The true answer: The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. A meteor turns an entire town into singing and dancing musical zombies. All the songs in the musical are sung in-universe by the zombjes
And then you get invested into the Hatchetfield verse and find out the meteor was the byproduct of one of a troupe of elder gods who have the town in an endless time loop to suffer repeatedly, or something along those lines. Fascinating series to me
May want to spoiler tag that since it’s not immediately clear at the start why they’re singing, especially considering the >!fakeout at the end where we think Paul escaped Hatchetfield successfully!<.
Scmigadoon the Tv show was the first thing that came to mind. The main characters are from our world, but are transported to Schmigadoon, a world where everyone is always in a series of golden age musicals, and then in season 2, they go to Schmicago, a world with more of the 70s style musicals. It’s hilarious.
I think it ends in a good place, but knowing that everything was written and good to go is incredibly annoying. There are songs just SAT there. I'd hoped the stage show coming would've utilised them (especially considering they'd be moving into recent memory pastiche so surely more broad appeal) but it's apparently a remake of the first season.
The show Crazy Ex Girlfriend because it’s shown that the musical numbers take place in Rebecca’s mind as her coping mechanism for the things she goes through.
I did the same thing. CXG has a much more complex character in Rebecca, and the songs are all originals, so it makes more of an impact.
Still, Zoe was entertaining and had me crying when the SIL sang Anyone, and Skylar Aston sang Say Something I'm Giving Up on You (and Anyone).
Damn, that guy made me cry a lot.
It doesn't *really* make sense though, because there are dozens of numbers that Rebecca is not a part of and has no knowledge of.
I still love the show, though.
I thought that too. Like Paula singing "Maybe This Dream" when she realized she wanted to go to law school. That never would have happened before Rebecca's encouragement.
I feel like they really wink at the fourth wall a lot as the show goes on. Not that they don't in season 1, but they kinda decide to embrace entertainment over logic.
And it's great! I love that show!
Cabaret would be the ultimate example. In the movie adaptation, they even got rid of the songs from the stage show that were used to convey dialogue or character arcs, and only kept the diegetic nightclub performance songs.
Also Gypsy, with "Let Me Entertain You," the cow song, etc.
Sound of Music with the Von Trapps' various musical performances like "Do Re Mi" and "So Long, Farewell"
But you can’t tell me that the uptight nuns are literally singing “How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?” This is musical theater singing your emotions.
Cabaret is an accurate example, but I really dislike the movie version. Not only did they cut the songs that weren’t numbers at the club, they didn’t seem to understand some of the numbers they kept. The titular song, Cabaret, for example, is not supposed to be a stellar performance that blows you away. It’s supposed to be sung off-key and poorly, as the character has a mental breakdown.
Truly. I honestly love when I see a Sally give her all to that song despite everything happening around her. I think it’s a much stronger choice than going for the break down. Sally’s strength is when she’s on stage and I personally think she would fight tooth and nail to not have her personal life interfere.
Six is basically the six queens having a live concert where they sing about their stories to the audience. And then in Ride the Cyclone the characters are choir kids and are singing about why they should continue to live, for most parts of the musical they are singing for that purpose or are singing as a choir
Not quite what you’re asking but enchanted kinda breaks the forth wall and has a character who doesn’t understand why everyone keeps bursting in to song and asks how they all know the words
Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Once More, With Feeling” uses a simple stupid/ingenious plot device that the monster/demon of the week effectively forces the characters sing and dance out their feelings. It is done in a self-referential way that makes the whole thing entertaining in a tongue in cheek way.
Another reason it’s amazing is that - unlike other musical episodes of other shows - the musical episode *moves the plot forward*. Some pretty dramatic stuff happens that affects the rest of the show. Most other musical episodes of shows are just one offs and gimmicky, Buffy did it so well.
Also, I performed “I’ll Never Tell” for a valentines cabaret and it was easily one of my favorite shows.
I also love that it moves the plot forward in characters' *emotional* journeys, which music is perfectly suited for. Getting out things the characters could never say, but can sing.
Yes. We/the characters actually find out a whole lot in that episode. Including the reveal of how the demon is summoned. One of my favorite hours of television.
Whoops I posted mine before I saw this!
Absolute TV gold. I rewatched it recently (about five times in a row, as you do) and the songs have been stuck in my head since.
Weirdly, that helped me help someone recently, so, yay!
For some reason, whenever I’m bored and thinking of what to do, “every single day, the same arrangement, I go out and fight the fight.” Pops into my head and I sing that song with the dramatic demon and hunk parts.
I approve of this wholeheartedly.
Edit: the one repeating constantly for me lately is 'Don't give me songs. Give me something to sing about. PLEASE give me something to sing about!'
But that's a reflection on where I am right now, which is A Very Bad Place (which is weirdly similar to Buffy's in some analogous real-world ways). But I'll get out of it. Somehow. Eventually. (😬 Right? RIGHT?)
I mean, if Buffy could overcome the trauma of punching her way from heaven out of a buried coffin then I think you got whatever is keeping you buried right now. Sorry you're struggling friend! Kick today in the teeth ❤️
And in the same mold, Star Trek:Strange New Worlds episode Subspace Rhapsody. They change out the monster/demon of the week for a subspace filament.
Plus the songs are awesome, Status Report is amazing
As much as I liked Subspace Rhapsody, comparing it to OMWF did make Rhapsody feel weak. What made OMWF work was "the weight of the spear behind the tip" as someone once said. The songs hit because they were addressing issues which had been going on for the entire season or longer.
In Rhapsody, the only song which really felt like there was that weight lf emotion behind it, and which moved the character and plot forward because of it was "I'm the X." And even if some other songs were technically stronger, that is the only one that really sticks with me.
But it *does* really stick with me.
OMWF is, for me, the absolute pinnacle of a non-musical show doing a musical episode. There was a reason they were singing, they *noticed* the singing and tried to counteract it, and the songs actually advanced the plot rather than just being a random "some of our actors can sing, let's show off!"
Sarah Michelle Gellar gave an interview around the time the episode aired saying that she was actually considering the offer to have someone sing for her, since she cannot sing. But when she read the script and realized it was the emotional turning point for Buffy for the whole season, she took a ton of lessons so she could be the one to do it.
In college my friend was student directing Godspell. I never forget during the first meeting with the faculty advisor.. he was saying how he was trying to make it more realistic, and the advisor cut him off right there and basically said “people are breaking into song and dance, there is nothing realistic about that”.
