History TearJerker / Theater

** [[spoiler: The worst part about rehearsing this is that some people weren't taking it seriously enough, so the director stopped rehearsal and gave us a lecture using some touchy words - words like "massacre" and "Columbine". * eyes well up* ]]

* William Shakespeare
** TearJerker/{{Hamlet}}
** TearJerker/HenryIVPart1
** TearJerker/HenryIVPart2
** TearJerker/HenryV
** TearJerker/HenryVI
** TearJerker/KingLear
** TearJerker/{{Macbeth}}
** TearJerker/{{Othello}}
** TearJerker/{{Richard II}}
** TearJerker/RomeoAndJuliet
*** TearJerker/RomeoEtJulietteDeLaHaineALamour
** TearJerker/TheTempest
** TearJerker/TheWintersTale
** Tearjerker/TwelfthNight

* In ''AVeryPotterMusical'', right after [[spoiler: 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.
** And then the sequel has To Have a Home, which resonates with anyone who's ever been rejected then found a place where they truly belong, and Guys Like Potter, which, despite its last line, deals with the always-tearjerking Snape/Lily ship in a way comparable to the Prince's Tale chapter.

[[folder:Jesus Christ Superstar]]
* Large sections of ''JesusChristSuperstar'' are absolutely heartwrenching in the right hands. Among them: "Could We Start Again, Please?" the Last Supper scene, Judas' suicide, and one of the [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome most incredible solos]] in music theater history, "Gethsemane."
* Almost any good cast will put some real feeling and friendship into the Jesus-Judas relationship; when you realise that Judas was a pawn in a desperate gamble by the Jewish authorities; a guy who didn't want to have his friend killed and just wanted everything to be the way it was back when they were quiet and safe... and then you realise that he's been demonised by everyone ever since. It might not be in the canon, but it SHOULD BE!
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqDoLcORDwU John 19:41]]. Jesus Christ is dead. The end.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theatre/BareAPopOpera]]
* Theatre/BareAPopOpera: All of it?
** The song Bare. The tune is so pretty and the lyrics are heart-wrenching. Best example: ''if prayer were the answer, I'd fall on my knees''. That just...wow. Worth a listen.

** Nadia's ''A Quiet Night At Home'' -- for a moment her presentation of herself as abrasively sarcastic cynic who's amused by people's nastiness about her size, not wounded, is peeled back and she's incredibly lonely. ''Sadness? Who, me? Sad?''

* Billy Bigelow's death is one HUGE tearjerker. He dies in a robbery go mad in a desparate attempt to provide money for his pregnant wife. The film version is sad enough with the death an accident. However, the original theatre production takes it {{Up to Eleven}}, [[spoiler:with Billy committing SUICIDE]]! If that's not enough, the death is followed by the famous song "You'll never walk alone", with Julie beginning the song but unable to continue, and her cousin, who is the maternal figure, then singing it.
* The {{Dark Reprise}} of If I loved you, Billy singing to his wife that now he's lost you and she'll never know how much he loved her

* So many, many moments.

---> What made me piss my life away in this godforsaken place? There's nothing of me left.

* I'm convinced that if you're a Spanish speaker and do NOT cry with Camilo Sesto's rendition of "Gethsemane", you should search for your lost soul. Kills me EVERY time, even almost 30 years after Camilo played Jesus.

* The musical "''Kristina from Duvemala''", telling the story of a family emigrating from Sweden to the US in the mid 19th century, is filled with tearjerker moments. One of the worst for me is during the song "''Bright Evenings in Springtime''" when Kristina sings of how homesick she is, and of the pain of never getting to see your parents again, or the place where you grew up.

* And "''The Gold Turned Into Sand''".
** The English version of this song (titled [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFL68O4R_sQ "Gold Can Turn To Sand"]])
* Another truly heartbreaking moment is during the song "''You Have To Be There''".

* Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You. Even though you already know everything that has happened at this point, the juxtaposition of Cathy's excitement and Jamie's miserable resignation is just HEARTBREAKING.

