| The biggest showstopper I've ever seen is No Time At All in the original production of PIPPIN, as delivered by Irene Ryan. There's a live recording of it on You Tube and you can hear the reaction: a roar of applause when the number buttons, then every time the applause starts to dip, it surges back up. This went on for some time. I remember reading that Bob Fosse and Ryan decided she could not go back onstage once she made her exit, no matter what the audience did, but John Rubinstein said one night she weakened a bit and darted onstage and took a bow. The audience went crazy. When I saw this, I thought, this is what they mean by a showstopper. For a time, the show literally could not go on. |
