Tear Jerker / Jesus Christ Superstar

• Knowing what's going to happen.
  • "Heaven on Their Minds" can be pretty tragic with this in mind.
    • Especially the line, "Listen Jesus to the warning I give/Please remember that I want us to live"
  • However, it can be Heartwarming in Hindsight when you consider what will happen three days later.
  • Subverted again when the soundtrack ends without any sign that the resurrection happened, just the somber closing piece and that's curtain.
• In the 2000 version, Judas during Simon's song and Poor Jerusalem just afterwards. He's afraid when the guards show up, proclaiming his innocence while Jesus is dressing down Simon, and right at the end? He's sickened and terrified, finally grasping that no, Jesus can't keep them under control, and that things are only going to get worse if someone doesn't do something.
• Judas practically begging the priests for reassurance that he's doing the right thing in "Damned For All Time." Villain? Hardly.
• The "Trials and Tribulations" refrain in "The Last Supper" is pretty tragic, knowing that this is the last time the disciples will be happy for quite some time.
• "Gethsemane." Dear Lord, Gethsemane.
  • Steve Balsamo's 2004 performance in Ahoy, Holland is particularly heartbreaking.
  • "Surely I've exceeded expectations?"
  • "God, Thy will is hard... but You hold every card..."
  • John Legend's performance in the 2018 live special is also pretty powerful.
  • Mark Seibert gives pretty good competition for the ones above. It's a concert video, but it gets hard to watch due to the extremely raw emotions. ^note Though the Mood Whiplash a split second before the video ends makes it sort of heartwarming: after such a grueling song (which ended with him on his knees), Mark looks up at the audience and gives a triumphant smile, utterly proud of himself.
• "Could We Start Again, Please?" if the production includes it.
  • In 2017, a Grand Finale event was staged featuring Ted Neeley, Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen. The show closed with the three of them singing this. Four months later, Dennen passed away.
• "Judas' Death."
  • The original soundtrack and many productions afterward has Judas practically sobbing as the song nears its end, screaming that God has made a pawn of him and murdered him.
  • Tim Minchin's rendition, particularly the reprise of "I Don't Know How To Love Him."
  • Peter Johansson's version from the 2014 Swedish arena tour is devastating, as Judas breaks down in tears and huddles on the ground, audibly sobbing. The look on his face as he goes to hang himself is one of utter despair.
• John 19:41. Jesus Christ is dead. The end.
  • The ending of the original movie, with all the hippies, except for Ted Neeley (Jesus), slowly getting back on the bus, with Carl Anderson (Judas) remaining the longest, wistfully looking at the cross before the bus drives away...
    • And then the final shot... the cross, as the sun sets, with a shepherd somehow not noticing it, and leading is flock of sheep across the frame as though this were just any other day. According to director Norman Jewison, nobody expected this to happen and for all everyone could have known, this could have been a ghost captured on film... but it was left in anyway, because it was such a perfect image. Most often see it as an homage to the final shot of Ben Hur.
• Simon's song has all of Jesus' followers singing his praises and dancing their hearts out alongside Simon, Mary, and the apostles, with everyone full of joy and energy. It's a tear jerker because later on, these same people (minus Mary and the apostles) all end up screaming for Jesus to be crucified.
• Almost any good cast will put some real feeling and friendship into the Jesus-Judas relationship; when you realize 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 realize that he's been demonized by everyone ever since.
• The kiss, especially, is gut-wrenching. It's never played with anger, or any kind of joy, just regret, love, and resignation.
• Any time Judas starts running in the 1973 movie, especially toward the end of the production. It's a staggering, unsteady motion at the best of times and a desperate, almost-falling scramble at the worst.
• Pilate, from start to finish. To elaborate, he opens by singing about a dream he had about crucifying Jesus, which he doesn't want to do, but as anyone who knows the story will tell you, he will anyways. He gets increasingly angry at the fact that no matter how hard he tries, he can't change anything. Even as the crowds riot and threaten to rebel, he still tries desperately to save Jesus. In the 2000 version, he starts visibly flinching halfway through the flogging, and afterward (in both versions) cradles Jesus in his arms, despite him being covered in blood, gripping his hand and begging him to let him help. It's only when Jesus tells him he can't be saved that Pilate finally turns on him, though it seems more like he's giving up in despair.
