History Theatre / TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals

And a new TRASH TATTOO!\\

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And a new TRASH TATTOO!\\<-

And a new TRASH TATTOO!\\

The streets all day!

And a new TRASH TATTOO!

** Zoey has been curt with Emma, having written her up several times for her bad attitude at work and threatening to fire her. The audience realizes that something is wrong when she and Nora are ''still'' smiling vacantly as Emma chews her out for adding a spontaneous B section to the tip song, says that she quits, and tears off her barista apron. Emma then freezes when Zoey and Nora SpeakInUnison, block her way, and say, "You can't quit, Emma" and that it isn't like her. Paul convinces Emma they need to ''run'' before the musical zombies catch them.

** General McNamera's "we're great again, no answers to be found" after being shot in the shoulder seems to be the real general breaking through and lamenting about his failures to protect.

* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: The overall goal of TheVirus. See CrapsaccharineWorld above.
** Emphasized with the homeless man's verse of "La Dee Dah Dah Day", where he cheerfully sings about how his hilariously awful life on the streets no longer bothers him.
-->Cause I may not have a home\\
But that's way okay!
-->Cause I prefer to roam
-->The streets all day!
-->The world is my house
-->The [[EatTheDog dogs are my food]]
-->Hey look, a new blouse ''(picks up garbage bag)''
-->And a new TRASH TATTOO!

** Professor Hidgens' [[IncomingHam bursts onto the scene]] insulting the meteor and proclaiming how he's been "waiting in the wings" for its arrival. This quickly cements him as an over-dramatic EccentricMentor MadScientist archetype. [[spoiler: His specific theater terminology also indicates that his priorities are far more in-line with a MadArtist than he initially reveals.]]

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: Of the three male coworkers, Bill, the sensitive dad-trying-his-best is the Nice, JerkAss sleazebag Ted is the Mean and blunt, antisocial, but ultimately good-hearted Paul is the In-Between.

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: Of the three male coworkers, Bill, the sensitive dad-trying-his-best is the Nice, JerkAss sleazebag Ted is the Mean and blunt, antisocial, but ultimately good-hearted Paul is the In-Between.

** Paul's two male co-workers are named [[Film/BillAndTed Bill and Ted]].

** Emma earns the ire of her coworkers because she nearly outs one of them PlayingSick, and she's very unsympathetic about how they're pursuing their theatrical dreams and making ends meet. They even lampshade that there's no cause for her to be this hostile. This is what makes her develop feelings for Paul, as he insists that she not sing for him when he tips her and was worried the zombies had gotten to her. She becomes more heroic, however, trying to find a way to stop the apocalypse and save the world. [[spoiler:Her actions sadly make the situation worse: her biology professor Hidgens betrays her band of survivors in favor of assimilating with the aliens, and her begging that Paul blows up the meteor leads to a SenselessSacrifice as it doesn't stop the HiveMind and they assimilate his dead body as well. While she doesn't die onscreen, she may have preferred a quick death to see her love interest torturing her with false hope. The play has her begging for help while the curtain call is going on, meaning the audience has no sympathy for her]]. 

* BaitAndSwitch: Paul is freaked out by hearing everyone singing. He goes to order his black coffee, and gives a BigNo when Emma walks in singing, fearing she's been affected as well. Emma quickly stops when he begs her to not sing, and explains she got threatened with losing her job if she didn't perform extra singing for the customers.  
* BenevolentAlienInvasion: Professor Hidgens comes to the conclusion that letting the aliens assimilate us is the only way to achieve world peace.
* BizarreAlienBiology:
** The assimilated humans' blood and internal organs turn into a brightly-colored gelatinous substance that the survivors dub [[BuffySpeak "blue shit"]], giving them decentralized anatomy that can function even if they lose their hearts or brains.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Bill wants to return to Hatchetfield to rescue his daughter, after getting a phone call from her begging for help. Ted brings up the legitimate point that it could be a trap, since if everyone else is assimilated, Alice may be as well. Bill retorts that he can't just leave his daughter to the mercy of parasitic aliens, because what kind of parent would he be?  Paul, realizing that Bill won't be dissuaded, goes with him on the off-chance that Ted is right because he likes his coworker and is sympathetic about his situation. [[spoiler:It ''was'' a trap that kills Bill, and Paul barely escapes by the skin of his teeth]]. 