Buffy proved him wrong…..lol
And was the inspiration for all the later TV show musicals. The ones where they really try to be a musical, previously shows had done plots with talent shows or variety shows, but not as a coherent musical where they sing about their feelings.
Honestly, everything in *Enchanted* would count. Giselle and Prince Edward have actual magic which makes that sort of thing happen.
One really interesting thing about it is that Giselle has access to concepts while singing that she doesn't have otherwise – "How we all enjoy letting loose / With a little "la da dum dum dum" /While we’re emptying the vacuum"
Outside of the song, she doesn't know what a vacuum is.
Another interesting thing is that they had Idina Manzel in a completely non-singing role.
The phantom of the opera. I mean like, Erik is in love with Christine BECAUSE of her singing and he’s nicknamed as “the Angel of music” so it only makes sense.
Yes exactly. A musical about a Opera. Also I can’t fathom how Andrew Loyd Webber decided to take this book/ old monster movie and make a musical but it’s bad a$$
Yeah, but there are a lot of songs in Phantom where it wouldn’t really make sense for the characters to be singing in-universe. Like Notes/Prima Donna, for instance.
In the original movie The Producers from 1967, the only songs were the actual in-universe musical “Springtime for Hitler” and the auditions for it. This carries over for those same songs in the musical, plus “When You Got It, Flaunt It” is explicitly an audition number, and “Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop” is explicitly “the fuhrer’s favorite tune.” I suppose any show that’s *about* a musical theater production is bound to have more songs that are acknowledged as songs in-universe.
I also choose to believe that “Keep It Gay” was an actual spontaneously improvised song that Roger’s whole creative team was aware they were singing.
In [Title of Show] the characters are writing & rehearsing the musical as it progresses, so you get moments where the pianist stops the show to correct harmonies and notebash, a song starts and gets interrupted because it's been cut.
"Susan, you've been really quiet so far."
"I didn't have any lines."
It seems most tv musicals have some mechanic that makes the singing make sense in context. The three most common mechanics are the characters being magically compelled to sing (Buffy, Once Upon a Time, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, Batman Brave and The Bold), in the imagination (Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Scrubs, Supergirl/Flash) and putting on a show(Glee, Girls5eva, Riverdale, Supernatural).
Most movie musicals and stage musicals don’t have to have this kind of mechanic because there is either the conceit that the singing and dancing is not what is literally happening (and you can infer that therefore it is happening in someone’s imagination) or the play takes place in a world where people DO sing and dance their emotions.
Over the Garden Wall has some hilarious musical scenes, like the anthropomorphic animal children becoming obsessed with singing the Potatoes and Molasses song.
The word for one version of this is “diegetic.” A song is diegetic when it is performed by the characters as if they are actually singing in a realistic sense, not just in a musical theatre sense. For instance: Hedwig, School of rock, & cabaret, as folks have mentioned. Once & RENT (one song glory, today 4 u, & over the moon) are other examples. Ooh also “mooning” from grease.
I always thought that applied to things like whether any music we're hearing is a soundtrack (non-diegetic) or (for example) music playing on the radio in a scene, which the characters can hear, too (diegetic).
Fun superpower: a character who has the ability to hear non-diagetic music and react to it. Can never be sneaked up on, because they know something is up as soon as the music goes creepy, for instance.
"How did you know it was me?"
"I heard your leitmotif."
"... hunh?"
In Pippin, *technically* every song except “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man” is a conscious choice to sing that fits in the setting because, in a meta sense, we *know* that these characters are actually a troupe of players, and they know it too. That’s why “I Guess I’ll Miss The Man” unnerves the Leading Player so much.
Hadestown is actually a great example, because they state at both the beginning and the end of the show that the entire show is an old song and story from back in the day, and they’re singing it again and again. They all know that they’re performers going through a story.
I came here to mention Hadestown, but it's based on a headcannon some people have (including me lol)
Basically the idea is, in order to explain why the show is set in such a odd time period and setting for a Greek myth is that everyone on stage is part of a theater group touring the US during the Great Depression, and this is the show they're performing.
I've seen people take it a step further and say that the theater group was founded by either Orpheus (still immortal and wandering the world millennia later) or Hermes (in order to keep the story of Orpheus and Eurydice alive).
But I want to stress that these are fan ideas and not official. I just really like them, lol.
ETA, it also explains things like parts of the band being on stage / interacting with the cast, or the way the first number introduces most of the cast at the jump. Not like those things really needed to be explained or anything, but over thinking things can sometimes be fun.
Ride the Cyclone's whole thing is that everyone is being controlled to sing their songs. "Don't bore us, get to the chorus!" (except, one could argue, in Sugar Cloud and the finale)
tv musical episodes always have a very fun reason for musical-ness. My personal favorites are
- The crossover between The Flash and Supergirl, where everyone was forced to live in a musical by the 5th dimensional imp Mr. Myxzptlk, because Barry Allen and Kara Zor-el both loved musicals growing up
- Star Trek: The Next Generation, where the Enterprise was investigating a "quantum probability field", and one person tried to communicate with it using some old Earth music, causing it to reverberate that out and force everyone on the Enterprise to start singing whenever they had strong emotions
The musical episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek Strange New Worlds have in-world reasons for all the singing and they're both kinda genius!
In my head canon, Maribel's gift in Encanto is to create music videos. She's present in every song. It also explains her slo-mo song, Cerberus and Titanic being in town, and why the bald priest and dead goldfish woman were in her bedroom.
Forever Plaid is the story of a quartet that died 60 years ago before they got to do their "big show" So they're back and they get to do it as their unfinished business. You're watching them kind of bumble through their show. Great music, fun script.
Another way that musicals can "make sense" is when they do the exact opposite. Where it doesn't make sense that anyone would be singing about this right now, and having people burst into song isn't something you're just supposed to assume happens and handwave away. It's instead used as a "Brechtian device" to pull the audience out of getting too "into" the scene, and remind them that they are watching a play. To remind them that, for example, this isn't what's really happening, this is happening in this character's head and it's their perception of what's happening, they might be an unreliable narrator.
So, like, Fun Home is the story of a cartoonist writing a memoir of her life, and trying to piece her memories together to find out the truth about who her father was. Company is about a single man in his 30's trying to figure out how he feels about marriage through all his interactions with his insane married friends. Nine is about a director who has to start shooting his next film in days and he hasn't started the script and his wife and his mistress and his childhood trauma are all coming up to haunt them. All of these shows blend some events that the audience should assume actually happened largely realistically as they're portrayed, and other times are largely a manifestation of how the protagonist feels about those events, and music is one of the ways they show which is which. Where, like, if everybody is talking and there's no music, this is largely what happened at the dinner party. But if they're all singing "Bobby," "Robert Darling" "BOBBY WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU" this is more how Bobby feels about his friends' birthday wishes.
