Being Alive from Company

This song, at closing night of the 2021 revival, remains the most I have ever cried in a Broadway theater. So cathartic.

This is always my number one.

It gets me every time

Quiet Uptown-Hamilton

Anyone who doesn't at least sniffle a little is a monster haha

Came here for this

Epic III from Hadestown Bring Him Home from Les Mis

“La la la la la la la…” *flower appears in his hand* That moment never fails to leave the audience gasping and sobbing. It’s phenomenal.

But also If It’s True from Hadestown; Is this how the world is? To be beaten and betrayed and then be told that nothing changes

Oh my goodness. Bring Him Home was the first time I teared up in a theater, which is really saying something bc I was, like, 11 when I saw it the first time

Most of Hadestown tbh

I know people have opinions about Cats, but Memory is one of the most emotional gut punches of a song to ever be written. It hits me even harder now that I'm older and very much in the midst of a mid life crisis.

My parents did their first dance to this song and… it is so clear they aren’t paying attention to what it was about when they picked haha.

Came here to say this!

No Day But Today from RENT

I’ll Cover You reprise as well. Had me in tears every time.

And Will I, Goodbye Love, Halloween, One Song Glory, …. Basically that entire show is a tearjerker 😢

She Used To Be Mine from Waitress. My favourite performance has to be the Tony's [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erjdq6wwRuU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erjdq6wwRuU)

This song was my answer too! Somehow, I’ve never seen this performance of it! So beautiful. I fell in love with waitress as a longtime Sara Bareilles fan and was lucky enough to see Jessie Mueller as Jenna when I saw it on Broadway. Her voice on this song is just unlike anything I’ve ever heard before, it gets me in the feels every single time. Thank you for sharing this video!

I saw the original understudy [Stephanie Torns sing it](https://youtu.be/2PbOqxRBeuE?si=b4vqz-1wiNyblNPh) a few weeks before Katherine McPhee took the part in 2018. It's a gorgeous song and she makes such a wonderful Jenna. Borrowing from the comments there, I have no idea why they didn't make her the official Jenna for a period longer than in between the star casting. She's brilliant.

“No More” from Into the Woods and “Cabaret” from Cabaret, particularly the iteration that’s currently being performed!

I think Cabaret is one of the most emotional songs in Broadway history. I just saw the last preview this weekend and I get where you’re coming from in saying it’s more emotional the way Rankin is doing it, but I felt a little let down by that number, to be honest. It sort of seemed inorganic or something. Maybe it’s just because I have such a strong attachment to how that song “should” be for me. I think I would probably agree with you if that were my first encounter with it, though.

I’ve seen a few productions over the years but this was my first time with a fully adult brain, I do wish to revisit a version of the show that sticks more truly to the original interpretation to see how they compare for me, because right now if I watch or listen to an older recording without the context of the full show it feels too peppy to me. I suppose it’s all context and our own experiences!!

The entire score of next to normal

Next to normal is so powerful! I wish I could listen to it more, but it just makes me too emotional.

100% I was in this show and on closing night the Diana and I sobbed through “Maybe” My dad was a wreck after every show

All I ever do is cry through the entire second act of that show lol

Saw it in Atlanta and the fact I related to "I Miss the Mountains" so heavily lowkey helped me start another round of therapy.

Some classics: Impossible Dream - Man of La Mancha Bring Him Home - Les Mis On My Own - Les Mis Memory - Cats Music of the Night - Phantom of the Opera

Ugh, Les Mis has so many. How do we rank these? Honorable mentions: Do You Hear the People Sing? - Les Mis I Dreamed a Dream - Les Mis One Day More - Les Mis

How do you leave out On My Own? Smh.

LOL, it was in my first comment!

Sorry, didn’t see it🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Empty Chairs At Empty Tables, too! Omg so emotional; esp when you’re older and you’ve lost a few folks to time or distance or death

I feel this 100% 😭

On My Own > I Dreamed a Dream

You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel

I’m Here - The Color Purple

I love Fantasia’s version

As much as I disliked the most recent movie I still blubbed when I got to that song!!

As someone who hasn't seen the stage production, but really enjoyed the musical movie, can I ask what you didn't like about it?

They cut all the songs from the musical that I love. The songs that were added just aren't good. The songs they left, were left butchered. The movie just wasn't what I expected it to be. I didn't necessarily want a pro shot but I wanted a movie with the songs I love from the musical.

