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* In the Broadway (later off-Broadway) musical ''Theatre/AvenueQ'', Gary Coleman is depicted as a character. The misfortunes of his life are mocked extensively; he actually works as the building super in the show and, at one point, sings about the fact that his purpose in life is to bring happiness to others via schadenfreude, or making others happy that they're not him. All of this is slightly cringe-worthy given Gary Coleman's sudden death.
** In the Hungarian version of the same musical, Gary Coleman was decided to be too unrecognisable to the Hungarian audience, so was replaced by Michael Jackson. As can be imagined, there was originally a joke about him moving to Avenue Q after losing his fortune to a lawsuit from a pair of 5-Year-Olds. After his death, however, the joke was changed to a joke about his spending too much, and thus faking his death.
* Creator/{{Aristophanes}}' play ''Theatre/TheClouds'' poked fun at Socrates. A few years later, Socrates was executed for pretty much the exact things Aristophanes made fun of, even though some of them were things which Aristophanes made up for RuleOfFunny.
* In ''Crimes of the Heart'', middle sister Meg has been lying to her grandfather about how successful her singing career is (it's not). After a particularly good evening, she is so giddy that she resolves to tell him the truth - "And if he can't take it, if it sends him into a coma, that's just too damn bad." Guess what happened to ol' Granddaddy overnight. Played literally in that Lennie and Babe can barely tell Meg the news because they are ''laughing hysterically''. Black comedy, indeed.
* ''Theatre/TheVaginaMonologues'' features one monologue wherein a girl is raped by her father's friend, her father kills the guy, and her mother won't let her father see her anymore. Then her mother took her to an older woman who [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale taught her to masturbate]]. After Abu Ghraib, Eve Ensler admitted she couldn't see women as brutalizers before that.
* ''Theatre/BillyElliot'' has the song "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher", which contains the lyrics "We all celebrate today, 'Cause it's one day closer to your death." Upon the day of the death of Baroness Thatcher it was put to an audience vote as to whether the song ought to be performed or not. Although the previously humorous song seemed to be in bad taste, the audience decided to keep the ironic song in the show anyway, mainly because [[ItMakesSenseinContext it made sense in context]].
* Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''Theatre/{{KA}}'' has some black humor in its NoTalkingOrPhonesWarning when the "audience member" who breaks the rules is pushed into a seemingly bottomless pit (that the show's moving stages emerge from) by the villains. On June 29, 2013, a performer fell 50+ feet into that space during the climactic WireFu "Battlefield" sequence; her resultant death is Cirque's first [[FatalMethodActing onstage demise]]. Between the investigation into the disaster and the HarsherInHindsight concept of a show where characters are constantly tumbling into the void (sometimes to their doom), the show went on hiatus for a few weeks before reopening without "Battlefield". Eventually, the sequence began to find its way back: first with the performers being projected onto the wall as a safer alternative. In late 2014 the entire "Battlefield" sequence was reinstated.
* French theater celebrity Creator/{{Moliere}} died from tuberculosis a few hours after a performance of one of his work, in which he also had the main role. Which one? ''Le Malade imaginaire'' (''[[Theatre/TheImaginaryInvalid The Hypochondriac]]'').
* Pretty much all of ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' after Jonathan Larson DiedDuringProduction (and he died on ''the night of the final dress rehearsal'' Off-Broadway).
* The song "Try to Remember" from the musical comedy ''Theatre/TheFantasticks'' took on a new meaning after 9/11 due to its lyrics reflecting on the innocence of September. It was actually sung at numerous 9/11 memorials, including one at Ground Zero in December 2001, just three months after the attacks. This one was particularly poignant due to the references in the lyrics to December, including the final lines "Deep in December/Our hearts should remember/And follow."
* The now-classic "I Am What I Am" from ''Theatre/LaCageAuxFolles'' became even more poignant when it became so connected to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and sung at dozens of memorials.
* In January 1996, 63-year-old tenor Richard Versalle performed in The Makropoulos Case, an opera written by Czech composer Leos Janacek. While climbing up the ladder to a file cabinet, he sang "You can only live so long", suffering a heart attack and falling to the stage below, and putting the opera on hold. At first, people thought it was a dramatic gesture, only to later discover that he had died from a heart attack.