** The play likens being in a musical unwillingly to succumbing to a zombie apocalypse. It incorporates all the tropes that one would find in a typical zombie movie, from a MadScientist with a potential cure to TamperingWithFoodAndDrink, DwindlingParty, and a FinalGuy as well as a FinalGirl. Emma admits that she didn't think about the implications of what it means when a musical happens around you, and you're not wanting to participate. 

* DontAskJustRun: Emma comes to the dawning realization that Paul was right about the world becoming a musical as her boss and coworker poison the coffee with weird blue shit. She's in shock but Paul grabs her and says they need to go now! They hightail it out of there before the song ends. 

* EveryoneHasStandards: Ted is a jerk, and he freely admits that he is one. He also tries to dissuade Bill from rescuing Alice when his daughter calls him begging for help because he logically points out that it could be a trap. The HiveMind may have already gotten Alice, and Ted doesn't want Bill to risk his life when they just saw their friends and coworkers die around them. Bill and Paul even acknowledge that Ted has a point, but Bill counteracts that he still has to try, because Alice is his daughter. 

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Professor Hidgens voluntarily decides to join the aliens.]]

** [[spoiler:The show's title foreshadows Paul's fate. The word "didn't" is in the past tense, and by the end of the musical, Paul does likes musicals, due to becoming one of the singing zombies.]]
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Implied with the ending, as [[spoiler: the show we're watching now seems to be the result of the invasion, with everyone except Emma succumbed to the HiveMind, leaving her begging for help during the curtain call before being dragged off to be assimilated.]]
* FreezeFrameEnding:

** The final moment of the show is the zombies [[spoiler: led by Paul]] all bearing down on [[spoiler: Emma]] who gives one final scream of despair as the lights go down. Then, in a hilarious subversion, the lights ''come back up'' so the [[BreakingTheFourthWall zombies can take their bows]] while Emma, still in character, begs and pleads with the audience before they drag her backstage so they can tear her limb from limb properly.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Thanks to the small performance space, you can clearly see the band off stage left in multiple shots of the filmed Website/YouTube version, and see them openly reacting and laughing at what's going on onstage.
** Robert Manion provides many of these, like his character awkwardly trying to get a word in edgewise when Paul cuts in front of him at the coffee shop to talk to Emma just before "Cup of Roasted Coffee".
** Robert Manion does an elaborate dance during "Show Me Your Hands" that you can see Ted silently appreciating, a CallForward to his reaction to ''Workin' Boys'' during "Showstoppin' Number''.

* HopeSpot: When discussing the idea of the meteor being a HiveQueen with Prof. Hidgens, Emma raises the possibility that if the meteor is destroyed and the HiveMind stops controlling the zombies their old personalities will come back, without losing their alien HealingFactor. I.e. all of the dead characters might be brought back in a ResetButton ending, a la Film/TheFaculty. [[spoiler: Unfortunately becomes moot when PEIP [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade torches Hatchetfield]] after the meteor explodes to hide the evidence. Then becomes ''[[CruelTwistEnding even more moot]]'' when it turns out this was a lie and the HiveMind was never defeated at all.]]
** [[spoiler: The biggest HopeSpot in the show is when it turns out the other survivor in PEIP's WitnessProtection program, "Ben Bridges", is actually a miraculously alive Paul. You can hear the audience gasp in surprise and relief just before [[GutPunch he begins to sing]]...]]

* HumanInterestStory: The Langs invented Peanuts the Pocket Squirrel as a joke about the ultimate version of a fluffy viral story: a [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter squirrel]] [[LittlestCancerPatient who was abandoned by his mother because he was too sickly to survive]] and was adopted by a [[DadTheVeteran lonely military veteran]] who kept him in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin his pocket]] until he grew too big, forcing him to [[SavingTheOrphanage set up a GoFundMe]] to build Peanuts a new home. Gets an ironic callback later on when the new heartwarming fluff piece is that Peanuts is the [[spoiler: sole survivor of Hatchetfield]].