---> Cathy: "And the point is, Jamie,/that you can't spend a single day that's not about/you and you and nothing but you,/"Mahvelous" novelist, you!/Isn't he wonderful? Just twenty-eight!/The savior of writing!/You, and you, and nothing but you!/Miles and piles of you!/Pushing through windows and bursting through walls/En route to the sky!/And I..."

---> Cathy: "I want you and you and nothing but you/Miles and piles of you/Finally I'll have something worthwhile/To think about each morning/You and you and nothing but you/No substitution will do/Nothing but fresh, undiluted and pure/Top of the line and totally mine!"

* There's something about watching Neil Patrick Harris as Toby going [[spoiler: [[https://youtu.be/-OZJ7yeI1J8?t=7444 quite mad]]]]

*
** Len Cariou's version of "Epiphany" in particular; right after the above line he doesn't scream [[EvilIsHammy "FINISHED!!!"]] like most other actors but instead says it simply and flatly, in a voice of total despair. It makes you realise just what has finished for him - his family, happiness, morality and sanity...

* ''Theatre/WestSideStory''. The death at the end combines the music of "Somewhere, there's a place for us, somehow, someday, ''somewhere,''" and Maria's rhapsodic affirmation of her love: "I have a love, and it's all that I have."
* ''"One Hand, One Heart"''. ''Make of our lives one life/Day after day, one life./Now it begins, now we start/One hand, one heart,/Even death won't part us now. ''

* ''BloodBrothers''
** The first song, 'Marilyn Monroe', and there's always that reprise that makes it 50 times worse.
* The ending of The Yeomen of the Guard.
** A recording of that show with the legendary Joel Grey as Jack Point. The sight of him struggling, lost and heartbroken, through "I have a song to sing, O!" is heartbreaking.

* Aeeing Michael Ingersoll singing ''Why'' during a production of ''Tick, Tick, Boom''. Those three minutes blew ''Rent'' out of the water, now and forevermore.

** ''Louder than Words''; it's just so profoundly beautiful and relevant.
* Those heart-wrenching ballads in some cookie cutter musicals. Like the surprisingly moving duet "If I Told You" from the musical of ''The Wedding Singer''
* [[spoiler:Mary's death]] in the musical version of ''Reefer Madness''. Especially the DarkReprise of [[spoiler:"Romeo and Juliet"]].
** Goddamn it, ''yes''. It's ''Reefer Madness'', for God's sake, it shouldn't make you cry like a little girl. But it does. Somehow.
* Several years ago [[ParcaKnight this humble contributor]] found himself choking up something awful during ''Sanders Family Christmas'', a piece about a 1940s American family of gospel singers: in one number, the mother sings a prayer for her son's safety as he prepares to head off to war.

-->''Erzulie took her by the hand/and led her to the sea\\

Ohhh...Ti Moune...''

-->What I am, you made me. What you gave, I owe.\\

--->SAVAGE: You said there was an animal.
--->APRIL: Yeah.
--->SAVAGE: There is. There's one in me too. It's the only thing in me that I love. It wasn't always—it's just that these days, these days, it's the only thing in me—in everybody—that ain't a total fuckin' horrible lie. I. AM. ALONE. [exit]

* The musical ''Parade''
** The ''Sh'ma''

--> '''Leo''': I never touched that child/God I never raised my hand!/I stand before you now, incredibly afraid...I pray you understand.

* "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" is an exceedingly silly musical, but both "Close Every Door" and the "Any Dream Will Do" reprise when Joseph is reunited with his elderly father - ''hysterics.'' Utter hysterics.
** ''Joseph All Along''.

* Arthur Miller's ''Theatre/DeathOfASalesman''.
** "I made the last payment on the house today...and now there's no one home."
* The "Vigil" scene

* ''Theatre/{{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.

* ''M. Butterfly'' by David Henry Hwang: a de-construction of ''Madame Butterfly'' and Asian stereotypes while being a VERY loose re-telling of a true story. Gallimard's final monologue can really get to you. It'd doesn't matter how you hear it.

* The original use of ChekhovsGun in Theatre/TheSeagull: "Get her out of here. Whatever you have to do, get her out. The fact of the matter is, [[spoiler:Konstantin]] has shot himself."

* R C Sherriff's Journey's End has quite a few (perhaps unsurprising for a play set in WWI), but one of the worst is when Stanhope, the young Captain struggling to cope and turning to alcohol intercepts a letter sent by another soldier, Raleigh to his sister whom Stanhope was once involved with, he expects the letter will reveal his drinking habits and is ashamed as when they were at school Raleigh had idolised him, in fact [[spoiler: the letter reveals that Raleigh not only thinks of Stanhope as a hero, but is proud to be his friend]] If this wasn't bad enough, [[spoiler: Raleigh eventually dies in Stanhope's arms]]

*** The final scene also implies [[spoiler: that all the other characters die as well.]]

-->'''Rosencrantz:''' That's it then, is it? The sun's going down, or the earth's coming up, as the fashionable theory would have it. Not that it makes any difference. ''([[{{Beat}} small pause]])'' What was it all about? When did it all begin? Couldn't we just stay put? I mean, no one is going to come and drag us off...they'll just have to wait...we're still young...fit...we've got years...''(pause. No answer. A cry.)'' We've done nothing wrong! We didn't harm anyone! Did we?
-->'''Guildenstern:''' Our names shouted in a certain dawn...a message...a summons...there must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said--no. But somehow we missed it. ''(he looks round and sees that he's alone)'' Rosen--? Guil--? ''(he gathers himself)'' Well, we'll know better next time. Now you see me, now you-- ''(disappears)''

* ''WaitingForGodot'' while comedic, has an overall tragic message, if it has one at all. At one point, the protagonists are so overcome with the futility of their existence, they can neither leave the stage nor meet Godot, they actually try to kill themselves. The tear-jerker comes when they can not hang themselves because a tree isn't strong enough, nor can they kill each other because one of them will be left alive, a fate which they consider, in their soul-crushing surroundings, to be worse than death.

* The end of ''TheKingAndI''.
* The title song of [[Theatre/LegallyBlonde Legally Blonde: The Musical]] sung by Elle. In what is perhaps the only [[WorldOfHam non-hammy]] moment of the entire play, Elle sings about [[spoiler: her plan to quit Harvard after Callahan fires her due to her rejecting his sexual advances]], in matter-of-fact, step-by-step terms ([[spoiler: "Take back the books and pack up the clothes/Clear out the room and drop off the key..."]]). Her resignation to her fate is gut-wrenching, as is [[spoiler: Emmett's AnguishedDeclarationOfLove ("The timing's bad, I know")]], and in a play that had previously spiked every moment with a liberal dash of humor or wit, the script plays this moment completely straight.

** ''Who I'd Be,'' full stop. The whole song is tearjerking, especially for anyone who has been a social outcast for the better part of their lives, but especially so is Shrek's brief pause, after describing how he'd be a hero and rescue the princess from the tower, and he'd 'remove his helmet.'

* 'The Letter' from BillyElliot : The Musical. Both Mum's Letter and Billy's Reply.

* Most of Act 3 of Theatre/ARaisinInTheSun, mainly Walter's two speeches:

--->''Walter: You wouldn’t understand yet, son, but your daddy’s gonna make a transaction...a business transaction that’s going to change our lives...That’s how come one day when you ‘bout seventeen years old I’ll come home...I’ll pull the car up on the driveway...just a plain black Chrysler, I think, with white walls—no—black tires...the gardener will be clipping away at the hedges and he’ll say, “Good evening, Mr. Younger.” And I’ll say, “Hello, Jefferson, how are you this evening?” And I’ll go inside and Ruth will come downstairs and meet me at the door and we’ll kiss each other and she’ll take my arm and we’ll go up to your room to see you sitting on the floor with the catalogues of all the great schools in America around you... All the great schools in the world! And—and I’ll say, all right son, it’s your seventeenth birthday, what is it you’ve decided?...Just tell me, what it is you want to be—and you’ll be it...Whatever you want to be—Yessir! [[CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming You just name it, son . . . and I hand you the world!]]''

* ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables:[[TitleTheAdaptation The Musical]]'', when [[spoiler: Matthew dies, singing the title song to Anne. Followed immediately by 'The Words', sung by Marilla, about how she was unable to tell him how she loved him. *sniffle*]]
* And the pseudo sequel, Anne & Gilbert when [[spoiler: Anne is reading the letter her parents wrote her.]]

* Arthur Miller's The Crucible. [[spoiler: Proctor choosing his death to rescue a true reputation and honor. A Foregone Conclusion if you know the history. Proctor could have choosen to "confess" and resume his life with his wife, whom he wanted to amend for cheating on her, but he realizes he cannot live on a weak lie. To make it more heartwenching, a pregnant Elizabeth forgives him, respects his choice, and they kiss good-bye. "God forbid I [take his goodness] from him. ]]
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os71u7VB2jc "A Way Back To Then"]] from TitleOfShow
* Caroline, Or Change goes unmentioned?
** Lot's Wife, oh god.

---> '''Leslie''': You...''you'' made her do that! You made her ''cry!''"
* Listen to the quartet "If Only" from The Little Mermaid and see how long you can hold out before the tears just cascade. It's unlikely you'll make it to the halfway point.

* Paula Vogel's ''The Baltimore Waltz'', a tribute to her brother who died from AIDS. The play is prefaced by Carl's letter describing lovingly but humerously how he would like his funeral and how he'd like to be remembered. '''''Sob!'''''
* The finale of ''Theatre/JekyllAndHyde''.

* In Stephen Sondheim's ''Assassins'', after sitting through almost two hours detailing the lives and passions of the men and women who have tried, or succeeded, in killing various American Presidents we are presented with the amazingly TearJerker song, "Something Just Broke", with Americans from every era trying to come to terms with the tragedy of an assassination, which comes right after watching Lee Harvey Oswald take his shot...

* ''OurTown.''

* The musical ''[[SeventeenSeventySix 1776]]'' is pretty lighthearted through its first act, leaving audiences completely unprepared for the emotional gut punch of how that act ends: with the Continental Congress in recess, only the clerk, a maintenance man, and a courier are left in the building and discuss the monumental events that are occuring right in front of them, yet they cannot really be a part of it. The courier notes that two of his friends were killed when the war began and sings "Momma, Look Sharp", about the thoughts of a dying soldier on the battlefield.

** ''Madama Butterfly''. When she starts singing "Un Bel Di Vedremo".
* Two moments in ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' are particularly heartbreaking: the first, steeped in irony, is when Oedipus declares that he doesn't care who his parents were (at this point he only knows he was adopted), whether they were slaves or princes, even if his beloved wife and everyone despises him for it. In any other play, when Oedipus declares himself the "son of Chance", it would be uplifting and still is, in a horrible way. The second moment comes right at the end, when he's found out who his parents actually were and has blinded himself. His daughters/half-sisters are brought to him so that he can say goodbye, and he asks for their forgiveness for screwing up their lives. Then Creon comes to take them away and Oedipus, so proud and haughty throughout the play, ''begs'' for one more moment to embrace them. He doesn't get it.

* ''Sunset Boulevard'': "[[http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl17tU-nPpY With One Look]]", and "[[https://youtube.com/watch?v=0WCwGM_Yusk As If We Never Said Goodbye]]"

* There's something about watching Neil Patrick Harris as Toby going [[spoiler: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HafgCkOW88&feature=PlayList&p=014A71FBEBCF0BAC&index=13 quite]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww6onoHRunI&feature=PlayList&p=014A71FBEBCF0BAC&index=15 mad]]]]

* ''TanzDerVampire'' has at least a few of these-- "St�rker Als Wir Sind".

* ''Unstillbare Gier''.

