History YMMV / Elisabeth

* EvilIsSexy: Der Tod's evilness is as much up for debate as his sexiness.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: The Thun production is weird even by the standards of this show.

** The Toho productions give Death a shirt that's almost completely open at the front, and give the Todesengels outfits that invoke BareYourMidriff.

* IronWoobie: Franz Josef gets this ''big time.'' After what happened to him in real life during ''and'' after his time with Sisi, could you really blame him?

* {{Narm}}: The gunshot sound during Takarazuka Mayerling sounds like a toy or laser gun.

** In the 2013 Korean production, Death spends half his scenes providing a male example of AbsoluteCleavage for no apparent reason (other than {{Fanservice}}, given that principal Death was [[Music/DongBangShinKi Kim Junsu]]).

** The puppet-like way the extras dance in many songs, most notably "Prolog" and "Alle Fragen sind gesellt", should be silly, but done well it becomes [[UncannyValley very]] [[NightmareFuel unnerving]].

* UncannyValley: Shirota Yu (Toho production)'s portrayal manages to be a mix of this, NightmareFuel, and NarmCharm. His movements as Death is an odd combination of feline, simian, and human.

** In many versions of "Wir oder sie", Sophie and her minions wear weird horse costumes, apparently to emphasis the ChessMotifs. It should detract from the seriousness of the scene, but somehow it doesn't.

* ObscurePopularity: The show's been performed in Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Russia, South Korea, Japan and China, and has multiple English fan translations. But in spite of its popularity most English-speakers have never heard of it.

* ToughActToFollow: It's the most successful German-language musical ever made, so this is inevitable for Kunze and Levay's later collaborations. Their next musical, ''Theatre/{{Mozart}}'', wasn't nearly as successful. They had slightly better luck with their third, ''Theatre/{{Rebecca}}'', which is more popular than ''Mozart!'' but not nearly as popular as ''Elisabeth''. Their fourth, ''Theatre/MarieAntoinetteMuscial'', was a flop in Germany but had a much better reception in Japan. Their fifth, ''Theatre/LadyBess'', has only been performed in Japan and there's no word of it ever coming to Europe.

* ToughActToFollow: It's the most successful German-language musical ever made, so this is inevitable for Kunze and Levay's later collaborations. Their next musical, ''Theatre/{{Mozart}}'', wasn't nearly as successful. They had slightly better luck with their third, ''Theatre/{{Rebecca}}'', which is more popular than ''Mozart!'' but not nearly as popular as ''Elisabeth''. Their fourth, ''Theatre/MarieAntoinette'', was a flop in Germany but had a much better reception in Japan. Their fifth, ''Theatre/LadyBess'', has only been performed in Japan and there's no word of it ever coming to Europe.

** Rudolf too. Poor guy exists only to be tormented by his grandmother, and then ignored completely by his mother. Who then turns him away the one time he asks for her help. Is it any wonder he is DrivenToSuicide?
*** It gets worse when you realize that [[ManipulativeBastard the only person he felt he could confide in and trust more or less planted the idea of suicide in his head.]]