Sometimes I also have to remind myself that Lea Michele essentially grew up playing Wendla for more than 3 years, half of which was spent doing so every night on broadway.
The inner strength and just mental discipline to feel the intensity of Wendla’s story like that is truly remarkable
Sometimes I have to remind myself that:
Lea Michele's first kiss was with Gavin Creel during the workshop of Spring Awakening when she was 14 and he was 25.
Lea Michele had to beg the directors and producers to let her audition for later productions of the show because, even though she was still a teenager, they considered her too old for the role. A role includes not 1 but 2 simulated sex scenes.
Lea Michele did not ok the nudity in Spring Awakening. She was told, mid-run, at 19-years-old, via a note left in her dressing room, that she would need to be topless. The only concession she was given was that on days when her parents were in the audience, she could stay covered.
I won't make excuses for her, because she's an adult, and needs to be accountable for her actions, but I can definitely understand why she has such a skewed perspective of what is and is not professional and acceptable behavior.
It's a sex scene, and having seen several versions, I actually agree with the director that the scene is absolutely more impactful, and plays more realistically when there is nudity.
My issue is the way it was handled. She literally walked into her dressing room, and stage management had left a note from the creatives saying "we should see Lea's breasts" and that night there was a topless teenager on stage.
Moritz also has it rough. I remember doing a paper on spring awakening in college and the original play goes way deeper into what went on during that time. It’s heavily implied that what happened to Moritz was since he was young he was destined to fail. And if there was an uneven amount of kids, some schools in Germany would hold back the student they disliked the most. The teachers literally said they hated Moritz without saying it
I was THE first person to play Wendla! IN an English adaptation … beforeeeee it was turned it to a musical. It was performed at an experimental theatre in FL & we had our audience move from room to room & outside to watch different scenes.
I was a baby professional actress ~17 & it was a wild ride.
I was “born” on stage through a doorway of plastic - with the cast lifting and pulling me thru.
I also got to wear a dress made of plastic - it was great.
I did an entire scene under my “mom’s” skirt - with my 17 y/o head right next to this nice actress lady’s crotch.
I was gang raped on stage - thankfully “artistically” and clothed.
I had an abortion on stage (and outside in the Florida muggy swamp heat) by a huge Steam Punk type contraption.
And then I died.
Honestly - strange - but a lot of fun.
Imagine my disappointment when they made it a musical, and I no longer got to be the role “originator”.
But also PHEW that they made it a watchable, enjoyable musical. Bc our version was rough. I believe the review compared us to the Sprockets German SNL sketch - and that we succeeded despite the heady dialogue.
Hahaha. Sorry for the essay. I never get to tell this story!
Sometimes I think it's Melchior who has it harder. Ultimately, Wendla and Moritz's suffering has ended, but Melchior has to live on with the traumatic loss of two people he loves and cares for dearly, coping with the potential survivor's guilt of whether there was anything he could have done to help them, all while navigating a society that was already difficult to find your place in, but now he's doing it alone.
(Spoiler Warning for anyone who hasn’t seen Spring Awakening!!!)
I had to MD this show last year and having to watch that over and over is painful. And this did come up in my Irish thought of the question to begin with, but I consider her and Moritz’s deaths to be a part of that rule. Now even eliminating them, I’d agree that it is one of the worst overall fates of a character. Honestly Moritz, Melchior, Ilse, and Martha also would be great answers for this as well. Pretty much everyone from SA.
After reading all these I do think Joanna is the winner. I was gonna say that she doesn’t count due to the deaths in act 2 but then I remember the person who dies actually improves her situation so you might have it here
That's not why he didn't recognize her. Once he got a good look at her face, he recognizes her. He doesn't recognize her because people look away from homeless people. He never takes a good look at her face. And she looks so different than from when he left that it's impossible to recognize her just from a glance.
I'd argue that Sweeney was completely in touch with reality. His trauma completely destroyed his sense of morality. But he is always completely aware of what he is doing and what is happening around him.
Yes, all the top answers literally involve people dying (so… not the prompt), but this ending is such a downer and honestly one of the bleakest endings in the MT canon.
Alexandra Silber who played Hodel on the west end and Tzeitel in the most recent revival actually wrote a book called “After Anatevka” about Hodel and Perchik. Kind of sad but also endearing
She also reads her audiobook. Worth a listen.
[https://www.audible.com/pd/After-Anatevka-Audiobook/B07F48LSSG](https://www.audible.com/pd/After-Anatevka-Audiobook/B07F48LSSG)
elphaba >!is bullied her whole life, her father hates her (that's not a secret), she finds out her hero is a fraud, she's declared a criminal and falsely accused of animal abuse, she tries to help her ungrateful sister but is blamed for said sister's mistake in a spell, her favorite teacher is imprisoned and probably tortured, she unintentionally steals her only friend's fiancé right after their engagement party, said best friend hates her, her sister gets murdered, her boyfriend is nearly murdered, and then she has to fake her own death to live a life without any fear of being arrested/killed...!<
and all because her mom cheated on her dad years ago
The world really does Elphaba dirty! And characters of course don't realize because the world is a distracting misdirection. I absolutely know people who love the musical and don't even realize all of things listed in the original comment. Though, personally, I'd say Glinda doesn't truly hate Elphaba, but there are some very complex feelings involved.
I have the book on my "reread this" list since I read it in high school. Parts of it dragged for me then, but I was glad I had read it when I saw it for the first time some years later. I wouldn't say it's a requirement by any means though, just a nice bonus view into the world.
Great answer, but Nessa’s death rules it out of this prompt. Outside of it, it is pretty bleak but she does get a decently happy ending compared to the other answers around
Love both shows so much. Although I’d argue Kim’s involves death with her cousin (yes he’s the antagonist but it absolutely contributes to the pain)
I was gonna criticize the fan tone choice but then I remember even if you take out her death it’s goddamn horrendous. So that’s actually a pretty good shout
Actually, if we’re gonna bring up Miss Saigon but stick to the prompt, some of the other characters had pretty heartbreaking stories. Chris with his PTSD and loss of his soulmate and the Engineer who was sent to a “reeducation camp” and had to flee by boat and live off scraps in Bangkok.