* In Dylan Thomas' ''Theatre/UnderMilkWood'', the character Bessie Bighead puts flowers on the grave of Gomer Owen, who "kissed her once by the pigsty when she wasn't looking, and never kissed her again, although she was looking all the time." That line always gets a laugh. Later on we learn that Bessie has Down Syndrome or something similar, and that Gomer only kissed her because he was dared. At this point there is usually a gasp from the audience when they realize what they had earlier laughed at.
* In the song "Dancing Through Life" from the musical ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', the character Fiyero sings, "Life's more painless for the brainless." This line is nonchalant and humorous the first time around, until later on in the play when [[spoiler:Elphaba removes Fiyero's brain to prevent him from feeling pain while he is tortured, turning him into the Scarecrow]]. Suddenly the line isn't so fun anymore. Also in this song, "woes are fleeting, blows are glancing" becomes cringe-worthy listening a second time, after you know [[spoiler:Fiyero gets beaten within an inch of his life]].
* ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' has two songs in Act One that play as this or HilariousInHindsight given the events of Act Two, depending on a viewer's taste for BlackComedy.
** "More of Him to Love", the IAmSong for FatBastard Augustus Gloop and his parents, celebrates how there will be even more of him to love now that he's going to receive a lifetime supply of sweets. When the audience last sees him, he's on his unwilling way to the Fudge Room and the potential fate of being turned into fudge...and as the Oompa-Loompas cheerfully point out, "everyone loves fudge!"
** "The Double Bubble Duchess", the IAmSong for ShamelessSelfPromoter Violet Beauregarde and her {{Slimeball}} dad, is built around a HurricaneOfPuns involving gum and the word "pop" (pop culture, BubblegumPopping, etc.), with her declaring "I'm never gonna stop/Pop!" in her rise to superstardom. TheVillainSucksSong for her downfall, "Juicy!", uses that HurricaneOfPuns to a darker end, culminating in her actually popping -- that is to say, ''exploding'' -- offstage as the result of her helplessly swelling into a giant blueberry.
* Parodied in ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone''. In-Universe, the Man in the Chair mentions that it's very hard to watch or listen to anything with Roman Bartelli in it knowing that after he died he was partially consumed by his poodles. There's nothing in the first scene with Bartelli's character (or ''any'' scene) remotely relating to poodles, but it squicks him out nonetheless.
* After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, it may be a while before ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' can again be performed in Puerto Rico. At least not without heavily editing the song “Maria”, featuring lyrics like “And suddenly that name / Will never be the same / To me, and "Puerto Rico/You ugly island/Island of tropic diseases/'''always the hurricanes blowing'''.” in "America".
* The original production of ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' had Benny, a black man, bragging about what will happen when he's rich, including "UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and I on the links and he's ''my'' caddy". At the time it was written, Trump was merely a household name for "generic rich guy in real estate", who golfs and owns golf courses worldwide. Creator/LinManuelMiranda had the name changed to golfer Tiger Woods after he saw audience members cringing thanks to Trump's extremely divisive term as the UsefulNotes/PresidentOfTheUnitedStates, especially his opinions and policies on Black men like Benny and Latino people like the rest of the cast. The change is effective for all further productions, including TheMovie.
* During a live stage performance on 4th October 2004, Creator/BillyConnolly made an off-the-cuff remark about wishing people threatening to behead British hostages in Iraq "would just get on with it". Sadly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_murder_of_Kenneth_Bigley three days later they did]]. Connolly was heavily criticised by the British press for the poor timing and tastelessness of his joke, eventually being described by the Guardian newspaper as "the most vilified public figure of 2004".

to:

* In the Broadway (later off-Broadway) musical ''Theatre/AvenueQ'', Gary Coleman is depicted as a character. The misfortunes of his life are mocked extensively; he actually works as the building super in the show and, at one point, sings about the fact that his purpose in life is to bring happiness to others via schadenfreude, or making others happy that they're not him. All of this is slightly cringe-worthy given Gary Coleman's sudden death.
** In the Hungarian version of the same musical, Gary Coleman was decided to be too unrecognisable to the Hungarian audience, so was replaced by Michael Jackson. As can be imagined, there was originally a joke about him moving to Avenue Q after losing his fortune to a lawsuit from a pair of 5-Year-Olds. After his death, however, the joke was changed to a joke about his spending too much, and thus faking his death.