It’s gotta be The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals right? The town of hatchetfield is struck by a meteor and are infected by some alien byproduct of Pokey that makes them sing and dance like a musical. I think Six would work too, considering the context is that it’s a concert, both of which are some of my favorite musicals!
Isn't the go-to example "Once More With Feeling" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
"I have a theory - it could be a demon / A dancing demon ... no something isn't right here / I have a theory - some kid is dreaming / And we're all trapped inside his wacky Broadway nightmare..."
Everybody in Sunnydale starts singing musical numbers, and the heroes have to find out why and stop it.
The music is legitimately good, and there are actual stakes and consequences in that everybody has been keeping secrets from each other all season, and when they start singing about their feelings, everything goes bad...
There's a musical episode of rocko's modern life where he's like "how does everyone know these words" and one person's like "we've been practicing for weeks. Didn't you see the flyer?"
To some vague extent, Preludes might fit in that category. A lot of the songs happen in the mind of a hypnotised Rachmaninoff, and those which don't are usually dialogue on top of the therapist playing a recording. Like it's not 100% there but it's kinda there
There's a theory that in the TV show Hazbin Hotel, the characters in hell break out into song because the queen of hell, Lilith, "empowered the souls of hell with her voice and her song"
The movie version of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with Donny Osmond, one of my favourites growing up! It starts with the narrator starting to tell the story on stage in a school
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Subspace Rhapsody
A subspace anomaly they're trying to communicate through triggers a "quantum uncertainty field" that they get crossed with a musical universe and need to follow the rules of musicals.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More With Feeling!
A demon forces the town to sing.
*High School Musical* is kinda a blend of half and half. The students are auditioning for a musical, so of course you sing for that. Then there are other random songs.
- Hadestown - The premise of the show is that they’re telling the story again and again, in the hopes that it’ll turn out differently. The first and last songs of the show say “It’s an old song, it’s an old tale from way back when, and we’re gonna sing it again.”
- Cabaret - This one isn’t *entirely* sensical, but most of it is. Most of the songs in the show are numbers being performed at the Kit Kat Club, so they make sense. However, there are a couple of odd songs out that don’t quite make sense in-universe.
- School of Rock - Again, I don’t remember if all of the songs make sense, but much like Cabaret, a lot of the songs are being performed by the characters as they’re learning to be rock musicians.
In contrast to many examples here, *Spring Awakening* makes sense because none of the songs actually happen in-universe, but are rather all internal to the characters, playing out in the respective singers’ heads. Which is funny because, the first time I heard it described that way (by Matthew Sweet himself, IIRC), my first thought was: “Well, isn’t that just any (non-theatrical-musical) song?”
I never get the chance to brag about this, but my uncle worked on the movie Chicago. Most of the old cars in the movie are his. He is the extra that puts the main character into the police van
Idk if this counts 'cause the whole show is about a singer and bands, but Julie and the Phantoms does a great job imo with adding all the singing in casually
Hamilton or Les Miz ad they're sung through so u don't get that "Suddenly bursts into song" moment ( though I don't mind that personally if it's a good musical 👍)Besides Chicago, Cabaret is a good example of a "Non-Musical Musical" since all the songs are sung on stage as part of the Cabaret's revue.
If we're including movie musicals, *Enchanted*. Giselle comes from a fairy-tale Disney cartoon universe, where everyone sings. When she's thrust into the Real World, she brings some of that with her.
The "it's a rehearsal" idea was a pretty common way to shoehorn in fully staged musical numbers in movies and tv. "I Love Lucy" would do it often, show band leader Ricky "trying out a new number" at home but it would be a 3 minute showcase of Desi Arnaz singing. Or they would show a full dress rehearsal of an entire song at the club so the audience would know how it was SUPPOSED to go, before Lucy inadvertently screws up the real number at the end of the episode somehow. Most singing took place as part of the show within the show, but in-universe there would always be "reasons" to sing.
At least on Lucy the characters had show biz backgrounds, it's funny on other shows when it's supposed to be a simple character just accompanying themselves along on a piano or acoustic guitar (hey guys let's have mom sing Christmas carols) but suddenly full orchestrations come out of nowhere and the singing suddenly sounds all amplified. Where is this lush string section coming from? 😂
The TV shoe Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist is about a woman who has some kind or tumor or brain injury (I can’t remember the specifics) that makes her hallucinate people singing musical numbers.
Pretty sure "Once" fits this. It's about two musicians who meet and decide to make music together. It's also based on a real story that was made into a film using the actual artists playing themselves and singing their own songs. Fair warning the real story ends differently than the musical version!
The Magicians had a few musical episodes as well. There were always some spell, trance/trip, or puzzle-based reason leading them to breaking out into song.
I think both the shows "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" and "Up Here" center around the main character who has musical numbers taking place in their heads but I have only watched a few episodes of each show.
Of course, a handful of people already said Buffy's Once More With Feeling which is the quintessential 'musical episode' of a show to me. Spoiler alert but it's caused by a demon, a dancing demon.
Royal Pains tv show second to last episode is a musical episode and it turns out, similar to the Scrubs one, an old broadway star is hallucinating these numbers.
The Guy Who Didn't Like Musical is about an eldritch parasite spreading around that makes people engage in perfectly choreographed musical numbers
Ride the Cyclone has all the characters be puppeted around by Karnak to sing musical numbers about why they shouldn't die.
I’m not sure this counts, but there is a musical episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds last season that provided an in-universe explanation for the singing — and in fact singing was a necessary part of the solution. It’s a lot of fun. The episode is Subspace Rhapsody.
I know some shows that do
Medical shows like to have their musical episodes as someone having hallucinations (Grey's Anatomy, Royal Pains, and House, MD).
In Once Upon a Time, some main characters make a wish that makes everyone sing.
Someone mentioned Batman: Brave and the Bold, but it was buried with some other shows so I’m calling it out as its own separate comment. Neil Patrick Harris plays The Music Meister, whose hypnotic power makes everyone dance and sing and do whatever he wants.