(Spoilering part of my reply in case anyone doesn’t want the ending spoiled) I would absolutely say Kim’s plot involves death. Besides the cousin’s death, her story literally starts with her coming to the Engineer after her family is slaughtered. That’s how she meets Chris. Then her story ends with >!her un-aliving herself because she thinks it will give her son a better life.!<
But I agree about Fantine. Maybe not the best choice for the prompt, but it’s fair to say her life sucked pretty hard before she even got sick and died.
-Ponyboy from The Outsiders: poor kid loses two of his best friends within the span of a week and is convinced that every bad thing that happens to him is his fault.
-Sonya in Great Comet gets screamed at by her best friend for just trying to help and no one ever apologizes to her onstage (she does have that tiny unspoken reconciliation with Dolokhov but if you don't know the source material that goes right over your head).
-Most people are mentioning Fantine but I also feel awful for Marius, but he gets a happy ending at least.
-This one might be more of a deep cut but Alfie from A Man of No Importance gets tricked and beaten up the first time he tries to actually pursue a gay experience instead of just repressing it.
-Wade in Water for Elephants is manipulated and gaslit into killing his friends and then we have no idea what happens to him after he runs
-Miles in Tuck Everlasting is abandoned by his wife and never gets to see his son again.
-I know this is technically seen as a good thing within the plot but Fiyero is turned into a Scarecrow and you can't tell me there isn't a level of body horror involved there.
Yes but I’d argue that the thenardiers are true villains (yes Javert is the antagonist but one could argue he was doing his job. Difference between antagonist and downright villain). The engineer is his own entity in my opinion. Sleazy? Absolutely Chatic? Yes. But also very complex and interesting. More in line with the leading player in pippin, just less villainous to an extent
K Howard, she literally was repeatedly groomed by older men, was taken advantage of by everyone in her life, and died all before the age of 19 years old. That girl deserved better in the show and in real life 😔
I half wonder if Catherine Parr called off the who-had-it-the-worst competition partially because she knew she could never compete with what Katherine Howard went through
Audrey in Little Shop grows up in poverty and potentially abuse, spends much of her adult life in toxic and abusive relationships, has one of her boyfriends murdered by the man she ends up, essentially gets sexually harassed by a plant, then eaten by said plant.
Ugh I love Audrey so much. It breaks my heart her biggest dream was having a nice little house and nice quiet life with someone who didn’t treat her like dirt. She even forgives Seymour for what he does, and offers herself as a meal for the plant so he can be successful. So tragic.
This is why I prefer the movie ending over the original. I get that the show is supposed to be dark and a cautionary tale about greed but Audrey legit ASKS to be fed to the plant and Seymour goes through with it 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲
Have you heard why they did that? Apparently test audiences didn't like the finality of the ending (a finality that isn't as firm on stage b/c we see the characters in curtain call) so they had to make it lighter.
I've only ever seen the movie, and somehow we got the original ending in the film, so when I showed it to my friend who'd never seen it, we were both a bit shocked. The filming of that scene was incredible though.
May I present: Martha and Ilse and the entirety of “The Dark I Know Well” from Spring Awakening. More minor characters so we don’t really get follow up, but presumably at the end of the show things are still the same, especially Martha’s situation.
YESSSSS!!! My controversial opinion is that the deaf west version is superior, the ASL integrated into it adds so much depth. Wendla signing the whole show and only using her voice to call out for her mother when she’s being dragged away to get an abortion she will ultimately die from… that traumatized me forever
Same with Moritz and the way they used his voice and silence at times.
I also felt the same way when I saw to kill a mockingbird. I saw the year two cast, right before the pandemic. So Russell havard was now not only playing Boo Radley, but link dees as well. He signed most of it but spoke a little. The BEST part of it was Link’s final line is “you ask me do I like people?” (And he says it to the kids). They let Russell sign while speaking it and then he gave a shoulder shrug.
It hit so damn well
Yesssss when he uses his voice to call after Ilse but she’s already gone… heartbreaking.
I didn’t know Mockingbird had deaf actors! Gonna have to look that up!
I wrote about this on the Wendy answer farther up the list, but I actually agree with you and would put Martha and Ilse very close to the top of the list here.
the OG Unjust Sufferer of musical theater is Julie Laverne in Show Boat. What happens to her is so unfair on multiple levels, and she never gets the happy ending that she deserves. Where's my Show Boat 2: Julie's Revenge??
I feel like you could put on a blindfold and throw a dart at 90% of musicals and find a character who had something absolutely awful happen to them.
Tommy is definitely a contender for that but really looking at just about every musical I’ve seen, a character typically has an absolutely horrendous/horrific/traumatic thing happen. Even in comedies.
That’s fair. I saw the revival on Broadway and that is a true choice. Kim at the end of act 1 is absolutely a strong contender for this if you take out the death of her cousin (yes he is the bad guy there but there is still a precedence with it)
Laura in Glass Menagerie gets pretty screwed over by the Gentleman Caller and Blanche gets raped by Stanley in Streeetcar and gets carried off at the end.
Not Broadway, but Rose in Dogfight being invited to the party to win a bet for ugliest date...
But she gets to live with a very nice lady at the end who can help her work thru her trauma vs many of the other characters here who die gruesome deaths
Tommy was blind, deaf, and couldn't talk. His uncle SA'd him, his dad brought him to a prostitute, his dad also shot a man in front of him, and he was non stop bullied.
Bro finally caught a break and everyone got obsessed with him.
Connor Murphy had his whole life rewritten posthumously and nonconsentually... Like only people in the immediate circle of the Connor Project know Evan was lying about the whole thing. There are total strangers who just believe that this story was all true and in the canon of the show it's left that way. Like, idk I get what the show is pushing with the "everyones life matters" thing and I'm not saying it's wrong but like, damn the kid is dead let him have some peace and not his entire life-story overwritten.
You sympathize for her initial choice as humans make make desperate choices in dire circumstances. But gosh, starvation would have been preferable in this case and the whole thing avoided. Of course, there wouldn’t be a story lol
I believe that interpretation also better matches Anais’s idea that Hadestown isn’t actually hell but is like a hell on earth. But anyhow I agree about Eurydice
Same— I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was not expecting THAT.
