History WhatAnIdiot / Theatre

'''The Result"': It turns out that the pilot is a brainwashed Zoey, who pulls a gun on them. Emma's attempts to disarm her cause the helicopter to crash and she gets impaled through the leg. Paul helpfully reminds Emma that he warned her about seatbelts.

** DoomedByCanon, the "Wicked Witch of the East" aka Nessarose is killed due to [[spoiler: the Wizard's second-in-command Madame Morrible dropping a house on her, Dorothy Gale's house]]. Glinda comforts Dorothy, while creating a trap for the Wizard's guards to capture Elphaba, Nessarose's sister and "The Wicked Witch of the West".\\

'''Instead''': She only tells Nirenus to show Cornelia and Sextus the way to the palace. They still go there with no guards, Cornelia showers Ptolemy with curses and Sextus challenges him to single combat. This leads to them both getting captured, and only Achillas’s intervention prevents anything worse happening to them.

'''Or At Least''': Ptolemy to play for time and say, for example, that the wedding should be delayed until Cleopatra’s defeat.\\
'''Instead''': Ptolemy humiliates Achillas, taunting him that he should never have hoped. Achillas realizes the pharaoh is a liar and a tyrant and deserts him.

** Moments after that, Edna goes home to dress herself up to seduce Wilbur, while the latter is in his prank shop with Velma who is trying to seduce him. Edna catches Velma flirting with Wilbur.\\

'''Instead''': He publishes an expose on his affair with Maria. This has multiple devastating consequences: it ruins his political career, his and Eliza's social standing as well as their romantic relationship, and his children's reputations. Jefferson thus lacks the political opponent that could have won against him. Maria Reynolds in the meantime loses custody of her daughter and has to move states to get her child back. Philip Jr. later dies trying to defend his father's honor, and Hamilton's only valued in the election of 1800.

'''Instead:''' Hamlet reasons that killing Claudius and sending him to heaven is not fair for Claudius killing King Hamlet and sending him to hell. He sits there for a while explaining this out to himself, and then, a Momma's Boy to the very end, he decides he shouldn't keep Queen Gertrude waiting and goes out to meet her. This results directly in Polonius's death, Ophelia's suicide, and, well, you know the rest.

'''You’d Expect''': Her to pretend to give in to him until Manrico is safely far away, then run away after gaining the Count’s trust, or, if she wants an anti-heroic resolution, stealthily murder him (with the poison she owns, for instance). Or, if she absolutely wants to die, kill herself with poison, but ''after'' Manrico is released.\\
'''Instead''': She decides to kill herself with that poison in her ring. Moreover, she does it at once, without even waiting for Manrico to be released. She dies while he is still imprisoned, and the outraged and heartbroken Count orders Manrico’s execution, rendering Leonora’s suicide ''absolutely pointless''.

'''Instead''': She decides to taunt him about how she prefers another man. This sends Laca into a flaming rage, and he slashes her cheek with the knife.

'''Instead''': He leaves after introducing Antony, forfeiting any control over the situation. Antony promptly whips the crowd into a frenzy, and they riot and overthrow the conspirators.

'''Instead''': Dr. Scrivello assumes Seymour has the gun because he's nervous about his walk-in. He then gloats to Seymour about what he's going to do to the poor man's teeth and then gets some nitrous oxide before drilling a tooth out. Then when the doctor finds the gas mask stuck on his face, and he starts to asphyxiate, Seymour refuses to help him, so that the dentist dies from the lack of oxygen.

'''Instead''': He leaves the uniform and blood; his boss Mushnik finds it a week later and wants to go to the police, so that Seymour can give a statement and clear himself of the obvious evidence. The plant Audrey II, aka Twoey, convinces Seymour to [[spoiler:feed Mushnik to the plant]].

'''Instead''': Seymour starts rambling about it, to a confused Audrey, who leaves in a stressed mood, and Twoey gets wind of the scheme. Twoey then [[spoiler:takes advantage of a sleep-deprived Audrey entering the shop to find Seymour, and feeds on her blood. She dies from the blood loss, and Seymour reluctantly feeds her body to the plant. This means that when Seymour tries to destroy Twoey, he's overwhelmed easily and makes a suicidal charge into the plant's maw. Cue the plant apocalypse]].