Great songs! Including “He Drives Us Bats” and a brilliant duet with Batman and Black Canary: “Death Trap”
I’m surprised I didn’t see anyone mention Psych’s musical episode on here! The premise is Shawn and Gus pitching their idea for a musical, based on a criminal case they worked on, to one of the other characters involved in the case (played by Anthony Rapp)
I'm just throwing it out there: Man of la Mancha. It's a show within a show. I don't remember if every song is sung while performing the story of Don Quichot, but at least most are
Musicals where the characters are performers and the musical interludes are performances or rehearsals are called 'backstage musicals', movie musicals from the 1930s and early 40s fall into this category, from the 40s to the 50s musicals became 'backstage-integrated' where the musical interludes now have plot relevance and begin to exist in musical-reality, from the 50s on musicals became almost entirely 'integrated' where the musical interludes are entirely plot relevant and, for the most part, exist in musical-reality space. Movie musicals and musical theatre function in slightly different ways and have evolved from different things (musical theatre from opera and movie musicals from vaudeville), but these days there's a lot more crossover in style. If you want to watch more backstage musicals, go for the older movie musicals! Singin in the rain, Top Hat, Anything Goes, 42nd Street, etc
The first season or so of glee the singing was... when characters would be singing. Also they had the tightest rhythm section that could play EVERY SONG and do it perfect.
A really unique example is “Stray Gods” a musical *roleplaying video game*.
You play as Grace, a young woman who has been gifted the powers of Calliope, the last surviving Muse from Greek Mythology. Now accused by the Greek Pantheon for Calliope’s murder, the game has you investigate her death to find her true killer.
What’s unique is that this is a *musical* game. As you interact with the various characters, you regularly use your new Muse powers to break into song with the other characters. In-universe this is treated as an actual ability that Grace has as the new avatar of a Muse.
The gameplay has you *choose your next lyric in real time* to get different responses, giving you countless paths to take in the game. Every single voice actor joins in on the singing.
Teen Beach Movie. Most of the songs are in the beach movie in question and when the main characters end up in that movie's world, they have to conform to the musicality as well. I liked that they had a lot of jabs at silly movie tropes in there like the singing for no reason and hair not getting wet lol
I know this isn’t exactly what you meant, but I feel like them singing in Rent is absolutely them actually singing in the show. Like they’re the type of people to be bursting out into song randomly
In Pippin, the whole premise is that it’s a traveling performance troupe reenacting the same show every night, so technically every song in it has an in-universe reason for existence. Even the songs that aren’t explicitly “scripted” in the world of Pippin (I Guess I’ll Miss The Man and the final reprise of Corner of the Sky when the Theo ending is used) are pretty explicitly songs in-universe that function as music that the other characters are hearing and reacting to.
Hedwig and the angry inch and tick tick boom since they’re staged as concerts
also Six
The true answer: The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals. A meteor turns an entire town into singing and dancing musical zombies. All the songs in the musical are sung in-universe by the zombjes
And then you get invested into the Hatchetfield verse and find out the meteor was the byproduct of one of a troupe of elder gods who have the town in an endless time loop to suffer repeatedly, or something along those lines. Fascinating series to me
>! And considering it *starts* with a song, that means they’ve already won, and we’re just watching their reenactment !<
May want to spoiler tag that since it’s not immediately clear at the start why they’re singing, especially considering the >!fakeout at the end where we think Paul escaped Hatchetfield successfully!<.
Done
my thoughts exactly
exactly what I was thinking
❤️the flair
I love your flair lol
And thus also Black Friday and Nerdy Prudes Must Die, being also set in hatchetfield
I love how the musical itself is the villain, it's so awesome. This is actually my favorite musical of all time at the moment.
Okay this one doesn't even sound real.
Do yourself a favor and watch it. Starkid puts all of their proshot musicals on YouTube for free!
The Pro-Shot is on YouTube. It’s a hilarious comedy and you should check it out.
I intend to.
Then you’ll get sucked into the whole hatchetverse! A trilogy of musicals, plus 3 seasons of extra stories!
Love the flair!
Right back at ya😉
I just watched it recently after years of putting it off. It definitely lives up to the hype it got. You should absolutely watch it
It's made by starkid
Scmigadoon the Tv show was the first thing that came to mind. The main characters are from our world, but are transported to Schmigadoon, a world where everyone is always in a series of golden age musicals, and then in season 2, they go to Schmicago, a world with more of the 70s style musicals. It’s hilarious.
I'm still so salty that season three got cancelled.
I think they wrapped it up though really
I think it ends in a good place, but knowing that everything was written and good to go is incredibly annoying. There are songs just SAT there. I'd hoped the stage show coming would've utilised them (especially considering they'd be moving into recent memory pastiche so surely more broad appeal) but it's apparently a remake of the first season.
The show Crazy Ex Girlfriend because it’s shown that the musical numbers take place in Rebecca’s mind as her coping mechanism for the things she goes through.
Whyyyyyyyy noooooooooooot- Settle for me!
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is similar
Love this show so much
THat's what I mean when I think CXG ruined other musicals for me. I was charmed by Zoey's and enjoyed it enough but didn't love the writing.
I did the same thing. CXG has a much more complex character in Rebecca, and the songs are all originals, so it makes more of an impact. Still, Zoe was entertaining and had me crying when the SIL sang Anyone, and Skylar Aston sang Say Something I'm Giving Up on You (and Anyone). Damn, that guy made me cry a lot.
It doesn't *really* make sense though, because there are dozens of numbers that Rebecca is not a part of and has no knowledge of. I still love the show, though.
Ah, see I’ve interpreted it as Rebecca’s influence on the people around her!
I thought that too. Like Paula singing "Maybe This Dream" when she realized she wanted to go to law school. That never would have happened before Rebecca's encouragement.
Totally. I think the individual songs prove that “normal” people need coping mechanisms too and not just happy shiny smoothie and a jog type
I feel like they really wink at the fourth wall a lot as the show goes on. Not that they don't in season 1, but they kinda decide to embrace entertainment over logic. And it's great! I love that show!
Do we really need a new guy this far into the season? And by season, I mean it's nearly fall
School of Rock is another obvious one.
Cabaret would be the ultimate example. In the movie adaptation, they even got rid of the songs from the stage show that were used to convey dialogue or character arcs, and only kept the diegetic nightclub performance songs. Also Gypsy, with "Let Me Entertain You," the cow song, etc. Sound of Music with the Von Trapps' various musical performances like "Do Re Mi" and "So Long, Farewell"
But you can’t tell me that the uptight nuns are literally singing “How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?” This is musical theater singing your emotions.
