Weird and/or Random Broadway References

[picturetaker9211]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 12:10pm

Have you been weirded out by Broadway refernces in random places like tv shows, posters, etc.? I'll say one:

In an old Archie comic, there's a story where Archie & his band go to the city. They go sightseeing & in the background, there's a poster for Les Miz & Patti LuPone.

[SeptemberKel]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 12:33pm

I was recently watching the movie "Labyrinth," and in the bedroom, there is a poster of Patti LuPone in Evita and a poster of Cats.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 12:35pm

This isn't weird, but in The War at Home they go to see Wicked on Broadway, and they play some of the music from it to signify when the show's ending... and it sounds nothing like Wicked. I'm sure it's for copyright purposes, but it's still pretty funny.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 12:49pm

LABYRINTH is a great example. The Archie comic- man, I'd love to have just that panel

In the Tom Hanks movie THE DA VINCI CODE- IMO one of the most fabulous movies ever- in the scene where they are driving backwards in the street, right before they start, there is a LES MIZ billboard you can see...

Updated On: 6/25/06 at 12:49 PM

[greeneyed_one]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 1:29pm

I saw Kanye West being interviewed on the Ellen show and he had a Les Mis shirt on.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 1:33pm

I was watching Full House today (I know...) and Joey was talking about how his mother used to sing him South Pacific before he went to bed. It was kind of weird...

[hortonhearsasam]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 1:53pm

One of my favorites is in the movie of The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants. America Ferrera's character and her mother are cooking in the kitchen singing "Nothing" from A Chorus Line before the phone rings.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 1:54pm

Oh, on Malcolm in the Middle when Craig lives with them in the morning he shaves while singing along to a cast recording of A Chorus Line; it shows him singing along to "I Hope I Get It."

Let's also not forget the classic moment in the Simpsons when Sideshow Bob sings the complete score to HMS Pinafore.

[Madhatter]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 2:06pm

In Reno 911 everyone was at a bar and there was a poster of Gypsy.

[azelma]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 2:12pm

Well, I tend to focus on Les Mis references in particular, but here are a couple.
-My favorite was in the first season of The West Wing, when Sam refers to investigations as to whether White House staffers were using drugs as "Inspector Javert's drug search".
-In the book Kite Runner when the main character is talking to someone at the American Embassy, I believe, he says that the guy has a Les Mis poster behind his desk, and sitting in front of him he feels like Valjean sitting in front of Javert.
-The people in our mock trial cases tand to have odd names. A couple years ago there was one named Pat LaPoint. I messed it up so many times on the stand it's not even funny.
-There was another brief one in the West Wing...fourth season I think. It wasn't as good though. The president refered to some country as being Jean Valjean.
-One last West Wing one, I think at one point when Sam was freaking out about something, CJ broke out in a verse of the song "Cool" from West Side Story.
-There's an episode of Sports Night where Dana goes on the whole time about going to see The Lion King
-On the Colbert Report a couple weeks ago there was a former theatre critic turned political reporter who said "The republicans are Annie, the sun will come out tommorrow. Today may not be so great, but wait for tommorrow. The Democrats are Sweeney Todd, slit your throat and take all your money." They mentioned a bunch more plays and musicals too. I could track down the clip if anyone cares.
-Jon Stewart mentioned someone having a "Sondheimian gift" at one point. I don't remember the context though, it came sort of out of the blue.

This is a really long post, so I'm going to stop now.

[Weez]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 2:27pm

One episode in the first season of 'House' made me practically fall off my chair in glee. Dr. House and Dr. Wilson were interviewing potential doctors to work with House, and after one particularly promising candidate, Wilson felt the need to shout "That's our Hitler!".

I think that was about the time Wilson became my favourite character, actually. ^_^

[funnygirl76]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 2:45pm

There is a Les Miz reference on an old episode of South Park. I believe it's the one where Cartman is trying out for the Cheesy Poofs commercial - and one of the other kids at the audtion looks the cartooney Cosette/Les Miz icon.

I know there has to be others from South Park - Trey Parker and Matt Stone are huge fans of musicals.

