the.com/showstopper
So good the show stops to let the applause catch up.
means Something so impressive it draws attention away from everything else around it.
from Straight out of the theater, dating to the early-to-mid 1900s: a performance so electrifying that the audience's applause or laughter literally halted the show's momentum, forcing actors to pause before continuing. From there it leapt offstage into everyday use for anything — an outfit, a dish, a line in a meeting — dazzling enough to bring the room to a stop.
- origin
- 1920s Broadway term for show-halting numbers
- irony
- stopping the show is the goal, not the failure
- overuse
- now applied to lasagna and PowerPoint slides
- true version
- audience applause literally delays the next scene