History MoodWhiplash / Theatre

* The second act of ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'' begins with a fun, happy flashback of Jasper and Agnes, imitating their favourite moments of an old ''Franchise/StarTrek'' movie, before Jasper comments how the world of fiction is so amazing in comparison to reality, lamenting all the awful things that happen every day in his life.

* Claudio Monteverdi's landmark opera ''Theatre/LOrfeo'' 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, and even 400 years after the opera's premier it's still a pretty shocking moment.

* 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, and even 400 years after the opera's premier it's still a pretty shocking moment.

** "My Vagina was My Village" is MoodWhiplash within the monologue. The speaker switches between excitement and wonder to terror.

*** On a more upbeat note, the final scene of the play has things getting worse and worse for Viola: she's been accused of eloping with Olivia, injuring Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in a duel, and betraying Antonio -- and then Sebastian shows up, which clarifies everything and allows Viola to reunite with her long-lost twin and reveal her true identity to Orsino.

** [[{{Peanuts}} The strip]] the song was based on obviously didn't have a song at all, just Charlie wanting to be called "poor sweet baby", so the punchline was a ''lot'' less abrupt.

** ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' -- Benedick: [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming "Come, bid me do anything for thee."]] Beatrice: "Kill Claudio." It makes a little more sense if you read between the lines--according to Beatrice, she and Benedick had a thing before he somehow caused their relationship to end, so she's mistrustful this time around--but the wrong delivery can cause this (and some nervous laughter) in an audience.

* ''Theatre/{{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]]''.

* The radio play ''All Is Calm'', being about the Christmas Truce of 1914 during WorldWarOne, feels like nothing ''but'' this trope. It goes from some painful parts to some ''hilarious'' parts at breakneck speed and right back 'round again. High points include a {{tearjerker}} Christmas radio broadcast that's propaganda, supposedly a singalong from the soldiers in the trenches telling their family that they're all just glad to be there doing their noble duty, being drowned out by a hilarious LastSecondWordSwap BawdySong, and a scandalised-sounding German officer's account of playing a game of football against Scottish soldiers and discovering exactly what was being worn under their kilts being read in much too close proximity to another reader talking about everyone heading off into No-Man's-Land to bury their dead friends from back in November. The worst part of it is, all the material is real.

** Marius and Cosette's wedding is a happy occasion, with the chorus singing a wedding choral and Marius and Cosette dancing as a happy, newly married couple. Naturally, it's crashed by the Thenardiers, who try to bribe Marius and, at the end, rub their new station in the ''audience's'' faces more than anyone else: [[KarmaHoudini they've won, they're the richer for it, and they will suffer no ill consequences for their misdeeds]]. One scene later, we see [[spoiler:Valjean on his deathbed]].

** [[spoiler: Additionally, 'Say No To This', the song in which Hamilton ''cheats on his wife and pays to keep sleeping with the other woman'' segues into one of the more upbeat numbers in the show (although not exactly happy, persay), 'Room Where It Happens', complete with a jazzy tone, catchy melody and ''banjo''.]]

* In ''Theatre/TheKingAndI'', the King becomes closer than ever to Anna when he learns to dance with her. He is eagerly leading an encore of "Shall We Dance?" when Kralahome bursts in and announces the arrest of Tuptim. Anna's sympathies obviously lie with the fugitive, and so the King is "now miles away from her" (according to the stage direction). The confrontation that follows is the most serious part of the play.

** [[spoiler: Not to mention the upbeat 'Blow Us All Away' switching immediately into the tearjerker 'Stay Alive Reprise']]

* In ''TheKingAndI'', the King becomes closer than ever to Anna when he learns to dance with her. He is eagerly leading an encore of "Shall We Dance?" when Kralahome bursts in and announces the arrest of Tuptim. Anna's sympathies obviously lie with the fugitive, and so the King is "now miles away from her" (according to the stage direction). The confrontation that follows is the most serious part of the play.
* ''TheVaginaMonologues'' consists of, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a series of monologues about vaginas.]] They range in mood from "My Angry Vagina," a humorous rant about tampons and OB/GYN tools, to "My Vagina Was My Village" and "Say It," which are about the experiences of women in serial rape camps, and boldly straddle the line between TearJerker and NightmareFuel. Now imagine if your local production decided to arrange the monologues so that "My Angry Vagina" was between the other two...

* ''TheWeddingSinger'' musical goes from "A Note From Linda" (sad), to "Pop" (perky) and back to "Somebody Kill Me" (pretty self-explanatory).

* ''{{Hair}}'' is, at first, a fairly lighthearted musical. Then the second act happens. [[spoiler: Claude goes on a horrifying bad trip then, despite all the attempts of the tribe to save him, is sent off to fight in Vietnam and promptly killed]]. Then he starts singing [[TearJerker The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine in]] and the audience is reduced to tears. Total DownerEnding.

* ''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.

* MissSaigon has a beautifully subverted version, as we, the knowing audience, already know what's going to happen and are already saddened, whereas Kim, the title character, is blissfully ignorant. She's preparing to reunite with her lost love Chris, dressing in wedding gown, joyfully singing. She rushes to his hotel room. . .only to be greeted by Ellen, Chris' ''wife''. The devastation evident in Kim's entire ''body'' is staggering.
* ''{{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]]''.
* ''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.

* The song Contact in ''{{RENT}}'' whips first from an uncomfortably frank look at the sex lives of the main characters (''harder faster wetter'') to a funny scene of unsatisfying sexual experiences all around as they stumble through trying to maintain safe sex practices without losing their rhythm and fail (''"I think I missed... don't get pissed"/ "It was bad for me, was it bad for you?"''). Then, when it has the audience giggling, it wrenches back around and gut-punches you with [[spoiler: Angel's death.]]
** And, as it's a modern retelling of LaBoheme above, it has the scene above. Mark, Roger and Collins are singing in the apartment about how they'll get to Santa Fe yet... Then a dark reprise of I Should Tell You kicks in, we hear Maureen cry for help, and instinctively, you're thinking "Oh SHIT."

* The final act of Puccini's opera ''LaBoheme'' has a very light, funny scene of the four Bohemians goofing off together. It's interrupted mid-phrase by the arrival of Musetta and the dying Mimì, putting the opera quickly back on the path to its TearJerker ending.

* ''CyranoDeBergerac'': Given this play is a blend between {{Farce}} and {{Tragedy}}, there first three acts are more of a comedy with some dramatic elements, and the two last acts are more of a drama with comedic elements, but in all acts the contrasting elements resonate against each other.
* The Masquerade scene from ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. Everyone's singing gaily about dancing and CostumePorn to a happy orchestra. Then the {{Leitmotif}} blares when the title character appears...

** ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' -- Benedick: [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming "Come, bid me do anything for thee."]] Beatrice: "Kill Claudio." It makes a little more sense if you read between the lines--according to Beatrice, she and Benedick had a thing before he (according to her) somehow caused their relationship to end, so she's mistrustful this time around--but the wrong delivery can cause this (and some nervous laughter) in an audience.

** ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing'' -- Benedick: [[CrowningMomentofHeartwarming "Come, bid me do anything for thee."]] Beatrice: "Kill Claudio." It makes a little more sense if you read between the lines--according to Beatrice, she and Benedick had a thing before he dumped/cheated on/mistreated her, so she's mistrustful this time around--but the wrong delivery can cause this (and some nervous laughter) in an audience.