Oh - another one that sticks out in my mind.....on Chicago Hope, Mandy Patinkin's character, Jeffrey Geiger, is invited to his ex-wife's wedding to a fellow psychiatric patient (she is hospitalized after killing their son). The officiant at the wedding is another psych patient who thinks that he is Eva Peron, and often breaks into "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." Before the ceremony, the officiant approaches Geiger, looks at him closely, and says, "I know who you are...don't worry, I won't tell."

[picturetaker9211]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 3:00pm

An obvious one: The episode of Cold Case called Cabaret. They sang songs from the show.

[Marguerite Chauvelin]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 3:32pm

Weez, that is my favorite TV show. I loved the Producers reference (though I wonder how many people understood it).

Another Random one: On the Drew Carey show everyone started singing "Tomorrow" in Drew's office.

[I<3bway]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 3:38pm

I was watching the King of Queens and there was this episode where Doug gets his own "secret" apartment I believe, and his wife sees him walks into his room and in the back there was a Jersey Boys poster. I thought it was cool.

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 4:50pm

Oh, on Malcolm in the Middle when Craig lives with them in the morning he shaves while singing along to a cast recording of A Chorus Line; it shows him singing along to "I Hope I Get It."


Also in Malcolm, Malcolm and his family went to see Mamma Mia and came back to the house singing the songs.

[smiles]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 6:19pm

Nothing on tv so I ened up watching this show on the fox network..... can't remember it's name......comes on after The SImpsons on sunday nights....oh well. Anyway the son is obsessed with musical theatre so he, his parents and his girlfried go See WIcked. And The girlfriend ends up falling asleep and the father who hated the idea of going to a musical ended up loving it.
(I think thats how it went....)
Updated On: 6/26/06 at 06:19 PM

[picturetaker9211]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:18pm

Stole this from a Will & Grace quotes thread, when I was asking a question about a Rent reference. (thejcm posted this)

Actually, the RENT quote is said by Will, pretending to be Bobbie Adler. It's the first episode she's in and Will is acting like her in order to get Grace ready to stand up to her. It's something like:

Will: Oh, did I tell you the Schenectady Times LOVED my performance in RENT!
Grace: That's right mom, because you were born to play an adolescent struggling with homelessness and heroin addiction.

[icantbelive]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:23pm

I turned to the movie Dick on Comedy Central and they were singing songs from Hello Dolly.

Also, In Malcom in the Middle they were refering to Les Mis a lot. Updated On: 7/3/06 at 09:23 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:24pm

People have heard of Broadway outside of this board. Why is that so surprising?

And almost every time Bobbi Adler was on W&G, there was a reference to a show she was in or had just been in. That was a major character point.

[little_sally]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:38pm

There are so many references in old Seinfeld episodes.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:47pm

The dreadful movie "Jersey Girl" has a whole Sweeney Todd bit. Also "Pinky and the Brain" did a Sweeney spoof. I forget the name of the episode...

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 9:48pm

People repeated ones I said. The Wicked one was The War at Home.

I can probably name all of South Park's
- The movie... "La Resistance (Medley)" and the Mole dying

The Helen Keller musical has many references:
- Cartman saying "Did Tim Rice's mother give him 20 minutes to write the lyrics to the Phantom of the Opera!?" (which is wrong but)
- The character of Geoffrey Maynard who is a parody of Colm Wilkinson. He sings lines throughout the episode which are reminiscent of Les Mis songs. Like "I swear it on my life, your play shall want for nothing!"

Random ones...
This really crappy Hillary Duff movie, The Perfect Man, had one of those stereotypical gay characters and he's asked "Do you like the Jets?" and he responds: "Yes, I LOVE West Side Story!"

Let's not forget the Animaniacs with Les Miseranimals, West Side Pidgeons, and the Pinky and the Brain episode with "Mice!" the musical which took many pot shots at ALW.

The Simpsons always use the number 24601, such as Skinner's Vietnam POW helmet...

Will and Grace also has a ton. Like when Will calls Jack "Eponine."

[greeneyed_one]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 10:11pm

In "American Psycho" Christain Bale's character has a poster of Les Mis in his bathroom and talks about taking someone to see the show.

[kyguy78]

Posted: 6/25/06 at 10:12pm

Honestly, about one out of every five episodes of The Simpsons has a Broadway reference somewhere in it. The Family Guy has several in it too.