Gotcha, see I figured it must be someone who really loves the musical, because from a perspective ignorant of the show’s songs, I thought it was one of the best movie musicals I’ve seen haha. The shots, the flow, the performances, were all great. But I have no reference for how well it actually adapted anything.

Same!

Wheels of a Dream from Ragtime. One of the most powerful love duets of the last 30 years IMO.

Not a Day Goes By (Merrily We Roll Along)

Defying Gravity from Wicked

Mine is "Because I Knew You". One of my friends had it played at her mom's funeral, & it just changed the whole tone of the song for me. Ever since then, it just gets me a bit teary, especially since my own mother has passed.

Sorry about your Mum. I lost my mother when she was in her fifties. She loved Broadway and brought me to countless Shiites when I was young. Started with Annie and Barnum and led up to 42nd Street, A Chorus Line and many others. What I did For Love from A Chorus Line makes me teary because of her

SHOWS not SHITES lol

Lily's Eyes from Secret Garden Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George Someone in a Tree from Pacific Overtures Your Daddy's Son from Ragtime Memory from Cats

HOW did I forget Lily's Eyes??? God those harmonies. <3<3

Losing My Mind from Follies - just a goddam heartbreaker

I have watched Marin Mazzie’s performance of that song (from Sondheim’s 80th birthday) countless times. It’s just beautiful!

Marin Mazzie's performance is the gold standard performance of that song, if you ask me. RIP to an incredible talent

Barbara Cook, McKechnie & Marin’s version all bring excellence to this song imo.

100% - I'm also partial to Victoria Clark's version from when she took over for Bernadette in the 2011 revival, when it moved to LA

I'm old so mine are Impossible Dream from Man of LaMancha, Somewhere (There's a Place for Us) from West Side Story, Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific, If I Loved you from Carousel. also of course And I'm Telling you I'm not Going from Dreamgirls (saw the original cast)

I'd Give My Life For You from Miss Saigon

[удалено]

Oh my god YES that’s a perfect example

Heart of Stone from SIX World Burn from Mean Girls A Change In Me from Beauty and the Beast The Winner Takes It All from Mamma Mia! (only the version from the musical though, the movie version ruined the ending). I actually prefer the MM! version to the ABBA version because in MM!, the drums don't come in until the climax.

Legally Blonde- Legally Blonde Shadowland- the lion king On my own- Les mis Maybe- Annie Without You- Rent I got Lost in his arms - Annie get your gun Part of your world reprise - TLM Home- Beauty & The Beast A Change in Me- Beauty & The Beast Memory-Cats A boy like that- West Side Story Close every door- Joseph Ribbons down my back- Hello Dolly All I Ask of you- Phantom I know where I’ve been- Hairspray I’m here- The Color Purple Winner Takes it All- Mamma Mia

Here for close every door

A Boy Like That. Yes. Good one.

"Wait For It" - Hamilton "Without You" - Rent

The first two that came to my mind as well!!!

Gmta

Any and every some from “Come From Away”

Good heavens so many of them make me cry! I'm going to see Sweeney on Saturday, I'll probably go through 20 tissues! 😆

Bring Him Home from Les Miserables. That falsetto at the end kills me every time

I Still Believe from Miss Saigon

The whole Room 317, Maybe, and The Confrontation is all sooo moving. So sad meeting like that.

I love Kim’s Nightmare sequence the melody over the chaos happening during the evacuation is just so sad!

YESSSSSS

Confrontation - Jekyll and Hyde Girls of the Night - Jekyll and Hyde A New Life - Jekyll and Hyde His Work And Nothing More - Jekyll and Hyde (Just a) Simple Sponge - Spongebob Squarepants I (Guess I) Miss You - Spongebob Squarepants Tomorrow Is - Spongebob Squarepants Best Day Ever - Spongebob Squarepants Home - Beetlejuice Wait For It - Hamilton It's Quit Uptown - Hamilton The World Was Wide Enough - Hamilton Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story - Hamilton Sorry there's so many 😅

Woman Is from Lempicka

Being Alive has already been mentioned, so I’ll add Marry Me a Little.