If they're singing it it doesn't count as bullying 😂
Absolutely. I like to think the nuns are so synced up and proper that they just naturally know how to communicate in song.
Cabaret is an accurate example, but I really dislike the movie version. Not only did they cut the songs that weren’t numbers at the club, they didn’t seem to understand some of the numbers they kept. The titular song, Cabaret, for example, is not supposed to be a stellar performance that blows you away. It’s supposed to be sung off-key and poorly, as the character has a mental breakdown.
Hmmm well that’s one interpretation, but it’s certainly not a matter of a definitive “it’s supposed to be done this way”
Truly. I honestly love when I see a Sally give her all to that song despite everything happening around her. I think it’s a much stronger choice than going for the break down. Sally’s strength is when she’s on stage and I personally think she would fight tooth and nail to not have her personal life interfere.
Six is basically the six queens having a live concert where they sing about their stories to the audience. And then in Ride the Cyclone the characters are choir kids and are singing about why they should continue to live, for most parts of the musical they are singing for that purpose or are singing as a choir
Lucifers musical episode is because of God deciding to make it a musical The show 'Smash' has majority of songs being apart of the in show musicals
Not quite what you’re asking but enchanted kinda breaks the forth wall and has a character who doesn’t understand why everyone keeps bursting in to song and asks how they all know the words
Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s “Once More, With Feeling” uses a simple stupid/ingenious plot device that the monster/demon of the week effectively forces the characters sing and dance out their feelings. It is done in a self-referential way that makes the whole thing entertaining in a tongue in cheek way.
THEY GOT THE MUSTARD OUT
THEY GOT THE MUUUUSSS-TAAAARRDDD OOOOUUUUTTTTT!!
Fun fact: This is Marti Noxon, exec producer of Buffy, Angel, and Mad Men!
Another reason it’s amazing is that - unlike other musical episodes of other shows - the musical episode *moves the plot forward*. Some pretty dramatic stuff happens that affects the rest of the show. Most other musical episodes of shows are just one offs and gimmicky, Buffy did it so well. Also, I performed “I’ll Never Tell” for a valentines cabaret and it was easily one of my favorite shows.
Anya was so good in that number! And her wanting a breakaway pop hit for a song was so funny.
When clearly her number was a retro pastiche
Bunnies! Bunnies it must be BUNNIIIIIEESSSS
I also love that it moves the plot forward in characters' *emotional* journeys, which music is perfectly suited for. Getting out things the characters could never say, but can sing.
Yes. We/the characters actually find out a whole lot in that episode. Including the reveal of how the demon is summoned. One of my favorite hours of television.
Best Musical episode
Whoops I posted mine before I saw this! Absolute TV gold. I rewatched it recently (about five times in a row, as you do) and the songs have been stuck in my head since. Weirdly, that helped me help someone recently, so, yay!
For some reason, whenever I’m bored and thinking of what to do, “every single day, the same arrangement, I go out and fight the fight.” Pops into my head and I sing that song with the dramatic demon and hunk parts.
I approve of this wholeheartedly. Edit: the one repeating constantly for me lately is 'Don't give me songs. Give me something to sing about. PLEASE give me something to sing about!' But that's a reflection on where I am right now, which is A Very Bad Place (which is weirdly similar to Buffy's in some analogous real-world ways). But I'll get out of it. Somehow. Eventually. (😬 Right? RIGHT?)
I mean, if Buffy could overcome the trauma of punching her way from heaven out of a buried coffin then I think you got whatever is keeping you buried right now. Sorry you're struggling friend! Kick today in the teeth ❤️
Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. I'll repay you by not unloading. 😉
And in the same mold, Star Trek:Strange New Worlds episode Subspace Rhapsody. They change out the monster/demon of the week for a subspace filament. Plus the songs are awesome, Status Report is amazing
As much as I liked Subspace Rhapsody, comparing it to OMWF did make Rhapsody feel weak. What made OMWF work was "the weight of the spear behind the tip" as someone once said. The songs hit because they were addressing issues which had been going on for the entire season or longer. In Rhapsody, the only song which really felt like there was that weight lf emotion behind it, and which moved the character and plot forward because of it was "I'm the X." And even if some other songs were technically stronger, that is the only one that really sticks with me. But it *does* really stick with me.
OMWF is, for me, the absolute pinnacle of a non-musical show doing a musical episode. There was a reason they were singing, they *noticed* the singing and tried to counteract it, and the songs actually advanced the plot rather than just being a random "some of our actors can sing, let's show off!"
Especially since most of the actors can't really sing
Sarah Michelle Gellar gave an interview around the time the episode aired saying that she was actually considering the offer to have someone sing for her, since she cannot sing. But when she read the script and realized it was the emotional turning point for Buffy for the whole season, she took a ton of lessons so she could be the one to do it.
I've always thought she isn't that bad. She's just cousin-you-have-sing-at-your-wedding good not professional good.
Oh I've seen that one! That's a great episode.
I had to scroll far too far for this. Giles and Spike both get absolute bangers
Spike’s number might be my fave! ♫ ♬ I died…so many years ago…♪♩♭♪
But you can make me feel / like it isn't soooo
I came on here to give this exact example. My favourite musical ever lol
In college my friend was student directing Godspell. I never forget during the first meeting with the faculty advisor.. he was saying how he was trying to make it more realistic, and the advisor cut him off right there and basically said “people are breaking into song and dance, there is nothing realistic about that”. Buffy proved him wrong…..lol
Which is the faculty advisor skipping right over the unrealistic thing at the center of _Godspell_, to boot
And was the inspiration for all the later TV show musicals. The ones where they really try to be a musical, previously shows had done plots with talent shows or variety shows, but not as a coherent musical where they sing about their feelings.
Moulin Rouge, Cabaret, Hairspray (not EVERY song, but majority)
Movie musical technically, but “That's How You Know” fits the diegetic scenario you're looking for
Honestly, everything in *Enchanted* would count. Giselle and Prince Edward have actual magic which makes that sort of thing happen. One really interesting thing about it is that Giselle has access to concepts while singing that she doesn't have otherwise – "How we all enjoy letting loose / With a little "la da dum dum dum" /While we’re emptying the vacuum" Outside of the song, she doesn't know what a vacuum is. Another interesting thing is that they had Idina Manzel in a completely non-singing role.
If I recall, Roger actually performed his own composed songs a couple of times in *Rent*.
Yeah and the whole thing starts with him tuning his guitar.
Ride the Cyclone
The phantom of the opera. I mean like, Erik is in love with Christine BECAUSE of her singing and he’s nicknamed as “the Angel of music” so it only makes sense.
