Theatrical Affectionate Parodies.
- Avenue Q is an Affectionate Parody of The Muppets, and Sesame Street, in particular. Of course, some of the puppeteers of Avenue Q were once Sesame Street workers themselves. (One of them — Stephanie d'Abruzzo — still is.)
- Blue Man Group is, in part, an Affectionate Parody of the modern art scene that ironically has become far more successful than most serious examples of performance art.
- Spamalot and The Producers both mock musical theater conventions while simultaneously celebrating them.
- As does Something Rotten!, which also parodies the works of William Shakespeare (portrayed here like a rock star).
- The Musical of Musicals: The Musical! parodies (in order): Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Kander And Ebb and "One" from A Chorus Line.
- "What Am I To Do?", the ridiculously purple love song sung by a Noël Coward-like character in The Man Who Came to Dinner, was written by Noel Coward's long-time friend Cole Porter (who even signed his name on the song's manuscript as "Noel Porter").
- Much of the musical Bye Bye Birdie revolves around Affectionate Parody of 1950s rock 'n' roll.
- While Don Quixote is a Take That! of its subject matter, Man of La Mancha is more of an affectionate parody.
- The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet is an affectionate parody of Romeo and Juliet/Shakespeare, as well as Dr. Seuss.
- Arsenic and Old Lace affectionately parodied murder plays, with a Genre Savvy protagonist and nowhere-near-sinister killers.
- Two Gentlemen of Lebowski is a loving tribute to both The Big Lebowski and the works of William Shakespeare. The affection for Lebowski is clear, but the affection for the bard really shines through in the print version, which features "annotations" explaining the then-current references Shakespeare was making as he wrote the play.
- Done to Death parodies all sorts of the Mystery Fiction genre. However it is also very much an Indecisive Parody.
- From Team StarKid:
- Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier parodies Disney's Aladdin, Wicked, and the Disney 90s renaissance.
- A Very Potter Musical and its sequels are full-length musical parodies of the Harry Potter books and movies. The sheer amount of effort that must have gone into its production, the very obscure references, and Word of God guarantees that the writers, cast, and crew are all huge fans.
- Holy Musical B@man! is an affectionate parody of Batman and superheroes in general.
- Westeros: An American Musical: The entire idea of the play is to retell A Song of Ice and Fire with parodies of songs from Hamilton. That concept alone, along with the fact that emphasis it put on awesome moments as well, makes it clear that any fun poked at the plot or any changes made by Game of Thrones is in good spirits.
Noises Off is a parody of, Well, theatre, and all the craziness that happens in a production.
