History MoodWhiplash / Theatre

* The musical ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' has a fun, high energy CrowdSong ''Carnival del Barrio'' in the middle of Act II which they celebrate in remembrance of the times they had all shared, that is broken by an upset, and visibly shaken Nina, as she urgently searches for Usnavi. [[spoiler: Abuela Claudia, has died from a heart attack.]] The community that was celebrating gather in the streets to hold vigil.

* The musical ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' has a fun, high energy CrowdSong ''Carnival del Barrio'' in the middle of Act II which they celebrate in remembrance of the times they had all shared, that is broken, sometimes in mid applause, by an upset, and visibly shaken Nina, as she urgently searches for Usnavi. The beloved and saintly neighborhood Matriarch, Abuela Claudia, has died from a heart attack. The entire community that once was celebrating gather in the streets again this time to hold vigil in honor of Claudia while singing the prayer ''Alabanze''
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* The concluding sextet from Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' is often omitted in production, since its lightheartedness clashes with the intensely melodramatic preceding scene in which Don Giovanni is DraggedOffToHell.

* In the second act of ''SpringAwakening'', the show goes from the heartbreaking scenes of [[spoiler: Moritz's suicide and funeral]] to the fast-paced song, [[Awesome/SpringAwakening "Totally F***ed"]], basically going from a scene of [[spoiler: depression and mourning]] to one big, energetic "eff you".

* The second act of ''{{Ragtime}}'' is rather tense, with Sarah dead and Coalhouse (and Younger Brother) planning violent revenge. Things are getting pretty strained for the family too... so Father decides to take the Little Boy to a baseball game. The wholly comedic number "What A Game!" (wherein Father talks about what a noble and genteel game baseball is, while [[DescriptionCut continually interrupted by the spitting, swearing, and general rudeness of the other spectators]]) ensues. Then it goes right back to the tension. (The scene was a little out of place in the book as well, but wasn't quite so much PlayedForLaughs there.)

* The musical ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' has a fun, high energy CrowdSong ''Carnival del Barrio'' in the middle of Act II which they celebrate in remembrance of the times they had all shared, that is broken, sometimes in mid applause, by am upset, and visibly shaken Nina, as she urgently searches for Usnavi. The beloved and saintly neighborhood Matriarch, Abuela Claudia, has died from a heart attack. The entire community that once was celebrating gather in the streets again this time to hold vigil in honor of Claudia while singing the prayer ''Alabanze''

* The Musical ''InTheHeights'' has a fun, high energy CrowdSong ''Carnival del Barrio'' in the middle of Act II which they celebrate in remembrance of the times they had all shared, that is broken, sometimes in mid applause, by am upset, and visibly shaken Nina, as she urgently searches for Usnavi. The beloved and saintly neighborhood Matriarch, Abuela Claudia, has died from a heart attack. The entire community that once was celebrating gather in the streets again this time to hold vigil in honor of Claudia while singing the prayer ''Alabanze''

* Claudio Monteverdi's landmark opera ''L'Orfeo'' features a pretty good example early in Act II. Everyone's preparing for Orfeo's wedding to Euridice, and most of the opera up to now has been one long celebration of the 'happy and fortunate day'... and then suddenly a [[BearerOfBadNews Messenger]] arrives and announces that Euridice has just died. Monteverdi went out of his way to ensure that the music drove home the sudden change of mood; as soon as the Messenger arrives the vocal timbre is shockingly different (she's a mezzo soprano, the last voice heard was a tenor), as is the instrumental accompaniment (from harpsichord to theorbo and organ), the harmony (the last section ended on a C major chord and she starts on A major), even the style of the music (from lyrical song to harsh, declamatory recitative). Even 400 years after the opera's premier it's still a pretty shocking moment.