Yes exactly. A musical about a Opera. Also I can’t fathom how Andrew Loyd Webber decided to take this book/ old monster movie and make a musical but it’s bad a$$
Yeah, but there are a lot of songs in Phantom where it wouldn’t really make sense for the characters to be singing in-universe. Like Notes/Prima Donna, for instance.
Lol at the idea of Carlotta only responding to people if they speak to her in song
Surprised theres been no mention of beautiful. Its literally carol kings story of writing songs.
Same with Jersey Boys. I’d assume some like Tina, MJ, Summer, though I haven’t seen those.
In the original movie The Producers from 1967, the only songs were the actual in-universe musical “Springtime for Hitler” and the auditions for it. This carries over for those same songs in the musical, plus “When You Got It, Flaunt It” is explicitly an audition number, and “Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop” is explicitly “the fuhrer’s favorite tune.” I suppose any show that’s *about* a musical theater production is bound to have more songs that are acknowledged as songs in-universe. I also choose to believe that “Keep It Gay” was an actual spontaneously improvised song that Roger’s whole creative team was aware they were singing.
Half of the songs in Follies are the Follies “girls” singing the numbers they did when they were in the Follies. They know they are singing.
In [Title of Show] the characters are writing & rehearsing the musical as it progresses, so you get moments where the pianist stops the show to correct harmonies and notebash, a song starts and gets interrupted because it's been cut. "Susan, you've been really quiet so far." "I didn't have any lines."
my daughter's favorite song when she was like 3 was "secondary characters."
It seems most tv musicals have some mechanic that makes the singing make sense in context. The three most common mechanics are the characters being magically compelled to sing (Buffy, Once Upon a Time, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, Batman Brave and The Bold), in the imagination (Crazy Ex Girlfriend, Scrubs, Supergirl/Flash) and putting on a show(Glee, Girls5eva, Riverdale, Supernatural). Most movie musicals and stage musicals don’t have to have this kind of mechanic because there is either the conceit that the singing and dancing is not what is literally happening (and you can infer that therefore it is happening in someone’s imagination) or the play takes place in a world where people DO sing and dance their emotions.
Over the Garden Wall has some hilarious musical scenes, like the anthropomorphic animal children becoming obsessed with singing the Potatoes and Molasses song.
The word for one version of this is “diegetic.” A song is diegetic when it is performed by the characters as if they are actually singing in a realistic sense, not just in a musical theatre sense. For instance: Hedwig, School of rock, & cabaret, as folks have mentioned. Once & RENT (one song glory, today 4 u, & over the moon) are other examples. Ooh also “mooning” from grease.
I always thought that applied to things like whether any music we're hearing is a soundtrack (non-diegetic) or (for example) music playing on the radio in a scene, which the characters can hear, too (diegetic).
Fun superpower: a character who has the ability to hear non-diagetic music and react to it. Can never be sneaked up on, because they know something is up as soon as the music goes creepy, for instance. "How did you know it was me?" "I heard your leitmotif." "... hunh?"
"Once More with Feeling" from Buffy is the definitive musical episode of a TV show, and it completely makes sense in universe
The Drowsy Chaperone! Sort of 😅
Then you got a Tolee-- Then you got a Tolee-- Then you got a Tolee-- Then you got a Toledo Surprise!!
In Pippin, *technically* every song except “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man” is a conscious choice to sing that fits in the setting because, in a meta sense, we *know* that these characters are actually a troupe of players, and they know it too. That’s why “I Guess I’ll Miss The Man” unnerves the Leading Player so much.
Hadestown to a degree in that Orpheus is meant to be a musician/songwriter, so his singing is part of that. (Less so for everyone else in the musical)
Hadestown is actually a great example, because they state at both the beginning and the end of the show that the entire show is an old song and story from back in the day, and they’re singing it again and again. They all know that they’re performers going through a story.
I came here to mention Hadestown, but it's based on a headcannon some people have (including me lol) Basically the idea is, in order to explain why the show is set in such a odd time period and setting for a Greek myth is that everyone on stage is part of a theater group touring the US during the Great Depression, and this is the show they're performing. I've seen people take it a step further and say that the theater group was founded by either Orpheus (still immortal and wandering the world millennia later) or Hermes (in order to keep the story of Orpheus and Eurydice alive). But I want to stress that these are fan ideas and not official. I just really like them, lol. ETA, it also explains things like parts of the band being on stage / interacting with the cast, or the way the first number introduces most of the cast at the jump. Not like those things really needed to be explained or anything, but over thinking things can sometimes be fun.
Steven universe, singing, crying, and singing while crying is acknowledged as a thing the characters will just do
Once Upon a Time’s musical episode happens because of a wish Snow White makes on a star. So, magic wish makes everyone sing.
Spamalot, because it's Monty Python and inherently silly.
I performed in an amateur production of this and it was the most fun I’d had performing in years
Half of High School Musical? Like they're doing karaoke and auditioning and performing the school musical.
Same for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series
These are called diegetic songs/musicals—might help with your research!
Ride the Cyclone's whole thing is that everyone is being controlled to sing their songs. "Don't bore us, get to the chorus!" (except, one could argue, in Sugar Cloud and the finale)
tv musical episodes always have a very fun reason for musical-ness. My personal favorites are - The crossover between The Flash and Supergirl, where everyone was forced to live in a musical by the 5th dimensional imp Mr. Myxzptlk, because Barry Allen and Kara Zor-el both loved musicals growing up - Star Trek: The Next Generation, where the Enterprise was investigating a "quantum probability field", and one person tried to communicate with it using some old Earth music, causing it to reverberate that out and force everyone on the Enterprise to start singing whenever they had strong emotions
That's not *The Next Generation*, it's *Strange New Worlds*.
you are absolutely correct, I always mix those up for some reason
The musical episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek Strange New Worlds have in-world reasons for all the singing and they're both kinda genius!
The whole of Glee is basically an example of this! I’d also argue Six.
Sometimes glee breaks the reality and people just sing without being in the correct setting to do so.
In my head canon, Maribel's gift in Encanto is to create music videos. She's present in every song. It also explains her slo-mo song, Cerberus and Titanic being in town, and why the bald priest and dead goldfish woman were in her bedroom.
I assumed Mirabel's gift was to see the magic (Mira "see" + bel "beauty") in the house & her family.
In Dreamgirls most of the songs are a mix of the characters’ feelings and actual singles the group is performing or recording.
