Catch Phrase/Theatre

Examples of Catch Phrases in Theatre include:

• Various characters in Gypsy, in the Show Within a Show sequences: "Hello, everybody! My name is _____. What's yours?" Used first by Baby June, then by her older version, Dainty June. After June leaves the show, the phrase passes to Louise, and is sarcastically appropriated by Rose in "Rose's Turn."
• Follies has a Catch Phrase spread among four characters:

Young Sally: Hi.
Young Ben: Girls.
Young Phyllis: Ben.
Young Buddy: Sally.

• In The King and I, the King has "etcetera, etcetera, etcetera." Also, less often: "is a puzzlement."
• Numerous characters from Gilbert & Sullivan operettas have catchphrases:
  • Lady Jane in Patience: "Crushed, again!"
  • Every appearance of the Bridesmaids in act I of Ruddigore is marked by the song "Hail the bridegroom, hail the bride" - eventually leading to other characters yelling at them and chasing them off.
  • As well, when Captain Corcoran, a character from HMS Pinafore, reappears in Utopia, Limited, he tells how the British Navy "never runs a ship ashore" - leading to his catchphrase from ten operas previous: "What never?" "No, never." "What, never?" "Well... hardly ever!"
  • Similar use of catchphrases appear in Patience and Gilbert's solo work, Engaged.
• Punch and Judy. Punch's famous Catch Phrase is "That's the way to do it!"
• In On The Razzle, by Tom Stoppard, the Servile Snarker Melchior uses the word "Classic" constantly. This leads to the following exchange with his new employer-

Zangler: Only you'll have to stop using that word. It's stupid.
Melchior: There's nothing stupid about the word. it's just the way some people use it without discrimination.
Zangler: Do they?
Melchior: Oh, yes. It's absolutely classic.

• The Arab in The Time Of Your Life: "No foundation. All the way down the line." He rarely says anything other than this cryptic comment.
• Fastrada in Pippin: "After all, I'm just an ordinary housewife and mother, just like all you housewives and mothers out there."

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