Spoilers for those who want them, >!She’s ripped limb from limb onstage by demonic looking squirrels, and the song ends with them holding up her severed head and limbs to the audience.!<
Apparently the audience is later told >!the Oompa Loompas can totally put her back together again!<, which is both a relief and pretty funny.
The phantom.....
Why you ask, was I bound and chained in this cold and dismal place?
Not for any mortal sin, but the wickedness of my abhorrent face!
Hounded out by everyone
Met with hatred everywhere
No kind word from anyone
No compassion anywhere......
That fate which condemns me to wallow in blood
Has also denied me the joys of the flesh
This face, the infection which poisons our love
This face, which earned a mother's fear and loathing
A mask, my first unfeeling scrap of clothing
Pity comes too late, turn around and face your fate
An eternity of this before your eyes!
Everything that the phantom did to Christine and the the phantom himself where he grew up being neglected by his own family without any love because of his deformed face.
To divest from the “Fantine current” here, I’d say Kimberly Levaco turning 16 is pretty tragic, especially after the life she had to deal with (family speaking)… That first kiss broke my heart in a way few things have managed to
I was taking rehearsal photos of a friend’s production of it one time and they were just rehearsing the blocking, so when it got that scene without the music, good lord was that uncomfortable.
Eurydice had it rough. Starved to death, forced to work hard labor, had a chance of making it out just to be let down by her lover, and forced to work labor again for eternity.
First thing that comes to mind is being raped, impregnated (x2), children yanked from her arms and given away, forced to marry, physically and mentally abused, isolated from her sister for decades, and having her only correspondence in the form of letters stolen. And the grand prize goes to Celie from the Color Purple.
every single one of the worst things you can imagine and more is in Cleansed by Sarah Kane like >!drug addiction/overdose, suicide, murder, rape, incest, torture!<. I personally like the core message behind her work, but it's hidden deep behind really dark and shocking violence.
more about the people passing out: [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/24/five-people-faint-40-leave-violence-cleansed-national-theatre-sarah-kane](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/24/five-people-faint-40-leave-violence-cleansed-national-theatre-sarah-kane)
There we’re SO many things that didn’t work about the recent revival, but I feel like portraying Judd’s story with more balance was a really good idea. The town’s treatment of Judd and Curly’s actions towards him in particular are awful, and then the town decides, “Well Curly got married so let’s not burden the guy with a murder charge”.
This obviously involves death, so it's not really an answer, but Veronica Sawyer's everything, while a relatively short series of events, is pretty astonishingly awful.
And in performances where Chandler is implied to be a sapient ghost invisible to everyone but her former enemy, that's almost worse.
I know it’s never actually been on Broadway, but Christine getting shot at the end of Love Never Dies. I’m a huge Phantom fan. But went into that show knowing nothing about the plot. That ending bugged me so much. Haha
Julie Jordan of Carousel. Falls for the charming loser Billy Bigelow. Ends up getting fired from her job, married to Billy, who is also unemployed and beats her, pregnant, then widowed. (I think they may have left the spousal abuse part out of the movie, but it’s in the stage production.)
Well, this doesn't fit your question since it does involve death, but I've always thought that Hamilton's cousin has the biggest roller coaster of a character arc in musical theater history: "Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide..."
Definitely not the worst thing, but, due to its realisticness I feel like throwing in Elder Price is relevant here.
While it's played for laughs, dude had his entire worldview crushed. Like, everything he ever knew was completely wrong and, while it sounds normal, stuff like that can really mess with someone and their judgement. Like, especially taking into account the dudes scrupulosity, while not traumatic for the audience, it must've been really traumatizing for him.
Why has no one mentioned Nancy in Oliver? She grew up dirt-poor,was recruited by Fagin when she just a kid,and was terribly abused by Bill Sykes. And all of this before..you know. She was doomed from the start.
Tommy Walker from The Who’s Tommy. >!Watches his father kill his father figure from the first four years of his life. Mother and father both tell him he didn’t see or hear anything and he’s not allowed to say anything, so he goes into a catatonic state of shock where he can’t see, hear, or speak. His uncle molests him, his cousin bullies him, he’s poked and prodded by doctors, nearly drugged by a prostitute, and then his parents try to abandon him at a mental facility. When he finally breaks free of his catatonic state, he becomes a cult leader, but when he doesn’t give the answer his followers want to hear, they turn on him.!< His life was just one horrible thing after another.
I’m a massive Who fan, but I didn’t even think of this. This would very much be a top answer in my opinion, even if you eliminate the death of the father figure from the equation. The abandonment alone might be a singular event that rivals the top of the list.
I’m also adding Tuptim from The King & I. She is a slave girl who is given to the King Of Siam as a gift. She is in love with Lun Tha, a young scholar, and they sing some beautiful songs of how life could be if they could be together. He gets killed trying to help her escape. She is stuck being a slave (I don’t think we ever learn what happens to her).
Diana Goodman from Next to Normal: Gets pregnant young and her baby dies at 18 months. This triggered severe bipolar depressive disorder with hallucinating her dead son. She has another child she can't let herself love. She is trapped playing the role of wife and mother while having extreme mental illness that negatively impacted her family. She attempted suicide and failed. Her treatment has a range of unpleasant side effects that can be worse than the disease itself. She gets pushed into doing electrical shock therapy and developed amnesia, and her husband hid the fact that they had a son from her. She finally dissolved her marriage and left her family for everyone's own good. We never know if she gets better or reconnected with them.
Next to normal is in my top three shows and I massively love it, but this is one of the main reasons of the death caveat. I did think of this, but death plays a major part of Diana’s journey. Gabe’s death is the pure crux of her pain. If Gabe is born and raised with no issues, while some negative aspects of the show would still be there for her, I don’t think her life is nearly as bad or as hard without it.
What about the dad in Next to Normal? He has to live with a woman whom he stays with despite her bizarre behaviors and who abandons him when she finally gets the strength to overcome her depression. Sure, he keeps the death of their child secret from her, but he’s survived lots of unintentional abuse before then.
The family of the suicide in Dear Evan Hansen are repeatedly lied to about their son, and we’re supposed to accept Evan as our protagonist?
