History TearJerker / Theater

** And the song Tevye sings about Chava, and his heartbreak, and her heartbreak--it DOES NOT HELP that this troper has always associated her father with Tevye. That song is so hard to hear.

*** This... song took on an entirely ironic edge at this troper's own high school graduation. Let's just say that the lines, "Who can say if I've been changed for the better?/But because I knew you (Because I knew you)/I have been changed for good" made this troper chuckle darkly under her breath.

** "So Anyway" Gets a special mention

* As the final act of a collection of Poe stories being performed at this troper's school, there was a ballet duet to piano music playing over a recital of the poem "Annabel Lee." Needless to say, said troper was in tears DURING REHEARSALS.

** This troper saw the touring show as a school field trip, and essentially had no idea what she was sitting down to see. The moment that stuck with her was the short reprisal of 'Walk Like a Man' as Tommy is revealed to have dug himself deep into debt. Instead of making any excuses, Tommy adjusts his suit and... He faces the consequences. That's how we fade to black on Act I. Perhaps it speaks to this troper's issues, but that scene hit her hard.

* In AVeryPotterMusical, right after [[spoiler alert: Voldemort has abandoned Quirrel to Azkaban and Dumbledore has died]], Harry starts to sing a song called "Missing You", with [[spoiler: Quirrel]] joining in. You would think with lines like "Watch a movie, roller skate/fill the world with fear and hate..." the song would be {{narm}}ful, but some that, combined with the utter {{woobie}}fication of [[spoiler: Quirrel]] just makes the whole song a punch to the gut. No, I'm not crying... I Swear! T_T

** Howard Mcgillin's Music of the Night. Holding out that last note, looking at Christine so lovingly, as if she was his EVERYTHING - cue the waterworks!

* ''Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme'' by Frank McGuinness is the story of eight soldiers from Ulster who fought in the First World War, as told by the only one of them who survived. We know from the beginning that all but one of them are going to die, but that doesn't make the scenes where they're facing a battle they know they're probably not going to survive any less gutwrenching.

* The fact that ''{{Macbeth}}'' of all things isn't on here is a tragedy in and of itself. Perhaps it's because Macbeth is both evil, or at the very least weak-willed, and the protagonist, we don't weep over certain things. He orders the death of Banquo, and sends the murderers to kill the wife and child of MacDuff, yet do we ever really care about them? How can you if this is a play about a usurper? But there is one surefire tear-jerker. Lady Macbeth has killed herself, his people have abandoned him, he is considered a tyrant, and he is forced to kill many soldiers during a battle, and through these actions, he realizes how pointless it was. He becomes disillusioned with the idea of working so hard and betraying so many to become a king that no one respects, only to die some day, rendering all his efforts meaningless and going to his grave unwept and unsung.

* ''The Laramie Project'' is emotional hell. It concerns the beating and death of Matthew Shepard, which is in itself a difficult topic. The description of Reggie, the police officer who found Shepard, is really horrible: the only part of his face she could see were the places where he'd been crying. The line that always got this troper is the speech of the CEO of the hospital where Shepard died. He's delivering it on live television and is reading a statement from Mrs. Shepard, which reads, "Go home, give your kids a hug, and don't let a day go by without thinking about them." He then says that his only thought was ''oh, God, she doesn't have her kid anymore'' and breaks down crying on television, which made this troper lose it. Mr. Shepard's speech at the end is also heartbreaking. (''"May you live a long life, Mr. McKinney, and may you thank Matthew '''every day for it'''."'')

* In AVeryPotterMusical, right after [[spoiler alert: Voldemort has abandoned Quirrel to Azkaban and Dumbledore has died]], Harry starts to sing a song called "Missing You", with [[spoiler: Quirrel]] joining in. You would think with lines like "Watch a movie, roller skate/fill the world with fear and hate..." the song would be {{narm}}ful, but some that, combined with the utter {{woobie}}fication of [[spoiler: Quirrel]] just makes the whole song a punch to the gut. No, I'm not crying... I Swear! -_-

** Even the very first song is a tearjerker...knowing what close friends they become, it's awful to watch Glinda be forced to sing about how happy she is that Elphaba is dead. Especially when she repeats the line ''she died alone''. [[spoiler:Because as far as Glinda knows, she did die alone.]]