* IronicHell: Paul says that his personal hell would be "trapped in a musical, singing and dancing" while turning down Bill's plea for Paul to come and watch ''Mamma Mia'' with him and Alice. [[spoiler:The musical ends with Paul assimilated by the Hive Mind, forced to sing and dance for eternity while his LoveInterest Emma is trapped]]. 

** Zoey has been curt with Emma, having written her up several times for her bad attitude at work and threatening to fire her. The audience realizes that something is wrong when she and Nora are ''still'' smiling vacantly as Emma chews her out for adding a spontaneous B section to the tip song, says that she quits, and tears off her barista apron. Emma then freezes when Zoey and Nora SpeakInUnison, block her way, and say, "You can't quit, Emma" and that it isn't like her. Paul convinces Emma they need to ''run'' before the musical zombies catch them. 
** Paul has said many times that singing and dancing in public makes him feel uncomfortable. Emma at the end is ecstatic to see that [[spoiler:Paul is seemingly alive at the end of the musical. They embrace. Then Paul opens his mouth... and ''sings''. Emma breaks the embrace and the audience stops laughing. It turns out his HeroicSuicide didn't stop the zombies, and they turned him]].
* PartingWordsRegret: The last thing Ted tells Charlotte is that she should stay in her dying marriage with her dying husband because she refuses to be happy with him. When [[spoiler:a brainwashed Sam kills Charlotte and turns her, Ted visibly have a MyGodWhatHaveIDone expression as they try to kill him in turn]].
* PetTheDog: Ted is a jerk and he freely admits he is one, but he grabs a trash can lid and uses it to defend Charlotte from her brainwashed husband. It's especially good timing since Sam brought out his gun and threatened to shoot Charlotte while singing and dancing. 

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech
** Emma delivers a blistering one to Zoey and Nora about their theatrical ambitions when she quits her job.

* RepriseMedley

* RuleOfDrama

** The HiveMind openly tells Paul that it is offended by his resistance to assimilation and intends to psychologically and physically torture him until he "begs for apotheosis". He still powers through...[[spoiler:but then he dies blowing up the meteor, and it revives him as one of their zombies]].
* RunningGag: Jeff Blim's character gets "killed"/interrupted mid-song [[RuleOfThree three times]].

* SkepticNoLonger: Emma at first thinks that Paul is having either a nervous breakdown or a bad day when he tells her "The whole world is becoming a musical." (It's understandable given he screamed at her not to sing.) Then she believes after her coworkers speak in unison about how she can't resign, because everyone is going to be learning the song. Emma quickly figures out that the survivors need a place to stay, and a plan of counterattack. 
* SkewedPriorities: After she is [[spoiler:seemingly rescued and put into Witness Protection, Emma would rather complain about the fact that her faked death was not cool. The general in question does not look amused, considering that an entire town was wiped out. Then again, we find out that she was already assimilated and so Emma was bragging about wiping out their invasion and saying she deserved a hero's treatment]]. 

* SuddenDownerEnding: It at first seems that [[spoiler:Paul's HeroicSacrifice was successful, that he stopped the invasion and PEIP rescued Emma, the SoleSurvivor of Hatchetfield, patching up her leg. They set her up with a dream deed to a Colorado cannbis farm, along with a new identity. While Emma complains they didn't make her faked death cool, they point out she's lucky to be alive]]. BittersweetEnding so far that a great crisis was averted, at a personal cost. [[spoiler:Then Paul reappears, having seemingly survived the explosion, and Emma happily embraces him. Somehow it makes the journey worth it. Cue him starting to sing...and he reveals he did die during the explosion, and she lost because her theory about blowing up the meteorite was wrong. All Emma can do is stare in shock before crying and trying to run from him. She realizes that she's trapped with the HiveMind, and they intend to either make her join, or torture her for eternity as punishment for trying to stop them]].   