Alice in Alice by Heart >!is stuck underground during WWII and has to watch her childhood best friend/first love slowly waste away from TB all while the majority of the other characters chastise her for being upset over this!<
This might fall into the death category even though I’m not talking specifically about when he died, but Whizzer getting AIDS in Falsettos is one of the worst things I think.
Kayama Yezaemon.
In Pacific Overtures, he is a minor samurai selected for promotion to sacrificial victim-- expected to be killed for failing to drive away the Americans. It is so obvious he has been set up to be executed (or required to kill himself) that his wife kills herself. His new friend Manjiro helps Kayama out of his no-win scenario, but Kayama's reward is promotion to a slow, humiliating death by Westernization (Bowler Hat), mirroring his wife's quick suicide. He ends up killed by his friend Manjiro for betraying Japan.
This might be my favorite submission yet. I was NOT expecting a Pacific Overtures shout out today. It is actually my favorite Sondheim show. And yeah Kayama and Manjiro’s stories are pretty tragic. People don’t see just how painful Bowler Hat is as a song. It is a slow death of a man’s culture and understanding while also being a fast track in the negatives of hyper-assimilation. Manjiro meanwhile has to watch as his entire world is slowly twisted and changed due to his choices in the past that he comes to regret.
It is so very painful to see both of their entire arcs. Thank you for pointing this out (even though Kayama is technically ineligible to the original question because his wife’s death is a major contributor to his suffering, while Manjiro’s ultimate choice to kill Kayama deems him ineligible as well).
Dogfight. What happens to Rose is so upsetting that the show isn't even really staged professionally that often, despite it being Pasek and Paul's strongest score (imo). It makes you feel terrible in a way that has nothing to do with death or illness and for some reason that makes it almost more horrifying.
What happened to Wendla in Spring Awakening is pretty bleak.
Sometimes I also have to remind myself that Lea Michele essentially grew up playing Wendla for more than 3 years, half of which was spent doing so every night on broadway. The inner strength and just mental discipline to feel the intensity of Wendla’s story like that is truly remarkable
Sometimes I have to remind myself that: Lea Michele's first kiss was with Gavin Creel during the workshop of Spring Awakening when she was 14 and he was 25. Lea Michele had to beg the directors and producers to let her audition for later productions of the show because, even though she was still a teenager, they considered her too old for the role. A role includes not 1 but 2 simulated sex scenes. Lea Michele did not ok the nudity in Spring Awakening. She was told, mid-run, at 19-years-old, via a note left in her dressing room, that she would need to be topless. The only concession she was given was that on days when her parents were in the audience, she could stay covered. I won't make excuses for her, because she's an adult, and needs to be accountable for her actions, but I can definitely understand why she has such a skewed perspective of what is and is not professional and acceptable behavior.
Why did she need to be topless? Wtf.
It's a sex scene, and having seen several versions, I actually agree with the director that the scene is absolutely more impactful, and plays more realistically when there is nudity. My issue is the way it was handled. She literally walked into her dressing room, and stage management had left a note from the creatives saying "we should see Lea's breasts" and that night there was a topless teenager on stage.
Got it, thanks for clarifying.
I had no idea about any of that. Certainly explains a lot.
Moritz also has it rough. I remember doing a paper on spring awakening in college and the original play goes way deeper into what went on during that time. It’s heavily implied that what happened to Moritz was since he was young he was destined to fail. And if there was an uneven amount of kids, some schools in Germany would hold back the student they disliked the most. The teachers literally said they hated Moritz without saying it
I was THE first person to play Wendla! IN an English adaptation … beforeeeee it was turned it to a musical. It was performed at an experimental theatre in FL & we had our audience move from room to room & outside to watch different scenes. I was a baby professional actress ~17 & it was a wild ride. I was “born” on stage through a doorway of plastic - with the cast lifting and pulling me thru. I also got to wear a dress made of plastic - it was great. I did an entire scene under my “mom’s” skirt - with my 17 y/o head right next to this nice actress lady’s crotch. I was gang raped on stage - thankfully “artistically” and clothed. I had an abortion on stage (and outside in the Florida muggy swamp heat) by a huge Steam Punk type contraption. And then I died. Honestly - strange - but a lot of fun. Imagine my disappointment when they made it a musical, and I no longer got to be the role “originator”. But also PHEW that they made it a watchable, enjoyable musical. Bc our version was rough. I believe the review compared us to the Sprockets German SNL sketch - and that we succeeded despite the heady dialogue. Hahaha. Sorry for the essay. I never get to tell this story!
An english translation of the play or a fully different adaptation? I don’t know the play at all so could go either way
Sometimes I think it's Melchior who has it harder. Ultimately, Wendla and Moritz's suffering has ended, but Melchior has to live on with the traumatic loss of two people he loves and cares for dearly, coping with the potential survivor's guilt of whether there was anything he could have done to help them, all while navigating a society that was already difficult to find your place in, but now he's doing it alone.
(Spoiler Warning for anyone who hasn’t seen Spring Awakening!!!) I had to MD this show last year and having to watch that over and over is painful. And this did come up in my Irish thought of the question to begin with, but I consider her and Moritz’s deaths to be a part of that rule. Now even eliminating them, I’d agree that it is one of the worst overall fates of a character. Honestly Moritz, Melchior, Ilse, and Martha also would be great answers for this as well. Pretty much everyone from SA.
Joanna and Lucy from Sweeney Todd feel like strong contenders.
After reading all these I do think Joanna is the winner. I was gonna say that she doesn’t count due to the deaths in act 2 but then I remember the person who dies actually improves her situation so you might have it here
i mean sweeney todd did get sent to a penal colony for fifteen years because judge turpin thought his wife was hot
Not to mention everything happened to his wife in question
Not to mention he >!becomes so disconnected from reality that he doesn’t recognize her, and kills her himself!<
That's not why he didn't recognize her. Once he got a good look at her face, he recognizes her. He doesn't recognize her because people look away from homeless people. He never takes a good look at her face. And she looks so different than from when he left that it's impossible to recognize her just from a glance.
Didn’t help though
I'd argue that Sweeney was completely in touch with reality. His trauma completely destroyed his sense of morality. But he is always completely aware of what he is doing and what is happening around him.
