Dark Reprise - Television Tropes & Idioms

A song starts in sunshine, but has a dark reprise.

There are two main forms; the first is the sarcastic echo, the second is the dark reprise. This trope is favoured by the writers of musicals.

The sarcastic echo is a duet, but one party is oblivious to this fact. The main singer opens with a happy, even sappy verse. But there is a onlooking character mocking the first from the wings.

The other form is the dark reprise. Early in the show, we get a joyous song. In a later act, sadder and wiser, those same lyrics are ironic and sad. Sometimes the reprise parodies the original lyrics; sometimes they are same, only sung more slowly and mournfully. The "dark" part may even be literal, with the reprise using dimmer lighting.

The dark reprise is a subtrope of Ironic Echo, and the Evil Twin of Triumphant Reprise.

Compare Dual Meaning Chorus, more common in country music, where a song's chorus is interpreted differently with each iteration (and the song only plays once).

Can overlap with Lyrical Dissonance, although a dark reprise tends to smooth this over with a more somber arrangement. Note that this can also apply to moments that don't use music. See also Soundtrack Dissonance, Funny Aneurysm Moment.

Examples

Dark Reprise

Jafar's reprise of "Prince Ali" in Aladdin. "Prince Ali, Yes, it is he, But not as you know him."
- "One Jump Ahead" and its reprise also qualify: in the first Aladdin sings about what a great thief he is, in the second he wishes people saw that there was more to him than that.
"Gaston" in Disney's Beauty And The Beast starts out as an amusing but mostly harmless comedy piece, touting Gaston's "virtues" from the inane ("no-one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston") to the unpleasant yet still funny ("in a wrestling match, nobody bites like Gaston!"). In the reprise, although the tune remains the same, all pretense is stripped away to openly trumpet Gaston's villainy. ("No-one persecutes harmless crackpots like Gaston!")
"Somewhere That's Green" from Little Shop of Horrors. A song with nearly identical lyrics is first about dreaming of a bright future with Seymour, and then about begging Seymour to feed her to a man-eating plant.
- "Act 1 Finale" contains some lyrics and melody from "Prologue/Little Shop of Horrors", but in a more sinister tone and playing behind the maniacal laughter of a man-eating plant.
- Also noteworthy is "The Meek Shall Inherit", which starts cheerful and gradually shifts into a dark echo of its earlier verses. By the time the final "you know the meek are gonna get what's coming to 'em by and by..." rolls around, it's downright ominous.
Gilbert and Sullivan: "I have a song to sing, O!" from Yeomen of the Guard. The first rendition is a sentimental ballad. In the end, it's painfully heartbreaking. And this is done without any changes in the music - only the context.
- There is one change: the line "Who loved her lord and laughed aloud" turns into "Who loved her lord and dropped a tear" because the actress playing Elsie in the premiere thought that the straight repeat was too cruel. Sir Gilbert agreed. She was right, too.
Jeff Wayne's The War Of The Worlds song "Brave New World" relates the Utopian dreams of The Artilleryman, who thinks the alien invasion is a opportunity to throw away the hated modern world and build an underground utopia. The music is a heart-rousing soundtrack to any — every glorious revolution. The Journalist punctures this in deadpan narration: The Artilleryman has a tunnel ten feet long and outside tripods are moving. The song is reprised, with a maudlin tone that now belies the words, and the discordant interpretation of the music gives the impression of a drunken, foolish dreamer, sitting in a cellar singing to himself as the world goes to hell outside.
- The song 'The Spirit Of Man' combines this with the Sarcastic Echo - whilst the embittered, broken and deranged Parson Nathaniel's verses deal with his disillusionment with the sins of those around him, and his delusional belief that the invading Martians are 'demons' sent by Satan to wipe out humanity, his wife Beth's chorus is an optimistic, hopeful exhortation to the finest and noblest elements of human nature within 'the spirit of man'. Then a Martian craft crash-lands on the house in which the characters are sheltering, Beth is crushed under the rubble and Nathaniel takes over her chorus, the lyrics now altered to reflect his bitter, defeatist worldview.
Near the end of Wicked, the beginning of "No One Mourns The Wicked," the play's first song, sung by the Ozians rejoicing over the Witch's death, is heard again - except now we've gotten to know her as a sympathetic, even tragic, character.
- Wicked is in love with this trope. The riff which accompanies the lyrics "Unlimited/My future is unlimited" in "The Wizard and I" is heard three times more throughout the musical, in "Defying Gravity" ("Unlimited/Together we're unlimited"), at one point in the full version of "No Good Deed" ("Unlimited/The damage is unlimited"), and finally at the beginning of "For Good" ("Limited/Just look at me, I'm limited").
- Also, "I'm Not That Girl" - same words, different character singing it.
- Additionally, the recurring lyrics about Elphaba regarding "a celebration throughout Oz that's all to do with me/you" are inverted from their intention when Elphaba's death is celebrated at the end of Act II.
  - Or Fiyero's "Life's more painless for the brainless" line...
At the beginning of Ragtime's second act, Coalhouse manages to reprise both "Wheels of a Dream" and "The Prologue" (and also "Your Daddy's Son," but that was rather dark already) while spiraling into homicidal madness. It's very effective.
"Under Your Spell," from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In the first version, an upbeat love song, Tara uses the title phrase metaphorically; later Tara discovers she is literally under a spell to prevent her breaking up with Willow, and the Dark Reprise uses the phrase literally. The second version is actually a double version of this, seeing as it's a duet with an (even) Darker Reprise of Giles' earlier "Standing In The Way".
The Wizard Of Oz, in a scene that was ultimately cut from the movie for being a little too depressing, had Dorothy doing a Dark Reprise of the famous "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" after being trapped by the Wicked Witch in her castle.
- So depressing in fact that the performance is said to have reduced the cast and crew to tears.
"Bewitched" from Pal Joey ("Wise at last / My eyes at last / Are cutting you down to your size at last")
