A Question About Narrators And Breaking The 4th Wall

[PlainMushroomWit']

Posted: 11/24/14 at 8:23pm

Have there been shows, particularly musicals, where there's a Narrator who's also a character in the show who, when narrating, draws confused questions from other characters who want to know who he/she's talking to? I assume there must be, but I don't remember ever seeing that happen.

Thanks!

[Lovinbroadway2]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 8:42pm

Into the Woods

In the second act, the Giant that Jack killed has a wife that wants to kill Jack. To satisfy the Giantess, the group realizes they must give her someone, but are unable to decide on whom until they realize that the Narrator is still commenting on the actions from the sidelines. Everyone offers her the narrator as a sacrifice, but he convinces them how lost they would be without him.
-Wikipedia

[darquegk]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 8:55pm

Rock of Ages plays with the concept, with characters not always enjoying the plot he unrolls, until he tells Drew to go off book to get Sherrie back.

[Fantod]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 8:58pm

Seussical with the Cat in the Hat is similar to what you are looking for

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 11/24/14 at 9:44pm

Sonny Malone in Xanadu, while not a technical narrator, does talk to the audience at the start of the show and a few times throughout. He does even end one talk with "...who am I talking to?"

[ShakinBaconGirl]

Posted: 11/25/14 at 6:41am

The Minstrel in Once Upon a Mattress.

[Elfuhbuh]

Posted: 11/25/14 at 10:09am

Depending on the production, the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat will sometimes interact with the characters onstage.

[PlainMushroomWit']

Posted: 11/28/14 at 1:18pm

Thanks everyone!!

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 1:29pm

Despite the narration the cast performs in PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, the only character in-story to address the audience directly is Black Stache, who has a habit of saying things like "Could you hurry this up? People have paid for babysitters."

On the National Tour, they devised a very funny bit where a prop was dropped into the audience, and when Stache's assistant Smee jumped off the stage to retrieve it, Stache would react as if he had disappeared and scream "Smee, Where did you go?!!"

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 3:32pm

The Fantasticks
Threepenny Opera
Pacific Overtures
Pippin
Evita
The Happy Time
Blood Brothers
Zorba
Fiddler on the Roof
Forum
Candide
Little Me
Into the Woods
Song and Dance
Sweet Charity
Coco
Sunset Boulevard



Updated On: 11/28/14 at 03:32 PM

[porthos]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 7:50pm

Drood is one that immediately comes to mind for me.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 8:16pm

All of these shows listed do not inlude characters questioning who the narrator is talking to, which is the question.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/28/14 at 11:48pm

Ah, Wilmington, you're right. Sadly I didn't get the question.

[Visceral_Fella]

Posted: 11/29/14 at 2:55am

It happens a bit with Carrie. Some of Sue's interrogation moments are disrupted by the other characters in the show.

[Fan123]

Posted: 11/30/14 at 2:59am

Though not quite what you're looking for, in the musical episode of Buffy in which characters have been (unbeknownst to them) cursed to break into song involuntarily, Anya comments in confusion after her song, "It's like we were being watched, like there was a wall missing from our apartment..."

Also, if A Very Potter Musical counts... Quirrell makes some rather expositional comments, ostensibly to Voldemort but really for the audience's benefit, and Voldemort keeps responding along the lines of "I already know this, Quirrell, I hear everything you hear!"