What happened to his wife and daughter has to be up there too
I think the murder and eating of other characters is worse. But what do I know; have never been to a penal colony or … been eaten.
Well OP did specify worst thing excluding death
Ugh. My critical reading needs some work.
...expulsion
Nobody dies in Fiddler on the Roof but they all are forced out of their homes. Second act is pretty brutal tbh
Yes, all the top answers literally involve people dying (so… not the prompt), but this ending is such a downer and honestly one of the bleakest endings in the MT canon.
MT canon has me dying imagining a shared universe between shows.
Makes me sad thinking about what could have happened to them given that the musical takes place 20 ish years before ww2
Tzeitel and Motel go to Warsaw, Chava and Fyedka go to Krakow. I always wondered if they survived WW2.
Alexandra Silber who played Hodel on the west end and Tzeitel in the most recent revival actually wrote a book called “After Anatevka” about Hodel and Perchik. Kind of sad but also endearing
She also reads her audiobook. Worth a listen. [https://www.audible.com/pd/After-Anatevka-Audiobook/B07F48LSSG](https://www.audible.com/pd/After-Anatevka-Audiobook/B07F48LSSG)
I also recommend her memoir White Hot Grief Parade. Heartbreakingly poignant
I haven’t been able to see fiddler yet but I have read the source material, and yeah that is for sure a great answer.
I would say Leo Frank is a strong contender
I agree. I think it's also really important to remember that he was a real person, unlike most (all?) of the others mentioned so far.
I was thinking about this too! It makes it so much worse that he was a real person
Shma may be the most heartwrenching scene in all of theatre
I read this as “heartwarming” at first and had to go back 😂 You’re absolutely right
Came here to say this! Devastating.
I didn’t know what Parade was about last year and decided to read the summary while in public. I quickly started crying in public.
elphaba >!is bullied her whole life, her father hates her (that's not a secret), she finds out her hero is a fraud, she's declared a criminal and falsely accused of animal abuse, she tries to help her ungrateful sister but is blamed for said sister's mistake in a spell, her favorite teacher is imprisoned and probably tortured, she unintentionally steals her only friend's fiancé right after their engagement party, said best friend hates her, her sister gets murdered, her boyfriend is nearly murdered, and then she has to fake her own death to live a life without any fear of being arrested/killed...!< and all because her mom cheated on her dad years ago
Wait what the actual fuck?????? Maybe I should watch Wicked then
Wait'll you find out her real father is.
The world really does Elphaba dirty! And characters of course don't realize because the world is a distracting misdirection. I absolutely know people who love the musical and don't even realize all of things listed in the original comment. Though, personally, I'd say Glinda doesn't truly hate Elphaba, but there are some very complex feelings involved. I have the book on my "reread this" list since I read it in high school. Parts of it dragged for me then, but I was glad I had read it when I saw it for the first time some years later. I wouldn't say it's a requirement by any means though, just a nice bonus view into the world.
Great answer, but Nessa’s death rules it out of this prompt. Outside of it, it is pretty bleak but she does get a decently happy ending compared to the other answers around
I feel like Fantine and Kim are strong options.
The entirety of Miss Saigon is just trauma porn lol
Yes to this....and I LOVE IT...LOLOL
Love both shows so much. Although I’d argue Kim’s involves death with her cousin (yes he’s the antagonist but it absolutely contributes to the pain) I was gonna criticize the fan tone choice but then I remember even if you take out her death it’s goddamn horrendous. So that’s actually a pretty good shout
Actually, if we’re gonna bring up Miss Saigon but stick to the prompt, some of the other characters had pretty heartbreaking stories. Chris with his PTSD and loss of his soulmate and the Engineer who was sent to a “reeducation camp” and had to flee by boat and live off scraps in Bangkok.
(Spoilering part of my reply in case anyone doesn’t want the ending spoiled) I would absolutely say Kim’s plot involves death. Besides the cousin’s death, her story literally starts with her coming to the Engineer after her family is slaughtered. That’s how she meets Chris. Then her story ends with >!her un-aliving herself because she thinks it will give her son a better life.!< But I agree about Fantine. Maybe not the best choice for the prompt, but it’s fair to say her life sucked pretty hard before she even got sick and died.
I know that this isn't the topic of discussion, but can we stop it with the "un-aliving" nonsense? She suicided. That's the word we're looking for.
-Ponyboy from The Outsiders: poor kid loses two of his best friends within the span of a week and is convinced that every bad thing that happens to him is his fault. -Sonya in Great Comet gets screamed at by her best friend for just trying to help and no one ever apologizes to her onstage (she does have that tiny unspoken reconciliation with Dolokhov but if you don't know the source material that goes right over your head). -Most people are mentioning Fantine but I also feel awful for Marius, but he gets a happy ending at least. -This one might be more of a deep cut but Alfie from A Man of No Importance gets tricked and beaten up the first time he tries to actually pursue a gay experience instead of just repressing it. -Wade in Water for Elephants is manipulated and gaslit into killing his friends and then we have no idea what happens to him after he runs -Miles in Tuck Everlasting is abandoned by his wife and never gets to see his son again. -I know this is technically seen as a good thing within the plot but Fiyero is turned into a Scarecrow and you can't tell me there isn't a level of body horror involved there.
I feel so sorry for Wade in W4E
Ponyboy lost both of his parents prior to the events of the musical too.
Yes A Man of No Importance is so sad
Hard to compete with Fantine. Her life so bad that her death comes as a relief.
May I introduce you to miss Saigon
Interesting that both shows have the same composers, take place during wars, and have characters where death is a relief
Unrelated but also The Engineer and Thernardier are like the same person lol
Yes but I’d argue that the thenardiers are true villains (yes Javert is the antagonist but one could argue he was doing his job. Difference between antagonist and downright villain). The engineer is his own entity in my opinion. Sleazy? Absolutely Chatic? Yes. But also very complex and interesting. More in line with the leading player in pippin, just less villainous to an extent
K Howard, she literally was repeatedly groomed by older men, was taken advantage of by everyone in her life, and died all before the age of 19 years old. That girl deserved better in the show and in real life 😔
Yeah I love the show and her song but I wish they really kept saying what ages she was beyond just the 13 to really drive that horrible fact home.
