History Main / MusicalWorldHypotheses

* ''SweeneyTodd'' is also largely Alternate Universe with some All In Their Heads (e.g. Sweeney's portion of ''Johanna (Reprise)'', part of ''Epiphany'') and a couple of seemingly diegetic (Toby's 'advertising jingles' first for Pirelli and then Mrs. Lovett's pie shop).

Of course, musicals rarely consistently adopt one musical world hypothesis for their entirety: most of the time individual songs employ different hypotheses, with some songs even split into sections that seem to use different ones. It is especially common for All In Their Heads songs to be scattered among other songs that are clearly heard by other characters.

* TheMask is an altenrate universe example. A little magic from the title character can make people break out in SpontaneousSongAndDance. In fact, people struggle to maintain control as they're forced slowly forced to sing.

* ''WalkTheLine'' is Diegetic, as Johnny Cash is a professional singer on tour with his group. Each musical number depicted in the film occurs at a point that is professionally or personally important to Johnny Cash' life. (For example, his first audition, his first public performance, his comeback performance, asking June to marry him on stage, etc.)

* ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' is fully diagetic. The minstrel and his band are clearly singing in-universe about Brave Sir Robin. The ''Knights Of The Round Table'' song may appear to be something else, but as part of the song is about how they like to dress up, sing and dance, it's clear that the knights actually are singing and dancing. Which is why Arthur decides not to go to Camelot, as it is "a silly place."

--> '''All''': It's getting earie... What's this cheery singing all about?

* Scrubs' musical episode is revealed to be all in the head of a patient with an enormous brain tumour, which is causing her to hear everything in song. A bit of FridgeBrilliance kicks in, since the patient isn't around for any of the actual dialogue sequences, and as soon as she does appear, characters break into song, even if they're halfway through a conversation.

* '''The AlternateUniverse Hypothesis''': The musical is set in an alternate world, or magic has been worked on the ordinary world, in which people really do burst into spontaneous song and dance. If the world has always been this way, singing is simply a normal and commonplace form of human communication, if one that seems a bit odd to those of us living in a less musical world. If the world is not normally this way, expect it to be some sort of an [[MusicalisInterruptus uncontrollable compulsion to sing]] at emotional moments. Characters may here comment explicitly on when they or other characters are singing as opposed to talking (though where the verb "sing" is just used instead of something like "say" in a song, it does not necessarily imply this). This tends to be the most common, especially in stage musicals.

* '''The All In Their Heads Hypothesis''': There is no singing; the songs are an artistic rendering of the characters' fantasies, with the format of song in a way serving to distinguish between what really happens and what is only in the characters' heads. Naturally, this means that no characters are aware of what goes on in another character's song: there may be duets, but then they are [[DistantDuet Distant]] {{Counterpoint Duet}}s where the two characters do not know of one another's participation.