The Bittersweet Ending of Camelot includes a reprise of the title song, with the lyrics now referring to Camelot in the past tense.
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch reverses this with Return to the Sea. In its first uses, it's a dark, angry song in which Sara expresses her rage and hatred. However, when Hanon's assertion that Tarou really did love Sara gets to her, she reprises the song with a happier, more optimistic tone ("The inevitable distrust/Is only harmful weakness/Love cannot be defined, but/I want to believe in it again").
The musical Titanic ends with a reprise of earlier songs about how amazing the ship is. As the ship has now sunk, the lyrics become ironic. (e.g. "I Must Get on that Ship" is reprised to mean the lifeboats instead of Titanic)
- It also works the lyrics of "The Proposal/The Night Was Alive" which are made tragic by the circumstances. This song has more to do with the personal stories of the singers.
Man of La Mancha has a song "Little Bird, Little Bird", which is first sung by a group of men attempting to flirt with Aldonza, the tavern wench whom Don Quixote imagines to be a noble lady. Much later in the story, while singing the same song, they rape her.
- In the same musical, the song "Dulcinea" has two dark reprises. Directly after Don Quixote sings it to Aldonza, the muleteers (same group of men from the above example) sing the chorus mockingly. Later, when Don Quixote is dying and has renounced his dreams, Aldonza sings a version with slightly different lyrics back to him, begging him to make her feel like someone with self-worth and dignity again.
Similarly, in the Jekyll and Hyde musical, the song "Sympathy, Tenderness" is sung once in each act: in the first, it is sung by the prostitute Lucy as she reflects on the kindness Dr. Jekyll has shown her; in the second act, it's sung by Hyde as he rapes and murders her.
- The Crowd Song "Facade" gets four reprises, two of which are much darker than the original song allready is.
- Not to mention, "Lost in the Darkness" is first sung by Jekyll to his father, who is mentally ill. In the latter part of the musical, after he's realized how much control Hyde has over him, he sings it to himself; using the exact same words.
- Likewise, in the 1941 film, Ivy first sings "See Me Dance the Polka" in a cheery production number; later, Hyde forces her to sing it as he strangles her.
The song "First Toymaker to the King" from the Christmas Special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town is reprised as "No More Toymakers to the King" by Burgermeister Meisterburger.
In Prince of Egypt, the song "The Plagues" is partially a dark reprise of Moses' earlier I Want Song inversion, "All I Ever Wanted", turning from a celebration of his life as an Egyptian to a lament over having to destroy it to win freedom for the Jews. It also doubles as a Villain Song for the Pharaoh, showing his anger at his foster brother's betrayal.
Disney's The Hunchback Of Notre Dame features a lovesick Quasimodo singing about how he has finally found love after years of assuming he was unlovable (Heaven's Light). Not much later, these same lyrics are echoed with a new, bitter twist as he discovers this his newfound 'love' is more interested in her Knight In Shining Armor.
- And seconds after the same song Frollo sings his own version, the awesome Villain Song Hellfire, about his fury at and lust for Esmerelda. Here's the whole sequence.
In Sweeney Todd, Toby sings an innocent song of devotion to Mrs Lovett called "Not While I'm Around", in which he promises to never let her come to harm. Later, Mrs Lovett sings a section of the same song... while looking for Toby to hand him over to Sweeney to be killed.
- Even better - Mrs Lovett's first Dark Reprise of "Not While I'm Around" actually comes right in the middle of Toby's version.
- Anthony's soaring ballad "Johanna" from midway through Act I, gets partially reprised at the top of Act II. The sentiment is similar, albeit intensified: Anthony seeks at all costs to free Johanna from the tyrannical Judge Turpin so they can be together. What makes it a Dark Reprise is its juxtaposition with Sweeney's lyrically and musically distinct song, also called "Johanna." It, by contrast, is an exercise in complacency, an emotionally repressed farewell to his daughter in which he states that he's so involved in his murdering that he's stopped caring about her.
- In fact, nearly every song in this show has a Dark Reprise... most of which are incredibly dark to begin with: "A Barber and His Wife," "A Little Priest," and "Pretty Women," just to name a few. Sondheim's pretty economical with his musical material.
- Taken (broadly) from the movie version:
  - No Place Like London/A Barber And His Wife: Yes and Yes
  - The Worst Pies in London: Yes
  - Poor Thing: Yes
  - My Friends: Yes
  - Green Finch and Linnet Bird: No in the movie, yes onstage.
  - Alms, Alms: Yes
  - Johanna: Yes, yes.
  - Pirelli's Miracle Elixir: Yes (at the beginning of God, that's Good)
  - The Contest: No in the movie, yes onstage.
  - Wait: Yes
  - Ladies And Their Sensitivities: Yes
  - Pretty Women: Yes
  - Epiphany: You can hardly make this darker than it already is.
  - A Little Priest: Yes
  - God that's Good: Not really...
  - By The Sea: Yes
  - Not While I'm Around: Yes
- As you can see, this is over two-thirds of the musical. The rest of it was cut material from the stage show.
In the Broadway version of Beauty And The Beast, the Beast acknowledges that Belle is his last chance when he sings "If I Can't Love Her," then reprises it bitterly when convinced that his chance has been lost.
Chauvelin of the musical version of The Scarlet Pimpernel sings "Where's The Girl?" as a love song to Marguerite, then later renounces her in a snarling reprise.
In the soundtrack to the Kenneth Branagh movie of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, the melody of the wedding march at Hero's first, doomed wedding reappears (in minor key) as her dirge when she is believed dead. By contrast, no music is played at the second wedding (during which the audience knows that the bride is Hero, alive and well, but her groom believes her dead and thinks he is marrying her cousin) until the moment she lifts her veil. This is very effective in setting the mood for all three scenes.
In the South Park movie, "La Resistance" begins as a rousing anthem in the vein of "One Day More" from Les Miserables. "La Resistance (Reprise)" is a duet between the Mole and Kyle as the Mole dies.
- Also in the episode where Butters sings about his new robot (really Cartman in disguise), "Hey there, let me tell you 'bout my robot friend" reprised when the robot gets taken away by the government: "Hey there, did you know I had a robot friend..."
