Next to Normal during "So Anyway" and Bernadette Peters' performance of "Send in the Clowns" when she made eye contact with me.
EDIT: Forgot to add this, but the Final Performance of the Ragtime revival. The curtain rose on the tableau of the entire cast and I began to cheer and jeer for what seemed like an eternity. When Sarah died, I burst into tears like a baby and stayed that way for the next hour and a half. Afterwards, I went backstage and I was talking to Marcia Milgrom Dodge and she signaled to the stage manager to raise the curtain and the giant gust of wind easily pushed me back a foot, and I had never felt a sensation like it.
When I saw The Drowsy Chaperone, I won the lotto and was sitting in the front row next to a friend. During "Toledo Surprise," Danny Burstein winked at me and said "That's for you, baby." I was totally taken by surprise and had to look at my friend to make sure I had actually just been hit on by Aldolpho.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
The ending of the original Sunday In the Park with George. Total catharsis, I was a blubbering idiot.
The entire revival show (OBC) of South Pacific.
Moritz's suicide from SA. (yup, I said it.)
SO many moments from N2N.
Bobby Steggart's performance in Ragtime.
The set reveal for the revival of Man of La Mancha (I literally gasped.)
Dustin Hoffman in A Death of a Salesman
Seeing the barricade come into being in Les Miz (the first time)
Any show I've brought my kids to that they have fallen in love with.
Intermission time at August: Osage County, when my 100 students swarmed like bees to be able discuss what they'd just seen!
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
i saw beauty and the beast w my grandma and when the beast jumped into the west wing, my grandma jumped out of her seat and screamed! lol!!!!!!!!
"(in a sweedish accent) Oh! What a lovely T-shirt you are wearing!"- Catherine Zeta-Jones refering to my ALNM shirt at the CD signing.
Say NO to drugs and YES to Jackie Hoffman Live At Joes Pub!
"ITS THE DAY OF THE SHOW YA'LL!!"-Bwaynerd
I'm 15 and I won my first contest this April. It was the Masterworks Broadway contest. I got to go see Phantom of the Opera (which is my all time fave show) for the 3rd time (and I had really good seats) Then after the show they took me backstage and when I turned around and looked out at the house I just kinda froze. And then meeting John Cudia (who has played the Phantom every time I've seen the show) I was so excited I didn't talk much I just stood there staring hahaha. Sorry that was so long....
I will never forget Michael Jeter's first appearance onstage in GRAND HOTEL. There was nothing extraordinary about his entrance but just the sight of him walking downstage center with his luggage while wearing the over-sized clothing just took my breath away. I can't explain why.
Dorothy Loudon missed a musical cue (her prop violin started playing before the bow hit the strings) in "The West Side Waltz," so co-star Katharine Hepburn had the curtain brought down and started the second act over again. She thanked us for our indulgence during the current call and got a huge ovation.
There are so many...I was at the final performance of the revival of Sunday in the Park, and at the very end of the show when George turned and all the figures in the painting bowed to him, everyone in the audience simultaneously burst into tears...it was beautiful and so unexpectedly moving.
And there are too many from the revival of Ragtime to name...one of the biggest standouts though is at the end of the first act when all the people up on the 2nd tier of the set dropped their flags simultaneously, and then after a moment the lone bass chord at the beginning of "Till We Reach That Day" started...so so stunning.
The "Ragtime" revival was one of those shows that made me sit back and say "Wow." Definitely the highlight of last season for me by a pretty wide margin.
Wow. i have moments from every show ive seen that will live with me. they all make up a piece of my soul :)
Hairspray- seeing Ashley Parker Angel again. i was obsessed with him when i was little during his boyband days. also feeling that broadway high for the first time.
Little Mermaid- seeing my favorite movie live was surreal.
Wicked- that unbelievable feeling i got seeing Defying Gravity.
9 to 5- "im gonna get that gun of mine and change you from a rooster to a hen in one shot!" what i wouldnt give to be able to use that line in my lifetime.
Promises, Promises- seeing KCheno, in the flesh. also knowing in my heart that i had just seen a tony winning performance in katie finneran and a month later being proved right
Hair- finally getting to dance on broadway.
Next to Normal- Kyle Dean Massey half naked HAHAHA. jk. the theatrical brilliance of "I'm Alive" as well as the sheer emotional power of the show. The whole experience was so moving and beautiful.
Its not actually from a show, but i was in the cinema, watching Alice in Wonderland, and an advert for Wicked was shown before the trailer.
I got so happy and emotional remembering seeing DG for the first time that i cried :s. My friend laughed her head off, but then she cried when an advert for Dr Who came on :)
I have so many but my favorite, and the one that crossed an item off my bucket list was dancing on stage 3 times after Hair. I was so overwhelmed with feelings of love and community and getting to dance on a Broadway stage was incredible....
When Patti LuPone stopped the show and yelled at me to "Stop taking pictures! You heard the announcement!"
Ok, so that didn't happen, but it's funny.
For me:
Javert's suicide during Les Miz. Jumping off the bridge and falling to the ground below and having the body washed away (via turntable) by the water. What a stunning visual effect, so easily executed.
Faith Prince singing "Holding to the Ground" in Falsettoland. We generally know her as a commedienne, but she has the dramatic chops to stop the show, which she did with that song.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
The 1500th performance of "Deathtrap" - thanks to Marian Seldes, I got to go backstage and meet the cast members as well as the playwright Ira Levin!