* Creator/{{Aristophanes}}' play ''Theatre/TheClouds'' poked fun at Socrates. A few years later, Socrates was executed for pretty much the exact things Aristophanes made fun of, even though some of them were things which Aristophanes made up for RuleOfFunny.
* In ''Crimes of the Heart'', middle sister Meg has been lying to her grandfather about how successful her singing career is (it's not). After a particularly good evening, she is so giddy that she resolves to tell him the truth - "And if he can't take it, if it sends him into a coma, that's just too damn bad." Guess what happened to ol' Granddaddy overnight. Played literally in that Lennie and Babe can barely tell Meg the news because they are ''laughing hysterically''. Black comedy, indeed.
* ''Theatre/TheVaginaMonologues'' features one monologue wherein a girl is raped by her father's friend, her father kills the guy, and her mother won't let her father see her anymore. Then her mother took her to an older woman who [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale taught her to masturbate]]. After Abu Ghraib, Eve Ensler admitted she couldn't see women as brutalizers before that.
* ''Theatre/BillyElliot'' has the song "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher", which contains the lyrics "We all celebrate today, 'Cause it's one day closer to your death." Upon the day of the death of Baroness Thatcher it was put to an audience vote as to whether the song ought to be performed or not. Although the previously humorous song seemed to be in bad taste, the audience decided to keep the ironic song in the show anyway, mainly because [[ItMakesSenseinContext it made sense in context]].
* Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''Theatre/{{KA}}'' has some black humor in its NoTalkingOrPhonesWarning when the "audience member" who breaks the rules is pushed into a seemingly bottomless pit (that the show's moving stages emerge from) by the villains. On June 29, 2013, a performer fell 50+ feet into that space during the climactic WireFu "Battlefield" sequence; her resultant death is Cirque's first [[FatalMethodActing onstage demise]]. Between the investigation into the disaster and the HarsherInHindsight concept of a show where characters are constantly tumbling into the void (sometimes to their doom), the show went on hiatus for a few weeks before reopening without "Battlefield". Eventually, the sequence began to find its way back: first with the performers being projected onto the wall as a safer alternative. In late 2014 the entire "Battlefield" sequence was reinstated.
* French theater celebrity Creator/{{Moliere}} died from tuberculosis a few hours after a performance of one of his work, in which he also had the main role. Which one? ''Le Malade imaginaire'' (''[[Theatre/TheImaginaryInvalid The Hypochondriac]]'').
* Pretty much all of ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' after Jonathan Larson DiedDuringProduction (and he died on ''the night of the final dress rehearsal'' Off-Broadway).
* The song "Try to Remember" from the musical comedy ''Theatre/TheFantasticks'' took on a new meaning after 9/11 due to its lyrics reflecting on the innocence of September. It was actually sung at numerous 9/11 memorials, including one at Ground Zero in December 2001, just three months after the attacks. This one was particularly poignant due to the references in the lyrics to December, including the final lines "Deep in December/Our hearts should remember/And follow."
* The now-classic "I Am What I Am" from ''Theatre/LaCageAuxFolles'' became even more poignant when it became so connected to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and sung at dozens of memorials.
* In January 1996, 63-year-old tenor Richard Versalle performed in The Makropoulos Case, an opera written by Czech composer Leos Janacek. While climbing up the ladder to a file cabinet, he sang "You can only live so long", suffering a heart attack and falling to the stage below, and putting the opera on hold. At first, people thought it was a dramatic gesture, only to later discover that he had died from a heart attack.
* In Dylan Thomas' ''Theatre/UnderMilkWood'', the character Bessie Bighead puts flowers on the grave of Gomer Owen, who "kissed her once by the pigsty when she wasn't looking, and never kissed her again, although she was looking all the time." That line always gets a laugh. Later on we learn that Bessie has Down Syndrome or something similar, and that Gomer only kissed her because he was dared. At this point there is usually a gasp from the audience when they realize what they had earlier laughed at.
