Shoot the Shaggy Dog/Theatre


 * In Stephen Berkoff's The Trial, Joseph K spends the entire play trying to fight a trial he doesn't understand in a world that is set firmly against him. He collapses and dies in a cathedral in the final scene, no closer to understanding or accomplishing anything than at the beginning.
 * And the bad thing is, that's actually better than what winds up happening to him in Kafka's book.
 * Does the protagonist of Elmer Rice's play The Adding Machine avoid being executed for murdering his boss? No. Does he ? No, . Does he at least ? No. That's the situation when the final curtain falls.
 * A similar fate befalls Mr. Zero in the musical version of the play.
 * In Urinetown, Protagonist Bobby Strong inspires the poor to lead a revolution against the evil Caldwell B. Cladwell, who has gotten private toilets outlawed, charges exorbitant fees for the use of his public toilets, and has his corrupt police force take anyone who subverts his goals to the titular Urinetown . In the end, Bobby himself is taken to Urinetown before he can see the revolution through to fruition, and once the poor wins out, and everyone can pee for free, the town's water supply quickly dries up and everyone dies horribly
 * The plot of the musical "Chess" revolves around the romance between the Russian chess champion Anatoly and the American second, Florence. The London and Broadway versions differ in the details, but the ending remains roughly the same in both. Anatoly defects to the United States. In an effort to get him back into the fold, the Russian powers that be offer to release Florence's father, a Hungarian revolutionary who vanished during the 1956 Budapest uprising, if he loses the match and comes back to Russia. In the end Anatoly decides that he cannot hurt Florence by keeping her from her father, so he defects back to Russia.
 * As well as the example in the Literature section, the song "Turning" in Les Misérables is one long Lampshade Hanging of this trope, although the first line is somewhat stupid when you consider that most of the dead students had participated in the 'successful' July Revolution 2 years before.

"They were schoolboys, never held a gun Fighting for a new world that would rise up like the sun Where's that new world, now the fighting's done? Nothing changes, nothing ever will Every year, another brat; another mouth to fill Same old story, what's the use of tears? What's the use of praying when there's nobody who hears?"