Expy/Theatre

The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples

• An Epileptic Trees theory has argued that the Antonio of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is the same as the Antonio of The Merchant of Venice. Both seem to be homosexual and it's argued that the character of the the former, who is a sea captain, was able to become a wealthy merchant thanks to help from Sebastian and Viola.
  • Similarly, although the character in Romeo and Juliet is a ghost character (never appearing on stage), the Petruchio of that play could have been the same person as the one in The Taming of the Shrew, given that both are from Verona.
    • Outside of all of the women dressing as boys, Iachimo from Cymbeline has a name essentially meaning "little Iago" and is something like that character as a Harmless Villain. There's also a degree of expytude between Henry IV and Julius Caesar which were written at about the same time. In both plays, an idealistic Anti-Villain Hotspur/Brutus faces off an Anti-Hero Magnificent Bastard Prince Hal/Marc Antony.
  • Two Gentlemen of Verona, being one of Shakespeare's earliest plays, is full of characters who would later be Expied:
    • The Merchant of Venice has Launcelot (technically Launcelet, "little Launce"), an obvious copy of Launce. Both characters are oddball servants who go off into comedic monologues, and their dialogues and jokes are eerily similar. Nerissa could also be seen as the new and improved Lucetta--both are maidservants who act as straight men in practically the same dialogue about suitors, and both assist their mistresses in disguising themselves as boys.
    • Plot outline: Guy A and Girl A are in love. Girl A's father doesn't want them to be together. Meanwhile, Guy B tries to catch Girl A but is continually rebuffed. Girl B, who Guy B dumped in favor of Girl A, lurks in the wings, feeling sorry for herself. In the end, Guy B changes his mind, he and Girl B get back together, and everyone's happy. Now decide for yourself whether you want these four to be called Valentine, Sylvia, Proteus and Julia or Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena. It doesn't really matter.
    • As an added bonus, each of the two couples informed one of Shakespeare's other famous couples. Sylvia sneaks off to marry her man in a friar's cell, after which he is "banished" and believes it's a fate worse than death because be can't be with his new wife. ^[1] Julia, disguised as a boy, ends up delivering love letters for the guy she herself in love with, while ambiguously trying to convince him that sending the letters is a bad idea. Just to make it more obvious, her alias is "Sebastian", which was used as the name of Viola' Half Identical Twin who complicates the situation further.
  • The basic "Friar Laurence" type appears a third time as "Friar Francis" in Much Ado About Nothing, once again convincing people that the best solution to any romantic difficulty is for the girl to fake her own death.
  • Part of the reason Shakespeare has so much of this is that he wrote most of his plays for the same actors, leading to plenty of Actor Allusion.
• Speaking of Shakespeare, not only does nearly every character in Romeo and Juliet correspond to one in West Side Story, so do many of the scenes:
  • Characters: Tony=Romeo, Maria=Juliet, Jets=Montagues, Sharks=Capulets, Bernado=Tybalt, Anita=Nurse/Lady Capulet, Riff=Mercutio, Chino=Paris, etc.
  • Scenes: the opening fight, Juliet/Maria's betrothal to Paris/Chino, Juliet's debut party=Maria's first dance, the balcony scene=the fire escape scene, Romeo & Juliet's elopement (The Friar corresponds to Doc)= Tony and Maria acting out a wedding, Tybalt/Bernado killing Mercutio/Riff, Romeo/Tony killing Tybalt/Bernado, the Nurse being taunted and insulted by the Montagues and thus unable to tell Romeo that Juliet's death is faked=Anita being assaulted by the Jets and thus lying about Maria's death, leading to Romeo/Tony's suicidal response.

Everyone Else

• Gilbert and Sullivan's Utopia, Ltd. features a Sir Edward Corcoran, KGB, who can be identified with Captain Corcoran of H.M.S. Pinafore - especially given that he sings part of the younger character's entrance song. Since Corcoran and Ralph Rackstraw switch places at the end of the earlier musical, it is a matter of some debate which of the two (if either) the older character is supposed to be.
  • Also from Gilbert and Sullivan, some believe that Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore may be an older, more jaded version of Dick Dauntless in Ruddigore.
• In Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hoffmannsthal's opera Der Rosenkavalier, the Marschallin and Octavian are versions of the Countess and Cherubino from The Marriage of Figaro.

• Wait? A man with questionable morals falls in love with a considerably more wholesome woman and much singing is involved? Are we talking about Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown or Professor Harold Hill and Marian the Librarian?
• Cyrano De Bergerac:
  • The Duenna is an expy from The Nurse from Romeo and Juliet.
  • Raguenau is an expy of M. Jourdain, protagonist of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (a play by Moliere.) M. Jourdain is a Burgher who dreams to be an Aristocrat, even when he really doesn’t understand exactly what an Aristocrat is All he knows is that Aristocrats are cool, and his naiveté makes him everyone’s Butt Monkey. Ragueneau is a baker who dreams to be a poet…
  • Cyrano is an expy of Grisóstomo, a fair, intelligent, rich and easygoing guy who is a talented physic and poet so in love with the shepherdess beautiful, intelligent, easygoing and rich Marcela that he decides to become a shepherd himself just to court her. After a long chain of rejections, he decides to kill himself and blames Marcela in his poems.
  • Le Bret is an expy of Ambrosio, best friend of Grisóstomo, who talks in his burial and explains that Grisóstomo was a Love Martyr Driven to Suicide because Marcela’s cruelty, and became another shepherd to follow Grisóstomo’s wishes and is adamant in his resolution that his friend last will be respected: to burn all his poems and bury him when he first saw Marcela.
  • Roxane is an expy of Marcela, the beautiful, intelligent, easygoing and rich woman who has become a shepherdess to escape the constant courtship of a lot of suitors. She is a friendly person, but is not interested in love. She is present at Grisóstomo’s burial and claims that she never leaded Grisóstomo on, she was sincere with him when she said she didn’t love him and if Grisóstomo took his own life it was not because he was a Love Martyr, but because he was a Martyr Without a Cause.
• Every character in Miss Saigon corresponds to one in Madame Butterfly, which it's based on:
  • Kim=Cio-Cio San (Madame Butterfly).
  • Chris=B. F. Pinkerton.
  • The Engineer=Goro.
  • John=Sharpless.
  • Ellen=Kate Pinkerton
  • Thuy=The Bonze and Prince Yamadori.
  • Tam=Dolore ("Sorrow").
• Similarly, every character in Rent is based off of one in La Boheme:
  • Mark is Marcello
  • Roger is Rodolfo
  • Mimi is Mimì
  • Tom is Colline
  • Angel is Schaunard
  • Maureen is Musetta
  • Joanne is Alcindoro/partially Marcello
  • Benny is Benoît

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1. ↑ Both scenarios were inspired by Arthur Brook's poem Romeus and Juliet, but the latter was a straight adaptation.