Best stage effect?

[crabtree]

This could apply to musicals as well, but what has been the most breathtaking special effect you've seen in a performance. Mine still has to be the appearance of Moby Dick at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. A theatre in the round, the whale, contrary me thinking about it months in advance, took me by surprise. and what a beautiful sight it was too. Pure theatre.

[mkb]

The end of Mike Bartlett's Wild at the Hampstead in 2016 when the whole full-sized set suddenly started rotating so that the stage right wall eventually became the floor, with actors in situ.

The Blackpool Tower Circus transforming into water fountains is pretty breathtaking too.

[n1david]

"Wild" at the Hampstead Theatre.
Over the course of the first act the entire set of a hotel room was completely destroyed.
At the end of the second act

SPOILER: Click to show

the remaining set, of an interrogation room, pivots through 90 degrees so that one of the cast members appears to be standing horizontally on what used to be the floor. He takes a couple of steps and sits down on a chair, facing the floor.

I still have absolutely no idea how they did that, and I watched it again when it was streamed during lockdown, and I still couldn't work out the mechanics.

mkb - Snap!

[crabtree]

ah yes, that was remarkable.

[crabtree]

and I'd suggest the first time I saw Mary Poppin's final flight rather made me giddy with joy.

[crabtree]

And anyone remember the final image of the national's Mysteries, that huge wheel with bodies draped over it.

[mkb]

Another one for blowing your socks off is The Bourne Stuntacular at Universal Studios Florida. It's the same giant-screen technology as Abba Voyage, but with the addition of actors and stunt performers in front, plus added real scenery/props that move in synch with the images.

You really struggle to work out who is real and who is on screen.

For smaller scale stuff, I'm quite taken with the trick where actors' boots are anchored to the floor so that they can lean at gravity-defying angles. When the anchoring is done slickly and unnoticed, the sudden leaning is as impressive as it is intentionally disorientating.

[Phantom of London]

Harry Potter many moments especially the fight with flames and sliding through the fire.

Ghost the Musical when the ghost walks through the apartment door.

[Jan]

Aug 8, 2024 17:11:44 GMT crabtree said:

And anyone remember the final image of the national's Mysteries, that huge wheel with bodies draped over it.

Yes, that was a quite a coup de theatre.

On another thread I mentioned the Almeida Tempest where Ariel burst up from the middle of an on-stage pool. 

[SilverFox]

The collapse of the corrugated sheet metal panels at the end of the production of Medea with Diana Rigg at Wyndhams in the 1990s.

Sheet metal (again) at the end of the Hal Prince production of Sweeney Todd at TRDL - Todd walking into white light and slamming the door.

The Angel at the end of the NT production (original, seen on tour in Manchester) of Angels in America

The suicide scene in Groundhog Day at the Old Vic

So much of the Menier / Wyndhams (again - damn I love that theatre) production of Sunday in the Park With George


.... the older you get, the more memories you (try to) hold.

[crowblack]

Aug 8, 2024 16:48:04 GMT crabtree said:

Moby Dick at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.

A couple of years before my time visiting the RX, but I've just looked up a review & I'm jealous - it doesn't mention how they did the whale though! Btw, I wish the RX had an image / stills archive online of earlier productions.

[pws]

Aug 8, 2024 17:04:49 GMT n1david said:

"Wild" at the Hampstead Theatre.
At the end of the second act the remaining set, of an interrogation room, pivots through 90 degrees so that one of the cast members appears to be standing horizontally on what used to be the floor. He takes a couple of steps and sits down on a chair, facing the floor.
I still have absolutely no idea how they did that, and I watched it again when it was streamed during lockdown, and I still couldn't work out the mechanic

It broke down when I saw it, stuck at a funny angle.

[meister]

The carousel in the NT production of the same name

The rise of the boat in The House of Dancing Water

[marob]

Another one for Wild here. While I’d anticipated the twist that it wasn’t a real hotel, I definitely didn’t anticipate how far they’d run with it. That was quite something. And as if Jack Farthing being on the wall wasn’t enough Caolifionn Dunne took out a large pin and jabbed in into herself so she appeared to burst into a shower of confetti. 🤯

More recently, the opening sequence of Stranger Things, particularly the sudden appearance of the ship.

