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| What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Last Edit: GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| It's hard to know whether or not any of the urban legend stories are actually true... Chino's "poison boot!" shoe toss at Tony when the gun had gone missing... Carol Channing's "where's my F%^$!ng dresser?" overheard offstage mic... But other than a high school production where the collapsing set of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM pinned Puck under a grecian column, I've never had the chance to see an amusing onstage mishap. What have you seen gone wrong in live theater, local or Broadway? I could use a good laugh today. - GMB, who never tires of watching the PETER PAN flying fails, like the link below |
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| Link | Greenport Peter Pan Fiasco (YouTube) |
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| I've had a few! | |
| Posted by: MistressAndy 03:56 pm EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| When Kristen and Idina were in Wicked, they took a week's vacation. I saw their first performance back. During the scene... prior to? After? Popular, I think Kristen's SHOE came off. She then went to get it and did what was very clearly the bend and snap (pre-Legally Blond the musical) and adlibbed some other ridiculous line. Idina couldn't keep it together at ALL, which then made Kristen go off. The scene went so off the rails she said something to the affect of, "Well clearly that's what happens when you give US a week off!" and they spend almost a full minute getting themselves back on track. In Hello, Dolly with Bette, very early in previews, Bette was leaving Vandergelder's Hay and Feed during Sunday Clothes and actually fell off the platform. She windmilled her arms around and thankfully didn't fall, but shouted, mid number, "Well, it's live theatre folks!" I've heard she then might have put it in as a bit? But I only saw it that once. Finally, during Little Night Music with Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch, during Liasons someone started SCREAMING in the audience for a doctor. Elaine stopped about a line later, the person continued screaming until Elaine finally shouted, "Can someone PLEASE turn the lights on and HELP that person?" At which point the house lights DID come up. Stephen Buntrock came onstage for Elaine, you could see him sort of stroking her and saying, 'How are you? Are you alright? Do you need anything?" and Stritch waved him off. They removed the person, but right before Stritch began she looked at the audience and said, 'You're not going to believe what my next line is." Before launching into, 'Now where was I?' and the audience lost their collective minds. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: MikeP 02:42 pm EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| There are a few I can think of but these are my favorites That Championship Season (revival) - As a character entered the room and slammed the door, the valance above the door came crashing down. Kiefer Sutherland ad libed- "look what you did! you broke the door". The audience roared. They brought the valance out for the curtain call. The Cemetery Club with the Eileen Heckart, Elizabeth Franz and Doris Belack, there was a scene that transitioned from a living room to the cemetery. The living room furniture skid into the wings leaving the cemetery in the background. The problem was that a couch...a red couch....got stuck and didn't move. So there in the middle of the cemetery was a red couch. The actresses continued and the audience ignored it. Unfortunately, in a key moment...the couch slowly started moving into the wings. The audience started laughing out loud. The actresses continued without breaking character. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: writerkev 07:07 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| During “Tartuffe” at Shakespeare in the Park J. Smith-Cameron was lying on a table when a big gust of wind blew her dress up all the way over her face. (This sounds improbable as I type it, but I saw it happen.). She quickly pushed it back down and turned her face upstage, still lying on the table. We could see her entire body shaking with barely controlled laughter. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: twocents 11:58 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - writerkev 07:07 am EST 12/21/17 | |
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| SITP is certainly the venue for many of mine! Cue the squirrel! | |
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| I took part in an opera performance on par with "A Night at the Opera" Marx Brothers film | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 03:09 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 03:02 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I was part of a rather hilarious “performance from hell” of an opera I was performing in years ago. It was Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” with the arias in Italian and the recitative in English. I was playing Doctor Bartolo, a stick-in-the-mud older doctor and ward of Rosina and my costume had me in a fat suit and a bald wig, with another wig with hair on top of that with a skull cap attached. It was meant at one point for Figaro to remove the skull cap, and thus revealing comically the bald wig on me. However, since I was moving around during the act, the costumer had placed two bobby pins on either side in the wig to steady it, but which later in the act I was to move and turn upstage and secretly remove the bobby pins. But, they were stuck – I couldn’t get them out. I returned to the chair where I was supposed to be in my blocking where Figaro starts to shave me with a basin on my lap filled with shaving cream. At the right