** [[spoiler: As big of a "creep" as Ted may be, he was right -- going to rescue Alice was a SuicideMission. The zombies got her long before Bill and Paul even set foot on campus, and all Bill accomplished was getting himself killed.]]
** Ted seriously thinks [[spoiler:he can negotiate for his life from the HiveMind if he tosses Emma and Paul under the bus and runs to save his own skin. After all, they can't be all bad if all they do is make people sing and he gave them the two most wanted people on their hit list]]. The aliens laugh and go ILied; [[spoiler:they then proceed to kill him, using the power of the military. You can't negotiate with mass-murderers]]. 
** [[spoiler: Emma makes a compelling argument for why it would make sense that the meteor itself is a HiveQueen and [[LoadBearingBoss destroying it would end the infection]]... but at the end of the day she's just a community college biology student hypothesizing about a bizarre and unprecedented alien invasion. All that needed to be true for the plan to fail was that some part of her theory was wrong, and it was.]]

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: PlayedForDrama. Emma's assimilated coworkers reveal that they spiked the pot of coffee with "blue shit" that turns anyone who drinks it into happy-go-singing zombies. Paul luckily didn't drink it because he was too stunned at what was going on in the world. 

* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:Emma]] isn't killed onscreen. In fact, the HiveMind leaves her alive long enough to [[spoiler:beg for help from the audience as everyone else makes their curtain calls. It's unknown if she will be killed and assimilated, or left alive to be tortured by the fact that she's the last human since the HiveMind found it fun to give her false hope that Paul had survived and saved the world]].  
* VillainHasAPoint: The brainwashed Greenpeace lady comes back to call out Paul for his attempt to save the world. She points out astutely that he expressly said he didn't care about saving the world before his life and livelihood were threatened, so he's not as noble as he wants to be. Paul has no response except to resist the singing. 

** "You can't quit, Emma." Emma is about to leave her musical-happy coworkers because she says that Starbucks for its flaws doesn't make you perform for every tip. They then tell her they won't let her leave, especially now that all the customers have had a cup of coffee -- with weird blue stuff in it that assimilates them. Emma goes OhCrap as she realizes that Paul is right.  

* WholePlotReference

** [[spoiler: Matching the iconic ending of Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978, the show ends with us switching to Emma's POV, having her find Paul after his HeroicSacrifice only for it to turn out that he failed and was assimilated.]]

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: This is even lampshaded in the musical itself. The HiveMind has multiple options for infecting people: finding out their inmost desires and forcing them to sing, exposing them to the spores, making them ingest "blue shit" that brainwashes them instantly, or murdering them and turning them into zombies. They don't go for the lethal approach at first is that they want to know how to implant themselves in people's minds, and learn more about those that they are transforming. It also speaks to how disorganized the Hive is at first, but they don't need organization to take over a single town in one day. [[spoiler:The ending implies they aren't going to kill Emma despite knowing what she wants because she tried to destroy them, and as punishment she's going to be part of their show forever, while watching all her friends and loved ones sing and dance around her. As we see, Emma has nowhere to go, and no one will rescue her, not even the audience]].
* YouBastard: [[spoiler: The show ends with the house lights coming on, Emma becoming aware of the audience, and Emma tearfully begging them to call 911 or help her escape the theater while the rest of the cast finish their curtain calls. They drag her away kicking and screaming as the stage lights black out.]]

The show stars Starkid newcomer Jon Matteson as Paul, along with fellow first-timer Mariah Rose Faith as Zoey, and Starkid regulars Creator/JaimeLynBeatty (Charlotte), Creator/JeffBlim (Sam), Creator/CoreyDorris (Bill), Creator/LaurenLopez (Emma), Robert Manion (Prof. Hidgens), and Creator/JoeyRichter (Ted). As with all Starkid musicals thus far, the musical was written by the Creator/LangBrothers Matt and Nick, with Nick acting as director and producer. Jeff Blim co-wrote this show and composed the music, as with ''Theatre/TheTrailToOregon''.

A SpiritualSuccessor to this show, ''Theatre/BlackFriday'', opened in October 2019, officially making this show the beginning of the "Franchise/{{Hatchetfield}} series", with a third entry in the series, ''Theatre/NerdyPrudesMustDie'', opening in February 2023. As a Kickstarter stretch goal for ''Black Friday'', Starkid also announced the production of a SpinOff short film of ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals'', ''Workin' Boys'' (a {{Defictionalization}} of the ShowWithinAShow proposed by BreakoutCharacter Professor Hidgens), which, although delayed due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, finally released in October 2023.