* ''{{Godspell}}'' reimagines the New Testament as [[LighterAndSofter a quirky, lighthearted comedy about the formation of a community]], rife with {{Slapstick}} and vaudeville routines. Things take a sudden turn in Act 2 when Jesus encounters the Pharisees in "Alas For You". From there, Jesus is betrayed and crucified just as in the source material, and his disciples can only watch helplessly as the man who brought happiness and meaning into their lives bleeds to death in front of them.

** ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' can be like this. Interspersed between the dark, angsty, and sometimes violent scenes are scenes that, given the right actor and director, can be utterly hilarious. Act II, scene i, Act III, scene iii and Act IV, scenes ii and iii see Hamlet gleefully and cleverly messing with the minds of, respectively, Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (twice), and Claudius. One of these takes place immediately after Hamlet kills Polonius, another not long after Old Hamlet appears to tell Hamlet of his murder. The second half of the play mostly settles down to dark tragedy (with a break for the comic Gravedigger), but the first half can epitomize this trope.

* In ''Into the Woods'', the Witch's line played for comedic effect: "BANG! FLASH! THE LIGHTNING CRASHED AND well that's another story, never mind, anyways..."

** [[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} The Scottish Play]], Act II: Scene III Starts off with an [[RuleOfFunny amusingly]] drunk porter [[LargeHam hamming it up]] while Macduff and Lennox knock to be let in, and ends with Macduff finding King Duncan's dead body, Lady Macbeth passing out "from shock," and the Crown Prince and his brother deciding to flee the country out of fear for their lives.

** ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' actually starts off pretty light, despite the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets and the brief mention in the introduction about 'young lovers did take their life'. But then the previously comic Mercutio is mortally wounded, and dies cursing the two families, and Romeo ends up killing Tybalt and being exiled and ... well, [[ItWasHisSled you probably know what happens next]].
*** Mercutio's death scene itself is a narrower example of this trope. His fight with Tybalt initially appears to be an inconsequential skirmish, with both duelers walking away. The other characters on stage even berate Mercutio for his overdramatic (as ever) reaction to a seemingly minor injury. Half a minute later, the tragedy's BreakoutCharacter is dead.
*** The best example of this is probably LovesLaboursLost. In the last act of a hilarious geeky rom-com, where some amateur actors are putting on a play and doing it badly and getting made fun of by the audience of couples, a minor lord bursts in to say that one of the women's father has died, which means that she has to leave for a year of mourning and they can't get married.
** Going in the other direction: "Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall / And by the doom of death end woes and all" are the first two lines of Shakespeare's most hilarious comedy.

** A few whiplashes in a row in ''HenryV''. It starts with the "Once more unto the breach" [[RousingSpeech rah-rah England speech]], where Henry exhorts his men to take the town of Harfleur, "on, on you noblest English!" Then, after a goofy comic relief scene, Henry threatens the governor of Harfleur (and in some productions the citizens huddled around him) with rather graphic depictions of rape, pillage and murder if they don't surrender, "your naked infants spitted upon pikes!" The next scene is Princess Katherine flitting about with her maid, learning important English words like "elbow." ''That'' entire scene is a set-up for a dirty pun. Whiplash indeed.

* Sometimes happens in the generally comic works of GilbertAndSullivan:

* The touring 1990s-era revival of ''TheSoundOfMusic'' was mostly cute singing kids and nuns, while occasionally adults sitting around a mansion spoke about vaguely troubling developments. Then it was time for the talent contest to take place—and three Nazi banners abruptly dropped down from the ceiling. Cue audience gasp and MoodWhiplash as everyone suddenly remembered just what was on the horizon.

* ''{{Godspell}}'' reimagines the New Testament as [[LighterAndSofter a quirky, lighthearted comedy about the formation of a community]], rife with {{Slapstick}} and vaudeville routines. Things take a sudden turn in Act 2 when Jesus encounters the Pharisees in "Alas For You". From there, Jesus is betrayed and crucified just as in the source material, and his disciples can only watch helplessly as the man who brought happiness and meaning into their lives bleeds to death in front of them.