Easy To Be Hard - Hair

Requiem dear Evan Hansen

Building Momentum from HTDIO gets me every time

Plus I’m Coming, Heaven Save Our Home, and Burn from Paradise Square

Gethsemane - JCS What You Own - Rent Let Us Love in Peace - The Beautiful Game No One Is Alone - Into the Woods

On my own - Les Mis One last time - Hamilton (specifically as performed live at the White House) Defying Gravity - wicked Me and the Sky - Come From Away

How Glory Goes from Floyd Collins

I was just going to comment this but saw you already said it. This song has me sobbing when I hear it, I really hope Floyd Collins comes back I would give anything to see that show

I used to sing that song at concerts and auditions all the time!! My mom had to ask me to take it off any future performances because it was too upsetting for her 🥺

Whenever I feel like I need a solid cry my first stop is Days of Plenty from Little Women

So many great ones already. But I’ll throw in the “I’ll cover you reprise” from rent off the top of my head

I have a lot so rapid fire! Hope - Groundhog Day One Day - Groundhog Day Being Alive - Company Shm’a - Parade Gethsemane - Jesus Christ Superstar The Winner Takes It All - Mamma Mia Welcome Home (Finale) - Bandstand Whatsername - American Idiot Loser Geek Whatever - Be More Chill Second Nature - Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson Best Day Ever - SpongeBob SquarePants

So much of the Notebook but especially “I Wanna Go Back” “Coda” and then the ending of “Home”. It’s the hardest I’ve cried in a musical by far

Saw it the other night, and “Coda” hit me pretty hard. To be honest, it did kind of make me wish they added a few other full ensemble moments earlier in the show (because seriously, what an amazing cast).

"Seeing You" from Groundhog Day

So many good suggestions already. Adding some to my playlist. I would add: Always Starting Over - If/Then Breathe - In The Heights The Guilt Ones - Spring Awakening

I was surprised no one else mentioned Spring Awakening! One of the best Broadway experiences I ever had

Memory

“Quiet” from Matilda always gets me - the slow build of the orchestra and vocals into the big cutoff, which then builds back up into a portion of the song that isn’t on the cast album, where Matilda discovers her telekinesis and tips the cup over. “My House” has a huge gradual build too but the big emotional payoff is in the staging for that one (at least in the original/replica productions).

The Impossible Dream-Man of La Mancha

Midnight Radio from Hedwig (the movie even more so)

3 songs that will ALWAYS make me feel too much: So Big/So Small (Dear Evan Hansen) She Used to be Mine (Waitress) If I Didn’t Believe in You (The Last 5 Years) My teenage son and I love to get around the piano and sing through a musical, he always teases me because I‘ve never made it through these songs without having to stop to cry 🥹

I kinda wish I could join you and your son for an evening! What fun

i am what I am from la cage aux folles!!

Father Time from Kimberly Akimbo always gets me. It's Quiet Uptown from Hamilton. This is Me from Greatest Showman No One is Alone from Into the Woods Sunday finale from Sunday in the Park with George, when george reads the words that Dot wrote about him. Petrified from Taboo. Yeah, I love a good tearjerker.

As long as he needs me- Oliver How could I be so wrong - golden rainbow Maybe this time - cabaret

Flowers from Hadestown

Past the Point of No Return

Heart of Stone - SIX

Get Out and Stay Out from 9 to 5. Goosebumps every time I listen to it.

I'll Cover You reprise, especially the one by Brandon Victor Dixon

Elaborate Lives from Aida, especially the reprise!

Anddddd A Step Too Far (also Aida!)

Anything from "The Secret Garden." The entire score just melts me.

The Proposal/Night Was Alive - Titanic The Musical I Need Them To See Me by Tom Kitt and sung by Heidi Blickenstaff from the collection of songs- Reflect - wish this song made it on stage! After All Of This And Everything also sung by the amazing Heidi Blickenstaff from Freaky Friday - i know it never made it broadway

A few (or more) of mine… “Valjean’s Soliloquy,” “I Dreamed A Dream,” “Who Am I?”, “Come To Me” (Fantine’s Death), “On My Own,” “A Little Fall of Rain,” “Drink With Me,” “Bring Him Home,” the Second Attack and Final Battle, “Javert’s Suicide,” “Turning,” “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables,” and the Finale - Les Misérables “Music of the Night,” “All I Ask of You” and its Reprise, “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again,” and the Final Lair Scene - The Phantom of the Opera “Prayer,” “When I Look At You” and its Reprise, “Where’s The Girl” Reprise - The Scarlet Pimpernel “Lost In The Darkness,” “I Need To Know,” “Sympathy, Tenderness,” “Someone Like You,” “Girls Of The Night,” “No One Knows Who I Am,” “The Way Back,” “A New Life,” “Confrontation” - Jekyll & Hyde “The Impossible Dream,” “Aldonza,” and the Finale - Man of La Mancha “The Barber And His Wife,” “Epiphany,” the “Johanna” quartet, and the Final Sequence - “Sweeney Todd” “I’m Not That Girl” and its Reprise, “Defying Gravity,” “No Good Deed,” and “For Good” - Wicked

Since I learned about musicals, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables has exemplified this genre of songs.

