History ShoutOut / Theater

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This page lists {{Shout Out}}s seen in theater plays.

[[ShoutOut/ToShakespeare Shout Outs to Shakespeare should be listed here.]]

!!The following works have their own pages:
[[index]]
* ''Shoutout/CyranoDeBergerac''
* ''Shoutout/{{Hamilton}}''
* ''ShoutOut/TeamStarKid''
[[/index]]

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* In ''Theatre/AlbertHerring'', at the moment when Sid and Nancy pour rum into Albert's drink, an unremarkable ostinato is interrupted by the famous first chord of ''Theatre/TristanUndIsolde'', accompanying a viola solo very similar to the one Wagner wrote for when Brangäne offers the LovePotion to Isolde.
* The title song of ''Allegro'' includes a short parody of "The Whiffenpoof Song":
-->They are smart little sheep who have lost their way.\\
Blah! Blah! Blah!
* ''Amaluna'' is loosely based on ''Theatre/TheTempest'' as well as referencing other Shakespeare plays (e.g. the ''RomeoAndJuliet''-esque waterbowl falling in love scene), and the [[WomanInWhite white-dressed]] Peacock Goddess and her black alter ego echo the White and Black Swans from ''Theatre/SwanLake''.
* ''Theatre/AngelsInAmerica'' by Tony Kushner features several, most notably: after Harper disappears from her and Prior's shared DreamSequence, he says [[Literature/AliceInWonderland "People come and go so strangely here."]]
** Also, when [[spoiler: the angel crashes through his ceiling]], Prior describes it as "Very Creator/StevenSpielberg."
** Prior and Belize's 'girltalk' is full of 'em. Such as "Stella!" "Stella for star." (from ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire''.
* In ''Theatre/TheBookOfMormon'', Elder Cunningham asks if [[AfricanChant "Hasa Diga Eebowai"]] means [[Disney/TheLionKing "no worries for the rest of our days."]] "Kind of," Mafala says.
* The original London production of ''Theatre/{{Chess}}'' had Anatoly watching television in a scene and at one point ABBA's "Money, Money, Money" can be heard, a shout out to the show's [[PopStarComposer Pop Star Composers]], Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA.
** The 2010 UK Tour of Chess inserted a line from "Money, Money, Money" into the song "Merchandisers."
* In ''Theatre/FunnyGirl'', the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI number "Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat" has Fanny, as "Private Schwartz," sing, "I met Mademoiselle from Armentières," referencing a rather notorious BawdySong popular among British soldiers of the period.
* ''Theatre/AGentlemansGuideToLoveAndMurder'':
** Lady Hyacinth is pretty clearly named after [[Series/KeepingUpAppearances Hyacinth Bucket]] (who has a similar interest in [[TitleDrop keeping up appearances]]), and Monty's name might well be a nod to Creator/MontyPython.
** When the setting shifts to Egypt, the song "Lady Hyacinth Abroad" quotes the Triumphal March from Music/GiuseppeVerdi's ''Aïda''.
* In "Rosemary" from ''Theatre/HowToSucceedInBusinessWithoutReallyTrying'', the lyric, "What a crescendo," is followed by an interpolation of the opening crescendo and a few bars of piano solo from Edvard Grieg's Concerto in A Minor. (The original orchestration requires one of the pit violinists to double as a pianist just to do this part.)
* In Carl Orff's opera ''Die Kluge'', when the vagabonds talk of the power of luck, one of them says, "O Fortuna, velut luna!" This is, of course, the first line of Orff's setting of ''Carmina Burana''.
* In Puccini's one-act opera ''Il Tabarro'', the refrain to the balladeer's song of Mimi includes an instrumental quote of "Mi chiamano Mimì" from ''Theatre/LaBoheme''.
* The opening/title number of ''In the Heights'' gives a shout out to Cole Porter, mentioning "Too Darn Hot" from ''Theatre/KissMeKate''.
** ''In the Heights'' also contains shout outs to the song "Take the A Train", the Broadway star Chita Rivera, and ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''.
* The third DreamSequence in ''Theatre/LadyInTheDark'' includes a ShoutOut to a famous number from ''Theatre/TheMikado'':
-->'''Jury''': Our object all sublime\\
We shall achieve in time,\\
To let the melody fit the rhyme,\\
The melody fit the rhyme.\\
'''Ringmaster''': This is all immaterial and irrelevant!\\
What do you think this is -- [[Creator/GilbertAndSullivan Gilbert and Sellivant]]?
* In ''Let 'Em Eat Cake'', Kruger, in his nihilistic ListSong, says, "Down with pianists who play 'Nola'!" The first two bars of "Nola" are then interpolated.
* A ''very'' subtle one from Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'': "Poor Wandering One" is really, really similar to "Sempre libera" from Verdi's ''La traviata''. Most likely intentionally, consideirng that "la traviata" means "she who has strayed," which is the subject of G&S's song....
* Also done in ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'', where Major General Stanley sings that he can "whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense ''Pinafore''", referring, of course, to Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's previous hit, ''Theatre/HMSPinafore''. The finale originally included a direct paraphrase of ''H.M.S. Pinafore'':
-->'''Girls''': Oh, spare them! They are all noblemen who have gone wrong!\\
'''Major-General''': What, all noblemen?\\
'''King''': Yes, ''all'' noblemen!\\
'''Major-General''': What, all?\\
'''King''': Well, nearly all!
