I'm going to cheat here - this isn't a closing image, but it's certainly toward the end of the show. And that's "Mr. Andrews' Vision" in Titanic, the "mad scene" sung by Mr. Andrews in the smokeroom, with the passengers above on the main deck holding onto a railing as the ship sinks bit by bit. The angle of the ship kept lurching and tilting at pivotal points during the song, causing furniture in the smokeroom to slide and fall toward Andrews, as the passengers above screamed and tried to hold on. The last image of the scene was a grand piano coming at Andrews as the ship tilted one more time. The show went on to a moving final scene, but for me, the images in that song were the true coup de theatre.
On the tour, the set was (by necessity) compromised down to just the one hydraulic floor, but no levels - which generally rendered the show's original staging very ineffective. But for this scene, they solved the issue by having Andrews on the deck with the passengers, using lights to feature and isolate him - and it worked really well.
But that image of the grand piano rolling toward him in the Broadway production...that was powerful. And indelible. |