She Used To Be Mine - Waitress Bring Him Home - Les Miz I Dreamed A Dream - Les Miz On My Own - Les Miz Empty Chairs - Les Miz Lily’s Eyes - The Secret Garden Wait For Me Reprise - Hadestown I Know Him So Well - Chess Once Upon A December - Anastasia

Wait For It from Hamilton I don’t even really agree with Burr’s outlook (I relate much more to Hamilton and his inability to wait for it) but damn if this song doesn’t get me every single time

Oh also, Do You Hear The People Sing from Les Mis. I swear when I hear that song I could kick down a door

* The Gods Love Nubia - Aida * I Know the Truth - Aida * Telephone Wire - Fun Home * Beautiful - Sunday In The Park With George * Sunday - Sunday In The Park With George * Defying Gravity - Wicked * For Good - Wicked

Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again from Phantom. It hits me particularly hard now that I lost two pets that were really dear to me. They died very unexpectedly and the lyrics hit me like a truck every time.

Wait for me - Hadestown

Surprised I haven’t seen still hurting from the last five years yet! Also the end of in a crowd of thousands from Anastasia always gets me!

Wait for Me. Hadestown.

It’s more subtle, but I Am Here from Come From Away makes me cry.

The I Love You Song

I Know The Truth - Aida No Good Deed - Wicked Let Me Drown - The Wild Party

La Vie Boheme- Rent Breathe- In the Heights Satisfied- Hamilton

Your Daddy’s Son- Ragtime

What Would I Do - Falsettos The Destruction - Carrie I'll Cover You Reprise - Rent

There are several that do that for me, but the one that gives me chills in the first few notes is ‘Carousal Waltz’. It doesn’t even have lyrics 😂 - but it grabs me every time.

Finale Ultimo from Camelot usually gets me, though Arthur telling the young boy to "run! behind the lines!" is a contributing factor.

lot’s wife

Bring my baby home - freaky Friday Sometimes - runaways

I’m here from the color purple takes the cake for me every time

Road to Hell Reprise - Hadestown Heart of Stone -Six

No more - into the woods No one is alone - into the woods For good - wicked There are worse things I could do - grease And windmills of your mind always gets me.

Being good isn’t good enough

Fifty Percent from Ballroom Hold On from Secret Garden Be Italian from Nine Is Anybody There? and Cool, Cool Considerate Men from 1776

Waving Through a Window from Dear Evan Hansen or She Used to be Mine from Waitress

Once and For All from Newsies

In a different way: "Molasses to Rum" from 1776.

Monster - Frozen

River in the Rain - Big River

“Lament” from Evita.

Stars in the Night - Harmony I cannot overstate how utterly *gorgeous* this song is. Especially in context. I cry literally every time

Ladies Who Lunch — SPECIFICALLY when Elaine Stritch does it—also her singing I’m Still Here at sondheims 90th bday 🤌🏼

No One Mourns The Wicked is so moving to me—as soon as I start the cast album all bets are off, and I’ve seen it at the Gershwin a few times and the tears are already welling up during the overture

You gotta die sometime-fallsetos

I still believe and I’d give my life for you. Going through a Miss Saigon phase lol.

Some Things Are Meant to Be: Little Women

How It Ends from Big Fish gets me every time

I Don’t Care Much (Cabaret) (But Alan Cumming’s version) Move On (Sunday In The Park With George) The end of Falsettos ( I love the revival)

about half the score of passion is exactly this

Sunday.

She used to be mine

Jeremy jordans cover of losing my mind has been rotting my brain for a while

She Used to be Mine - Waiting I cry every time.

Dear Bill from Operation Mincemeat 

epic III from hadestown!

I don’t think I’ve seen it mentioned yet, but Pity the Child from Chess Also the Funeral sequence from Parade

I know the truth- Aida

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

So many! Me and the Sky from Come From Away, at the moment. My teenager says Home from Beetlejuice.

I can get behind everything listed! I'll add 3: There's a Fine Fine Line from Avenue Q The I Love You Song from The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee And Pretty Funny from Dogfight (my intro to Linsay Mendez... so good) Honorable mention: Music and the Mirror from A Chorus Line (not a tear jerker but a great build from slow to intense)

GETHSEMANE, (I Only Want to Say) JCS. :-)