Musical Nods to other Musicals (in the Music)

Just for theatre-freak fun, what are some songs within musicals that are nods or tributes to other existing musicals? (excluding blatant farce)

For example:

"The Speed Test" in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE is a nod to "My Eyes Are Fully Open" in THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE

"Sunday" in TICK TICK BOOM is a nod to "Sunday" in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

There is a musical called "Swimming Upstream" and the song This Boy Here is a nod to Life Support...very funny instead of Paul...they use screen names like Skanyho404...its very funny if you hear it.

---

Updated On: 2/10/07 at 07:35 PM

Theres a LOT of references in Urinetown to other musicals.

There's a chord progression and melody line in "So In Love" that very closely resembles a line in "Ich Grolle Nicht." I realize that we're not talking about musical allusions to German lied, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Going WAY back - in HIGH BUTTON SHOES, during the song "There's Nothing Like a Model T", the chorus sings:

Men: Let the trolley car Clang
Women: Clang Clang goes the trolley

as a salute to "Meet me in St. Louis".

In "Nine People's Favorite Thing" from [title of show] they sing, "525,600 people..." an obvious nod to the most famous song from RENT.

^Hell, in "An Original Musical" from [title of show], the 'piece of blank paper' lists about the names of two dozen musicals, the most recent being "Spamalot", as well as the song "Monkeys and Playbills" listing musical flops. Pretty much every song in it has an myraid of references...

I know this isn't another musical, but a much more subtle nod technique used (and one I love every time I hear it) is the line from NINE

"Be Sure there's lots of"

Is the TRISTAN chord from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. I just love love love it.

That one melodic fragment is full of so much meaning.

---

Then I guess at the end of Epiphany from ABZ is like the end of AIATY.

---

I'm not sure if this is exactly the same, but many of Bring Back Birdie's songs are essentially nods to songs from the original. "Movin' Out" is an updated "Telephone Hour", and so on.

Also weird, but I'm pretty sure Adolpho's "WhaAAAAt?" in Drowsy is the same specific phrase and emphasis as a character in Dames at Sea.

Is "Deep in the Darkest Night" (or whatever it's called) from Dracula a nod to "Into the Fire" from Scarlet Pimpernel? Hmmm.

"Born to Entertain" from Ruthless is a semi- nod to "Let Me Entertain You" from Gypsy. Also "I Want the Girl is a nod to "All I Need Is The Girl", obviously. And a lot of musicals are referenced by name is songs from Ruthless too.

I feel like the nods come constantly in musicals like [title of show], Ruthless, The Producers, Urinetown, Spamalot, etc.

---

Half of the music in PHANTOM OF THE OUTHOUSE is taken directly from Puccini's LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST--without credit to the composer, mind you!

---

music of the night from phantom is a nod to come to me bend to me from brigadoon. there are a lot of parts in that song that sound exactly the same.

---

In Avenue Q, Lucy The Slut spoofs Gypsy's "For me" at the end of "Special"

Isn't Edna's "for me" from 'The Big Dollhouse' in 'Hairspray' a 'Gypsy' thing as well?

In 'Wicked', all the little "unlimited, my future is" segments are the same note progression as "somewhere over the rainbow".

Shall I point out 'La Boheme' connections in 'RENT', or are we all good?

---