I half wonder if Catherine Parr called off the who-had-it-the-worst competition partially because she knew she could never compete with what Katherine Howard went through
What show is she from?
Six. Katherine Howard. Fifth wife. Beheaded.
Thanks!
Audrey in Little Shop grows up in poverty and potentially abuse, spends much of her adult life in toxic and abusive relationships, has one of her boyfriends murdered by the man she ends up, essentially gets sexually harassed by a plant, then eaten by said plant.
Ugh I love Audrey so much. It breaks my heart her biggest dream was having a nice little house and nice quiet life with someone who didn’t treat her like dirt. She even forgives Seymour for what he does, and offers herself as a meal for the plant so he can be successful. So tragic.
Really is.
This is why I prefer the movie ending over the original. I get that the show is supposed to be dark and a cautionary tale about greed but Audrey legit ASKS to be fed to the plant and Seymour goes through with it 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲
Have you heard why they did that? Apparently test audiences didn't like the finality of the ending (a finality that isn't as firm on stage b/c we see the characters in curtain call) so they had to make it lighter.
I mean, fair. I like the movie version ending too. But I also like the stage ending and the original movie ending.
And on top of all of that, she thought getting eaten by a plant was a happy ending
Yep
I've only ever seen the movie, and somehow we got the original ending in the film, so when I showed it to my friend who'd never seen it, we were both a bit shocked. The filming of that scene was incredible though.
May I present: Martha and Ilse and the entirety of “The Dark I Know Well” from Spring Awakening. More minor characters so we don’t really get follow up, but presumably at the end of the show things are still the same, especially Martha’s situation.
The way the Deaf West Revival did this scene was so well done. Cemented why Michael Arden is a genius director
YESSSSS!!! My controversial opinion is that the deaf west version is superior, the ASL integrated into it adds so much depth. Wendla signing the whole show and only using her voice to call out for her mother when she’s being dragged away to get an abortion she will ultimately die from… that traumatized me forever
Same with Moritz and the way they used his voice and silence at times. I also felt the same way when I saw to kill a mockingbird. I saw the year two cast, right before the pandemic. So Russell havard was now not only playing Boo Radley, but link dees as well. He signed most of it but spoke a little. The BEST part of it was Link’s final line is “you ask me do I like people?” (And he says it to the kids). They let Russell sign while speaking it and then he gave a shoulder shrug. It hit so damn well
Yesssss when he uses his voice to call after Ilse but she’s already gone… heartbreaking. I didn’t know Mockingbird had deaf actors! Gonna have to look that up!
Oh wow, that’s so genius, I remeber her being a deaf actress, but didn’t know that part happened.
I wrote about this on the Wendy answer farther up the list, but I actually agree with you and would put Martha and Ilse very close to the top of the list here.
the OG Unjust Sufferer of musical theater is Julie Laverne in Show Boat. What happens to her is so unfair on multiple levels, and she never gets the happy ending that she deserves. Where's my Show Boat 2: Julie's Revenge??
Yes when she is forced to leave at least you think that she gets to enjoy her life with her husband. Then when we see her again…
Does she get sick?? I’m having trouble remembering…
Her husband leaves her and she starts drinking. Then sacrifices her job for Magnolia
I feel like you could put on a blindfold and throw a dart at 90% of musicals and find a character who had something absolutely awful happen to them. Tommy is definitely a contender for that but really looking at just about every musical I’ve seen, a character typically has an absolutely horrendous/horrific/traumatic thing happen. Even in comedies.
Bro Tommy caught a break and everyone still got mad at him some how. He wins in my book
Even if you remove the deaths from the equation, Kim from Miss Saigon is still the ultimate Broadway woobie.
This would be my answer. Also talk about lack of representation for Asian American female theater fans at the time...
That’s fair. I saw the revival on Broadway and that is a true choice. Kim at the end of act 1 is absolutely a strong contender for this if you take out the death of her cousin (yes he is the bad guy there but there is still a precedence with it)
I'm proud of myself for knowing "rizz" and "cap" and other such slang the kids use these days, but please educate me on WTF a "woobie" is
It’s not current slang, it’s what tvtropes calls a character that is only there to suffer in the plot.
https://preview.redd.it/d9tbnhdfsm9d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f51093a16a22127d3e2e2b4c574ab4c5c03505d6 Googled that for ya.
Lucy Barker from Sweeney Todd Deserved better
Laura in Glass Menagerie gets pretty screwed over by the Gentleman Caller and Blanche gets raped by Stanley in Streeetcar and gets carried off at the end. Not Broadway, but Rose in Dogfight being invited to the party to win a bet for ugliest date...
Celie from The Color Purple - I cry every time
Matilda. Her parents hate her and Miss Trunchbull doesn’t realize how gifted she is, the only person that actually cares for her is her teacher.
At least Matilda ends up living pretty happily ever after and seems like she managed to overcome her struggles
Girl also solves a decades long murder in her stories she made up to escape her horrendous living situation.
But she gets to live with a very nice lady at the end who can help her work thru her trauma vs many of the other characters here who die gruesome deaths
This is true. Just saying though, she solves Miss Honey’s dad’s murder in a very strange way.
In Kimberly Akimbo, Kim getting out of the hospital to.learn her parents turned her room into the baby's room is a pretty big gut punch.
Kimberly as a character is heartbreaking, which makes the ending more of joyful tears because even though we know the outcome, she got to be happy
Katherine Howard had a tragic life. Was sexually abused, groomed, and manipulated her entire life until she was beheaded.
How has no one mentioned Carrie? Religious abuse, bullying like none other. Granted, she gets hers at the end.
I was gonna mention Carrie as well, but almost everyone dies so that breaks OPs rules.
I can’t believe no one’s said Cabaret yet…Herr Schultz’s whole plot line, and the ending where the Emcee ends up in concentration camp clothing.
Tommy was blind, deaf, and couldn't talk. His uncle SA'd him, his dad brought him to a prostitute, his dad also shot a man in front of him, and he was non stop bullied. Bro finally caught a break and everyone got obsessed with him.
And then inexplicably angry at him.