In Of Thee I Sing, President Wintergreen and his wife Mary dismiss the concerns of reporters by singing "Who Cares?" They sing a Dark Reprise when those concerns have escalated to the point where his impeachment is imminent. The preceding scene has Diana singing a personal reprise of "Because, Because," which with new lyrics becomes accusatory rather than "sweet and sunny."
In Show Boat, as Ravenal abandons his family, he sings the same song to his daughter that he sang when he first met her mother: "Only make believe I love you..."
The musical Aida is full of this. "How I Know You", "My Strongest Suit", "Elaborate Lives"...
A few times in Will Ferrel movies:
- In Anchorman, the day after he goes out with his attractive co host, Ron Burgundy and his crew sing "Afternoon Delight." Later, he has lost his job and all respect, and is now sitting drunk at the bar, singing the same song in a drunken, sad way.
- In Blades of Glory, the song for the pairs first performance is "Don't Want To Miss A Thing." After his partner refuses to speak to him, he leaves many messages on his phone, one of which is a sad, drunken version of that song.
- And Semi-Pro: Jackie Moon earned all his money that he bought the Tropics with using royalties from his song "Love Me Sexy." He later goes through a Heroic BSOD of sorts, and sings a variation of that song while lying in a dumpster. Yes, it's sad and drunken.
Used a lot in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, particularly The Phantom Of The Opera. Most notable in the songs 'All I Ask of You' (Raoul asking Christine to love him always), then the Phantom singing its tragic reprise about his love for her. Of course, love turns him evil, as shown by the dark reprise.
- Also at the end when the Phantom is forcing Christine to choose between him or Raoul, Erik sings a Dark Reprise of Past the Point of No Return (which was kinda dark already) while Christine is singing one of Angel of Music.
  - Raoul is singing a reprise of yet another song at the same time, but it's in the background and I can't tell what it is.
- This is seen again at the start of Act II in Masquerade, where everyone is happy and joyful, until things take a turn for the sinister in 'Why so Silent' and the Phantom reappears.
- The entire lengthy finale (Down Once More/Track Down this Murderer) is a Dark Reprise of earlier songs. Listen to the music without words and you'll find it difficult to pick out a new melody.
- Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. The first line 'My mind is clearer now' becomes 'My mind is in darkness now', and in a possible reversal, his anguished 'Every time I look at you I don't understand/Why you let the things you did get so out of hand' from The Last Supper is repeated peppily at the end in Superstar.
  - Not to mention "I Don't Know How to Love Him", first sung by Mary Magdalene, and then later by Judas as he prepares to hang himself.
  - And "John 19:41", the ending instrumental of the play, is itself an (even sadder) counterpart to "Gethsemane".
- Joseph And the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat has the bright, cheerful opener 'Any Dream Will Do' repeat rather mournfully when Joseph is reunited with his sick, elderly father.
  - Doesn't really count because the earlier version of that musical only had "Any Dream" at the end, the song also being at the beginning was a later addition. A better example is Joseph singing his prophetic dreams early in the musical and then reprising the rhymes when he meets his brothers again - this leads into the dark "Grovel, Grovel".
"The Beauty Is" from The Light in the Piazza: first sung by Clara, expressing hope and excitement at the possibility of finding love and happiness. The song is reprised by her mother, Margaret, who fears that Clara may never find love and happiness (due to her mental disability) and Margaret's guilt over her own culpability.
Reefer Madness (the musical adaptation, of course) uses this straight with "Romeo and Juliet", where Jimmy and Mary compare their love to that of Romeo and Juliet, but neither knows the ending. It is reprised later as Mary dies, fulfilling the Romeo and Juliet parallels. "The Stuff" also gets a reprise, but the song was pretty dark in the first place.
- "Down At the Old Five and Dime" gets the same dark reprise treatment. Act 1: Cheerful, chipper clean cut kids taking ice cream from Mr. Poppy. Act 2: Same kids being lead down the Reefer Path by Mr. Poppy.
- And don't forget "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy!", the splashy Vegas-style production number sung to our hero by the Man, only to be shut out at the song's conclusion, saying "I have a new god now!" and then reprised at Jimmy's execution, against Jimmy's protests, admonishing him in the same splashy style that he DIDN'T listen.
Into the Woods repeatedly reprises the title number, one of which is a bona fide Dark Reprise. The first time the song is sung (as part of the sprawling opening number), the characters are off to make their wishes come true in the woods. The Act II reprises the tune, as the characters realize that getting their wishes had unintended consequences, and they must return to the woods to do some major damage control.
- Also happens with the duet "Agony": in Act I, two royal brothers are each singing about a woman they have fallen for, ending with "I must have her to wife." They reprise the number in Act II... talking about two different women. After justifying their infidelity, they end with "Ah well, back to my wife." Funny, but darker as well.
- Into the Woods also provides a rare inversion of this trope. In "Stay With Me", the Witch berates Rapunzel for disobeying her, singing, "What did I clearly say? Children must listen!" Later, in "Witch's Lament", she mourns Rapunzel's death: "No matter what you say, children won't listen." Finally, the song becomes the finale "Children Will Listen"—which, although not exactly cheery, is certainly much less bitter and resentful.
The Wicker Man (musical version) starts with Sgt. Howie singing a musical version of the 23rd Psalm along with the rest of his church congregation. At the end, he sings it again in a more defiant/terrified tone, while being burnt to death in the eponymous Wicker Man.
"Wilkommen" from Cabaret, which first appears as an upbeat opening number but closes the show on a sinister note as the cast sings a discordant version surrounded by Nazi regalia.
- "Wilkommen" gets even darker in the revival version, when the Emcee takes off his treachcoat to reveal a concentration camp uniform with a pink triangle, implying that he was taken away for being homosexual.
