A group of performers, putting on a Show Within a Show, learn that a very important person is in the audience. In most cases, Hilarity Ensues as the performers do everything they can to make sure they put on a good show and don't embarrass themselves in front of the important person. Extra complications can arise if the performers' rivals try to sabotage them so that they do embarrass themselves in front of the important person. In more serious stories, however, this may be a great opportunity for an assassin to take out the important person.
Given the way such things usually play out, it's very likely to overlap with The Show Must Go Wrong.
Related to The Inspector Is Coming. May also be part of a State Visit.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- The Sandman (1989): The issue A Midsummer Night's Dream recounts William Shakespeare and his troupe's performance of the eponymous play for an audience of The Fair Folk, including King Oberon and Queen Titania themselves. The performance itself is a success, being well-received by the fae, but as is often the case with The Fair Folk, even their approval leads to tragic consequences down the road.
Robin "Puck" Goodfellow: This is magnificent— and it is true! It never happened; yet it is still true. What magic art is this?
Fan Works
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse's Symphony for Moon and Sun
: The eponymous symphony is about the royal sisters, and ends with the battle that resulted in Celestia/Corona’s banishment. The problem is that the final movement that represents that battle has been lost for several centuries, with every musician to play it before Princess Luna making their own interpretation. It's publicly known that Luna hates the piece and has shunned every last one of those musicians, thereby ruining their careers. Various attempts are chronicled in bonus chapters, including one by a Jack of All Trades Con Artist who tried to fake this trope with an accomplice while Luna was away, but the real deal showed up after all. In the present, Octavia is railroaded into playing the symphony via the sly manipulations of a spiteful corrupt noble she betrayed. Octavia eventually gets inspiration from Lyra's recounting of when Luna and Corona faced off in the pilot story, Longest Night, Longest Day, and the result gets Luna’s approval.
Films — Animated
- In Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tail, Wal learns that a selector for the All Blacks (New Zealand's national Rugby Union team) will be present at the upcoming rugby game, which segues into an Imagine Spot where he dreams of becoming a star player. When the actual match happens, however, the selector is less than impressed.
- In Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Pinocchio's circus act becomes so successful that Benito Mussolini himself wants to come see the show. Pinocchio decides to sabotage the event by rewriting a patriotic propaganda song to be about poop and farts, embarrassing Il Duce.
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): At one point, the elves are rehearsing a song that they intend to sing for Santa during the yearly Christmas celebration, only to find out the big man himself is observing the performance. Unfortunately, one of the elves, Hermey, skipped the rehearsal to practice dentistry, and his absence leads to an unfavorable performance; this prompts the head elf to barge into Hermey's room and loudly demand why he didn't attend "elf practice."
- In Sing, to get funding for his singing competition, Buster Moon sets up a dress rehearsal among his contestants to be seen by Nana Noodleman, one of the most famous and influential theater performers in history. If they can put on a good enough show, she'll financially support the endeavor so Buster can actually pay the $100,000 grand prize unintentionally offered.
- Sparky's Magic Piano: Sparky's final performance in the film is at Carnegie Hall with the President of the United States in attendance. Unfortunately, that's also the concert where the piano gets fed up with Sparky's increasing Spoiled Brat attitude over his unearned fame and decides to refuse to play for him anymore.
Films — Live-Action
- Birdman: Jake insists that Riggan carry on with the play because Martin Scorsese is going to attend opening night; although later he claims that he made it up, Scorsese is in the audience and offers Riggan a movie role after his onstage suicide attempt.
- The plot of Foul Play revolves around a plan to kill the Pope while he's watching a performance of The Mikado.
- In Inglourious Basterds, the red carpet premiere of a Nazi propaganda film attracts an audience consisting of most of the Reich's top brass, including Hitler himself. A team of American agents see this as a golden opportunity to infiltrate the event and kill everyone, unaware that the theatre owner has, independently, come up with a very similar scheme of her own.
- In the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, the villains plan to assassinate a European political figure as he attends a concert in London, even timing the sniper's shot to a particularly loud moment in the music. A variation because their target isn't presented as very famous, and the main character has never heard of him. Nonetheless, his death — much like that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand before — would lead to a chain reaction plunging Europe into another war.
- The Naked Gun gives us a comedic twofer, as Frank Drebin infiltrates an MLB game with the Queen in attendance to prevent an assassination attempt against her and cause a huge amount of embarrassment for almost everyone involved (but not for the Queen herself so much, since he'd already done that earlier).