When "Sugar Babies" came to my town, I wrote Ann Miller a fan letter and got a reply from her secretary telling me that after the intermission my friends and I could watch the second act from the theatre wings! I had seen Ann Miller several times and she and her secretary were so kind to us fans. Mickey Rooney is another story.
While in NYC on another trip, after a performance of "The Little Foxes", Maureen Stapleton and her dresser Eloise White took us backstage and then took us onto the stage itself! Being on the stage was such a special moment for me- thinking of all the talented people who had given performances there, especially Maureen and Elizabeth Taylor- who I didn't get to meet, but at one point I stood just a feet or two from her.
And this one is different but for me unforgettable- back home I was working in the restaurant connected to our repertory theate. One day, before a matinee, playwright/author Spaulding Gray came in for a cup of coffee. Everyone had left to see the show, and he was the only guest in the place. I told him how much I had enjoyed his writings and his acting work. He was so nice. He talked to me for what seemed the longest time. We chatted and he had a refill, then his associates came to get him. He thanked me for being nice to him (!!) Years later when I read of him going missing and later found dead, I thought back on that day. And I cried and cried.
Barbara Cook has always been an idol of mine and seeing her in Sondheim on Sondheim was a very special memory for me, specifically her Send in the Clowns.
Hearing "On My Own" for the first time on my first trip to a Broadway show when I was 10.
The first time I saw "Defying Gravity" in Wicked.
The first time I saw the Phantom revealed in the mirror when I was 10.
( ^ I confess that I fall for the spectacle the first time I see shows like this.)
The first time I saw Next to Normal and the big reveal in Act 1. I was caught completely off-guard and instantly burst into tears (and stayed in tears for the rest of the show).
Seeing "The Drowsy Chaperone" and "Curtains" and realizing how I much I yearn for the old-fashioned in musicals. The same thing happened when I listened to Jason Danieley and Melissa Errico belt out "Almost Like Being in Love" at the Irish Rep's Brigadoon Concert Gala. I forget how much I miss that feel until I see it done well!
Finian's Rainbow closing performance; first time I saw the South Pacific Revival; Alice, Brian and Jenn's last performance of n2n; upcoming: South Pacific closing in two weeks!
Sitting front row of Billy Elliot. It was my first time seeing the show, and I got eye contact from so many performers. It was kind of a perfect show. I will always remember the whole thing, and the feeling I had watching it.
First time I saw Defying Gravity in Wicked. It was amazing.
My first broadway show, just being there was enough, it wasn't necessarily the show. (It was Shrek.)
Dream Ballet Sequence in WSS. The precision of the dance alone was incredible.
Chita Rivera's entrance in "The Dancer's Life." To be honest, I knew little of Chita before the show but felt I needed to see the show if I was going to call myself a lover of theatre. When she danced behind the screen and eventually came out, I was nearly in tears. I've been in love with her ever since.
Seeing Christine Ebersole sing "Another Winter In A Summer Town" in Grey Gardens. You could hear a pin drop in the Walter Kerr. She had the audience in her palm of her heartbroken hand. It was transcendent.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
I like a lot of stage entrances: The enchantress - Beauty And The Beast. Seeing her fly. The Grinch - How The Grinch... Elphaba - Wicked Mary Poppins - Mary Poppins Tarzan - Tarzan Elle Woods - Legally Blonde Toxie - The Toxic Avenger Vanessa Williams - Sondheim on Sondheim Krystal Joy Brown - Falling For Eve. Jose Llana literally gave birth to her on stage.
Act 1 closers and Finales: Hairspray - You Can't Stop The Beat Wicked - Defying Gravity Legally Blonde - So Much Better Next To Normal - Light In The Dark. As soon as it ended, I really wanted Act 2 to begin. Everyday Rapture - Up The Ladder To The Roof In The Heights - Fireworks
Updated On: 8/9/10 at 02:53 PM
YOU THERE WHY ARE YOU SO LATE Betty Buckley in the Adelphi theater in London at the top of the steps waiting for her entrance I thought i was gonna burst
Bernadette Peters singing "Children Will Listen" in INTO THE WOODS, among the loveliest things I've ever seen in any medium.
Michael Cerveris leaning out of his slot at the end of ASSASSINS, singing "Everybody's Got The Right To Be Happy."
Jessica Tandy twirling across the stage in FOXFIRE, going from age 80 to age 17 in the process.
Len Cariou singing to his razors in SWEENEY TODD.
Audrey II singing "Feed Me!" in the original Off-Bway LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.
Paul Magid, of the Flying Karamazov Brothers, playing the Devil in their version of Stravinsky's THE SOLDIER'S TALE. The Devil has challenged the Soldier to a juggling match, and in the performance I saw, Magid made a mistake and dropped the balls. He paused, and then pointed to the back of the theatre in alarm, and when we all looked back to the stage he was juggling merrily away as if nothing had happened.
Bill Irwin doing "The Marionette" from the Clown Bagatelles.
Mark Rylance in BOEING BOEING, every second of it.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
When Diana leaves in next to normal and Bobby Spencer had tears streaming down his face and the light shone off of the tears. I still get chills thinking about it.
Patti LuPone. Gypsy. Nuff said.
The lights fading on the kickline at the end of A Chorus Line.
"These rabid fans...possess the acting talent to portray the hooker...Linda Eder..." -The New York Times