- "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" could also be considered an example of this trope. Depending on what the director chooses to do, the cabaret dancers sometimes sing it early on while everything's still going well, as a happy, hopeful anthem.
- "Married" also qualifies. Not that the words are changed, but in the reprise the song is interrupted by a brick being thrown through the window of Herr Schultz's shop, because he is Jewish. This causes Fraulein Schneider to realize she can't marry him.
Not a song, but in the end of the original Moulin Rouge, Toulouse-Lautrec realizes as he dies that although he is famous, he was only really happy in the simple days of the cabaret, and the dancers and spectators from the very first scene come back in his mind to perform one last time, and fade out as he dies. Roll credits. How's that for a Downer Ending?
"Reviewing The Situation" in Oliver! - first sung by Fagin as he tries and fails to convince himself to abandon his criminal ways, later reprised with the Artful Dodger as they pledge their dedication to a life of crime.
- "It's a Fine Life" may be an even better example of this trope. It's first sung by Nancy and Bet as a relatively cheerful song, but is later reprised by Nancy, Bill Sikes, Fagin, and Dodger in a more sarcastic and dark manner.
  - When you look at Bill's treatment of Nancy, the original becomes pretty dark on its own: "Though you sometimes do come by/The occasional black eye/You can always cover one/'Till he blacks the other one/But you don't dare cry!"
- "As Long As He Needs Me" is another example: the first time Nancy sings it to demonstrate how she won't give up Bill despite his abuse, the second is right before Bill decides he doesn't need her anymore - and murders her in cold blood.
Avatar The Last Airbender: The Tale of Iroh once has Iroh singing a fairly happy song to cheer up a crying child. He later sings it while breaking into tears as he sets up a memorial for his dead son.
- Only made worse in that the song is about a soldier coming home. Iroh's son was a soldier who died in battle.
The Who's The Kids Are Alright: The middle two sentences ("I know, if I go, things will be a lot better for her. I had things planned, but her folks wouldn't let her.") change the meaning of repeated verse.
In The Protomen, Mega Man declares "As I live, there is no evil that will stand, and I will finish what was started - the fight of Protoman", when he first decides to avenge his brother. He repeats the line near the end of the opera, only this time, he's referring to trying to force humanity to fight for itself by allowing Dr. Wily to slaughter it.
In the final scene of West Side Story, Tony, believing Maria to have been murdered, goes out and gets himself shot, and only then sees Maria. They start to sing a Dark Reprise of "Somewhere", but he dies in the middle.
- The same is picked up instrumentaly by the orchestra as Tony's body is carried off, which this writer argues are some of the most heart-wrenching final chords to come out of Broadway.
Kismet ends with a Dark Reprise of "Sands Of Time," as the characters vanish one by one from the stage.
"If I Loved You" in Carousel is first sung early in Act I, as Julie and Billy flirt with each other by offering romantic hypotheticals, denying their attraction even as they submit to it. Near the end of Act II, a now-dead Billy uses largely the same words to lament that he could never truly admit his feelings to Julie or to himself while he had the chance. (This reprise was added during the show's New Haven tryout; Rodgers And Hammerstein were pleased to see that it boosted sheet music sales of the song.)
"I'll Cover You" from RENT. First sung as an inspiring tenor/baritone duet by Angel and Collins as they realize they've fallen in love. Later at Angel's funeral, Collins sings alone in a slow and pained bass-baritone to gospel-like piano chords. To add to the effect, Joanne and Maureen replace Angel in the chorus as the rest of the cast backs them up with "Seasons of Love." Contrast the original with the reprise.
- I hesitate to call it bass-baritone. The song is rather high-lying, going up to a high A.
  - Yeah, but the nature of the two songs still fits the profile.
- "I Should Tell You" has a rather abbreviated Dark Reprise right before the finale ("Finale A/Your Eyes"), where Roger and Mimi repeat the song as Mimi is dying - or so they think.
TV example: One episode of The Wonder Years opens with Kevin extolling the virtues of his sweetheart Winnie as the Beach Boys' classic "God Only Knows" plays. The song is used again at the end of the episode when Winnie dumps Kevin.
In the Musical Grease, the song "Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee" is an early song mocking the main character, Sandy, for being a goody-goody. It has a reprise sung by Sandy towards the end, where she decides to stop being a nice girl and becomes a leather-clad "bad girl" to win back her man.
Early in She Loves Me, the protagonist's boss, Mr. Marazak, sings "Days Gone By," in which he reminisces about his freewheeling days as a young man and meeting his wife. Later, after he finds out his wife has being cheating on him, he sings the song again, with identical lyrics, which take on a much more poignant meaning.
One of the three couples in Baby is barren, and trying desperately to conceive. The wife, Pam, tries to cheer up her husband, Nick, describing their rigorous (and restrictive) sex schedule in pleasant terms in "Romance." The song gets reprised twice, getting increasingly ironic and agitated, until they get fed up and decide to stop trying.
The song Apu sings in The Simpsons episode after losing his job; "Who needs the Quickie Mart?... I dooooooooo!"
- He lied to us through song! I HATE when people do that!
"Master of the House" from Les Miserables (above) also gets a dark reprise as "Beggars at the Feast", which shows off Thenardier's immense profit from being a despicable human being.
- And what about Gavroche's reprise of "Little People" when he gets shot at the barricades ?
- There's also Javert's reprise of Valjean's "soliloquy" song. Valjean ends the song by turning over a new leaf; Javert ends by killing himself.
- And "One Day More" is basically a reprise, with sinister undertones, of just about every song heard hitherto. Especially "Who Am I?"
  - Though the section that uses the tune of "I Dreamed A Dream" turns the song from a reflection on a life crushed by poverty and mistreatment to a song about two lovers wondering if they're ever going to see each other again, so not quite a Dark Reprise, but close.