* The ScreenToStageAdaptation of ''Theatre/TheProducers'' gives a nod to ''Literature/{{Ulysses}}'' by having Leo say: "When's Leopold Bloom gonna get his share? When's it gonna be Bloom's day?" Sure enough, the scene takes place on June 16.
* ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' gives a specific shout out to ''Theatre/LaBoheme'', the opera it's based on, in "La Vie Boheme" when Mark remarks Roger's song sounds like "Musetta's Waltz". Roger's guitar motif ''is'' the opening phrase to "Musetta's Waltz." A more subtle reference to the same aria occurs in "Take Me or Leave Me," where Maureen's first verse (where she describes people admiring and flirting with her as she walks down the street) has the same basic theme as "Quando me n'vo." The opening number contains another riff taken directly from ''La Boheme''.
** Ironically enough, the same riff is used in Lloyd Webber's "Make Up My Heart" from ''Starlight Express''.
** Then there's "Christmas Bells," which in many ways is a DarkerAndEdgier riff on ''La Boheme's'' holiday street scene. Most notably, the children chasing after the toy seller Parpignol in the original become drug addicts trailing after "The Man," their supplier.
* ''Tick Tick Boom!'', another [[Theatre/{{RENT}} Jonathan Larson]] musical, is filled with shout outs to Music/StephenSondheim. The biggest of these is the song "Sunday", which is an update of a song by the same name in ''Sunday in the Park With George''.
* Shakespeare's ''Theatre/TroilusAndCressida'' quotes Marlowe's ''Theatre/DoctorFaustus'' on Helen of Troy. This sounds slightly weird to a modern audience, as the line in question ("Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?") has become cliché -- it's probably the most famous sentence Marlowe ever wrote.
** The mirror scene in Shakespeare's ''Theatre/RichardII'' could well also be a reference to that same line.
* In the original Russian version of ''Theatre/UncleVanya'', towards the end of Act 3, the professor announces to his assembled family members that a government inspector is coming, before launching into his speech. It is a reference to an earlier play, ''Theatre/TheInspectorGeneral'', by Creator/NikolaiGogol.
* In ''Theatre/{{Urinetown}}'', the end of "Snuff That Girl" is an obvious ShoutOut to the "Tonight" ensemble in ''Theatre/WestSideStory''.
* Creator/{{Shakespeare}}'s plays include several {{Shout Out}}s to earlier Shakespeare plays. Notably, ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' includes several references to ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar''. At one point Polonius claims to have played Caesar on stage, almost certainly indicating that the actor who originally played Polonius had previously played Caesar in Shakespeare's version. ([[spoiler:Like Caesar, Polonius is also stabbed to death, although in his case it's due to mistaken identity.]])
* "Tomorrow" from ''Leave It to Me!'' references the then-recent ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' debacle:
-->Tomorrow, you poor Jerseyites, who got such awful jars,\\
When Creator/OrsonWelles went on the air and made you all see stars,\\
I know you'll be relieved to hear we're giving him back to Mars,\\
'Cause there ain't gonna be no sorrow, tomorrow.
* In ''Theatre/{{Fiorello}}'', "Gentleman Jimmy" includes this nod to "Will You Love Me in December (as You Do in May)?", an old ballad whose co-author really was James J. Walker:
-->Say, Jim, we promise on voting day\\
We will love you in November as we do in May
* ''Theatre/{{Fathers}}'' by Creator/AugustStrindberg has several, both to Myth/ClassicalMythology and to Creator/WilliamShakespeare - TheMerchantOfVenice is referred to verbatim (the "hath not a Jew" soliloqui). But the funniest one goes like this:
---> '''Doctor''': When I advised [[Theatre/{{Ghosts}} mrs Alving after the death of her husband]]....
* In the ScreenToStageAdaptation of ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', Eric's IWantSong "Her Voice" references Music/{{Madonna}}'s ''Music/LikeAPrayer'' with the line "And her voice, it's sweet as angels sighing".
* In the stage version of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the Genie introduces himself by singing "[[Music/ChristinaAguilera I'm a genie in a bottle!]]"
* ''Theatre/{{Volta}}''
** During the "Guardian Angel in the City" act, Waz envisions himself [[Music/{{Sia}} swinging from a chandelier.]]
** The WomanInWhite's hairstyle and costume are reminiscent of Daenerys Targaryen from ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
** The second verse of "To the Stars" paraphrases the beginning of "Defying Gravity" from ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'': "Something has changed within me. Nothing will ever be the same. I'm done playing with logic. Of someone else's game."
* ''Theatre/PalJoey'', after a brief OpeningChorus about UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, had this as the original first line of dialogue (generally deleted from revivals):
-->'''Joey''': [[Film/InOldChicago Where's]] Creator/AliceFaye?
* In "The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl" from ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'', Harold Hill sings:
-->I hope, I pray,\\
For [[Literature/TheScarletLetter Hester]] to get just one more "A"
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** The second verse of "To the Stars" paraphrases the beginning of "Defying Gravity" from ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}: "Something has changed within me. Nothing will ever be the same. I'm done playing with logic. Of someone else's game."

