An inordinate number of musicals are about professional singers and dancers, who are themselves sometimes [[ShowWithinAShow performing in musicals]]. The advantages are obvious -- the creators get to [[WriteWhatYouKnow write what they know]], the characters actually have a good reason to keep breaking into song (this doesn't mean that they don't still break into song ''off'' stage as well), and musical numbers can be thrown in without needing any kind of plot relevance.

A SubTrope of MusicStories.

Compare with MostWritersAreWriters, SetBehindTheScenes, and ShowWithinAShow. See also ThatRemindsMeOfASong.

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!!Examples:
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[[folder: Film- Live Action ]]

* All musical {{biopic}}s, of course -- ''Film/WalkTheLine'' (Johnny Cash), ''Ray'' (Ray Charles), ''La Vie en Rose'' (Edith Piaf), ''Film/GreatBallsOfFire'' (Jerry Lee Lewis), ''Film/YankeeDoodleDandy'' and ''George M'' (George M. Cohan), ''Theatre/JerseyBoys'' (Music/FrankieValliAndTheFourSeasons) and so on, and so forth.
* ''Film/TheBroadwayMelody'' (1929) is probably the first example, or one of the first. Two sisters with a song-and-dance act come to Broadway to make it big.
* ''Film/SinginInTheRain'' is about the making of a musical motion picture.
** Many other Creator/GeneKelly films, including ''Film/ForMeAndMyGal'' and ''Summer Stock'' (both of which also starred Creator/JudyGarland). A lot of Garland's own films were like this (''Film/EasterParade'', ''Strike Up The Band'', ''Film/AStarIsBorn1954'') along with Creator/FredAstaire.
** Creator/GeneKelly also made his film debut (''For Me And My Gal'') after being discovered performing in ''Pal Joey'' on Broadway.
* ''Film/HunkyDory'' is a film about students performing a glam rock musical version of ''Theatre/TheTempest''.
* ''Film/BillyElliot'' is about a boy who wants to be a dancer; the original was a film, but this trope applies to the musical adaptation.
* ''Film/PalJoey'' is about a nightclub singer.
* ''Film/TheBandWagon'' is about the staging of a musical.
* Baz Luhrman's ''Film/MoulinRouge'' is about a show being put on in the club-turned-theater.
* ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'' is about a family singing act.
** Also, the "Lonely Goatherd" puppet show.
* ''Film/{{Fame}}'' is set at a performing arts school.
* ''Film/OnWithTheShow'' is about the chaos behind the scenes of a musical production called ''The Phantom Sweetheart''--the producer is broke, the prop guy has shown up to repossess the sets, and someone stole the gate receipts!
* In ''Film/TopHat'', Creator/FredAstaire plays a song-and-dance man. There's also ''Easter Parade'' (with Creator/JudyGarland and Ann Miller) and ''Blue Skies'' (also starring Music/BingCrosby). Also ''Film/TheGayDivorcee,'' and ''The Barkleys of Broadway,'' which featured Creator/GingerRogers.
* ''Film/{{Once}}'' is about a busker.
* ''Film/TheCommitments'' is about a working-class Irish band.
* Every ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' film is about the staging of a high school musical.
** Not the second, though it ''is'' about a talent contest that many of the cast members are planning to sing at.
** Even better, the first two films have [[ScreenToStageAdaptation stage adaptations]].
* Most Creator/BusbyBerkeley musicals use this trope.
** ''Film/FortySecondStreet'' is a musical about Peggy Sawyer and her having to learn all the dance steps, songs and lines in the In-Musical production ''The Pretty Lady'' in a night after accidentally breaking the leg of the intended leading woman, Dorothy Brock.
** In ''Film/FootlightParade'', Creator/JamesCagney has to impress some skeptical producers by putting on three big musical numbers in one night.
** In ''Film/{{Dames}}'' Dick Powell's character is putting on a musical called ''Sweet and Hot''.
** In ''Film/GoldDiggersOf1933'', Dick Powell's character is putting on a musical. Again.
* ''Film/SunnySideUp'': Although Molly isn't a professional dancer and singer, she does perform for her neighbourhood on several occasions and eventually a carnival for rich people.
* ''Film/OnTheTown'' has the main character (Gene Kelly)'s love interest as an aspiring dancer, though she is currently doing {{Burlesque}}.
* In ''Film/DarlingLili,'' Julie Andrews plays a World War I music hall singer.
* ''{{Sugar}}'' figured that ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'' was ''already'' about a couple of (male) musicians who join an all-female band to get away from the mob; why not turn it into a musical?
* ''Film/BulletsOverBroadway'' would obviously become this when [[Theatre/BulletsOverBroadway adapted to a Broadway musical.]] {{Subverted}}, though, since the [[ShowWithinAShow play being put on isn't a musical.]] Just a play.
* ''Film/LaLaLand'' is about an aspiring actress and a jazz pianist.
* ''Film/ZiegfeldGirl'' is about three women who join the Ziegfield Follies. Songs and musical numbers follow.
* ''Film/TheGreatestShowman'' follows the story of the founding of the first circus and frames it as a precursor to later Vaudeville performances, complete with all-cast musical numbers and individual talent performances, and refers to the circus as "the greatest show."[[note]]Besides the obvious reference to theater, Barnum's circus did/does refer to itself as "the greatest show on earth."[[/note]] It also heavily features opera singer Jenny Lind, and her relationship with Barnum as they tour the US.
* ''Film/BrightLights'' focuses on the performers in a Broadway show called ''Bright Lights''. The female lead is leaving show business to marry a rich guy but her male co-star and old admirer is jealous. Lots of musical numbers.
* Just like the movie it's based on, ''Film/SisterAct'' is about a lounge singer who goes into hiding at a convent, taking over said convent's choir.
* ''Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan'' is about Franchise/TheMuppets trying to bring their college show ''Manhattan Melodies'' to Broadway. Similarly, ''Film/TheMuppets2011'' and ''Film/MuppetsMostWanted'' are about them bringing back ''Series/TheMuppetShow'', first as a telethon, then as a live tour of Europe.