- There's also an element of this between Javert's Knight Templar Song, "Stars" and the one he sings before his suicide. In the former, he outlines his philosophy, looking at the stars as a metaphor for a sacred order of society which must be rigidly enforced. The latter, which uses some of the same background melody, contains a Meaningful Echo, where Javert, having his worldview shattered, refers to the stars as "black and cold".
- And then there's the finale's reprise of "Do You Hear the People Sing?" Its first appearance is as a rousing call-to-arms as Enjolras foments a rebellion. In the finale, the song is revisited as a sort of hymn about the wretched of the earth finding solace in the end. This may be something of a "light" reprise rather than a "dark" one, but then again, it's being sung by a chorus of the characters who have died.
  - It paraphrases Enjolras' speech in the book at the barricade before the first battle, when they still think they can succeed. It is at once a stirring utopian vision and an example of Dramatic Irony.
Dr Horribles Sing Along Blog has one with "Slipping." The song's melody is first heard as background music as Horrible is attempting to steal the Wonderflonium. When we actually hear it as a song in its own right, it's significantly darker...not that it doesn't have totally random humorous moments (such as the Doctor interrupting his own song to give a reporter the correct spelling of his name.) This is Dr. Horrible, the king of Mood Whiplash, we're talking about.
- Also, the theme song. Also a mild subversion in Brand new day / the music at the party after Hammer's defeat. The subversion is that BOTH usages are dark, but in different ways.
- On The Rise, the opening number of Act II, probably counts as a sarcastic (ironic?) echo, with Billy and Penny singing completely different songs in the same space. Billy/Dr. Horrible's is a angsty, dark song about his descent into supervillainy because Penny is boinking Captain Hammer, while Penny's is an inspirational song about Hammer ~~becoming more empathetic and socially concerned~~ superficially supporting the homeless shelter to get into Penny's pants but still being a jerk to the bums.
- The background singers, and the title of the "Everything You Ever" are a reprise of a line in Slipping where Horrible declares he'll get "Everything he ever". The word "wanted" is implied in both cases.
Literary example: In Lord Of The Rings, Bilbo and Frodo sing almost the same song as they leave the Shire. A single adjective is the difference between Bilbo's song of adventure and Frodo's complaint the arduousness of his task.
From Doctor Who , What is the Master's new theme? What is that menacing semi-tribal cacophony of drums in the trailer for The Last of the Time Lords? The main theme for Doctor Who, with no other instruments.
In Spring Awakening, Melchior sings the line "You watch me, just watch me - I'm calling, and one day all will know" twice: once early on in the song "All That's Known", and once as a Dark Reprise in the song "Those You've Known".
- Also in Spring Awakening, Wendla opens the show with the soft, lullaby-like song "Mama Who Bore Me." At the end of the first scene, in which her mother lies to her about the nature of reproduction, Wendla is joined by the other girls for "Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise)", an angry rock version of the song.
The Off Broadway musical The Last Five Years features something of a Light Reprise, since Cathy's songs start from the time of her divorce from Jamie to the beginning of their relationship - she rebukes Jamie for being self centered and obsessed with his career in "See I'm Smiling", while later in the play she uses similar langauge to her rebuke when describing how much she loves and wants to be with him in "I Can Do Better Than That" ("I want you and you and nothing but you/miles and piles of you").
Disgaea 2 has a dark reprise (fully instrumental) of its main theme Sinful Rose play during the credits of the worst ending. Post credits, Nightmare Fuel Unleaded ensues.
Silent Hill 2's (instrumental) theme tune is strangely light and optimistic for a horror game - until a scene near the end, where a much more melancholy version plays on piano and violin, making the moment (Angela's decision to commit suicide) that much more heartbreaking.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days has one with Xion, and then at the end of the game...her battle theme.
Parodied in Team America: World Police: the upbeat, ultra-patriotic song "America, Fuck Yeah" is played again later on in the movie, when Gary has left the team and the rest of them go to fight Kim Jong Il alone. The soundtrack actually labels this song as the "Bummer Mix".
"Gong Jin'ou", the national anthem of the Qing Dynasty, is sung formally in The Last Emperor, then gets sadly reprised one last time before the Qing abdicate in a real Tear Jerker.
Pink Floyd's The Wall features a darker reprise of an already-dark song. "In The Flesh?" expresses Pink's disillusionment with life, or, alternately, an outsider's view as Pink starts to isolate himself. Later, "In The Flesh!" shows Pink's graduation into a full-blown fascist after a psychotic breakdown.
Cats Don't Dance uses this trope with "Big and Loud". The first time through, Darla is giving advice to Danny about how to impress an audience. Once Danny is hustled out the door, the lyrics change as she declares her true intent — to destroy Danny's career and that of anyone else who gets in her way. The song is used a third time as she puts her plan into action, with the same lyrics as the second time, as she revels in her victory.
In The Sound Of Music, the song Edelweiss comes up twice: First as a straightforward sign that Captain von Trapp is finally opening up to his family, and later as a defiant but bittersweet statement of patriotism in the face of a Nazi takeover that will do away with the country he loves. It's a subtler version in that the song is performed in the same key, performed by the same person, and does not differ until the Captain falters in his singing. (This is only a Dark Reprise in the movie version; on stage, the song is sung in the later scene only.)
Wall*E has an interestingly reversed version of this, with the 'dark' version coming before the 'light' one. In the first act, the titular robot watches a video of "It Only Takes A Moment" from Hello Dolly, with the sappy romantic lyrics serving only to accentuate the hopeless loneliness of his existence. The song is used throughout the film as a Leitmotif, until at the very end of the film it gets a full reprise, only this time played straight.