point, he starts to grab the top wig by the skull cap, but since the bobby pins were still there, he not only yanked out the wig with the skull cap, but also pulled the bald wig right off, revealing my very youthful thick head of hair. I could hear the costumer (the conductor’s wife) in the wings call out “Oh my God!” I ad-libbed by immediately tossing the basin with shaving cream over my head to try to have some shaving cream cover up my hair and continued singing and doing the blocking for the rest of the scene with Figaro. As I made my exit, as there was some dialogue, I added an ad-lib to my exit line “….and I’m going to get a new wig-maker!” Got a big laugh. That wasn’t all. For one thing, the very cute tenor’s moustache kept falling off and hitting the floor, and he kept trying to reattach it on stage. This must have happened about 4 or 5 times (at least when I could see him). Another time in the show, I’m singing and saying some dialogue directed downstage and I'm supposed to be unaware that Figaro is upstage of me, and Rosina and the tenor are making kissing noises right behind me. I have some line about “birds in the theater” about the sounds they are making, and when I turn around, the Figaro had gotten so close to me, that my lips literally were on the bridge of his nose kissing him! At least I was supposed to be outraged by his presence, and since the guy playing Figaro started laughing uproariously, I just got angrier and angrier in character. It was very funny though – the audience ate it up. There were some missed cues, and things were dropping throughout the performance – I mean it was almost out of a “A Night at the Opera” – we didn’t need the Marx Brothers to mess things up. While “The Barber of Seville” is a comedy, it became a farce that night! |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: wwxyz 01:07 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| This was actually offstage, and it wasn't exactly a mishap, but it was funny... 'Sunday in the Park with George' was one of the first shows on Broadway to have computer automated scenery. The computer board had a bunch of extra push buttons that lit up but didn't actually do anything. The original operator was joking around with the little girl in the show and told her that every time she pushed the button it sent a missile to Moscow, or something like that. (Not very PC, but whatever.) So every time she went by (it was set up in the basement where the actors crossed over) she would run in and push the button a couple times. Unfortunately, the operator didn't think to warn the new sub he was training, and the first night the guy was there by himself the little girl ran in and started pushing buttons and he practically had heart failure. Also not exactly mishaps: Sweet Charity on Broadway in the 80s; the actress was finishing her run that week and decided to have some fun at the matinee. Every time she came on stage she was wearing a different wig; in the opening scene where she falls into the lake in Central Park (really the orchestra pit) she usually threw out a small fake fish before she climbed back out; this day she threw out a real one that was about two feet long; in the scene where she's hiding in the closet she completely changed clothes while the scene was going on. Those are the things I remember; there were others. The audience must have been mystified; those of us who didn't have to go onstage thought it was pretty funny; the other actors, not so much. |
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| Speed the Plow - Esparza/Piven | |
| Posted by: stevemr 11:21 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| During a performance of Speed the Plow, Raul Esparza went to leave Jeremy Piven's office, and the doorknob came off in his hand. He and Piven spent well over a minute ad-libbing in foul-mouthed Mamet-ian character, bemoaning the state of Hollywood as exemplified in the shoddy craftsmanship of the door, until finally a stagehand was able to open the door so Esparza could make his exit. | |
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| Arsenic and Old Lace | |
| Posted by: CamMacFan 11:16 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I was playing Mortimer and we were nearing the end of the first half. I was tied to a chair and gagged and the actor playing Officer O'Hara entered and began telling me the story of the play he had written. He was about three sentences in and he went blank. The look on his face told me that he had NO IDEA what part of the scene he was in. I felt bad but couldn't do a thing but stare at him because of the gag. It took forever before he was able to start again. | |
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| re: Arsenic and Old Lace | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 10:18 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: Arsenic and Old Lace - CamMacFan 11:16 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| That reminds me of a performance of THE MOUSETRAP in which I was playing Christopher. If you don't know the play, the actor playing the Inspector arrives on skis to a snowbound inn full of guests and proceeds to speak for several pages to the entire rest of the cast about the reason for being there (There's a killer on the loose). It's a long scene full of extremely necessary exposition. So, one night, this actor makes the entrance and we're all assembled around the set for the long speech and it becomes apparent that the Inspector had no idea where she was (the role was played by a woman in this production, which is a topic for another day), had lost her place in the speech and was circling round and round trying to find a foothold in the text to pull out of her misery and go forward. And not a single one of us on stage could do a damn thing to help her because every fact and piece of information in this speech is something that no other character could possibly know or guess. We all started stealing sidelong glances at each other as we all tried to think of a way to help. Luckily, she was able to find a familiar place and escape the whirlpool and go on. And I'm sure the giant exhale on the stage from the rest of us was probably audible from the first row. The rest of that scene was all of us collectively trying to figure out what, if any, important information had gotten skipped and how to re-insert it later. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 11:03 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I was musical director for a teen production of The Sound Of Music some years back. On the whole, a talented cast. But there was this one performance where... First, Maria found herself unable to remember the downward ("backwards") solfege at the end of "Do-Re-Mi." She made up something, but oh, I could see the Von Trapp kids barely able not to laugh...(and me as well...) AND - somehow that night, Max mixed up his lines in the concert scene, with the result that "Edelweiss" was skipped over. We joked afterwards that we had just done a record-setting performance - a Sound Of Music with no "Edelweiss." (I'm tending to think that we still hold the distinction for that, lol.) |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: bicoastal 08:54 pm EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - Chromolume 11:03 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Speaking of Sound of Music, I was in a production and was backstage listening to the Mother Superior belt out "Climb Every Mountain". And I mean she was SELLING IT! and one crew member next to me said something like "Wow, she is really singing loud tonight". As I turned to agree, I realized that this crew member was the spot light operator. And since the song was staged with only a single spot light on Mother Superior, the poor woman was singing her heart out in hopes that someone would realize she was performing her big number in a blackout. | |
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| Uta Hagen in Mrs. Klein | |
| Posted by: bwaywatcher 09:36 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - Chromolume 11:03 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| During the performance I saw a gnat was buzzing the stage, distracting the cast and the audience. Hagen swung out her hand--as if in character, mind you--and caught it. Beautifully done (there was a quick burst of applause)--and certainly a mishap for the insect. | |
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| re: Uta Hagen in Mrs. Klein | |
| Posted by: twocents 11:57 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: Uta Hagen in Mrs. Klein - bwaywatcher 09:36 am EST 12/21/17 | |
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| Woman was quick as a cat and sharp as a razor. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 10:05 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I saw a preview of Dance of the Vampires (which I sort of liked BTW) and there was a seen where Rene Auberjoinouis and another character are running on a bridge and the back drop sort of swirled to make it look like they were moving. Something didn't work and they couldn't run properly. Auberjoinouis kept ad libbing stuff about we'll keep going and stuff until finally everyone in the theater and the actors started giggling at the whole problem. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 10:09 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - bobby2 10:05 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| another one I remember was as a kid I saw Cybil Shepard in a summer stock tour of Lunch Hour. The lights kept flickering and she kept trying to continue. It happened about four times and then finally she just put her head down on the table and had a laughing fit that she couldn't seem to control. The audience always seems to enjoy stuff like that and there was a round of applause and then they eventually slowly worked their way back into the show. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: bobby2 10:14 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - bobby2 10:09 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| The most riveting one I remember was at A Raisin in the Sun with Phylicia Rashad and Audra. Some one in the back of the orchestra screamed out in pain a few times and then there was a bit of a commotion to get the person out of the theater. I was close to the stage and Rashad was so calm. She attempted to restart her speech a few times but there was so much noise from the back of the theater as the entire row had to get up to get the person out. You could see the younger actors just focussing on Rashad as to when to restart the dialogue. I remember Audra just kept cooking and cleaning the kitchen thru the entire incident. Then eventually when things calmed down Rashad continued. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: ileen 09:35 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I may have posted this story here previously; apologies if it's a rerun for you. Close to 30 years ago, Joseph Papp decided The Public would produce every Shakespeare play in six years (I think it took closer to nine). If you saw all the shows, you got a t-shirt and there was even a punch card that I managed not to lose. The first offering was Midsummer Night's Dream at The Public. I went to an early preview. I don't remember a lot about the production except for the fact that either Oberon or Puck used fire at one point. A spark landed on his hair and due to the product, was on fire quickly. The director stood up towards the back of the house near where I was sitting and yelled 'Your hair!'