True, there are people who believe ALL musicals are happy and comic. However, the true musical theatre fans are aware there are tragic and heartbreaking musicals. I had to discover the truth the hard way—–only because I was close-minded to tragedies in high school. I literally thought the genre was pure sad. Turns out I would be proven wrong in more ways than one. So, what heartbreaking musicals would prove to be the most meaningful?
Les Mis
This was actually expected. A powerful, epic, inspiring, and enlightening musical. A musical with a beautiful underlying spirituality. Complex and amazing characters, who sing such beautiful, emotional, and powerful songs, as in songs that hard to choose your favorite from. I can’t even choose my favorite character. Weird that I can’t choose my favorite character, but my favorite survivor. I actually am obsessed with Les Mis- the stage show was seen six times.
Below comes from each time I saw the stage show: 2013 (3x), 2015, 2017, and 2019
Les Mis taught me a LOT- 1) death can be memorable and can happen through song, 2) tragedies are more than heartbreak, 3) tragic musicals exist, 4) heartbreak is a musical emotion—just a basic list.
Rent
True, I just said Les Mis taught me I can love tragedies. But here is the funny thing- I fell in love with Rent before Les Mis. But I fell in love with Rent by songs alone- meaning they were out of context, so I didn’t know what the characters or story were. Soon enough, I learned that Rent was a sad show——-the original reason why this musical became meaningful was because of its message. Another reasoning was that it led me to want to see La Bohème, the opera it is based off of.
However, as years went by, I found out I could relate to the musical. I actually can relate to the characters’ struggle. Yes, I have Epilepsy and the characters have HIV/AIDS, but the emotions are similar- as in uncertainty, fear, stress, anxiety, frustration (I get it—not so much the disease but the struggle). My favorite song in Rent is “Seasons of Love”.
Conclusion
Both of these musicals make me an emotional wreck. I have nothing wrong with that due to my emotional connection.
Meg's Magical Musings 
Thank you for sharing your thoughts 💥💥💥
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Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes… Yeah. One of my favs! Les Mis started out making me cry. Then my friends in voice class and I would gather to sing while I played and sang. I’m not the best pianist. One of the friends was far better and I loved when she would play so I could just sing. One guy became very close. He could sing Bring Him Home with a great tenor. He died of the flu a few years ago. Now Les Mis can destroy me!
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Still an emotional wreck during both of those
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Yes.
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By the way, wasn’t an emotional wreck the first time I saw Les Mis; but as time went on soon eventually became on
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Yes, me, too. The first read I cried. The first time I watched it (TV version) I cried. Now that I have so many more memories with it it nearly is the out loud kind of crying. I couldn’t drive once while the CD was playing. I had to change CDs so that I wouldn’t crash.
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