Milo goes to the opera and when things go wrong, he ends up center stage.
Tropes:
- At the Opera Tonight: Milo, Zack and Melissa do it for extra credit, but Amanda is just there for (a carefully regulated amount of) fun. They do dress up fancy, though unlike most examples, it's not a real opera being performed.
- Continuity Nod: Eliot the crossing guard gets chased across the stage by an angry duck at one point.
- Disaster Dominoes: Subverted; a stagehand describes an overly-complicated way that a set of loose lights could fall onto the stage, complete with arrows for the audience to help visualize the process. Then he admits that the rope holding them up could just come loose because he didn't tie it very well, which promptly happens.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Well, the opera singer whom Milo replaced was an adult.Opera Singer: You're shorter than I remember.Milo: This is the physique that I was cursed with.Opera Singer: I'll admit that I'm confused,/You're not the one that I rehearsed with.
- Mugged for Disguise: They didn't actually take his clothes, but Cavendish and Dakota tied up the pistachio salesman and hid him under the stage.
- Non-Indicative Name: In-Universe; the opera focuses on a rivalry between mobsters called the Baritones and the Mezzo-Sopranos. However, as Milo points out, the Mezzo-Soprano characters are performed by baritones.
- Noodle Incident: Milo spends the whole episode with his arm in a cast, but we never find out why.
- No, You: After Cavendish and Dakota spill the pistachios:Cavendish: You had one job...
Dakota: Yeah, well, you had the same job! - Oh, Crap!: The look on Amanda's face when she realizes that Milo is also attending the opera.
- Overly Long Gag: The main character in the opera keeps getting interrupted by parts of the stage collapsing.
- Pushed in Front of the Audience: Milo winds up on stage a few times early on, and quickly scampers off. When one of the performers books it, however, he goes on to play his part as best he can.
- Schedule Fanatic: Amanda's schedule is so precise that she factors in how long it will take to peel and eat an orange.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: After Murphy's Law makes more and more chaos happen on-stage, one of the performers refuses to go on, forcing Milo to take his place.
- Ship Tease: It's strongly implied that Milo has a crush on Amanda.
- Shout-Out:
- The banners outside the opera house for "The Mezzo-Sopranos" reference the promotional posters for The Sopranos.
- Amanda describes the plot of "The Mezzo-Sopranos" as "It's about a morally-conflicted crime-boss who's seeing a therapist."
- The Show Must Go On: Milo says this at the beginning, and then spends the whole episode trying to keep the opera going smoothly, despite everything that goes wrong.Opera Singer: I believe we've gone off-book, now/I believe this scene we're botching!Milo: But I feel we should go on/Because there's all these people watching! (motions to audience with forced smile)
- Shown Their Work: The ending hinges on the fact that Milo knows the difference between operatic voice types, specifically, baritones and mezzo-sopranos. (Though that's not too hard, since in real life men can't be the latter.)
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Cavendish and Dakota definitely know how to work the concession stand and did not tie anyone up to get this job.
- That Poor Cat: When the backdrop collapses in the middle of the play, among the many things that fall from the rafters is a yowling cat.
- You Do NOT Want To Know: A variant:Milo: You can sit with us in the center if you want. I bought an extra seat in case mine got destroyed!Amanda: How would your seat get destroyed?Melissa: It's best not to speculate.
