212 posts
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Post by sprampster on Apr 22, 2021 16:56:45 GMT
Ever have that moment when you sit in a theatre and just think. WHERE DID THAT COME FROM ! I have had a few of these over the years but remember this one for sure. For the young posters on the board. When this came out this person was not known for being able to do this!
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Post by danb on Apr 22, 2021 18:31:16 GMT
Kinda similar was when Martine McCutcheon pre-My Fair Lady sang ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ on “Children in Need”. It was a revelation as a) I hadn’t heard that song before, b) she was great. I can’t find the actual clip but here she is singing a not quite as good version. A few tired notes and a couple of get-outs but still better than you’d get from Kathy Beale.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2021 18:54:40 GMT
The first time I saw Tina and Adrienne Warren's vocal masterclass. I'd heard she was good, but I didn't realise quite how good until I was there.
And the emotional impact the first time I saw Come From Away.
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529 posts
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Post by ruby on Apr 22, 2021 19:50:32 GMT
Pretty much the whole of 42nd Street. I was familiar with some of the music but had never seen the film or a stage production before the one at Drury Lane. The opening when they are all tapping and the explosion of brightness in We're in the Money made me so happy.
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1,349 posts
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Post by CG on the loose on Apr 22, 2021 20:07:00 GMT
Ever have that moment when you sit in a theatre and just think. WHERE DID THAT COME FROM ! I have had a few of these over the years but remember this one for sure. For the young posters on the board. When this came out this person was not known for being able to do this! I'd never seen that, so that was a real 'musical surprise' moment for me right there! |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2021 20:30:26 GMT
When this came out this person was not known for being able to do this! My Su Pollard can sing moment was with "Come To Me (I Am Woman)", from back in the days when song titles with parentheses were "in". |
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1,728 posts
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Post by marob on Apr 22, 2021 21:24:29 GMT
It’s always a pleasant surprise when I see a show for the first time and hear a song I know from somewhere else, like The Perfect Year in Sunset Boulevard or Secret Love in Calamity Jane, though there’s lots of others. I’m not someone who’s easily moved, but the end of Waitress where {Spoiler - click to view}
The little kid comes onstage and dances with the rest of them really got to me for some reason. Really welled up.
It’s actually more of a play but the Hull Truck production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, which was one of the first shows I ever saw, had a sequence where the mother (Helen Sheals) was dancing to the Jackson 5 and her friend (Lisa Riley) was copying her. But then the mother ended her dance with a sort of forward roll over the back of a sofa and landed on the floor in front of it, and there was this collective gasp as Lisa Riley followed her. I’ve seen and forgotten many more elaborate dance sequences since then, but the sight of Lisa Riley chucking herself over the back of an old sofa will live with me forever. 😀 |
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Post by FairyGodmother on Apr 23, 2021 9:48:39 GMT
Wicked, particularly {Spoiler - click to view}the trapdoor at the end. I'd gone knowing nothing about the plot, except that it was related to The Wizard of Oz, and I'd heard a couple of the songs and wasn't sure how much I liked them. But I completely bought into it when I was there, the way it had been woven The Wizard of Oz so you sort of knew what would happen, but then it twisted it. It was the first show I saw in the West End as well, so I think I was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.
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19,674 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Apr 23, 2021 10:12:01 GMT
I once literally bumped into Su Pollard many years ago in a rammed gay bar in Sheffield. I looked down and this tiny woman with the pixie crop and big glasses was there, I’m sure she only came up to my waist. She looked up at me and said to her male companion “look at the size of this one” before scurrying off.
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5,148 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 23, 2021 10:21:24 GMT
When Higgins House appeared in the Lincoln Centre revival of My Fair Lady.
Just the sheer size and scale of it - it's the closest to my jaw actually hitting the floor I've had in the theatre.
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Post by FrontroverPaul on Apr 23, 2021 11:10:05 GMT
When we saw Funny Girl at the Savoy there was initial disappointment when Sheridan Smith as Fanny Brice was announced as indisposed. Natasha J. Barnes was sensational.