. Meanwhile an elderly lady in the front row stood up, giant pocketbook in hand & brought her bag down on the top of his head, putting out the fire, then sat back down in her seat. The actor was on his knees and there was no real stage, so the woman had easy access. There was brief applause for the fast thinking audience member, and during the curtain call, the actor brought her a flower and kissed her on the cheek. If that were to happen today, there would be a half dozen people in the front row with water bottles at the ready, but this was before that fad. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Last Edit: MarkBearSF 09:05 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| Posted by: MarkBearSF 09:02 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| In the dress rehearsal/backup taping (Thurs?) performance of Sweeney with Patti and George Hearn with the SF Symphony, (the video of the next nights' tapings widely available)... - In the "Not While I'm Around" number, Patti is knitting a long, heavy red muffler (scarf) for NPH's Toby. However, as she set it down and turned, it all slid off the platform. She reached for the scarf to wrap around Toby and it was gone. Aware audience members caught the hiccup (including a nervous glance to see if it was retrievable), but she continued by pretending the muffler and they both continued with the touching number. -Earlier, Lisa Vroman's (Johanna) mic got unstuck and fell down her decolletage. She took an unscheduled detour upstage and with her back to the audience, she fished it out. Neither of these are seen on the video. During a June 2011 performance of Spiderman (3-4 months after opening?) one of the Spideys got hung up. Literally. Patrick Page played his role to the hilt in seemingly impromptu remarks to the audience during the 20 min or so it took to restart things. To be frank, for that production, I considered it a high point! |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 12:57 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - MarkBearSF 09:02 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Spider-Man opened in June | |
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| *I stand corrected* | |
| Last Edit: MarkBearSF 07:53 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| Posted by: MarkBearSF 07:52 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - KingSpeed 12:57 am EST 12/21/17 | |
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| I stand corrected. I saw it the last week of June, so it had been open for a few weeks, and they had been running that version of the show for a few months. At the time, it seemed that such mishaps were common - and I recall that they continued throughout the run, perhaps with less frequency. Certainly often enough for Patrick Page to develop some hilarious patter to entertain the audience during the reesets. |
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| re: *I stand corrected* | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 05:12 pm EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: *I stand corrected* - MarkBearSF 07:52 am EST 12/21/17 | |
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| I just wanted to say that, under the circumstances, I think it's perfectly understandable that you were a little confused about when SPIDER-MAN officially opened :-) | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: dmcree 08:59 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Three memories, i’ll try to be brief: Most serious mishap - Billy Elliot in London. As the bedroom set lowered into the floor for Billy’s big number after his father said he couldn’t go to the dance audition/school, the young man jumped from the bed platform to the floor and missed! Fell down into the trap, but caught himself and was hanging by his fingers. Stage managers ran out to pull him to safety. Performance stopped, of course. After 20 minutes or so, the management announced the young man had been sent to the hospital to be checked out, and they would start the 2nd act with a different Billy and finish the show. The boy came out of it fine, but when I later saw the show in NY, there was a railing and the exit was much more controlled. Funniest - most recent revival of The Women on Broadway. Crystal is in the tub, on the phone . Gets angry with the caller, bangs the phone receiver on the edge of the tub and it breaks in half. She continued the conversation with half a receiver while the audience shook with laughter. Many smaller casualties in this performance. Silliest - college production of Peter Pan. Early bedroom scene, the dog comes in and Peter and the kids hide (this moment is used in the script to attach the flying wires to the actors while they are off-stage). Dog leaves, actors come back out, Peter starts “I’m Flying” but Wendy is suddenly jerked in the air. Right wire on wrong actor. Peter starts singing “You’re Flying”, backstage is pandemonium, audience very confused (or something). As with all of us who have seen/been involved in theatre for a long time, there are many, many stories. |
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| LOVE that Peter Pan story. | |
| Posted by: GrumpyMorningBoy 01:18 am EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - dmcree 08:59 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I've got such a soft spot for it, because it was one of the first semi-professional shows I ever did as a kid, and when Foy came out to install the fly rails, I just remember being mystified at how complicated it all was and how easily things might go wrong. Thankfully, we made it through the run without any significant flubs. There are MANY videos of Peter Pan mishaps, but to hear "you're flying!" -- that's hilarious! - GMB |
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| re: LOVE that Peter Pan story. | |
| Last Edit: Chromolume 10:02 pm EST 12/21/17 | |
| Posted by: Chromolume 10:01 pm EST 12/21/17 | |
| In reply to: LOVE that Peter Pan story. - GrumpyMorningBoy 01:18 am EST 12/21/17 | |