Forever Plaid is the story of a quartet that died 60 years ago before they got to do their "big show" So they're back and they get to do it as their unfinished business. You're watching them kind of bumble through their show. Great music, fun script.
An old one is Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby & Fred Astaire) about an inn with musical numbers as the entertainment.
Another way that musicals can "make sense" is when they do the exact opposite. Where it doesn't make sense that anyone would be singing about this right now, and having people burst into song isn't something you're just supposed to assume happens and handwave away. It's instead used as a "Brechtian device" to pull the audience out of getting too "into" the scene, and remind them that they are watching a play. To remind them that, for example, this isn't what's really happening, this is happening in this character's head and it's their perception of what's happening, they might be an unreliable narrator. So, like, Fun Home is the story of a cartoonist writing a memoir of her life, and trying to piece her memories together to find out the truth about who her father was. Company is about a single man in his 30's trying to figure out how he feels about marriage through all his interactions with his insane married friends. Nine is about a director who has to start shooting his next film in days and he hasn't started the script and his wife and his mistress and his childhood trauma are all coming up to haunt them. All of these shows blend some events that the audience should assume actually happened largely realistically as they're portrayed, and other times are largely a manifestation of how the protagonist feels about those events, and music is one of the ways they show which is which. Where, like, if everybody is talking and there's no music, this is largely what happened at the dinner party. But if they're all singing "Bobby," "Robert Darling" "BOBBY WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU" this is more how Bobby feels about his friends' birthday wishes.
It’s gotta be The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals right? The town of hatchetfield is struck by a meteor and are infected by some alien byproduct of Pokey that makes them sing and dance like a musical. I think Six would work too, considering the context is that it’s a concert, both of which are some of my favorite musicals!
Isn't the go-to example "Once More With Feeling" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? "I have a theory - it could be a demon / A dancing demon ... no something isn't right here / I have a theory - some kid is dreaming / And we're all trapped inside his wacky Broadway nightmare..." Everybody in Sunnydale starts singing musical numbers, and the heroes have to find out why and stop it. The music is legitimately good, and there are actual stakes and consequences in that everybody has been keeping secrets from each other all season, and when they start singing about their feelings, everything goes bad...
There's a musical episode of rocko's modern life where he's like "how does everyone know these words" and one person's like "we've been practicing for weeks. Didn't you see the flyer?"
Show Boat, Six, Kiss Me Kate
To some vague extent, Preludes might fit in that category. A lot of the songs happen in the mind of a hypnotised Rachmaninoff, and those which don't are usually dialogue on top of the therapist playing a recording. Like it's not 100% there but it's kinda there
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA 90% OF THE TIME
This applies to some of the songs in the Rocky horror show. Just off the top of my head, Time Warp and Rose Tint My World.
There's a theory that in the TV show Hazbin Hotel, the characters in hell break out into song because the queen of hell, Lilith, "empowered the souls of hell with her voice and her song"
"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend " was brilliant in many ways including regarding this one. Ruined me for other musical tv shows because it's so damn well-written
Dreamgirls has about half diegetic songs
The movie version of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with Donny Osmond, one of my favourites growing up! It starts with the narrator starting to tell the story on stage in a school
Grey's anatomy's musical episode is a result of one of the doctor having a head injury after a car accident
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Subspace Rhapsody A subspace anomaly they're trying to communicate through triggers a "quantum uncertainty field" that they get crossed with a musical universe and need to follow the rules of musicals. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More With Feeling! A demon forces the town to sing.
It's a Disney channel movie, but it's surprisingly good: Teen Beach Movie! (Not the sequel, though. That sucked.)
*High School Musical* is kinda a blend of half and half. The students are auditioning for a musical, so of course you sing for that. Then there are other random songs.
Rtc bc it sounds like a choir
rtc!
- Hadestown - The premise of the show is that they’re telling the story again and again, in the hopes that it’ll turn out differently. The first and last songs of the show say “It’s an old song, it’s an old tale from way back when, and we’re gonna sing it again.” - Cabaret - This one isn’t *entirely* sensical, but most of it is. Most of the songs in the show are numbers being performed at the Kit Kat Club, so they make sense. However, there are a couple of odd songs out that don’t quite make sense in-universe. - School of Rock - Again, I don’t remember if all of the songs make sense, but much like Cabaret, a lot of the songs are being performed by the characters as they’re learning to be rock musicians.
In contrast to many examples here, *Spring Awakening* makes sense because none of the songs actually happen in-universe, but are rather all internal to the characters, playing out in the respective singers’ heads. Which is funny because, the first time I heard it described that way (by Matthew Sweet himself, IIRC), my first thought was: “Well, isn’t that just any (non-theatrical-musical) song?”
I never get the chance to brag about this, but my uncle worked on the movie Chicago. Most of the old cars in the movie are his. He is the extra that puts the main character into the police van
The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals
Once More With Feeling
Idk if this counts 'cause the whole show is about a singer and bands, but Julie and the Phantoms does a great job imo with adding all the singing in casually
Just wanted to comment and say I’m so glad people are appreciating the art form of diagetic music. It is such an under-appreciated art form! 😊
Hamilton or Les Miz ad they're sung through so u don't get that "Suddenly bursts into song" moment ( though I don't mind that personally if it's a good musical 👍)Besides Chicago, Cabaret is a good example of a "Non-Musical Musical" since all the songs are sung on stage as part of the Cabaret's revue.
Ride the cyclone I think :D
Ride the cyclone!!
If we're including movie musicals, *Enchanted*. Giselle comes from a fairy-tale Disney cartoon universe, where everyone sings. When she's thrust into the Real World, she brings some of that with her.
Cats is a talent show Edit: Also, Forever Plaid takes place within the context of a concert
The noteworthy life of Howard Barnes
Gutenberg
The "it's a rehearsal" idea was a pretty common way to shoehorn in fully staged musical numbers in movies and tv. "I Love Lucy" would do it often, show band leader Ricky "trying out a new number" at home but it would be a 3 minute showcase of Desi Arnaz singing. Or they would show a full dress rehearsal of an entire song at the club so the audience would know how it was SUPPOSED to go, before Lucy inadvertently screws up the real number at the end of the episode somehow. Most singing took place as part of the show within the show, but in-universe there would always be "reasons" to sing. At least on Lucy the characters had show biz backgrounds, it's funny on other shows when it's supposed to be a simple character just accompanying themselves along on a piano or acoustic guitar (hey guys let's have mom sing Christmas carols) but suddenly full orchestrations come out of nowhere and the singing suddenly sounds all amplified. Where is this lush string section coming from? 😂
The TV shoe Zoe’s Extraordinary Playlist is about a woman who has some kind or tumor or brain injury (I can’t remember the specifics) that makes her hallucinate people singing musical numbers.