- Pitch Perfect 2 opens with the choir from the first movie performing for an audience including Barack and Michelle Obama (who were still in the White House at the time). Then Amy suffers a disastrous wardrobe malfunction, exposing her crotch to the disapproving president.
- The climax of Shakespeare in Love revolves around a performance of Romeo and Juliet. Unlike most examples, in this case the actors didn't know that the Queen (in this case, Elizabeth I) would be watching—she secretly observes the play and only reveals herself when the Master of the Revels invokes her name to arrest the troupe for performing the piece without his official approval.
- Sister Act: The musical number that Deloris directs at the end of the movie is being watched by the Pope.
- To Be or Not to Be: At one point in the film, before they can catch a plane out of Nazi-occupied Poland, the main characters have to pretend to be Germans and sit in on a show being staged to welcome Hitler himself. Main character Joseph Tura pretends to be Hitler's head of security and foils a staged assassination attempt to distract the Fuehrer long enough for the actors to escape in his cars. In the 1983 remake directed by Mel Brooks, Frederick Bronski takes this a step further by using an outfit he wore in a play satirizing the Nazis to pretend to be Hitler himself and successfully rescue his wife from an Attempted Rape by main Nazi villain Colonel Erhardt.
- Double Subverted in Victor/Victoria: Shortly before Victoria's first performance as Victor the female impersonator, she and Toddy are informed that several VIPs their promoter Andre Cassell invited have RSVP'd, but not King Marchand, a wealthy, mob-connected nightclub owner from Chicago. King turns out to have simply failed to reply to the invitation, and thoroughly enjoys the performance right up until "Victor" reveals "he's" a man, setting the stage for the Romantic Comedy plot between him and Victoria.
- The film Waiting for Guffman focuses on a troupe of community theatre actors who put on an extravagant pageant dedicated to their town's history under the belief that a legendary Broadway theatre critic will be in attendance.
Literature
- The Shakespeare Stealer: In the third book, Shakespeare's Spy, the Globe troupe puts on a play for Queen Elizabeth. The performance begins to go awry as Elizabeth cannot hear the actors very well, which begins to hint to the characters that the queen is dying and England is headed for a sudden succession crisis.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: In The Winds of Winter, the mummers at The Gate are performing the play The Bloody Hand, which Harys Swyft, an important envoy from Westeros and the Hand of the King, is expected to attend. One of the men in his retinue is the soldier Raff the Sweetling, who one of the mummers — Arya Stark, disguised as "Mercy" — holds a deep grudge against and plans to murder.
Live-Action TV
- The current trope namer is the Monty Python's Flying Circus episode of the same name, in which the viewer is informed that the Queen will be watching tonight's programme, and what a momentous event this is for the Pythons. Naturally, the episode dives headfirst into Black Humour and cannibalism jokes. And we are informed that the Queen has switched channels and is now watching the news.
- In the first episode of Danger 5, Goebbels puts together a special cabaret event for Hitler's birthday party. Danger 5 take it upon themselves to infiltrate the event as cast members and kill Hitler.
- During the UK part of the European trip arc of I Love Lucy, Lucy tries everything she can to meet Queen Elizabeth II. Ricky finally relents when it is found out that only show members are presented to Elizabeth, and allows Lucy to perform an act where she imitates a pony being trained by Ringmaster Ricky. She practices so hard that she can't do any of the leaps in the act. When she finds out Elizabeth especially wants to meet her because of the antics she needs to perform, she tries to practice a curtsy (a very deep one that she was told was 'proper' when meeting royalty), and she is unable to get back up to walk to the Queen's box. As Ricky is telling the story to Ethel, Ethel says that Lucy will be devastated by not meeting Elizabeth. Ricky tells her not to worry. Just then, Lucy, still in curtsy position, is carried across the stage to Elizabeth's presence by a couple of stagehands.
Video Games
- Final Fantasy IX starts out with members of Tantalus, Zidane included, arriving in Alexandria with the intent of kidnapping Princess Garnet, using a theatrical performance production that the folks of Alexandria (commoners and royalties alike, including Queen Brahne) will be watching as the front. The plot then makes a twist when Garnet, upon meeting Zidane, asks him to kidnap her so she can get away from Queen Brahne.
- Fire Emblem Fates: Exploited by Hoshido in both the Birthright and Conquest stories, as Nohrian King Garon attends an opera performance in the city of Cyrkensia. Hoshido tasks Azura with putting on a magically-enhanced dance performance that will slowly kill Garon due to her pure magic causing him physical pain just to be near it. In both campaigns, it fails.
