Hopefully I can explain this well. Are there any shows where people can misinterpret what is happening in the plot? For example in NEXT TO NORMAL, my friend thought that Dan was seeing Gabe and was sick after Diana left and got the illness she had. Also, in the beginning of "How Could I ever Forget", AT FIRST my friend thought the baby died in a car crash and Dan was driving. It was obviously later explained that that didn't happen. Can anyone else think of anything like this in a show?
Well, certainly any good mystery play would want to mis-direct the audience as much as possible. Even GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER, which starts with the killer being IDd, manages to throw more than a few monkey wrenches at the audience.
Some people don't always "get" Sweeney Todd. The ending, while not particularly ambiguous, happens fairly quickly, and some people don't necessarily understand all the deaths and the meanings behind them.
I still don't know what a Purple Summer is or why it was so important to sing about it. I guess the only thing that we really needed to know from that show is that sex kills.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
"Gem of the Ocean" in 2004 (I think), starring Phylicia Rashad...I sat through the entire play and to this day I couldn't even tell you what it was about...
Also, in Into the Woods - a lot of people don't get that the "Step-family" actually died of starvation...