** '''Instead:''' Peer crashes the wedding of Ingrid and another guy, to be rejected by a newcomer girl, then hijacking Ingrid, and then making himself an outlaw, losing every property right to his father`s farm, and in the end also indirectly causing Ingrid`s farm to go to pieces.

** '''You`d expect''': That she follows custom and at least tries to be nice to him by trying a round of dancing. After all, that was all he asked for.
** '''Instead''': She rejects his request because she has heard of him and his antics, and because she is rather prudent. From this rejection comes Peer`s fatal crush on her, his eloping with the bride, his meeting with the trolls, and the whole mess finally making him an outlaw. Solveig admittedly sought Peer out to set things straight, and thus she lived in his cottage the rest of her life. So, Solveig, denying Peer Gynt ''one single dance'' turned into a ''lot'' of problems for both of you.

'''Instead''': Paolo poisons Simon but doesn’t stop at that. Not only does he decide to play Gabriele against Simon by telling him Amelia is the Doge’s mistress, but in the end he throws subtlety out of the window and stirs a rebellion. Since the poison is ''slow-acting'', Simon is able to clear the matter with Gabriele, make sure the rebellion is crushed, make peace with Fiesco, proclaim Gabriele his heir and send Paolo to the gallows. Paolo, you basically did ''everything'' to ensure there was the "sweet" in BittersweetEnding!

'''Instead:''' He busts right into the barber shop, with Judge Turpin ''right there in the room'', in order to inform Sweeney that he's found Johanna and that she has agreed to the plan. Because Judge Turpin is in the room, this means that ''he'' has now been informed about it as well, which not only blows Anthony's plan to elope with her straight to hell, but also Sweeney's plan to kill Turpin -- and to make matters even worse for them, Judge Turpin then returns home and has poor Johanna sent to [[BedlamHouse Fogg's Asylum]] for seeking to defy him. And to make things even ''worse'', Sweeney goes from AntiHero to full on VillainProtagonist as a result of being denied his shot at vengeance. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Way to break it, Anthony]].

'''Instead:''' When Turpin ''does'' fall into his grasp that very day, he takes her advice to heart and spends a few minutes giving the guy a proper shave and singing about pretty women, leading to the scene above. "You told me to wait!" he snarls in the next song. Um, yes, Sweeney, she told you to wait for Turpin to come to you, ''not'' to waste time once his throat was finally under your blade! He should have been dead and packed away in the crate long before Anthony arrived!

'''Instead''': Cavaradossi doesn’t tell her a thing but still goes through with his initial plan of hiding Angelotti, his behavior only feeds her suspicions, and she ends up unknowingly leading the police to their villa.

'''You’d Expect''': Tosca to at least consider the facts: a) Cavaradossi has never given her any true reason to doubt his fidelity; b) Scarpia’s lying and corrupt nature is an open secret in Rome; c) she hasn’t even seen the fan before, so it might have been planted by Scarpia himself; d) Cavaradossi sympathizes with Napoleon and is likely to get in trouble for that; e) in most productions, Scarpia clearly shows by that moment he’s interested in her. Therefore, revealing the location of her and Cavaradossi’s hiding place is not a good idea, and there’s still no conclusive proof of her lover’s betrayal.\\
'''Instead''': Tosca decides it’s a fact that Cavaradossi’s cheating on her with the Marchesa and that they use the villa for their rendezvous. She goes there and thus leads Scarpia’s men to Cavaradossi and Angelotti.

'''Instead''': Cavaradossi sings "Down with the tyrants, long live the Revolution!" right into Scarpia's face, effectively condemning himself with no hope for exoneration.

'''The Result''': Aladdin, not knowing he's talking to the vizier, blabs about how he'll use the money in the cave to buy an army and assassinate everyone in the palace except the Princess because he wants to bone her. Ja'far understandably goes OhCrap and PapaWolf on the Princess's behalf, but cannot stop Aladdin from flying off with the lamp on magic carpet and it's djinn to pose as a prince. Aladdin calls out Ja'far for "lying" to him about the rest of the treasure in the cave being lava, but Ja'far genuinely did not know that. Even so, he messed up. If the Captain were there, he would say, "This is all your fault, Ja'far."
** In one of the dumbest moments on the play, Aladdin has successfully convinced the Princess to marry him -- rather, he wants to bone her, and the Princess gets him to agree to a marriage. Ja'far recognizes Aladdin as the ruffian thief that he used to get the lamp because his PaperThinDisguise is laughably pathetic; he steals the lamp when Aladdin accuses him of sorcery and nearly gets him arrested. The Princess is already suspicious of Aladdin because he admitted to lying to her already, ironically by saying he was always a prince pretending to be a poor beggar. She comes to him as Aladdin is preparing to flee since he doesn't acutally have the army that the D'jinn boasted.\\