  • Alexander Hanson's Pilate from the 2012 tour is arguably the most tragic due to how restrained he is for much of the play. While most other performances have Pilate as somewhat hammy Hanson's mostly seems unperturbed by Jesus' presence. It's only during "Trial before Pilate" that Jesus' vague answers and the crowd baying for his blood get to him, making his screaming Jesus' sentence that much more impactful compared to his earlier demeanour.
  Pilate: Don't let me stop your great self-destruction! Die if you want to!
• The 2018 concert has Jesus hugging Judas tight just before he's arrested. The two men have to be physically pulled apart when the guards come.
• In the 2018 live television concert, Judas breaks down weeping during his reprise of "I Don't Know How to Love Him."
• The lashing scene in the Oper Bonn/Oper Dortmund production, a Fan Disservice and Tear Jerker rolled into one. Shirtless Mark Seibert (Jesus)? Yum. Shirtless Jesus being whipped and screaming out with each lash, and then toppling over to reveal a bloody, mangled back? Not.
  • The 2012 tour version's is also exceptionally done due to Ben Forster's genuine sounding screams of pain, the close-up shots of his bloody back on the screen, and the rising action Alexander Hanson puts into Pilate's voice; going from calm and collected, to what can be interpreted as elation or disgust, to finally his voice breaking with sorrow as the horror of what he's doing to an innocent man becomes clear to him.
  • The 1973 movie has Mary Magdalene let out a heartwrenching cry as the lashes begin, and while King Herod initially laughs at the spectacle, by the end even he's horrified.
• The live TV concert's crucifixion is GUT WRENCHING. Judas and the entire chorus that belted out "Superstar" seconds before, stand transfixed and mortified as John Legend's blood-soaked Jesus appears, shuddering and writhing as off-screen hecklers cackle at his suffering. He wails his final words (Father, forgive them... where is my mother... my God, I'm so thirsty...) Then, when "IT IS FINISHED!" the music blares and the lights strobe, and he chokes out the climactic "Father, into your hands... I commend my spirit." Then his head drops. Before you have time to catch a breath, a somber, devastated-sounding reprise of "Gethsemane" pipes in as the crucifix ascends. The set background parts to form a cross of blue light, and Jesus is pulled backward out of sight, metaphorically denying the audience the catharsis of the Resurrection as it closes up again, yet at the same time suggesting that Jesus returns to the light through the bright light that emerges from the cross-like background. It is one of the most hauntingly beautiful, tragic yet also bittersweet stagings of Jesus' death ever.
• The sheer regret and misery in Judas's voice during the "Every time I look at you, I don't understand..." bit of "The Last Supper" in the 1973 film. It is painfully clear that he does not want to betray Jesus, and Carl Anderson sounds as if he might break into tears.
• The 2012 version has Jesus actually tossing Judas to the ground, telling him both Get Out! and Get It Over With, basically forcing Judas's hand to betray him. From the look on their faces, Jesus doesn't want to do it.
• It's relatively subtle and in the background of the epic meltdown that Jesus and Judas are both going through but during "The Last Supper" in the 2000 version, Peter is absolutely devastated to hear Jesus say he'll deny him three times and the two apostles on either side of Peter at that moment instantly scramble right away from him as though he's diseased. All throughout the rest of the song, the clearly distressed Peter remains completely shunned by the other apostles with one of them even outright pushing him to the floor.
• Mary Magdalene's affection for Jesus might sometimes come off as something of a Romantic Plot Tumor, as it's a minor thread compared to the main story of Jesus's betrayal, trial and crucifixion ... and yet there's real tragedy in the point of view of a woman's who's presumably been mistreated by men her entire life (this story holds to the pre-Vatican II notion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute) and encounters a man who emotes kindness and love for everyone regardless of station or life circumstance. Mary honestly does not know how a heathy person is supposed to respond to such wholesome treatment. That's sad enough before we add on the (unknown to Mary) facts that Jesus's mission on earth does not involve falling into romantic love with anyone, and that his earthly time is nearly completed. There's unrequited love ... and then there's falling in love with the Son of God ... who's about to be brutally executed. Yikes, Mary.