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| I've done Peter Pan a number of times, and also have a soft spot for it. But there was this one production - it was a community theatre that got me in on short notice to accompany and MD, in the last week of rehearsal or so. Good production, but hampered by a set they had rented at the last minute (I can't remember if their scene designer was fired or quit - but I think it was one of those two). Mostly it worked out ok, but somehow the last set change in Act II (going into the home underground) was impossible. I had no chance to create new scene change music, so all we could do was play the little bit of "Wendy" provided in the score at that point, over and over and over and over and over. And over. And over. And over. They had the Lost Boys come out "in one" to improvise movement/dance and sing their "we have a mother, at last we have a mother" over and over and over, which really didn't help much, except that there was something to watch, lol. And I would predict that the average time for this change was 3-4 minutes, which in that context is FOREVER. Looking back, I don't know why I didn't suggest playing the Overture again, or something... (PLUS, much as I love the show, I've always felt that Act II is way overlong - it works properly in terms of the layout of the story, but oh, it feel like it never ends lol. So this extended scene change only made it seem longer...) |
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| Orpheus Descending, etc | |
| Posted by: aleck 05:28 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| The performance with the greatest number of mishaps had to be the performance I saw of Orpheus Descending with Vanessa Redgrave. It started with three ladies sitting at a table in the middle of the cafe owned by the Redgrave character. One of the ladies started coughing -- I think it was Bette Henritze. The cough continued and continued until the actress said in a "Southern drawl": "I need to get myself some Coca-Cola." Then she walked off stage. The other ladies tried to continue with some small talk that would have made Tennessee Williams proud until one of them paused and called off stage: "Honey, you OK there?" The actress returned -- carrying a soda bottle and sipped from it while finishing the scene. Then, the door to the cafe wouldn't stay shut. It takes place in winter and every person who came through the door and tried to close it, couldn't. It kept bouncing open. Then when Redgrave arrived, she tried to look to see what was wrong with the door -- in character because she was the owner of the cafe. She would do her lines and then drift back to the door to try to figure out how to get it to stay closed. During the intermission you could hear a lot of hammering going on! In the second act, a gun was supposed to go off to kill (or wound, I forget) Redgrave's character's husband. He was standing on a second floor landing of the set and while the gun did not go off, the actor reacted as if it did and tumbled down the staircase. It was hilarious. I also saw the first preview performance of the tryout run of The Wiz in Philadelphia. It ran over three hours long. The dancers were bumping into each other and the scenery kept falling down. (It was like the Play That Goes Wrong.) But the audience was dancing in the aisles so all was forgiven. Also in Philadelphia I saw Bette Davis display a meltdown (or was it a meltUP since it was a rant) in Miss Moffat on stage and then storm off the stage. The audience kind of thought that it was kind of part of the production and that Miss Moffat had just gone off her rocker a little. I think it was the next day that Bette Davis claimed she was ill and the production closed. |
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| On the 20th Century and Good Vibrations | |
| Posted by: charles1055 04:56 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| When I saw On the 20th Century a fire alarm went off and Peter Gallagher just talked to the crowd. Someone shouted "sing Luck be a Lady" but he declined. At Good Vibrations there was this huge wave set that came down from the rafters at the end and it just stopped midway through. This was an early preview and someone I know who worked on the show said that it only happened that one time. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: TheOtherOne 04:23 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I saw a performance of The Road To Mecca at the Promenade (sigh!) Theater not long after Kathy Bates had replaced Amy Irving. Kathy knocked on the front door early in Act One, entered, was playing her scene opposite Athol Fugard (which I noticed nothing weird about) when she got tongue tied and asked if it would be OK to start over. Fugard said it would, she exited, knocked on the door again, re-entered and they started over. No disruptions at all after that. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 04:21 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I wouldn't call this best, but Manoel Felciano, as Judas, fell into the orchestra pit during Heaven On Their Minds in the 2000 Broadway revival. He did the rest of the show with a broken wrist. | |
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| Matthew Broderick in The Producers | |