** In the 2007 version, Tracy wants to join the Negro Day Dancers to march against segregation in "The Corny Collins Show" in order for blacks to be allowed to dance on television. Maybelle warns her that it could mean the end of her career, but Tracy insists on going because if Little Inez can't dance then she shouldn't have the right to do so.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Tracy would ask Motormouth Maybelle on how to be a good ally at the march, as a white person with privilege, because the police can get brutal. Such as not acting impulsively or shielding the black participants with her body.\\
'''Instead:''' Tracy assaults a policeman with her sign for ignoring Maybelle, starts a riot because the police use her assault as an excuse to attach the marchers, and nearly gets herself arrested. The only reason ''she'' isn't is because she hightails it out of there, leaving Maybelle and Seaweed to take the brunt.

'''You'd expect:''' that the managers contact the police to find the Phantom, since they've only just taken over the opera house and aren't influenced by the actors' superstition.\\
'''Instead:''' they ignore his demands, which leads to Christine being kidnapped (twice), two men being murdered, the chandelier being destroyed, and the company going out of business.
** They do this again later in the show. When Christine is first kidnapped, the managers, Raoul, Carlotta, and Mdme. Giry receive notes from the Phantom listing various demands. The note from Giry has demands for everyone present, which boils down to "In your new production of ''Il Muto'', you will cast Carlotta as the page boy [mute part], and put Christine in the role of Countess. If you don't, bad things will happen."\\
'''You'd expect:''' that Andre and Firmin would contact the police. If not, then they'd just cast Christine anyway, considering that her previous performance was very well-received with critics and the audience.\\
'''Instead:''' they ignore his demands and cast Carlotta as the female lead, which leads to the Phantom being pissed. He drugs Carlotta's spray so that she loses her voice. Christine becomes the female lead anyway, Joseph Buquet dies by the Punjab lasso, and the chandelier crashes down to the stage, nearly killing ''more'' people and costing who knows how much to replace.

'''You'd expect:''' that Raoul, while bowing to the wishes of his beloved fiancée, would also point out that that this version of the Phantom has already killed two people that they know of (one when he hadn't even hit puberty!) has proven himself to be utterly deceitful and manipulative, and is hardly going to leave them alone just because they spared his life. You would ''then'' expect him to find some way of restraining the Phantom, whether by tying him up or knocking him out, and then deliver him to the authorities to face justice. \\

'''Instead:''' [[SmallNameBigEgo Cyrano arrogantly]] invokes ProtectionFromEditors and [[UngratefulBastard nastily rejects the patronage]]. To put things in perspective, rejecting Cardenal Richelieu’s patronage in TheCavalierYears Paris is like someone in MarvelUniverse rejecting Doctor Doom’s patronage, or someone in Franchise/DCUniverse rejecting ComicBook/LexLuthor’s patronage ''when he was PresidentEvil of the United States''.

* The libretto of ''Theatre/IlTrovatore'' has been called "[[IdiotPlot one giant plot hole]]", but this part is probably the most famous. Leonora pleads with the Count di Luna to spare and release Manrico, and the Count only accepts when she offers herself in exchange for Manrico’s life. She can’t stand the Count and has no intentions to fulfill her end of the agreement.\\

'''You’d Expect''': Ptolemy to just fulfill the promise and let Achillas marry Cornelia. He himself will hardly be prevented from making advances to her by the fact she’s married, anyway.\\

'''Instead:''' Hamlet reasons that killing Claudius and sending him to heaven is not fair for Claudius killing King Hamlet and sending him to hell. He sits there for a while explaining this out to himself, and then, a Momma's Boy to the very end, he decides he shouldn't keep Queen Gertrude waiting and goes out to meet her. This results directly in Polonius's death, Ophelia's suicide, and, [[KillEmAll well, you know the rest.]]

'''You'd expect:''' Cassio would be careful not to drink any more wine.\\
'''Instead:''' He gets drunk, and attacks Roderigo when he insults him. This leads to a massive fight that injures Montano, and Cassio gets demoted, just as Iago planned.

* ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'': Lodovico, Desdemona's cousin, has arrived at Cyprus with a delegation to inform Othello that he's being recalled to Venice. Othello starts acting erratically and makes a scene in front of the assembly, striking Desdemona in front of them and making cruel sexual comments about her. Lodovico is very alarmed by this and fears Othello may be unstable. He asks Iago what's going on, and Iago darkly hints that something far worse may soon happen.\\

Now playing: A Comedy of Many, Many Errors!

** '''Instead:''' Peer crashes the wedding of Ingrid and another guy, to be rejected by a newcomer girl, then hijacking Ingrid, and then making himself an outlaw, losing every property right to his father`s farm, and in the end also indirectly causing Ingrid`s farm to go to pieces. WhatAnIdiot.

* ''Franchise/{{Hatchetfield'' has this in a few of their musicals:

* OlderThanFeudalism: In the backstory of ''Theatre/TheTrachiniae'', Deianira is nearly raped by a centaur called Nessus. Her husband Herakles shoots him with arrows poisoned by hydra blood. As Nessus is dying, he gives Deianira some drops of blood from said wound and tells her to handle it very carefully -— it's a love potion that will make Herakles' affections return to her should they ever stray.\\

** They do this again later in the show. When Christine is first kidnapped, the managers, Raoul, Carlotta, and Mdme. Giry receive notes from the Phantom listing various demands. The note from Giry has demands for everyone present, which boils down to "In your new production of ''Il Muto'', you will therefore cast Carlotta as the page boy [mute part], and put Christine in the role of Countess. If you don't, bad things will happen."\\

''Instead''': He tells her to go and have fun, while he does shots with Benny who is DrowningMySorrows about how his boss is selling the dispatch business. Then Usnavi asks another girl to dance when he sees that Vanessa is getting into the spirit of the club and Benny notes that she's trying to make Usnavi jealous. When Vanessa asks him to dance, he insists they should do shots.\\

'''The Result''': Back in Bikini Bottom, RealityEnsues when the band quits before showtime on having realized that everyone ''is'' going to die and one gig is not worth their lives. Not even Squidward or Patricia Krab's performance is enough to raise money in time. Everyone starts fighting and rioting. When Spongebob returns with Sandy and Patrick in tow, he puts a stop to it by grabbing the SmartBall and telling them this is not how friends spend their last moments together.  Yes, that includes Plankton. Indeed, Plankton gets a HeelRealization when it turns out Sandy's device works and Bikini Bottom is saved, meaning his discrediting her was StupidEvil. 

'''To make matters worse:''' ''In the very next scene,'' Raoul is discussing with the managers how to capture the Phantom - even though he's already had him at his mercy and could have dealt with him then and there!!! (To be fair, though, this is more the script's fault than Raoul's; in the stage version he hatches his plan to capture the Phantom well before the confrontation in the graveyard, and didn't try to kill or capture the Phantom ''then'' because he knew there'd be a better opportunity in the future.)

'''You'd Expect:''' For Edna to realize that this was a one-sided staged event that Velma did in to get Tracy off the show and allow Wilbur to tell his side of the story.\\

* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'', an ImpoverishedPatrician StarvingArtist, unknown yet talented playwright, is offered the Patronage of [[MagnificentBastard Cardenal Richelieu]], [[ManBehindTheMan The most powerful man in all France]] and [[RenaissanceMan known playwright]], who will only [[ExecutiveMeddling ''edit one or two verses'']] of [[NewMeat Cyrano’s unproduced play]], ''"Agrippine"''.\\

'''Instead:''' [[SmallNameBigEgo Cyrano arrogantly]] invokes ProtectionFromEditors and [[UngratefulBastard nastily rejects the patronage]]. To put things in perspective, rejecting Cardenal Richelieu’s patronage in TheCavalierYears Paris it’s like someone in MarvelUniverse rejecting Doctor Doom’s patronage, or someone in Franchise/DCUniverse rejecting ComicBook/LexLuthor’s patronage ''when he was PresidentEvil of the United States''.

'''You'd Expect''': He would not sleep with them in her main home or know her schedule better.\\

'''Predictably''': She shoots him and his girlfriends in the room. Her real-life counterpart got off the hook so she's likely to get acquitted.