Although non-lyrical, in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire versions, the Victory Road theme is essentially a Dark Reprise of the main Pokemon theme.
- Incidentally, the stage show Pokemon Live! had Giovanni sing an dark reprise of "You and Me and Pokemon" during his Evil Gloating.
Parodied (or played straight, or...who the hell knows?) in The Brothers Solomon, in which the power ballad "St. Elmo's Fire" (from the film of the same name) is used first as a general triumphant anthem for the titular brothers. During their (extremely brief) falling out, a more sombre, acoustic version of the song is played.
The Legally Blonde musical inverts this: the titular song is somber while the reprise is upbeat and energetic.
Doctor Who And The Pirates (one of the audio stories) has Evelyn Smythe and Red Jasper claiming to be a Pirate Queen and King respectively, filking a Gilbert and Sullivan song while Evelyn (a sixty-something history lecturer) attempted to intimidate a pirate crew. Red Jasper sings it again shortly afterwards, celebrating his absolute authority after forcing a crewman to eat his own tongue. The enthusiastic pirate chorus is... somewhat less enthusiastic.
Pretty much every key song in "Children of Eden" has at least one poignant reprise or more, because of the theme of history repeating itself and second chances.
- "Spark of Creation" Eve's big I Want Song, is later reprised as a fear that she has passed the fiery spirit that led to the fall of humanity to her son Cain. At the climax, when Noah is no longer sure what God wants him to do, his wife sings a reprise telling him to use his God-given brain to decide for himself.
- "That's What It Means to be a Father", Father's song about his love for his children, is darkly reprised by Cain as he accuses Adam of crushing his spirit, then by Father again after he wipes out humanity with the flood.
- Also, the "Without form, void, darkness" from before God creates the universe is sung again after the earth is destroyed with the flood.
- The big love song "In Whatever Time We Have", about Yonah and Japheth staying together even though she is not allowed on the ark is later sung by the entire family, swearing to stay together even if it means the flood will never stop.
- "Oh Father, please don't make me choose, either way it's more than I can bear to lose" is repeated three times, first by Adam to Father, then Abel to Adam, then Noah to Father at the end.
Barnum has a few:
- "Love Makes Such Fools of Us All" is reprised by Jenny Lind as Barnum decides to return to his wife Chairy rather than try to pursue her.
- "The Colors of My Life", the I Want Song for both Barnum and Chairy which is initially sung in two parts (hers commenting on his) is reprised as a duet for the couple before Chairy dies.
- The show closes with a wistful closing reprise of "There's a Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute" as Barnum mourns how the great eccentricities and "humbugs" of the past - which he built his career on - are now forgotten.
In Tales Of Symphonia, Zelos' happy-go-lucky samba theme song is replaced by a much darker, slower arrangement during his Face Heel Turn, showing his inner darkness.
- Similarly, Raine's theme has two versions: the speedy, silly version that plays when she is in the throes of her ruin mania, and a slower, solemn one used for more serious scenes. This second one is what plays when Raine meets her Missing Mom, who has gone insane with guilt(?) and doesn't even recognize her own children.
The song "Let Me be Your Wings" from Thumbelina has a dark reprise halfway through the movie, called "Once There was the Sun". She sings this in lamenting Cornelius' apparent death.
- When Thumbelina goes missing, her mother sings a sad reprise of Thumbelina's I Want Song "Soon".
In Fushigi Yuugi, the instrumental "Romantic" is played—you guessed it—in romantic moments in the first few instances. It is reprised numerous times later in the series, e.g. when Miaka tries to kill herself to save her friends and when Mitsukake dies.
Hair has "Manchester", which finds its horrifying reprise in "The Flesh Failures". "I believe in God, and I believe that God, believes in Claude. That's me. That's me."
Kurt Weill was fond of this trope. A very nice example can be heard in the final three songs of The Seven Deadly Sins, which summarize the previous parts both in melody and in lyrics.
- More famously, the final song of the Threepenny Opera, which echoes the opening song Mack The Knife. "For some are in the darkness, and others are in the light. And we see the ones in the light. The ones in the darkness, we don't see." Although the song is left out in a staggering number of productions, it's one of the most quoted poems in German literature.
The ending sequence of Final Fantasy VIII makes good use of this with Eyes On Me, which at first is turned into a Nightmare Fuel psychedelic acid trip and later serves as a true Tear Jerker. This is the first time we hear the song in full - although the melody is played often as background music in the game, canonically the versions we hear during gameplay are muzak covers of the real thing.
The theme "Otherworld" is played during the intro to Final Fantasy X, and it's later used as the theme for the final boss.
The Aria sung by Celes in Final Fantasy VI is played again when Celes Attempts suicide after Cid's death.
Rare video game example, Merlina's theme, played on piano in Sonic and the Black Knight gets reprised into the three minute long vocal rock used for the final battle.
Literary example: In A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Francie is horrified to hear her father come home singing the last verse of "Molly Malone" ("She died of a fever, and no one could save her..."), a verse he otherwise never sang. He dies a few weeks later.
The old entrance music of Colin & Jimmy Olsen in 06-07 was Britney Spears' 'Toxic', along with the intro from Full House. After Colin left for greener pastures, came back, and subsequently had a Face Heel Turn, he used A Static Lullaby's cover of Toxic - the alternative metal/screamo music emphasising that he'd changed about as much as his brother had.
Papa Ge's version of Ti Moune's dreamy "Forever Yours" at the climax of Once On This Island.
Next To Normal has "It's Gonna Be Good", a bouncy, silly song in act one about Dan's excitement for dinner with the family. The reprise in act two comes after Diana has recovered from amnesia and remembered their son is dead, and she insists on knowing his name, while Dan tries to ignore her and get her out of the house and to the doctor.
Drood: While "Moonfall" is already an extremely creepy song, the duet reprise takes it to Phantom-esque proportions, resulting in a darkly operatic number to rival any other.
