musical chairs

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun plural A game in which players walk to music around a group of chairs containing one chair fewer than the number of players and rush to sit down when the music stops. The player left standing in each round is eliminated.
• noun plural Informal A rearrangement, as of the elements of a problem, having little practical influence or significance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun games A children's game in which players circle a group of chairs. There is one chair fewer than the number of players. When someone who is not watching stops playing music, everybody sits down, and the player left without a chair is eliminated.
• noun figuratively Any activity which results in repeated, pointless shuffling of people or objects.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a child's game in which players march to music around a group of chairs that contains one chair less than the number of players; when the music abruptly stops the players scramble to sit and the player who does not find a chair is eliminated; then a chair is removed and the march resumes until only the winner is seated
• noun a rearrangement that has no practical effect or significance