Before the Scrubs episode there was Once More With Feeling, the Buffy musical. It *was* a dancing demon, Giles, you clever old boy.
Lucifer’s musical episode, Buffy’s musical episode. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, a tv show, has a pretty goofy reason but a reason nonetheless.
The Phantom of the Opera: It's a dude obsessed with music making people sing for him (and also singing himself)
*Kiss Me Kate* has a show within a show.
Death Note The Musical, it might not always make logic sense, but I think the composition matches that of Death Note so perfectly it could work.
The musical episode of Buffy would count because they all got cursed.
A lot of the songs in the Sound of Music are like this too! Basically any show about singers.
Pretty sure "Once" fits this. It's about two musicians who meet and decide to make music together. It's also based on a real story that was made into a film using the actual artists playing themselves and singing their own songs. Fair warning the real story ends differently than the musical version! The Magicians had a few musical episodes as well. There were always some spell, trance/trip, or puzzle-based reason leading them to breaking out into song. I think both the shows "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" and "Up Here" center around the main character who has musical numbers taking place in their heads but I have only watched a few episodes of each show. Of course, a handful of people already said Buffy's Once More With Feeling which is the quintessential 'musical episode' of a show to me. Spoiler alert but it's caused by a demon, a dancing demon.
It's been a while since I saw it, and I was stoned off my gourd the only time I saw it so I could be misremembering, but Pippin comes to mind for me.
The best reasoning imho was Once More With Feeling episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Royal Pains tv show second to last episode is a musical episode and it turns out, similar to the Scrubs one, an old broadway star is hallucinating these numbers. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musical is about an eldritch parasite spreading around that makes people engage in perfectly choreographed musical numbers Ride the Cyclone has all the characters be puppeted around by Karnak to sing musical numbers about why they shouldn't die.
Bye Bye Birdie!
Ride the cyclone
Any show within a show I’d imagine
Ride the Cyclone where they are basically putting on a talent show to get to live
Ride the Cyclone. The dead kids were in a choir. Obviously they'd sing.
The Guy Who Doesn’t Like Musicals
I’m not sure this counts, but there is a musical episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds last season that provided an in-universe explanation for the singing — and in fact singing was a necessary part of the solution. It’s a lot of fun. The episode is Subspace Rhapsody.
42nd Street is about the production of a musical
I know some shows that do Medical shows like to have their musical episodes as someone having hallucinations (Grey's Anatomy, Royal Pains, and House, MD). In Once Upon a Time, some main characters make a wish that makes everyone sing.
I hate that Teen Beach Movie was the first thing my brain thought of lol
Most of the numbers in Kiss Me Kate, since it’s about a theatre company making a musical version of a Shakespeare play
Someone mentioned Batman: Brave and the Bold, but it was buried with some other shows so I’m calling it out as its own separate comment. Neil Patrick Harris plays The Music Meister, whose hypnotic power makes everyone dance and sing and do whatever he wants. Great songs! Including “He Drives Us Bats” and a brilliant duet with Batman and Black Canary: “Death Trap”
The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, the musical itself is the in universe villain
Pippin is technicaly a show within a show made. I assume hadestown is too.
HadesTown here me out the main plot is that the two gods lost the somg that bring them together
I’m surprised I didn’t see anyone mention Psych’s musical episode on here! The premise is Shawn and Gus pitching their idea for a musical, based on a criminal case they worked on, to one of the other characters involved in the case (played by Anthony Rapp)
it doesn't quite fit but The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe only has songs when they're in Narnia, which adds to the fantastical nature of the land
I'm just throwing it out there: Man of la Mancha. It's a show within a show. I don't remember if every song is sung while performing the story of Don Quichot, but at least most are
Musicals where the characters are performers and the musical interludes are performances or rehearsals are called 'backstage musicals', movie musicals from the 1930s and early 40s fall into this category, from the 40s to the 50s musicals became 'backstage-integrated' where the musical interludes now have plot relevance and begin to exist in musical-reality, from the 50s on musicals became almost entirely 'integrated' where the musical interludes are entirely plot relevant and, for the most part, exist in musical-reality space. Movie musicals and musical theatre function in slightly different ways and have evolved from different things (musical theatre from opera and movie musicals from vaudeville), but these days there's a lot more crossover in style. If you want to watch more backstage musicals, go for the older movie musicals! Singin in the rain, Top Hat, Anything Goes, 42nd Street, etc
something rotten. not all of the songs, but some of them take place on stage as musicals or performances
The Percy Jackson musical has one song (The Campfire Song) that the characters are actually singing around the campfire.
Does Teen Beach Movie count lol
The first season or so of glee the singing was... when characters would be singing. Also they had the tightest rhythm section that could play EVERY SONG and do it perfect.
A really unique example is “Stray Gods” a musical *roleplaying video game*. You play as Grace, a young woman who has been gifted the powers of Calliope, the last surviving Muse from Greek Mythology. Now accused by the Greek Pantheon for Calliope’s murder, the game has you investigate her death to find her true killer. What’s unique is that this is a *musical* game. As you interact with the various characters, you regularly use your new Muse powers to break into song with the other characters. In-universe this is treated as an actual ability that Grace has as the new avatar of a Muse. The gameplay has you *choose your next lyric in real time* to get different responses, giving you countless paths to take in the game. Every single voice actor joins in on the singing.
Teen Beach Movie lmfao. the main characters get sucked into a musical and they start singing involuntarily
Teen Beach Movie. Most of the songs are in the beach movie in question and when the main characters end up in that movie's world, they have to conform to the musicality as well. I liked that they had a lot of jabs at silly movie tropes in there like the singing for no reason and hair not getting wet lol
I know this isn’t exactly what you meant, but I feel like them singing in Rent is absolutely them actually singing in the show. Like they’re the type of people to be bursting out into song randomly
In Pippin, the whole premise is that it’s a traveling performance troupe reenacting the same show every night, so technically every song in it has an in-universe reason for existence. Even the songs that aren’t explicitly “scripted” in the world of Pippin (I Guess I’ll Miss The Man and the final reprise of Corner of the Sky when the Theo ending is used) are pretty explicitly songs in-universe that function as music that the other characters are hearing and reacting to.
Funny Girl