punctuation in show titles

[slimandslam]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:12pm

I was looking at musicals of the sixties, and one thing I noticed is that the titles were full of exclamation points. Just in that decade, you had:

Hello, Dolly!
Hallelujah, Baby!
Oliver!
George M!
Carnival!
Wait a Minim!

Plus at least two that, not satisfied with one, went to two exclamation points:
I Do! I Do!
Oh! Calcutta!

...and that's just drawn from the most famous and/or most successful ones. I'm sure there are many more. It's like Broadway spent the entire decade shouting at its audience.

I suspect the first example of this was Oklahoma!, but this is based on no research whatsoever.

Anyhow, what other shows can you name with unusual punctuation in their titles? Question marks, slashes, hyphens, quotation marks, parentheses, brackets (though I suspect that [title of show] may be the sole example there), ampersands (rather than using the word "and"), semicolons, ellipses, dollar signs, mathematical symbols, or anything you can think of. The more unusual the better.

Don't bother with: colons (too common), commas (ditto), apostrophes (which I consider spelling, rather than punctuation).

And if this has been covered in a previous thread, my apologies. (Though I did do a search.)

[dramamama611]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:18pm

Carnival used an exclamation point? Really? Seems odd.

But right now, I'm drawing a blank. But this will plague me.

[morosco]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:19pm

The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N

[LadyRosecoe]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:19pm

Caroline, or Change

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:23pm

And the World Goes 'Round
Do I Hear a Waltz?
Li'l Abner
Summer of '42
Swing!

apostrophes (which I consider spelling, rather than punctuation).

It's still punctuation.

[Tag]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:24pm

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Mamma Mia!

[morosco]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:29pm

And the World Goes 'Round

Can anyone explain the punctuation there? It's always bothered me. And the World Goes Around?

[theatreguy]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:41pm

What exactly do you mean, morosco?

The apostrophe takes the place of the A.

[morosco]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:45pm

Is And the World Goes Around grammatically correct?

[bythesword84]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:47pm

Fiorello! is another one.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:51pm

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE was the first one that came to mind, love the comma in the title.
There's also I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE.

[christhefish]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:54pm

do the brackets in [title of show] count?

[commasplice]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:56pm

tick, tick...BOOM!

It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman!

Uptown...It's Hot!

If you ever leave me...I'm going with you!

(I am apparently all about the ellipses and exclamation points today.) Updated On: 3/9/08 at 07:56 PM

[LadyRosecoe]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:57pm

Updated On: 3/9/08 at 07:57 PM

[LadyRosecoe]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 7:57pm

Zanna, DON'T!


Suddenly, Last Summer Updated On: 3/9/08 at 07:57 PM

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 8:02pm

Oklahoma!
Grease!

[teh_pretty]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 8:10pm

Oliver!

[stagescreen]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 8:27pm

Oh, Brother!
Oh, Boy
Oh, Captain!
Oh, Look!
Oh, Please
Oh Coward!
Oh, My Dear!
Oh, Kay!

(Oh, KayohKayOoooHKay...)

See the monkey Sail Away on his speedboat...

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 8:44pm

One of the thing that annoys me about I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is all of the punctuations! But I just saw the show for the first time last Sunday and LOVED IT!

[Lefou]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 8:48pm

Urinetown, The Musical

[ashbash1990]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 8:55pm

Do accents count?
Les Misérables
The Big Voice:God or Merman?
Bye Bye, Birdie
Stop the World, I Wanna Get Off!

Edited thanks to Ourtime992, who pointed out my mistake...

Updated On: 3/10/08 at 08:55 PM

[jordangirl]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 8:56pm

No Child...

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 9:01pm

Actually, I don't believe Bye Bye Birdie has a comma, though grammatically it should.

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 9:18pm

Boeing-Boeing
Is He Dead?
Naked Boys Singing!
Rock 'n' Roll
Tony n' Tina's Wedding
Cry-Baby

[oohshizz146]

Posted: 3/9/08 at 9:38pm

cry-baby