** The sum total of the last two scenes, from [[spoiler:Aldonza's rendition of "The Impossible Dream," when Quixote remembers who he is and stands triumphantly, to Quijana's death, to Cervantes walking toward the Inquisition while everyone else sings the reprise ... sobbing. Like a little girl.]

** After the "Battlefield" sequence in ''KA'', the [[spoiler: evil Counselor tries to comfort his equally wicked son, who has been blinded by his own explosives. There is no dialogue, but only the piteous wails of the son.]] When I saw it in 2005, shortly after it opened, the actors put so much into it that I was sobbing. It's telling that it's been dialed down since then, because it was probably {{Narm}} for other audience members.

** The curtain call for ''Quidam'': [[spoiler: Most of the cast emerges as the Chienne Blanche characters, dressed in white with little cowls concealing their faces, as befits the title's Latin meaning of faceless passerby, the people we don't notice. They ring the stage and then remove the hoods - reclaiming their identities as individuals. Everybody is an Everyperson.]]

** And the scene where the stable-groom visits Richard in prison.
* ''Our Town''. After Emily gets a chance to see her life all over again, reliving it and realizing how little she appreciated it the first time, she turns to the omnipresent stage manager and asks if ''anyone'' truly gets life while they live it. The response -- "No. Saints and poets, maybe." -- is just depressing.
** [[AcrossTheStars This troper]] ''still'' chokes up every time she hears that line, because she watched the girl she's in love with rehearse it day after day and then have to drop out three days before opening night. Thank ''God'' the show was double-casted, but it wasn't much consolation... just less of a headache.
** How about when George starts crying in front of Emily's grave? It's only for ten seconds, but gaaaaahhhh... this troper cannot hold it in.
* ''{{Company}}'': right before the final song, Bobby has an epiphany about friends and being loved. He starts breathing heavily as the rest of the ensemble starts going "BOBBY! BOBBY! Bobby baby / Bobby honey..." as they've done the entire show. In the 2006 run on Broadway, Raul Esparza cut them off with a soul-wrenching, heartbroken, [[TearJerker tear-jerking]] '''''"STTTTOOOOOOOOOOOPPPP!!"''''' He breathed heavily for a few more seconds, asked "What do you get?" sounding as if his whole world had been torn apart... and then segued into the finale, ''[[IWantSong Being Alive]]'', with him playing a slow, stilted piano solo at first and eventually finding enough resolve to stagger to the front of the stage and sing to the world about finding someone to love and show him a reason to be alive.
** [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Every show, Esparza received standing ovations that lasted for minutes. The song is easily one of this troper's most favorite theatre moments.]]
* Mowbray's speech upon hearing of his impending exile in ''Richard the Second''.

** The sum total of the last two scenes, from [[spoiler:Aldonza's rendition of "The Impossible Dream," when Quixote remembers who he is and stands triumphantly, to Quijana's death, to Cervantes walking toward the Inquisition while everyone else sings the reprise ... sobbing. Like a little girl.]]

* ''LesMiserables''... [[XJustX just ''LesMiserables'']].

* There's an opera, in Italian I believe, about the life of Joseph Carey Merrick, a.k.a., the Elephant Man. The staging is usually pretty stark, though not minimalist, and the music is lovely. The main character is usually played by a fairly fragile countertenor, with no stage makeup to represent the man's very real real-life deformities- making the absolute cruelty of what goes on hard to ignore. On the article here for HollywoodHomely, they mention how in the original production of the StephenSondheim musical ''Passion'' they had to keep cutting back on the homeliness of one of the main characters who is SUPPOSED to be plain lest the audience stop sympathising- it's as if whoever's staging the piece is aware of that rule in effect and avoiding it. All we see is a very gentle, very dignified man- being reviled and mistreated and, in the end, only being accepted by a bare few as anything more than a grotesque oddity. SoYeah. I cried. Pretty much the whole way through.