History BreakingTheFourthWall / Theatre

* Dan Savage's ''Miracle!'': Drag queens inviting audience members for jello shots? Check. Fake dollars handed to front row for Gloria Blaze to collect after her number? Check. Crystal Pain announcing to audience? Check. Helen blindly stumbling into the audience? Check. Beth and Winter interviewing random front row guest? Check.

** ''AMidsummerNightsDream'' deserves special mention for Puck's ending speech, which can be condensed into "We're sorry if you didn't like the play," and, essentially, a Shakespearean version of the MST3KMantra.

** And of course in ''Henry V'' where the opening monologue is an extended apologia for not showing the tremendous battles that are going on in-between the play's scenes. Made doubly strange because it was retained in both the Olivier and Branaugh films of the play, where they ''do'' show the battles.
** Any time Iago opens his mouth he is likely to address the audience by the end of the speech.
** One of Hamlet's many soliloquies (this one in Act II, scene ii) includes the lines "I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play/Have by the very cunning of the scene/Been struck so to the soul that presently/They have proclaimed their malefactions..." A great many productions have Hamlet break the fourth wall at this line and speak directly to the audience, for a darkly comedic effect.

** The epilogue in ''AsYouLikeIt'', in which Rosalind admits her nature as a guy who plays a girl who dresses as a guy (or [[RecursiveCrossdressing a girl who plays a guy who plays a girl who dresses as a guy]], in most modern performances), complains that the play was no good, and flirts, collectively, with ''everyone in the audience'' so that they'll "like as much of this play" as they possibly can.

* One particular scene early on in The Pirates of Penzance when the Pirate King swings out into the audience during a song, and ends up getting into a sword fight with the conductor of the orchestra.

* Absolutely ''shattered'' in Billy Twinkle: Requiem for A Golden Boy, when Billy jumps off the cruise ship prop, to find that he is on a stage, and asks Sid-the hand-puppet personification of his crotchety mentor-"Who are all these people?" to which Sid replies "They're your audience, you idiot!" Yes, ItMakesSenseInContext . I swear.

--> '''Scriptreader''': i told you there was a prop director, I told you there was a writer, I'm narrating, Of course there's an Audience! come on, do you to even watch theater?

* In ''Romeo and Juliets Unofficial, Unnecessary Sequel'' Prince Escalus acts as the narrator, routinely talking directly to the audience. At one point he is caught doing this by Lord Montague, resulting in the following exchange:

* In the ScreenToStageAdaptation of ''[[Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', Babkak, Omar, and Kassim frequently do this, such as commenting on prop camels and split scenes, as does the Genie during the "Friend Like Me" number.

* In ACT Theatre's annual play of ''AChristmasCarol'', the Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkles his torch incense on the front row of the audience. In the opening scene, the castmembers greet various audience members with "Merry Christmas".

* A lot of the plays of {{Plautus}}, in fact, would begin with one of the characters giving the audience a general outline of the plot, and end with another character saying something like "Well, I would invite you to dine with me as well, but I'm sure you all have prior engagements of your own," or "So with this our story ends; give us your hands and be our friends."

* {{Shakespeare}}'s plays often use this in monologues.

* Dan Savage's ''Miracle!'': Drag queens inviting audience members for jello shots? Check. Fake dollars handed to front row for Gloria Blaze to collect after her number? Check. Crystal Pain announcing to audience? Check. Beth and Winter interviewing random front row guest? Check.

* Occasionally, a production of TheMikado will have the Lord High Executioner sing (in The List song), something akin to "There's the orchestra conductor who just now has lost his place." It substitutes for a line that is (almost) invariably [[{{Bowdlerize}} changed]] due to UnfortunateImplications in the original.

* In ''{{RENT}}'', Maureen asks the audience to moo with her near the end of her protest. Prior to that, during her first entrance, she asks "which way is the stage?".

* In ''{{RENT}}'', Maureen asks the audience to moo with her near the end of her protest.

** This particular line works very well if the play is done with the conceit of inmates in a mental asylum acting out memories or scenes for their own amusement.