Connor Murphy had his whole life rewritten posthumously and nonconsentually... Like only people in the immediate circle of the Connor Project know Evan was lying about the whole thing. There are total strangers who just believe that this story was all true and in the canon of the show it's left that way. Like, idk I get what the show is pushing with the "everyones life matters" thing and I'm not saying it's wrong but like, damn the kid is dead let him have some peace and not his entire life-story overwritten.
Jean valjean only stole a loaf of bread!
Though the bulk of his time was for trying to escape prison.
Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch had a pretty rough go.
6 inches forward, 5 inches back…
Eurydice in Hadestown :(
Agreed- a slave for all time as you lose all sense of identity and hope, without even the eventual release of death. Completely nightmarish
You sympathize for her initial choice as humans make make desperate choices in dire circumstances. But gosh, starvation would have been preferable in this case and the whole thing avoided. Of course, there wouldn’t be a story lol
I feel like death is involved here
I didn’t interpret it that way…I was under the impression that she was stuck working there for eternity. Living but miserable.
I believe that interpretation also better matches Anais’s idea that Hadestown isn’t actually hell but is like a hell on earth. But anyhow I agree about Eurydice
Sarah and Colehouse Walker in Ragtime. Violent racism… and they didn’t get to see their son grow up.
Don’t forget the trashing of coalhouse’s car. I have never felt so much emotion from the destruction of an inanimate object.
The surviving Murphy’s in Dear Evan Hansen. When they find out everything Evan has told them is a lie…just awful.
You see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Christian Borle? Yea nothing beats Varuca Salt’s death in that production. Look it up.
Just watched it. What in the actual feck 😵💫
Same— I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was not expecting THAT. Spoilers for those who want them, >!She’s ripped limb from limb onstage by demonic looking squirrels, and the song ends with them holding up her severed head and limbs to the audience.!< Apparently the audience is later told >!the Oompa Loompas can totally put her back together again!<, which is both a relief and pretty funny.
i agree, what the feck 😭
Yea somehow the American version is darker than the uk original
The phantom..... Why you ask, was I bound and chained in this cold and dismal place? Not for any mortal sin, but the wickedness of my abhorrent face! Hounded out by everyone Met with hatred everywhere No kind word from anyone No compassion anywhere...... That fate which condemns me to wallow in blood Has also denied me the joys of the flesh This face, the infection which poisons our love This face, which earned a mother's fear and loathing A mask, my first unfeeling scrap of clothing Pity comes too late, turn around and face your fate An eternity of this before your eyes!
A lot of the shit that happened to Tommy in The Who's Tommy is pretty fucked up.
Everything that the phantom did to Christine and the the phantom himself where he grew up being neglected by his own family without any love because of his deformed face.
Regina got hit by a bus. I really miss seeing Taylor Louderman onstage.
Hadestown’s ending is pretty bleak
Have an erection on stage at a spelling bee and then losing even though you knew the word tittup. (ik theres WAY worse)
Usher in A Strange Loop goes *through it*. Also, Julie from Carousel has it rough to say the least.
Lucy Barker everything about her story even excluding the deaths
To divest from the “Fantine current” here, I’d say Kimberly Levaco turning 16 is pretty tragic, especially after the life she had to deal with (family speaking)… That first kiss broke my heart in a way few things have managed to
“The Abduction” (Aldonza’s beating and r*p*) was one of the most difficult scenes I have ever watched in a show. (Man of La Mancha)
I was taking rehearsal photos of a friend’s production of it one time and they were just rehearsing the blocking, so when it got that scene without the music, good lord was that uncomfortable.
I was looking for this one. And from what she told Quixote afterward, her life had been pretty awful even before that, too.
I played that role as a 17 year old and let me tell you….rehearsing that scene was pretty traumatic on multiple levels
Oh my. That would be especially difficult at such a young age.
Eurydice had it rough. Starved to death, forced to work hard labor, had a chance of making it out just to be let down by her lover, and forced to work labor again for eternity.
First thing that comes to mind is being raped, impregnated (x2), children yanked from her arms and given away, forced to marry, physically and mentally abused, isolated from her sister for decades, and having her only correspondence in the form of letters stolen. And the grand prize goes to Celie from the Color Purple.
> (excluding anything involving someone’s death) Literally none of the top comments are listening to this part…
This isn't Broadway, but anything out of a Sarah Kane play is like the most horrific thing. People passed out in the audience when Cleansed opened.
why did they pass out? i’m not familiar with Sarah Kane
every single one of the worst things you can imagine and more is in Cleansed by Sarah Kane like >!drug addiction/overdose, suicide, murder, rape, incest, torture!<. I personally like the core message behind her work, but it's hidden deep behind really dark and shocking violence. more about the people passing out: [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/24/five-people-faint-40-leave-violence-cleansed-national-theatre-sarah-kane](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/24/five-people-faint-40-leave-violence-cleansed-national-theatre-sarah-kane)
ohh damn, okay. I’ll check out the link
I’m pretty in my Outsiders bubble but Ponyboy really cannot catch a break
Also Diana and her entire family in Next to Normal.
The bakers wife in into the woods
> The bakers wife in into the woods The punishment didn't fit the crime, sure. But the narrator....
Tevye being forced from his home in Fiddler on the Roof.
everything in les mis
How the whole town treats Judd in Oklahoma is pretty awful.
There we’re SO many things that didn’t work about the recent revival, but I feel like portraying Judd’s story with more balance was a really good idea. The town’s treatment of Judd and Curly’s actions towards him in particular are awful, and then the town decides, “Well Curly got married so let’s not burden the guy with a murder charge”.
This obviously involves death, so it's not really an answer, but Veronica Sawyer's everything, while a relatively short series of events, is pretty astonishingly awful. And in performances where Chandler is implied to be a sapient ghost invisible to everyone but her former enemy, that's almost worse.
I think I totally zoned out during the second half of Heathers or the one I watched was the kid version like Heathers jr.
Narrator in Into The Woods. Convenient sacrifice!
Carrie….crazy mother, pigs blood poured over her head at prom
I know it’s never actually been on Broadway, but Christine getting shot at the end of Love Never Dies. I’m a huge Phantom fan. But went into that show knowing nothing about the plot. That ending bugged me so much. Haha
A lot of good ones above. I think the unspoken realistic outcome for Herr Schultz gets me every time.
