Breaking the fourth wall...
Breaking the fourth wall...
#1Breaking the fourth wall...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 9:55pm
There are so many shows that have those Nick Jr. T.V. show moments where the characters talk to the audience out of character. Personally it kinda annoys me... so I thought there should be a list. Just any show like this (excluding narrators ex. ITW)
Next to Normal
...Forum
Peter Pan
EDIT:Thanks Dolly, I should have remembered that...
Updated On: 7/26/09 at 09:55 PM
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#2re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:01pmOur Town, Skin of Our Teeth, Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It...most of Shakespeare, actually.
#2re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:02pmLiTP
"There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when we depart this world of ours: children and art."
-Sunday In The Park With George
#3re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:09pmEXIT THE KING
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#4re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:09pm
I think the proper term would be "breaking down the 4th wall" and not "talking to the audience."
Thank you very much.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
Updated On: 7/26/09 at 10:09 PM
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#5re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:10pmPATTILuPONEGYPSY
Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE
#7re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:19pm
How did Next To Normal do this?
The one that stands out for me was "Passing Strange" when Stu started talking with the audience and telling us a stupid story. It broke that 4th wall down and I felt it was self-indulgent. It ruined the show for me. Did he think he was doing a concert?? anyway, that's my short list 
#8re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:22pm^^^^ I don't no if there's any more times, but when I was listening to an audio of "Just Another Day" it sounded like Dan said to the audience "I never know what she's talking about." And later "Again, no clue."
#9re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:24pm^Thats about it. I had to think hard about where they did it as well.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#10re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:37pm
THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL
SEUSSICAL
I mean...there is a difference between talking to the audience and giving and "aside" remark to the audience. Plays with narrators, such as To Kill A Mockingbird, obviously break the fourth wall. But then there are shows where characters reference remarks (an aside) to the audience.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
--Aristotle
nomdeplume
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/05
#11re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:50pm
If it's a monologue in character they do not break the flow. Sometimes they are the making of a great play as in The Little Dog Laughed. Much of Shakespeare is like that.
However you can have a narrator, or an introducer, of a play as in a prologue speaking directly to an audience that does not even have a character, as in Chorus at the start of Shakespeare's Henry V, or as in an intermittent Greek chorus, speaking directly to the audience or commenting in reflection on the action. These players are not "within" the play, yet they are part of a style within the structure of a play that have traditionally been very effective.
I think it is the quality of how well it is conceived and realized that makes it work or not work. It can be part of an artistic flow and it works for me.
I am not fond of the Brechtian style of interruption of the flow to break the audience's emotional connection to a piece. That ruins a play for me. But Brecht has his fans.
To me it can be the Theater of Vulgar Interruptions rather than the Theater of Alienation/verfremdung/distanciation.
So my question to you is do you not like it because it is poorly conceived or effected, or because it alienates you from the rest of the piece? Do you not like what it is, how it is done, or that it interrupts your enjoyment of the rest of the piece? You are not limited to one!
#12re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/26/09 at 10:50pm
Depending on the definition we're using...
Ragtime
Chicago
Xanadu
The Boy From Oz
Taboo
Mary Poppins
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
eatlasagna
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/6/04
jagfkb
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/29/07
#15re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/27/09 at 10:27am
Spelling Bee
Fiddler on the Roof
The Will Rogers Follies
Also, when I read that Peter Pan was a show listed as breaking the fourth wall, I thought the op was talking about when he flies into the audience, literally breaking the fourth wall.
AndAllThatJazz22
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/8/08
#16re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/27/09 at 10:31am
Ain't Misbehavin'
"There's nothing good on. The media hates Christmas. The media loves vampires, though. Maybe they will show a Twilight Christmas."
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
Updated On: 7/27/09 at 10:31 AM
-Danmeg's 10 year old son.
Tom's Cat
Leading Actor Joined: 2/21/09
#17re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/27/09 at 10:43am
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Flower Drum Song revival
Meow!
#18re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/28/09 at 1:18amThe Lion King
"Hey little girls, look at all the men in shiny shirts and no wives!" - Jackie Hoffman, Xanadu, 19 Feb 2008
heo1128
Broadway Star Joined: 7/9/08
#19re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/28/09 at 1:39amI think in N2N's case, the whole song "Just Another Day" is to the audience, so it's not like one line out of the entire show is breaking the 4th wall.
#20re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/28/09 at 1:39amPractically all of Spamalot is played with the fourth wall down, ex. The Song That Goes Like This; Diva's Lament, "have a drink and a pee, we'll be back for Act 3..." etc.
#21re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/28/09 at 3:18amWould Drowsy Chaperone count? I don't think that show even has a fourth wall to break.
#22re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/28/09 at 3:49am
The Next to Normal examples are just asides. Hardly "breaking the fourth wall."
Avenue Q: "Give us your money!"
-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/
ghostlight2
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/5/04
#23re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/28/09 at 9:36am
But isn't it a like being "a little bit pregnant"? You either break the wall or you don't.
Where do they break the wall in Ain't Misbehaving, Allthatjazz? It's been so long since I've seen it.
"The one that stands out for me was "Passing Strange" when Stu started talking with the audience and telling us a stupid story. It broke that 4th wall down and I felt it was self-indulgent".
So with you on that one, raulmark. I thought the entire show was incredibly self-indulgent. Also he's a hypocrite. Stew talks of "scaryotypes", then goes blithely on to stereotype black Christians, German performance artists and others. I never understood why people loved this show so much. It's the only show that I ever really wanted to walk out of. It also annoyed me that he had "Youth" rather rudely rebuffing his mother's repeated pleas to come home, then had him fall apart when she dies while he's away. Where was that devotion while she was alive? Adding insult to injury, he has his mother (as an angel?) come back to forgive him after her death. Really thought that was despicable, an insult to his mother's memory.
Topic? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
#24re: talking to the audience...
Posted: 7/28/09 at 10:54amI've often found breaking the fourth wall to be particularly effective, but of course it all depends on what kind of show you're doing it in. I went to a show in Chicago a while back that used clowning, and there was essentially no fourth wall whatsoever. It was a hilarious performance, and it wouldn't have been the same with the fourth wall intact.
Videos