Do performances ever make you cry - not because they’re sad?

[Anonymous]

All the time and sometimes it's embarrassing! I'm in the audience just weeping and trying to hide it!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find this often - for example tonight I took the kids to a musical and the small cast worked so hard to perform well for an audience of mainly kids - and they did such a good job. There’s just something so pure about people trying really hard to create an experience for someone else that makes me kind of want o cry - is that insane? And especially when the audience is kids but they still worked so hard and the kids in the audience all loved it. Curious if others feel this or maybe I am just an emotional basketcase

Yes, good art causes me to experience all range of emotions. I remember crying for 15 min in front of Klimt's Kiss in Belvedere palace, even though I saw reproduction million times before I saw the original.

[Anonymous]

The college kid who played piano with Billy Joel while he sang New York State of mind brought tears to my eyes, I’ve seen it a dozen times and it still happens. There was another one where a little boy sang paparazzi for a talent show.
It’s like watching someone turn into superman, I love it.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I'm so relieved to read this... I thought it was just me! I always cry when the actors are taking their bows at the end, and feel so embarrassed. I just think about all the hard work they put into it, and I feel so moved!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find this often - for example tonight I took the kids to a musical and the small cast worked so hard to perform well for an audience of mainly kids - and they did such a good job. There’s just something so pure about people trying really hard to create an experience for someone else that makes me kind of want o cry - is that insane? And especially when the audience is kids but they still worked so hard and the kids in the audience all loved it. Curious if others feel this or maybe I am just an emotional basketcase

Yes, good art causes me to experience all range of emotions. I remember crying for 15 min in front of Klimt's Kiss in Belvedere palace, even though I saw reproduction million times before I saw the original.

Same. Art, music, film and even just pleasant interactions. In short beauty will make me cry. Not all the time but way more than anyone I know.

[Anonymous]

Of course.

[Anonymous]

I get chills and even teary from powerful musical performances, and sometimes from what you describe, feeling empathetic bout what I am seeing. I am a school librarian and it also happens when I read particularly powerful or meaningful passages in a book.

I feel lucky that I can have such strong emotional resonance.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the opening scene of the Lion King on Broadway, when all the animals are coming to the watering hole was so beautiful it made me cry.

[Anonymous]

I have heard singers with voices so beautiful that they touch my soul and I wept.

[Anonymous]

I cry at the end of almost every broadway musical I see. Lol

[Anonymous]

All the time!

[Anonymous]

I have found my people!

[Anonymous]

I got choked up at my kid’s high school chorus performance the other night when they crescendoed into a particularly beautiful harmony. I’m normally pretty tough and not an emotional person but sometimes music just hits like that, and that’s a good thing.

I’m also agnostic except sometimes when I sing church music I can believe a little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cry at the end of almost every broadway musical I see. Lol

Haha I cried at “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” from Hello Dolly when it was on Broadway with Bette Midler — she came rolling out on a train about a third of the way through and it was just so joyful and colorful and the cast was so obviously feeling it, and I wasn’t the only one.

[Anonymous]

I cried when a girl at my kid’s high school sang The Star Spangled Banner at an event. Sooo damn brave!