* In the song "Dancing Through Life" from the musical ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', the character Fiyero sings, "Life's more painless for the brainless." This line is nonchalant and humorous the first time around, until later on in the play when [[spoiler:Elphaba removes Fiyero's brain to prevent him from feeling pain while he is tortured, turning him into the Scarecrow]]. Suddenly the line isn't so fun anymore. Also in this song, "woes are fleeting, blows are glancing" becomes cringe-worthy listening a second time, after you know [[spoiler:Fiyero gets beaten within an inch of his life]].
* ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' has two songs in Act One that play as this or HilariousInHindsight given the events of Act Two, depending on a viewer's taste for BlackComedy.
** "More of Him to Love", the IAmSong for FatBastard Augustus Gloop and his parents, celebrates how there will be even more of him to love now that he's going to receive a lifetime supply of sweets. When the audience last sees him, he's on his unwilling way to the Fudge Room and the potential fate of being turned into fudge...and as the Oompa-Loompas cheerfully point out, "everyone loves fudge!"
** "The Double Bubble Duchess", the IAmSong for ShamelessSelfPromoter Violet Beauregarde and her {{Slimeball}} dad, is built around a HurricaneOfPuns involving gum and the word "pop" (pop culture, BubblegumPopping, etc.), with her declaring "I'm never gonna stop/Pop!" in her rise to superstardom. TheVillainSucksSong for her downfall, "Juicy!", uses that HurricaneOfPuns to a darker end, culminating in her actually popping -- that is to say, ''exploding'' -- offstage as the result of her helplessly swelling into a giant blueberry.
* Parodied in ''Theatre/TheDrowsyChaperone''. In-Universe, the Man in the Chair mentions that it's very hard to watch or listen to anything with Roman Bartelli in it knowing that after he died he was partially consumed by his poodles. There's nothing in the first scene with Bartelli's character (or ''any'' scene) remotely relating to poodles, but it squicks him out nonetheless.
* After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, it may be a while before ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' can again be performed in Puerto Rico. At least not without heavily editing the song “Maria”, featuring lyrics like “And suddenly that name / Will never be the same / To me, and "Puerto Rico/You ugly island/Island of tropic diseases/'''always the hurricanes blowing'''.” in "America".
* The original production of ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' had Benny, a black man, bragging about what will happen when he's rich, including "UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and I on the links and he's ''my'' caddy". At the time it was written, Trump was merely a household name for "generic rich guy in real estate", who golfs and owns golf courses worldwide. Creator/LinManuelMiranda had the name changed to golfer Tiger Woods after he saw audience members cringing thanks to Trump's extremely divisive term as the UsefulNotes/PresidentOfTheUnitedStates, especially his opinions and policies on Black men like Benny and Latino people like the rest of the cast. The change is effective for all further productions, including TheMovie.
* During a live stage performance on 4th October 2004, Creator/BillyConnolly made an off-the-cuff remark about wishing people threatening to behead British hostages in Iraq "would just get on with it". Sadly [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_murder_of_Kenneth_Bigley three days later they did]]. Connolly was heavily criticised by the British press for the poor timing and tastelessness of his joke, eventually being described by the Guardian newspaper as "the most vilified public figure of 2004".
[[redirect:HarsherInHindsight/Theatre]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment reminders in unrelated pages have been deemed unnecesary


* The original production of ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' had Benny, a black man, bragging about what will happen when he's rich, including "Creator/DonaldTrump and I on the links and he's ''my'' caddy". At the time it was written, Trump was merely a household name for "generic rich guy in real estate", who golfs and owns golf courses worldwide. Creator/LinManuelMiranda had the name changed to golfer Tiger Woods after he saw audience members cringing thanks to Trump's [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment extremely divisive term as the President of the United States]], especially his opinions and policies on Black men like Benny and Latino people like the rest of the cast. The change is effective for all further productions, including TheMovie.

to:

* The original production of ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' had Benny, a black man, bragging about what will happen when he's rich, including "Creator/DonaldTrump "UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and I on the links and he's ''my'' caddy". At the time it was written, Trump was merely a household name for "generic rich guy in real estate", who golfs and owns golf courses worldwide. Creator/LinManuelMiranda had the name changed to golfer Tiger Woods after he saw audience members cringing thanks to Trump's [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment extremely divisive term as the President of the United States]], UsefulNotes/PresidentOfTheUnitedStates, especially his opinions and policies on Black men like Benny and Latino people like the rest of the cast. The change is effective for all further productions, including TheMovie.

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