* ''Tick Tick Boom!'', another [[Theatre/{{RENT}} Jonathan Larson]] musical, is filled with shout outs to StephenSondheim. The biggest of these is the song "Sunday", which is an update of a song by the same name in ''Sunday in the Park With George''.

* ''Theatre/{{Fathers}}'' by Creator/AugustStrindberg has several, both to Myth/ClassicalMythology and to WilliamShakespeare - TheMerchantOfVenice is referred to verbatim (the "hath not a Jew" soliloqui). But the funniest one goes like this:

* ''Amaluna'' is loosely based on ''Theatre/TheTempest'' as well as referencing other Shakespeare plays (e.g. the ''RomeoAndJuliet''-esque waterbowl falling in love scene), and the [[WomanInWhite white-dressed]] Peacock Goddess and her black alter ego echo the White and Black Swans from ''SwanLake''.

* ''Tick Tick Boom!'', another [[{{RENT}} Jonathan Larson]] musical, is filled with shout outs to StephenSondheim. The biggest of these is the song "Sunday", which is an update of a song by the same name in ''Sunday in the Park With George''.

* ''Theatre/{{Fathers}}'' by Creator/AugustStrindberg has several, both to ClassicalMythology and to WilliamShakespeare - TheMerchantOfVenice is referred to verbatim (the "hath not a Jew" soliloqui). But the funniest one goes like this:

* In the stage version of ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', the Genie introduces himself with "[[Music/ChristinaAguilera I'm a genie in a bottle!]]"

** Prior and Belize's 'girltalk' is full of 'em. Such as "Stella!" "Stella for star." (from ''AStreetcarNamedDesire''.