Other meanings
"Playing musical chairs" is also a metaphorical way of describing any activity where items or people are repeatedly and usually pointlessly shuffled among various locations. It can also refer to a condition where people have to expend time searching for a resource, such as having to travel from one gasoline station to another when there is a shortage. It may also refer to political situations where one leader replaces another, only to be rapidly replaced in turn due to the instability of the governing system (see cabinet shuffle).
"Musical chairs" has formerly been known as "Going to Jerusalem"; this can also be the name of a game where there is only one stopping place, like a mat or rug, and the player who is on it or will pass over it next is out. Laura Lee Hope describes it under that name in chapter XIII of The Bobbsey Twins at School, as does John P. Marquand in Chapter XXXI of Wickford Point.
In the musical Evita, during the song "The Art of the Possible", Juan Perón and a group of other military officers play a game of musical chairs which Perón wins, symbolizing his rise to power.
In the movie Amadeus, Mozart, his wife, and his father play a variant at a party: the eliminated person must do a stunt prescribed by the group. Mozart's father asks him to return to Salzburg with him, and when Mozart protests that this is an unfair penalty, he is asked to play the musical theme in the style of various other composers--including Salieri, who (unknown to Mozart) is present, wearing a mask. Mozart's Salieriesque rendition is rude and insulting, and Salieri leaves in a huff.