* Some theatre adaptations of TerryPratchett's ''{{Discworld}}'' preserve the humour in the [[FootnoteFever footnotes]] with a character called "Footnote" who sounds a horn to freeze the action, comes on stage to say the note and sets things going again.

** Launcelot in ''TheMerchantOfVenice'' tells the audience to pay attention while he plays a prank on his dad:

** Feste singing at the end of ''TwelfthNight'':

* In the musical ''SpringAwakening'', whenever a singing number takes place, the actors on stage take out microphones they've been hiding in their pockets. Like in ''{{Chicago}}'', the idea is that whenever they're singing they're imagining it's happening on a stage in front of an audience. As such, that actually ''is'' happening, but ''the characters'' don't actually know that.

** A more subtle but no less important one appears in the second act when during the wedding of two of the characters, the bible that the minister (also played by the Narrator) uses is not actually a bible but is in fact a copy of the screenplay.

* Done ''beautifully'' by Lonnie in ''Theatre/RockOfAges'', in which he cheers up the main character by telling him that everything he has done thus far has happened within a broadway play.

* In the most recent London revival of ''Theatre/{{Oliver}}'', Fagin breaks the fourth wall during a few of his monologues, especially when he is play acting with his 'treasures'. For example, he was looking through an opera glass and pretending he was at a theatre, gesturing towards the Stalls in the actual theatre (where the most expensive seats are) and mentioning that was where all the rich people were, then gesturing at the top tier and saying that was full of poor people. In the second monologue he started recounting the story of the musical and ended up saying: "What the [[CharlesDickens Dickens]] am I going on about?"

* Occasionally, a production of TheMikado will have the Lord High Executioner sing (in The List song), something akin to "There's the orchestra conductor who just now has lost his place." It substitutes for a line that is (almost) invariably [[{{Bowdlerize}} changed]] due to UnfortunateImplications in the original.

* Occasionally, a production of TheMikado will have the Lord High Executioner sing (in The List song), something akin to "There's the orchestra conductor who just now has lost his place." It substitutes for a line that is (almost) invariably changed due to UnfortunateImplications in the original.

* [[TheLordOfTheRings Fellowship]]! TheMusical enjoyed doing this a handful of times - notably, once when Frodo tells Gandalf, "you scared me down-stage left!", and the Balrog scene, in which one character yells that they need to find an exit quickly, and another character points out the Exit sign for the theater's side exit, which they then leave out of.

* [[TheLordOfTheRings Fellowship]]! TheMusical enjoyed doing this a handful of times - notably, once when Frodo tells Gandalf, "you scared me up-stage left!", and the Balrog scene, in which one character yells that they need to find an exit quickly, and another character points out the Exit sign for the theater's side exit, which they then leave out of.

* In the final Seattle run of ''Modern Luv'', several references were made to the then-forthcoming New York run of the show. Also, the closing number dims the lights and has [[AudienceParticipation the audience]] hold up their cellphones/smartphones, as the songs lyrics say.

* In the final Seattle run of ''Modern Luv'', several references were made to the then-forthcoming New York run of the show. Also, the closing number dims the lights and has [[AudienceParticipation the audience]] hold up their cellphones/smartphones.

* In the recently premiered musical ''First Date'', each of the characters addresses the audience during the opening song.

* In ACT Theatre's annual play of ''AChristmasCarol'', the Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkles his torch incense on the front row of the audience.
* AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum opens and closes with the song "Comedy Tonight", in which the actors directly address the audience, telling about the show they're about to see (or have just finished seeing).

* In ACT Theatre's annual play of ''AChristmasCarol'', the Ghost of Christmas Present sprinkles his torch incense on the front row of the audience.

*** Aristophanes believed that the fourth wall existed to be broken. ''Clouds'' has the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the right and wrong arguments arguing about stoicism. The right argument voices the opinion that if you're hedonistic your landlord will think you're gay. The wrong argument then defeats this by pointing out that most politicians are gay, most religious leaders and from the look of it most of the audience too.