** In ''Iolanthe'', after nearly two hours of silliness, the title character suddenly delivers an incredibly intense, moving and completely non-comic song by way of appeal to [[spoiler: the Lord Chancellor]] - and to top that, when it doesn't work she prepares to [[spoiler: '''sacrifice her life''']], something often PlayedForLaughs in G&S but here played absolutely [[PlayedForDrama straight]]. (Gilbert wrote it that way to give the comic actress playing Iolanthe a chance to show she could be [[DarkerAndEdgier serious]] as well.) And ''then'' the whole thing is resolved by an utterly daft ending.
** The ten-minute finale of ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' lashes back and forth. The women's chorus happily heralds the bride, who sings that this is the happiest day of her life. Then her supposedly dead husband arrives to claim her. She begs him to relent; he refuses. Then it turns out he was just playing a joke on her, and everyone rejoices. ''Then'' the man she scorned enters in despair, delivering the only DownerEnding in G&S.

* ''{{Godspell}}'' reimagines the New Testament as [[LighterAndSofter a quirky, lighthearted comedy about the formation of a community]], rife with {{Slapstick}} and vaudeville routines. Things take a sudden turn in Act 2 when Jesus encounters the Pharisees in "Alas For You", and from there Jesus is betrayed and crucified just as in the source material, while his horrified disciples can do nothing.

* ''{{Godspell}}'' reimagines the New Testament as [[LighterAndSofter a lighthearted comedy about the formation of a community]], rife with {{Slapstick}} and vaudeville routines. Things take a sudden turn in Act 2 when Jesus encounters the Pharisees in "Alas For You", and from there Jesus is betrayed and crucified just as in the source material, while his horrified disciples can do nothing.

* ''TheTwentyFifthAnnualPutnamCountySpellingBee'': "The I Love You Song" is a massive mood whiplash, as the play is almost entirely a raunchy comedy up until this point and there's utterly no warning that the upcoming song is going to be leading to more than a few tears until it finally starts.

* ''Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind'', a Chicago-area production performed for nearly 20 years by ''The Neo-Futurists'', consists of up to 20 varying plays performed in no more than 60 minutes. Because all the plays are independent, the mood can jump immediately from silly to nearly pornographic to euro avant-guarde to darkly depressing without warning. The plays included are constantly changed as well and the order is random, so even repeat audiences will get whiplash from time to time.

** ''TheMerchantOfVenice'' starts out dark, then turns into a romantic comedy, then steadily becomes darker with frequent comic interludes, then becomes ''really'' dark, then appears to wrap up happily, [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle then darkens a bit again]], then finally ends - ostensibly happily if you're willing to disregard the UnfortunateImplications, which most modern adaptations do not. In general, it's labeled a comedy.

* The touring 1990s-era revival of ''TheSoundOfMusic'' was mostly cute singing kids and nuns, while occasionally adults sitting around a mansion spoke about vaguely troubling developments. Then it was time for the talent contest to take place—and three Nazi banners abruptly dropped down from the ceiling. Cue audience gasp and MoodWhiplash as everyone suddenly remembered just what was on the horizon.

* ''LittleShopOfHorrors'' fits the bill quite nicely.

* Anything by MartinMcDonagh; "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" switches from two Irish yokels [[spoiler: dismembering corpses at gunpoint]] to the same two finishing an earlier argument over whether or not a cat will eat corn flakes.

* ''FiddlerOnTheRoof'' has a sombre wedding ceremony, during which the older characters sing "Sunrise, Sunset", a melancholic rumination on how fast time flies. Then, there's the joyous, celebratory bottle dance - but the celebration is broken up by the Russians riding into the village, breaking up the party.

* ''{{Elisabeth}}'' features a very tender, moving love song between the titular heroine and her fiance, "Nichts ist schwer", that is abruptly and immediately followed by OminousPipeOrgan and a choral piece predicting the singers' doom... at Elisabeth's ''[[SoundtrackDissonace wedding]]''.