History Main / CityOfAngels

* ''[[Recap/GleeS5E11CityOfAngels City of Angels]]'', an episode in the fifth season of ''Series/{{Glee}}''.

''CityOfAngels'' is a musical comedy tribute to FilmNoir, with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel, and book by Larry Gelbart. It was first produced on Broadway in 1989 to positive reviews and quite a few Tony Awards.

The plot follows a 1940's noir novelist named [[OnlyOneName Stine]], who is being conscripted to write a [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]] of his best-selling private eye novel starring his alter-ego Detective Stone. As we see Stone facing the usual FilmNoir perils in the noir side of the story, in the real world side Stine is facing marital issues and ExecutiveMeddling. The different worlds are color-coded, with all of the sets and costumes for the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within A Show]] being black and white, while the real-world sets and costumes are normally colored.

Not to be confused with the [[Film/CityOfAngels film]] of the same name, nor the ''Film/TheCrowCityOfAngels''.

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!!This work contains examples of:

* ActingForTwo - Except the actors playing Stone and Stine, every principal actor play two characters--one real, one in Stine's story. Stone and Stine are played by separate actors, of course, because they need to interact.
* AndYouWereThere - See ActingForTwo.
* BreakingTheFourthWall - Not the 'real' fourth wall, but the in-universe one between Stine and Stone is broken during the number "You're Nothing Without Me" as character and author get into a heated argument over the changes Stine is making. (And any fiction writer can tell you that this sort of thing is TruthInTelevision... well, maybe not the singing.) [[spoiler:It's obliterated in the finale, when Stone grabs the typewriter to change the ending for ''Stine''.]]
* TheChanteuse - Bobbi, especially in "With Every Breath I Take".
* CrowdSong - "Double Talk" is reprised by the party guests, also counts as The Villain Sucks Song.
* DarkReprise - Double Talk, originally a short song in the black and white world about how Stone distrusts Alaura, gets one of these in the color world when Buddy uses it to proclaim how much he hates writers.
* DistantDuet - "What You Don't Know About Women" is sung by Stine's wife Gabby and Stone's secretary Oolie, who are not only far away from each other, but occupy completely different worlds.
* DoubleEntendre - All over the place, but the "The Tennis Song" in particular consists of almost nothing but these.
* TheElevenOClockNumber - "Funny"
* ExecutiveMeddling - An in-universe example and major plot point, with Buddy making numerous changes to Stine's script.
* FemmeFatale - Alaura Kingsley and, to a lesser extent, Mallory Kingsley.
* IAmSong - "You Can Always Count On Me"
** Also a BadGirlSong.
* IrrelevantActOpener - "Stay With Me"
* IWantSong - Stine's "Double Talk"
* Jerkass - Buddy Fidler to the very core.
* LargeHam - Movie producer Buddy Fidler lends himself to this very much.
* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber - "Everybody's Gotta Be Somewhere"
* ProsceniumReveal - It opens in the ShowWithinAShow, and gets most of the way through the expository scene before revealing Stine at his typewriter pressing the backspace key, causing the action to rewind.
* ReallyGetsAround - Mallory Kingsley
* ShowWithinAShow
* SoloDuet - Sort of. "You're Nothing Without Me" is a duet between Stine and his far-cooler AuthorAvatar Stone.
* TheVillainSucksSong - Double Talk, a song that is constantly reprised throughout the show, is turned into one of these as the party guests belittle movie producer Buddy Fidler behind his back.
* TriumphantReprise - "I'm Nothing Without You"
* VehicularSabotage - In the FilmNoir [[ShowWithinAShow within the show]], Alaura claims to have done away with Peter by tampering with the brakes of his van. Peter lives, however.
* VillainSong - "The Buddy System" is an odd subversion, as the audience doesn't quite realize Buddy's the real antagonist yet, and the number, while somewhat threatening in it's way, is a fun, light-hearted song.
** Buddy's versions of Double Talk could also classify as these.

Not to be confused with the [[Film/CityOfAngels film]] of the same name, nor the ''TheCrowCityOfAngels''.

Not to be confused with the [[Film/CityOfAngels film]] of the same name, nor the spinoff of ''TheCrow'' TV series.

* ProsceniumReveal: It opens in the ShowWithinAShow, and gets most of the way through the expository scene before revealing Stine at his typewriter pressing the backspace key, causing the action to rewind.

* VehicularSabotage: In the FilmNoir [[ShowWithinAShow within the show]], Alaura claims to have done away with Peter by tampering with the brakes of his van. Peter lives, however.

** Buddy's versions of Double Talk could classify.

* VehicularSabotage: In the FilmNoir [[ShowWithinAShow within the show]], Mallory claims to have done away with Peter by tampering with the brakes of his van. Peter lives, though this is implied to be the result of ExecutiveMeddling.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Not the 'real' fourth wall, but the in-universe one between Stine and Stone is broken during the number "You're Nothing Without Me" as character and author get into a heated argument over the changes Stine is making. (And any fiction writer can tell you that this sort of thing is TruthInTelevision... well, maybe not the singing.) [[spoiler:It's obliterated in the finale, when Stone grabs the typewriter to change the ending for ''Stine''.]]

* DistantDuet - "What You Don't Know About Women" is sung by Stine's wife Gabby and Stone's secretary Oolie.

* LargeHam - Movie producer Buddy Fiddler lends himself to this very much.

This work contains examples of: