Skip to main content
My Shows
News on your favorite shows, specials & more!
#1

punctuation in show titles

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.)
#2

re: punctuation in show titles

Carnival used an exclamation point? Really? Seems odd.

But right now, I'm drawing a blank. But this will plague me.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#5

re: punctuation in show titles

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.

"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#7

re: punctuation in show titles

And the World Goes 'Round

Can anyone explain the punctuation there? It's always bothered me. And the World Goes Around?
#8

re: punctuation in show titles

What exactly do you mean, morosco?

The apostrophe takes the place of the A.
#9

re: punctuation in show titles

Is And the World Goes Around grammatically correct?
#11

re: punctuation in show titles

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.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#13

re: punctuation in show titles

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

#15

re: punctuation in show titles

Zanna, DON'T!


Suddenly, Last Summer

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

#18

re: punctuation in show titles

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...
<---- You can see the crazy in her eyes. ;-)
#19

re: punctuation in show titles

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!
Genius lasts longer than beauty.
#21

re: punctuation in show titles

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...
What a night! I was in more laps than a napkin!

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

#22

re: punctuation in show titles

No Child...
Experience live theater. Experience paintings. Experience books. Live, look and listen like artists! ~ imaginethis
LIVE THAT LESSON!!!!!!
#23

re: punctuation in show titles

Actually, I don't believe Bye Bye Birdie has a comma, though grammatically it should.
#24

re: punctuation in show titles

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


"I mean, sitting side by side with another man watching Patti LuPone play Rose in GYPSY on Broadway is essentially the equivalent of having hardcore sex." -Wanna Be A Foster. "Say 'Goody.' Say 'Bubbi.'" ... "That's it. Exactly as if it were 'Goody.' Now I know you're gonna sing 'Goody' this time, but nevertheless..."

BroadwayWorld TV


Ticket Central
Hot Show
Tickets From $59
Hot Show
Tickets From $95
Hot Show
Tickets From $170
Hot Show
Tickets From $95