I was at Mamma Mia in June 2018 when Caroline Deverill as Donna Sheridan suffered an injury and the show was halted. Steph Parry was understudying at a nearby theatre at the time but she was contacted, arrived, costumed & made up for the role and on stage within half an hour. Word and note perfect.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2021 11:34:29 GMT
I once literally bumped into Su Pollard many years ago in a rammed gay bar in Sheffield. I looked down and this tiny woman with the pixie crop and big glasses was there, I’m sure she only came up to my waist. She looked up at me and said to her male companion “look at the size of this one” before scurrying off. I used to see her a lot around Upper Street and Angel! |
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5,148 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 23, 2021 11:44:47 GMT
I went to the Panto awards once (don't ask) and Biggins was presenting (naturally). Su was there obviously dressed as what can only be described as a green flamingo and having a great time.
(That's my useless Su Pollard story)
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Post by hannechalk on Apr 24, 2021 13:16:13 GMT
After years of living in the North West, and after my marriage to a Scouser broke up, I moved to Bristol. My Dutch accent had pretty much disappeared, and I had this strange Burnley/Scouse-accent.
My landlady said ' I've got tickets for this show, but I don't really fancy going as I've seen it a few times already - do you want to go?'.
I wanted to be fully surprised, I hadn't been to the theatre often at this point, so all I knew was that this show had been running a long time in the West End. I had no idea about the setting or the story.
The lights twinkled and the Royal Liver Building came into view.
'It's the mothership, it's come to take me home!'.
I loved Blood Brothers, but the switch was properly flicked after I saw it a second time.
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Post by hannechalk on Apr 24, 2021 13:21:27 GMT
Another one was when I saw Les Mis - pretty sure my jaw is still on the floor of the grand circle in the Bristol Hippodrome.
We were front row, so had an amazing view of all the effects and rotating stage.
Funnily enough I was with the same person I saw Blood Brothers with for the first time - and he wasn't my usual theatre-buddy to go alone with. And the ticket was once again gifted to me by the same landlady.
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879 posts
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Post by daisy24601 on Apr 24, 2021 16:27:38 GMT
The motorbike crash in Bat Out of Hell was a good one.
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Post by sph on Apr 24, 2021 17:47:17 GMT
When I was a kid I saw the original Disney UK tour of Beauty and the Beast and the prologue just about knocked me out of my seat. The way the enchantress flew into the air and threw a fireball across the stage. I had been to the theatre many times before, usually only panto though, and I'd never seen anything like that!
Another little strangely specific moment is from Matilda, as Matilda and Miss Honey walk off into the distance at the end of the show - the little cartwheel they do is such a tiny, simple moment but it's so perfect and catches you by surprise in such a way that the whole audience goes "oooh".
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Post by richey on Apr 24, 2021 18:14:18 GMT
The motorbike crash in Bat Out of Hell was a good one. I found the Cadillac moment pretty astounding |
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5,148 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 24, 2021 20:21:18 GMT
The motorbike crash in Bat Out of Hell was a good one. Oh the costume change in the swimming pool was it for me! Me and my friend actually stood up and cheered when he jumped back up in a different outfit! |
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Post by demonbarber on Apr 24, 2021 21:23:48 GMT
Bunny Christie’s set design on the recent Company revival was endlessly surprising, really clever stagecraft.
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879 posts
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Post by daisy24601 on Apr 24, 2021 22:47:48 GMT
The motorbike crash in Bat Out of Hell was a good one. I found the Cadillac moment pretty astounding Yes that too! |
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1,057 posts
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Post by David J on Apr 24, 2021 23:04:15 GMT
Finding moments that truly came out of nowhere and surprised me.
Perhaps the biggest was the moment Bert walked up the proscenium in Mary Poppins.
There was also the end of the first act of Wonderful Town where characters suddenly wanted to do the conga and next thing the whole of Greenwich Village, New York got the craze and the cast was dancing out the auditorium.
Then there was Five Guys Named Moe when they got the audience to join in.
The end of the first act of City of Angels with the leading men confronting each other and literally pushing the borders of reality and fiction
Or Groundhog Day when there was a dance routine and a guy in a groundhog costume was trundled on playing a drum kit
Or Simon Cowell turning out to be an alien and the spaceship appearing in I Can't Sing.
Or the remix in Legally Blonde.
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Post by sph on Apr 24, 2021 23:13:40 GMT
Or Simon Cowell turning out to be an alien and the spaceship appearing in I Can't Sing. Excuse me WHAT? |
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5,148 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Apr 25, 2021 10:10:06 GMT
I second the above...WHAT
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3,427 posts
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Post by ceebee on Apr 25, 2021 10:25:12 GMT
The motorbike crash in Bat Out of Hell was a good one. God, yeah. That was insane. I think it might have been my main reason for going back a second time, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th... |
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