* BookEnds: The OpeningChorus and ending RepriseMedley both have the leader of the chorus utter the ArcWords "The apotheosis is upon us!" while [[ScaryFlashlightFace creepily lit from below]] (and in ExtremeCloseUp in the filmed version). The first time, the words are cheered by a creepy unseen audience of children; the second time, ''[[YouBastard we]]'' cheer because it's the end of the show. The first time, the character in question is Paul's boss, played by Jeff Blim, the writer of the show. [[spoiler: The second time, it's Paul himself.]]

** [[spoiler: Bill's death is the first sign this musical won't have a happy ending. The moment in the ending when Paul begins singing confirms it.]]
** [[spoiler: Outdone only by the ending.]]
-->[[spoiler: '''Paul''': ''(singing)'' Emma, I'm sorry... you lost...]]

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Robert Manion's "Hot Chocolate Boy" was conceived by the Langs as a [[Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors Seymour Krelboyne-like]] protagonist of a different HorrorComedy set in the "Hatchetfield universe", and they decided to have him appear in this show as an EarlyBirdCameo.
** It's been revealed that Alice's [[TheGhost unseen nemesis]] Grace Chastity is likely to become another HeroOfAnotherStory, the third Hatchetfield show ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die''.

** Zoey has been curt with Emma, having written her up several times for her bad attitude at work and threatening to fire her. The audience realizes that something is wrong when she and Nora are ''still'' smiling vacantly as Emma chews her out for adding a spontaneous B section to the tip song, says that she quits, and tears off her barista apron. Emma then freezes when Zoey and Nora SpeakUnison, block her way, and say, "You can't quit, Emma" and that it isn't like her. Paul convinces Emma they need to ''run'' before the musical zombies catch them. 

* RadioVoice: The newscast updates we get from Hatchetfield news anchors Dan and Donna. (We only hear Donna, who is played by Creator/LaurenLopez, but Dan also appears in the ''Theatre/BlackFriday'' announcement trailer, played by Creator/JoeyRichter.) Also their counterparts in Clivesdale, Rachel and Rod. (We only hear Rod, who is [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals also played by Joey]].)

** At the end, as usual for a Starkid Production. In this case [[spoiler: the assimilated humans use the final medley, "Inevitable", to torment Emma and confirm that they won]].

** The helicopter ending is nearly identical to that of Cloverfield.

'''Emma:''' Oh, God. I dunno. Some kinda blue... ''shiiiiit?''

A SpiritualSuccessor to this show, ''Theatre/BlackFriday'', opened in October 2019, officially making this show the beginning of the "Franchise/{{Hatchetfield}} series", with a third entry in the series, ''Nerdy Prudes Must Die'', to come. As a Kickstarter stretch goal for ''Black Friday'', Starkid also announced the production of a SpinOff short film of ''The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals'', ''Workin' Boys'' (a {{Defictionalization}} of the ShowWithinAShow proposed by BreakoutCharacter Professor Hidgens), although it's been indefinitely delayed due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

** It appears individual members of the HiveMind can have their thoughts get out of sync with each other, and recalibrate themselves by literally matching pitch.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: With only eight members of the cast, everyone (except Jon Matteson playing Paul) had a ''ton'' of quick changes, often with costumes as different from each other as possible to keep them from getting confused. (Mariah Rose Faith's outfit as Alice, for instance, doesn't share a single piece in common with any of her others.)

Everything in Hatchetfield seemed normal until people began singing... Then, they began dancing... And now, a musical pandemic is sweeping the entire city. It's up to Paul--an average guy who doesn’t like musicals--and his friends to stop this musical apocalypse and fight for humanity's future.

** Pauls two male co-workers are named [[Film/BillAndTed Bill and Ted]].

** Paul [[spoiler:blows himself up to stop the meteor]]. At first, UnexplainedRecovery seems to be in effect when [[spoiler:he and Emma reunite. Then he reveals that he was assimilated because he ''did'' die in the explosion. It turns out blowing yourself up in front of a HiveMind that kills people to brainwash them gives them the perfect means to get. moresinging zombies]].