In the film version of Annie, early in the movie, Annie sings "Maybe," dreaming of finding her loving parents who will take her away from the cruel orphanage. It is heartbreakingly reprised near the end, when Annie's "parents" have shown up to take her away from Daddy Warbucks, and she tries to convince herself that life with them will be better than it was with Warbucks, and Daddy Warbucks tries to convince himself that he'll forget about Annie in time. ("And maybe I'll forget/How much she meant to me/And how she was always my baby/Maybe.")
Assassins manages to take an already dark song (the opening song, "Everybody's Got the Right") and make it even darker for the finale. In the opening number, the subject is grim, but the words and music are perky and introduces all the characters. The finale, after seeing all of the assassins in their respective attempts, also ends with the assassins aiming their guns and firing at the audience.
The background music during the final of the Firefly episode "Jaynestown" is a sad, subdued, instrumental version of the earlier "Ballad of Jayne".
- Not quite a Dark Reprise, but Jayne plays a guitar-only version of the TV show's theme when they visit Book and everyone gathers by the fire.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is this to the original Final Fantasy VII. Apart from the Darker And Edgier approach, even the soundtrack features Dark Reprises of well-known tunes from the game itself - the random battle theme (which reached Ear Worm status for obvious reasons) is now a chilling piano instrumental, and even the iconic One Winged Angel has been amped up into a rock opera.
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen has a Dark Reprise of the iconic 'landing of the Autobots' scene from the first movie, with landing Decepticons causing widespread damage.
- Many of the musical themes from the first film are gone, and Optimus's theme becomes the backbone of the score. However, it's never in the same tone of the previous film, which was performed on a woodwind and with minimal percussion to make Optimus's theme sound more organic. The two main treatments are a minor-key variation with dark brass, and a more "spiritual" take (generally used for scenes involving the mythology and taking place after Optimus's death) utilizing a One Woman Wail. To hear the effect in full, listen to the track titled "Optimus" from the first film, then the one titled "Prime" from the second.
Inverted in Scrooge, the 1970 musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol: the first version of "Thank You Very Much" is a grave-dancing tune in all but one aspect (someone's dancing on Scrooge's coffin before they bury it) but the reprise is one of genuine gratitude towards the man.
In the BBC adaptation of Gormenghast, Lady Fuschia sings a childish (and rather stupid) rhyme to announce herself in the first episode ('I am Fuschia, I am me...') and in the final episode, Steerpike sings a seriously twisted version gloating about his utter madness and the fact that he has mudered several members of Fuchsia's family, including her two aunts, whose corpses he is dancing around at the time. And it's all downhill from there...
Inverted at the end of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, where the celebration music is a childrens' choir doing a "light" version of the Emperor's exceptionally dark Leitmotif (far grimmer, if not as immediately imposing, than the Imperial March), foreshadowing the coming darkness.
- Similarly at the end of Attack of the Clones, when a more triumphant version of the Imperial March is played, showing how while the clones appear to be a good thing at the time, evil will come of them later.
- The prequels are just full of this. Anakin's Theme from Episode I repeatedly utilizes six notes from the Imperial March in a soft, light piece. Also, it doesn't quite count, but at the Episode II, the love theme that plays over Anakin and Padme's wedding morphs into something that calls to mind the Imperial March, and most of the end credits music is the love theme, with a different ending—it segues into the main thrust of the March, as played slowly on a double bass.
If you've ever rode on the Disneyland ride, Splash Mountain (based on the movie, Song of the South) the annoyingly addictive song "Laughing Place" becomes more sinister when the ride passes by the two sinister, animatronic crows anxiously waiting for Brer Rabbit's death and when it climb up the last and highest hill in the cave before descending below. 4:54 in this soundtrack - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIEvJfKSex4&feature=related
Film: Coraline - When Coraline visits the Other Mother's parallel world, she meets the other world's version of Mister Bobinsky (her strange yet friendly house neighbor), who performs his the "Mice Circus" song. Later, when Coraline heads back to retrieve the souls of the Other Mother's victims, she finds the circus in disrepair and the Other Mr. Bobinsky reduced to a pile of talking rats. The song accompanying this scene presents the feeling of a circus falling apart.
"Let Me Entertain You" in Gypsy has a whole different meaning depending on whether June or Gypsy is singing it.
The Princess And The Frog has two. First, Tiana sings her I Want Song "Almost There" a second time after she's outbid on the restraunt she wanted (or so the realators claim). For the second, the Villain Song gets a brief reprise from the "Friends On The Other Side" when they drag Facilier to his Nightmare Fuel filled death, evilly chanting "Are you ready?".
While not exactly a reprise A Muppet Christmas Carol had a sad little echo of 'Bless Us All', sung by Tiny Tim about how he and his family have so much to be grateful for, played as it pans over his crutch after his death with his family in mourning.
- It also contains a Light Reprise of 'When Love Is Gone' sung while Scrooge is left by his fiance sung at the end as 'The Love We Found' after he changes his ways.
Little Johnny Jones by George M. Cohen has the upbeat patriotic number "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Toward the end of the first act, when Johnny is framed for throwing the English Derby, he sings a slower, sadder version of the song as he deals with being disgraced. This scene is also enacted in James Cagney's Cohen biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy.
The Reprise for "I Stand Alone" in Quest For Camelot was quite dark, in its own way. It played the idea of being alone in a much more depressing way. Didn't stop it from being as epic as the main song.
"Who's Been Painting My Roses Red?" from Alice In Wonderland.

