Ragtime/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Ragtime. Pretty much the whole thing, but especially "Your Daddy's Son."
  • 'Till We Reach That Day. I will never forget being ten years old, at my first-ever Broadway show, bawling my eyes out at poor, dead Audra McDonald.
  • This troper is a wreck at the final verse of "Make Them Hear You" just before Coalhouse is killed, particularly the lines:

Coalhouse: Teach every child to raise his voice
And then my brothers, then will justice
Be demanded by ten million righteous men
Make them hear you
When they hear you, I'll be near you again . . .

  • For this troper, the Epilogue is a pretty calm song, compared to the enormous tearjerkers listed above, but when an adorable, tiny Coalhouse Walker III runs out into Mother's arms, she starts bawling.