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[[folder: Live-action TV ]]

* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' is about a high school glee club.
* ''Series/{{Smash}}'' is about the conception and production of a Broadway musical.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

* ''Theatre/ShowBoat'', as the title suggests, is about performers on a show boat.
* ''Theatre/{{Cabaret}}'', as the title suggests, is about performers in a cabaret.
* ''Theatre/KissMeKate'' -- often described as a musical version of ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' -- would be more accurately described as a musical ''about'' a musical version of ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew''.
* ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'' is a light example: Harold Hill is selling band instruments, band uniforms and the false promise of starting a band. At the very end the band does wind up performing, once, not very well. The fact that his love interest is a music teacher adds to things a bit.
* ''Theatre/AChorusLine'' features dancers auditioning for a show.
* ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' is about a wannabe singer, with the secondary female lead a former singer ("former" because now she's in prison). They both get out of prison and become famous performers.
* ''Easter Parade'' is about a vaudeville dance act.
* ''Theatre/ByeByeBirdie'' is about a 50s rock singer performing one last concert before he goes off to the army.
* ''Theatre/HeadsUp'' is about a long-running musical adding an extra performance after closing.
* ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', strangely enough.
* ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}'' is about the stars of a dance-oriented TV show.
* ''Theatre/TitleOfShow'' features friends writing a musical.
** Not only that, but the musical they are writing is [title of show]. They are writing a musical about writing a musical about writing a musical about writing a musical about...
* ''Curtains'' is about a murder investigation on the set of an off-Broadway musical.
* The stage adaptation of ''Film/TheProducers'' turns the story into a musical producing the fictional musical ''Springtime for Hitler''.
* Miss Adelaide and the Hotbox Girls in ''Theatre/GuysAndDolls''. Adelaide's numbers at the Hotbox actually do very little to propel the story; they're mostly there to provide transitions into other scenes set at the Hotbox (the other Hotbox girls are so alternatively insignificant that only one has any lines outside of those numbers).
* ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone'' is a about an agoraphobic musical-lover listening to his collection of musical records. His favorite one--''[[ShowWithinAShow The Drowsy Chaperone]]''--which he listens to with the audience, is about the wedding of two 1920s musical stars, and several other supporting characters in ''that'' show are related to the stage as well (although there's no musical in the show-within-a-show). There's also a scene from a different, also made up show called ''Message from a Nightengale'', an obvious riff on ''Theatre/TheKingAndI''.
* ''Theatre/{{Gypsy}}'' is about a vaudeville dancer who transitions into the {{Burlesque}} scene.

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