- One of the levels in Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? involves you helping Shakespeare's players prepare for a performance in honor of Queen Elizabeth I.
Webcomics
- Unsounded: Rahm Ripa was a renowned Magitek engineer until he and his son Dani debuted a revolutionary new personal flying device. The whole town and even the Queen's sister attended the demonstration, only for it to kill Dani in a Magic Misfire.
- In Girl Genius, Master Payne's Traveling Heterodyne Show is coerced into performing for Prince Aaronev Sturmvoraus, who doesn't like a boring show.
Web Video
- Game Grumps has a running gag that Barack Obama is a big fan of theirs, and is using his post-presidency years to catch up on everything he didn't have time to watch while in office.
Western Animation
- Played for Drama in Avatar: The Last Airbender: After failing to convince her old friend Ty Lee to leave her job and help her hunt down her brother, Zuko, Princess Azula decides she wants to stick around and see Ty Lee's performance. She uses the Ringmaster's desire to please her to have Ty Lee's saftey net set on fire, to convince/intimidate Ty Lee into saying yes.
- House of Mouse: In the short "Mickey's Piano Lesson", Minnie signs herself and Mickey up to play a piano duet, but Mickey procrastinates on practicing. When Minnie calls to ask how he's doing, she takes the liberty of reminding him who will be watching.
Minnie: But all the music critics will be there!
Mickey: Critics, huh!
Minnie: And the President and the Queen of England are coming, too!
Mickey: Oh, and what about the Vice President?
Minnie: Oh, he's bringing the Czar of Upper Handolia.
Mickey: [getting nervous] He is, huh?
Minnie: Uh-huh. And the whole thing's gonna be broadcast live on TV all around the whole entire world! - Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: In “A Royal Pain”, the Jazzberries have to perform with Princess Persephone for a show that will be attended by her mother, Queen Marie. Unfortunately for them, Persephone is quite the Royal Brat.
- Sofia the First: In "A Royal Mess", the Royal Family gets ready to attend the Goldenwing Circus, but James accidentally breaks a window and dreads being grounded and barred from going, so Sofia takes the blame. During the show, James becomes wracked with guilt and soon tells his parents the truth, forcing them to leave early. This results in the performers coming to the castle to ask if they didn't like the show, but King Roland clarifies that they had "an important family matter" to attend to, and they end up putting on a private show just for them.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In "Sleepy Time", SpongeBob escapes from his dream and enters his friends' dreams. Squidward's involves him in a period setting playing a clarinet concert with the King in attendance, and SpongeBob's antics threaten to disrupt the performance and cost Squid his head.
Real Life
- For the London Royal premiere of the infamously poorly-received Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, actor Mark Pillow (who played the villain Nuclear Man) recounted in an interview that the studio requested he attend in costume to help promote the film, fully expecting Christopher Reeve to do the same and attend in his Superman outfit. Pillow, wanting to be a good sport and not knowing he wasn't obligated to do so, agreed to the request. Reeve, on the other hand, was well aware that he didn't have to show up at all and so he skipped the premiere entirely, leaving Pillow to stick out like a sore thumb in his goofy-looking spandex costume for the entire event, which included meeting then-Prince Charles and Lady Diana. And yes, there are pictures.
- On November 4, 1963, The Beatles performed at the Royal Variety Performance, which was attended by the Queen Mother, Elizabeth II's mum (not the Queen herself, as some people mistakenly believe) and Princess Margaret. During their performance, John Lennon famously told the audience "Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewellery," before they played "Twist And Shout".note
- On April 14, 1865; a performance of the play Our American Cousin was held at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., and among the attendees was President Abraham Lincoln...who was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a famed actor (not a part of the cast) and strong sympathizer of the Confederate States that had just been defeated in the American Civil War five days earlier. Earlier in the play, a line where the heroine, hoping to get a seat where she would be protected from the drafty air, had its response changed from "Well, you're not the only one who wants to escape the draft" to "The draft has already been stopped by order of the President" in Lincoln's honor.
- Invoked when the cast of The Catherine Tate Show appeared at the Royal Variety Performance. Tate, as Lauren Cooper, is excited about the prospect of meeting the Queen—but when she misspeaks and her friends start teasing her, she gets huffy, which isn't helped when Elizabeth II herself starts laughing. Lauren then makes fun of Her Majesty with an imitation ("My husband and I! My husband and I!"), but Elizabeth finds it hilarious; the punchline is Lauren being knighted ("I've just been made a Dame") for her jokes!