Opera

The reprise of La donna e mobile near the end of Rigoletto; it's the moment when Rigoletto realizes the prince is alive...
Echoes of the Toreador song in a darker tone while Don José kills Carmen.
Wagner's Ring: where to begin? The whole thing is an embodiment of this trope.
- A lot of Siegfried's and the Wälsung's motifs have a dark reprise in the Funeral March.
- The whole Immolation Scene does this to a lot of main motifs.
Tristan: the Liebestod tune was already heard in the love duet.
Turandot: the Executioner Chorus' motif has a reprise in Liu's torture scene.
Billy Budd: almost as tricky as the Ring...
- A sea shanty is repeatedly heard as a work song, but the tune returns in a threatening, wordless chorus at the end.
This is more a homage, but in one scene, Claggart has a motif very similar to that of the Grand Inquisitor.
- Vere sings a motif that Claggart had first.
- Billy has a foreshadowing of his big solo in an earlier duet.
- Not to mention the Epilogue is a maybe even darker counterpart of the Prologue.

Sarcastic Echo

"The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring" from The Mikado.
- Another Gilbert And Sullivan example is "Happily Coupled are We" from Ruddigore, though Rose's verse was cut in several of the D'Oyly Carte revivals, thus adding the Second Verse Curse to the curse upon the Murgatroyds.
- The second act of The Yeomen of the Guard is full of this kind of song (as well as the other kind of Dark Reprise, for which see below).
"America" from West Side Story.
"Master of the House" from Les Miserables. Two verses of a character glorifying his own wicked ways, and in the last verse his wife comes in and insists that he's just a petty crook.
The character of Che is a constant sarcastic echo to the title character in Evita. It's never certain whether he's adding his own acerbic commentary... or voicing the cynical and darker subtext that Evita herself hides behind her upbeat words. "Goodnight and Thank You" showcases this best. "High Flying, Adored," reverses this sequence, with Che's grim assessment of Eva's fortunes making the main part of the song, while being undermined by Eva's euphoric attitude.
- His opening act, "Oh What a Circus", manages to be an ahead-of-time sarcastic echo of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina". One wonders whether first-time audiences (before the latter song became famous by itself) quite got the nuances of that ...
"You Must Meet My Wife" from A Little Night Music.
Used often in opera, making it Older Than Radio.
- A good example is when we hear "Non piu andrai" from Figaro, reprised in Don Giovanni.
"I Can See It" from The Fantasticks is both a Sarcastic Echo and a Dark Reprise: Matt sings a straightforward I Want Song about seeing the world while El Gallo sings asides about what a dreadful place the world can be. Later, as El Gallo seduces Matt's sweetheart Luisa, the two men switch parts.
"Baby, Dream Your Dream" from Sweet Charity.
"On The Rise" from Dr Horribles Sing Along Blog — inverted slightly in that it starts with Dr. Horrible's negative verse and follows up with Penny's optimistic variation. The overall effect, however, is the same.
The Act II version "Not a Day Goes By" from Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, in which Frank and Beth sing of their love for each other while their words are echoed by Mary, who is secretly in love with Frank. Of course, the Act I version of the song - which Beth sings bitterly to Frank after their divorce - is also a Dark Reprise despite coming first, since the action of the play moves backwards.
Sweeney Todd has this in the first major duet after the opening number. "There's No Place Like London" opens with Anthony singing the praises of the city in tones of romantic idealism. His fellow passenger, Sweeney Todd, who lived in London all his life before being sent overseas on a false charge fifteen years ago, has nothing but contempt for the city, and his darkly cynical lyrics contrast Anthony's opening in a big way.
"O Happy We" from Candide, may be an unintentional invocation of this trope, as Candide and Cunegonde talk past each other obliviously as they discuss their radically different images of married life. (Some versions of this show gave this song an actual Dark Reprise.)
Used in Lupe Fiasco's already somewhat dark song 'The Die.' The second verse contsists of the character's friend trying to convince him that he's safe, while the killer repeats the laundry-list of 'hidden' guns, and the two's plans for the evening and replaces the last line ('Go and get some grub') with 'Catch a few slugs'
- A lot of Fiasco's songs have a darker meaning in them. He can be extremely dark when he wants to be. For example, his smash hit Superstar can sounds cool, smooth and joyful at first (Your Mileage May Vary), but if you know Lu's music, and know how he sometimes calls out other rappers for the content of their music and all that, the chorus will sound a little scary. If you are what you say you are, a superstar, have no fear.
The theme song of the show Green Acres is similar to, but lighter than the Candide example, where husband and wife protagonists give radically different versions of the perfect life to the same melody.
Similar to the above is the song "On the Open Road" from A Goofy Movie. Goofy is excited and happy about his road trip with his son, who is inversely angry and depressed about leaving his new girlfriend behind.
Frosty Returns has one called "Let There Be Snow", but it's unique in that it gets two sarcastic echoes. In the first time the song was sung, the school children are playing and singing about how much they love the snow, while the snow-shovelling adults voice their complaints through song. Later in the special, the song is reprised as the protagonists explore a landscape filled with snow, singing about the benefits of snow. At one point, it cuts to the Big Bad Corrupt Corporate Executive sitting in his limousine elsewhere, and the music takes on an industrial arrangement as he extolls his plans on becoming king now that his patented method of getting rid of snow has gone mainstream.
In Chicago, Roxie's song "Funny Honey" suddenly turns spiteful when her husband Amos fails to maintain an alibi for the murder she committed.
In The Producers, the song "We Can Do It" has Bialystock and Bloom alternately singing about how their plan can not and is sure to fail, respectively.
- Also, Max's song "Betrayed" is practically the entire show abridged, and includes mocking Leo.
"Alma Mater" in Grease.
Two versions of the song "Aura" in ''.hack//SIGN. One showing the majesty of The World, and the other the horror.
"Theme of Laura Reprise" from Silent Hill 2.
The final mission of Halo 3 features an Ethereal Choir music piece, "Halo Reborn", which itself uses the Recurring Riff "Under Cover of Night". A sad reprise of this, "Greatest Journey", with dirge-style violins, is played when Sgt. Johnson dies.
"I won't say I'm in love" from Hercules is one of the lighter forms of the sarcastic echo, with the Muses commenting on Meg saying she's not in love
The Batman - Joker has his own version of gear up sequence when he decides to become Batman for an episode.
Kamen Rider Kiva - The promotional band for the series, TETRA-FANG, did a cover for Nago Keisuke a.k.a Kamen Rider IXA called Individual System. He then does his own version of it with the lyrics changed to support his twisted Black and White view of the world called Fight For Justice.
During a famous angle in which his career was almost ended by Earthquake, a video shown on WWE TV (and later in home video) about Hulk Hogan started by playing his famous entrance theme "Real American", but cut to footage of Hogan being massacred by Earthquake on "The Brother Love Show" set to a sad, melancholy, string version of "Real American" which ended with a shot of Hogan's locker being slammed shut.
In Tekken 2, Devil's theme is a darker rendition of Kazuya's theme.

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