A couple that I would probably have been more impressed by if I hadn’t read about them on here - Mary Poppins flying off, not into the wings but out over the audience, and the bridge in Frozen that is much longer than it should be.

[bryan99]

oooh - this one's fun :

The first appearance of Laurence Olivier in Time the Musical.
The Helicopter in the original Miss Saigon.
Hand Chopping scene in Titus Andronicus at the Globe.
Every single scene change in Love and Information at the Royal Court.

A varied selection!

[claireyfairy1]

I have to say,

SPOILER: Click to show

the car flying

in Back to the Future was so delightful for me as a hardcore movie fan. I get very excited by it. 😄

Also the beheading scene in Danton’s Death at the NT. I just remember being amazed at how seamless and impressive it was.

Wild was very cool but by the time I saw it I was spoiled and knew it was coming because of the early tech failures and people talking about it.

[Being Alive]

The one that caught me off guard was the swimming pool in Bat Out of Hell - I'd assume it was about 4 inches deep but an actor dived into it headfirst, and then jumped out again 20 seconds later in a DIFFERENT COSTUME.

I've never stood up and screamed so fast 😂

[barelyathletic]

It was a long time ago, so I may be wrongly remembering it now, but it certainly made an impact and stayed with me.

Philip Prowse's 1984 production of Phedre at the Old Vic, starring Glenda Jackson.

In my head I remember a vast golden wall at the back of the stage that, as Robert Eddison reported the death of of Hippolytus, fell forward onto the stage with two white horses attached to the back. As one of them dropped its head in its final death throes blood poured down the stage. I was young and impressionable at the time, so the visual impact and sense of it has stayed with me even if it wasn't quite as dramatic as I remember.

[blamerobots]

I'm still quite a fan of the house in the Daldry An Inspector Calls, both of it technically and in terms of its meaning. The fact that it still tours and they're doing *that* night after night is glorious.

[Deleted]

The opening of Tarzan on broadway I thought was very well done.

The original Lord of the Rings at Drury Lane has some real wow moments such as Bilbo vanishing, the balrog, shelob.

The original Beauty and the beast with the beasts transformation

[oxfordsimon]

I think my favourite moment is probably one of the simplest

Cheeky by Jowl's production of Racine's Andromaque.

Towards the end of the play, there is a wedding in progress and white petals cascade from the flies across the entire width of the stage.

Suddenly reports come in of a killing outside where the ceremony is being held.

As this news filters through, the petals slowly start turning from white to red. One by one to start with but eventually it is a wall of red petals

An incredible moment that brings shivers to my spine 15 years on. And all done very simply. But, for me, that is what CbJ do brilliantly.

[Jan]

Aug 9, 2024 9:42:43 GMT barelyathletic said:

It was a long time ago, so I may be wrongly remembering it now, but it certainly made an impact and stayed with me.

Philip Prowse's 1984 production of Phedre at the Old Vic, starring Glenda Jackson.

In my head I remember a vast golden wall at the back of the stage that, as Robert Eddison reported the death of of Hippolytus, fell forward onto the stage with two white horses attached to the back. As one of them dropped its head in its final death throes blood poured down the stage. I was young and impressionable at the time, so the visual impact and sense of it has stayed with me even if it wasn't quite as dramatic as I remember.

I nearly mentioned that Phedre, those two enormous dead horses.

[crabtree]

A production of Equus back in the 1970's of the new mercury in Colchester had the impressively stylised horses which was a wow even then but the lengths of blood red ribbons cascading from the blinded horses' eyes started a love affair with things theatrical and non literal. hmm...possibily I've borrowed the idea since.so much more powerful than 'real' blood.

[crabtree]

the Moby dick whale I've teased was at the royal Exchange whose physicality has no trap doors, and bringing bits in of a whale or flying it in would have been absurd, but a floor full of dry ice and a stage filling inflatable floor cloth giving a huge rising and falling dome was sensational.

[lynette]

Before the Almeida closed for refurbishment there was a prod of The Tempest. Ariel disappeared under water on the stage and reappeared beyond breathing time! Anyone remember that? Brilliant production.