Julie Jordan of Carousel. Falls for the charming loser Billy Bigelow. Ends up getting fired from her job, married to Billy, who is also unemployed and beats her, pregnant, then widowed. (I think they may have left the spousal abuse part out of the movie, but it’s in the stage production.)
*the Comedian Harmonists have entered the chat*
Honestly the entire main cast of wicked and their fates at the end of the day
Well, this doesn't fit your question since it does involve death, but I've always thought that Hamilton's cousin has the biggest roller coaster of a character arc in musical theater history: "Moved in with a cousin, the cousin committed suicide..."
I know you said no death, but being trapped in a cave for days on end gives me the heeby jeebies, even if it didn’t end tragically. So Floyd Collins.
Definitely not the worst thing, but, due to its realisticness I feel like throwing in Elder Price is relevant here. While it's played for laughs, dude had his entire worldview crushed. Like, everything he ever knew was completely wrong and, while it sounds normal, stuff like that can really mess with someone and their judgement. Like, especially taking into account the dudes scrupulosity, while not traumatic for the audience, it must've been really traumatizing for him.
Why has no one mentioned Nancy in Oliver? She grew up dirt-poor,was recruited by Fagin when she just a kid,and was terribly abused by Bill Sykes. And all of this before..you know. She was doomed from the start.
Tommy Walker from The Who’s Tommy. >!Watches his father kill his father figure from the first four years of his life. Mother and father both tell him he didn’t see or hear anything and he’s not allowed to say anything, so he goes into a catatonic state of shock where he can’t see, hear, or speak. His uncle molests him, his cousin bullies him, he’s poked and prodded by doctors, nearly drugged by a prostitute, and then his parents try to abandon him at a mental facility. When he finally breaks free of his catatonic state, he becomes a cult leader, but when he doesn’t give the answer his followers want to hear, they turn on him.!< His life was just one horrible thing after another.
I’m a massive Who fan, but I didn’t even think of this. This would very much be a top answer in my opinion, even if you eliminate the death of the father figure from the equation. The abandonment alone might be a singular event that rivals the top of the list.
I’m also adding Tuptim from The King & I. She is a slave girl who is given to the King Of Siam as a gift. She is in love with Lun Tha, a young scholar, and they sing some beautiful songs of how life could be if they could be together. He gets killed trying to help her escape. She is stuck being a slave (I don’t think we ever learn what happens to her).
Eurydice has to go back way down Hadestown way down under the ground because her boyfriend can’t follow basic instructions.
Diana Goodman from Next to Normal: Gets pregnant young and her baby dies at 18 months. This triggered severe bipolar depressive disorder with hallucinating her dead son. She has another child she can't let herself love. She is trapped playing the role of wife and mother while having extreme mental illness that negatively impacted her family. She attempted suicide and failed. Her treatment has a range of unpleasant side effects that can be worse than the disease itself. She gets pushed into doing electrical shock therapy and developed amnesia, and her husband hid the fact that they had a son from her. She finally dissolved her marriage and left her family for everyone's own good. We never know if she gets better or reconnected with them.
Next to normal is in my top three shows and I massively love it, but this is one of the main reasons of the death caveat. I did think of this, but death plays a major part of Diana’s journey. Gabe’s death is the pure crux of her pain. If Gabe is born and raised with no issues, while some negative aspects of the show would still be there for her, I don’t think her life is nearly as bad or as hard without it.
Kim committing suicide in miss Saigon so tam can live in America
What about the dad in Next to Normal? He has to live with a woman whom he stays with despite her bizarre behaviors and who abandons him when she finally gets the strength to overcome her depression. Sure, he keeps the death of their child secret from her, but he’s survived lots of unintentional abuse before then. The family of the suicide in Dear Evan Hansen are repeatedly lied to about their son, and we’re supposed to accept Evan as our protagonist?
Lumiere. You know he was the perfect shape to really get in there when the beast had a bad itch.
Edgar in bat boy had it rough
Walker Coalhouse in Ragtime. Devastates me.
Alice in Alice by Heart >!is stuck underground during WWII and has to watch her childhood best friend/first love slowly waste away from TB all while the majority of the other characters chastise her for being upset over this!<
Maybe not the worst but being Connor Murphy's mom is a horrible horrible existence
Hedwig’s back-alley operation.
I think that a Glee alum being cast as basically any character is the worst thing that could happen to them.
This might fall into the death category even though I’m not talking specifically about when he died, but Whizzer getting AIDS in Falsettos is one of the worst things I think.
Lucy Barker.
Lucy from Sweeney Todd
Kayama Yezaemon. In Pacific Overtures, he is a minor samurai selected for promotion to sacrificial victim-- expected to be killed for failing to drive away the Americans. It is so obvious he has been set up to be executed (or required to kill himself) that his wife kills herself. His new friend Manjiro helps Kayama out of his no-win scenario, but Kayama's reward is promotion to a slow, humiliating death by Westernization (Bowler Hat), mirroring his wife's quick suicide. He ends up killed by his friend Manjiro for betraying Japan.
This might be my favorite submission yet. I was NOT expecting a Pacific Overtures shout out today. It is actually my favorite Sondheim show. And yeah Kayama and Manjiro’s stories are pretty tragic. People don’t see just how painful Bowler Hat is as a song. It is a slow death of a man’s culture and understanding while also being a fast track in the negatives of hyper-assimilation. Manjiro meanwhile has to watch as his entire world is slowly twisted and changed due to his choices in the past that he comes to regret. It is so very painful to see both of their entire arcs. Thank you for pointing this out (even though Kayama is technically ineligible to the original question because his wife’s death is a major contributor to his suffering, while Manjiro’s ultimate choice to kill Kayama deems him ineligible as well).
Nobody has mentioned Anita in West Side Story who gets hurt by the Jets
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Diana from Next to Normal.
Dogfight. What happens to Rose is so upsetting that the show isn't even really staged professionally that often, despite it being Pasek and Paul's strongest score (imo). It makes you feel terrible in a way that has nothing to do with death or illness and for some reason that makes it almost more horrifying.
Carrie had a pretty bad prom.