** George Hearn is ''not'' helping in that scene, especially when [[spoiler: he lifts his head and rips his collar open. He knows what's coming...''and he no longer cares.'']] Sob...

* ''Sunset Boulevard'': "[[http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl17tU-nPpY With One Look]]", and "[[http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0WCwGM_Yusk As If We Never Said Goodbye]]"...sob...

* Towards the end of ''Theatre/OnceOnThisIsland,'' the heroine Ti Moune waits outside the hotel where the man she loves is preparing for his arranged marriage, begging people to let him know she's waiting for him at the gate. Sob.
** This scene always brought tears to my eyes onstage, particularly when her parents, and then the gods, show up. Particularly in our production, where casting issues made Agwe a woman. Papa Ge's last-minute HeelFaceTurn is even more poignant.
--->''Erzulie took her by the hand/and led her to the sea
--->Where Agwe wrapped her in a wave/and laid her to her rest
--->And '''Papa Ge was gentle'''/as he carried her to shore
--->And Asaka accepted her/And held her to her breast
--->Held her to her breast
--->Ohhh...Ti Moune...''
** Earlier, Ti Moune sings to her parents as she leaves, "What I am, you made me. What you gave, I owe."
** "But if I look back, I'll never go..." *sniffle*

--> [[spoiler: My name is Rene Gallimard, also known as Madame Butterfly.]] SOB.

* The only show at which I've truely damn near broke down and sobbed was the original play [[http://www.lookingglasstheatre.org/content/box_office/trust Trust]], as produced by the Lookingglass Theatre Company. Watching a happy nuclear family unravel completely because of a child's trust in people had me swimming in my own tears and trying not to make any noise. It's powerful stuff.

** And the last scene, with [[spoiler: Firs being left behind and dying.]] SOB.

* Arthur Miller's ''Death of a Salesman''.

* ''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.

* ''{{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.

* M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang: a de-construction of Madame Butterfly and Asian steroetypes while being a VERY loose re-telling of a true story. Gallimard's final monologue can really get to you. It'd doesn't matter how you hear it.

* ''Theatre/42ndStreet'', while being a happy musical, also has some moments.
** In a meta sense, the musical takes place during 1930, the year that Vaudeville shows disappeared and lost popularity. If Peggy Sawyer (who before auditioning for broadway was a vaudeville dancer) returned to Allentown, she would've been out of a job.
** The song ''Sunny Side to Every Situation'' is sad if you look at it, since the whole cast of the Pretty Lady are being threatened with homelessness and they're trying so hard to find a bright side to their current predicament.

** TearJerker/PeterPan

* ''SouthPacific'', when we learn that [[spoiler: Lieutenant Joe Cable has been killed]], and later, when Nellie tells his devastated lover. And the finale, which finds Nellie putting aside her prejudices to be a mother to Emile's biracial children, and when she and Emile joyfully reunite.

[[folder:Spring Awakening]]
* "Those You've Known," "Left Behind," "And Then There Were None," and "Whispering" from ''SpringAwakening''
** Moritz's monologue after "Don't Do Sadness".
-->"So, what will I say? I'll tell them all - the angels - I got drunk in the snow, and sang, and played pirates... Yes, I'll tell them, I'm ready now. I'll be an angel."
** "There are those who still know, they're still home. ''We're still home...''"
** "You watch me. Just watch me. I'm calling, I'm calling. And one day all will know..."
** The German and English versions of "The Dark I Know Well".
** In the original play
*** The Masked Man last words to the protagonists, [[spoiler: "To you [Melchior] the doubt about everything, to you [Moritz's ghost] the certainty about nothing."]]
*** [[spoiler: Although Moritz already brought his eternal inevitability, Melchiorr gives Moritz some meaning in Moritz's life after all. Melchior tells him "no matter if my personality was to change a hundred times, you will probably be [my closest friend]" Melchior walks off with the Stranger leaving Moritz behind. Moritz is saddened to rest in eternal rot but realizes that he can rest, straighten his grave with dignity, and sleep with a smile on his face.]]
[[/folder]]