| Posted by: KingSpeed 04:16 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| In the middle of That Face, he got lost. The orchestra stopped playing and the conductor handed him the score so that he could figure out where he was in the song. He handed the conductor the score and they continued. The audience laughed the whole time thinking it was part of the show. It's the biggest mistake I've ever seen an actor make in a show. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 03:56 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I saw the first national tour of GRAND HOTEL at the Playhouse in Wilmington, DE and, during a particularly intimate love scene between the Baron and the Ballerina (played by Brent Barrett and Liliane Montevecchi), there must have been some sort of power surge because every single light on the stage turned on and began to blink. The scene went from cozy intimacy of a couple in love to the biggest, gaudiest Christmas light spectacular you've ever seen. And it went on for what seemed like five minutes, most of the scene. After the scene ended, I think the crew basically pulled the plug and rebooted (Have you tried turning it off and on again?) because the entire theatre went completely black for a few seconds before the show resumed with the normal lighting design intact. To their credit, Barrett and Montevecchi didn't miss a beat and played the scene as though nothing was amiss, although I'm not sure anyone was able to follow the dialogue during the light show. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Audview 02:35 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I was at a performance of My One and Only where the leading lady didn't show up to dance the finale. Tommy Tune gamely danced the entire piece with an imaginary partner. Also, recently at M Butterfly a robe descended from flys on a rod. As it descended it jerked and pitched so that the robe just fell to the stage floor. The rod then went back up to the flys just to come crashing down a few seconds later. Luckily not hitting anyone or anything. Without breaking Jin Ha just pushed it off to the side of the set. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Gibley 01:54 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| The Producers - Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Cady Huffman. During "When You've Got It, Flaunt It" Cady missed a step back and fell down hard. Luckily she was fine, but Nathan and Matthew took the "down" time to come to a slow burn realization that there was an orchestra pit and players in it. Lane said something like "oh, wow, where did they come from?" and it went from there. Silly and hilarious and they didn't miss a beat. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: dbg 01:43 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| The very best was at Inadmissible Evidence when Nichol Williamson went to answer a phone. He dropped it on the floor, and it broke into several pieces. He picked it up and said into the mouthpiece, "I'll take it in the other room," and he walked offstage and did his lines from the wings while the stage remained empty. At a performance of the original Chicago, Gwen Verdon's mic was on while she was offstage, and you could hear her conversation with someone. At the first preview of Beauty and the Beast, Belle's father's vehicle started to sputter and conked out and had to be removed from the stage. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: wwxyz 01:34 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Cabaret on Broadway in the late 1980s. Regina Resnick and Werner von Klemperer were Mrs. Schmidt and Herr Schulz; at one point they are hiding behind a door while the prostitute and her boyfriends sneak out of the apartment; then they come out, sit on the couch center stage which has tracked out from the wings, and sing the Pineapple Song. The couch didn't get set right, and as it came on stage it slowly turned around until it was facing upstage when it stopped. There was no way to warn the actors; so the first they knew was when they opened the door onstage and saw it. They looked at it for a moment with admirably straight faces, and then stood in front of it and did the song. 'Sherlock's Last Case' at the Nederlander, also in the late 1980s; at one point a (real) pigeon flies through the window of Sherlocks apartment with a message on its leg. The animal handler grabbed the backup bird and didn't realize it in time; the bird flew in the window and landed on the table like it was supposed to, but when it saw Frank Langella coming for it it freaked out and flew out into the house, where it flew around for a while and then landed on top of the proscenium. At which point Frank Langella found a note in his jacket pocket with the message on it! Amazing! (Good planning, actually). A couple stagehands managed to catch the bird at intermission. That was also the show where a gunshot knocks the skull off a groody skeleton in a dungeon torture chamber; since there was no orchestra pit in the show the skull would occasionally roll off the stage and into the audience. The prop man had to argue pretty hard with audience members a couple times to get it back after the show. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: bmc 06:27 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - wwxyz 01:34 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| During the Boston tryout of HER FIRST ROMAN, which I saw three times,the last scene was supposed to have Leslie Uggams loaded, via Cleopatra's carpet, via a crane,onto Caesar's ship. Each time(there was a similar scene in Act One) it took what seemed like forever to untie the carpet At the last time I saw the show, the curtain went up, down, up ,down, etc. Richard Kiley finally just waved good bye and Miss Uggams missed the curtain call | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: comedywest 01:23 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| On Broadway, in Late Night Comic, two pieces of scenery were supposed to mesh at center stage. they didn't. it was more like the Titanic meeting the iceberg. Off-off Broadway i stage managed a show that's first cue was house to black/stage lights out--after which the actors would come on stage. But someone had turned on a set of lights from a different switch. Every staff member came into the booth and tried every switch and dimmer for two minutes, till the person who had turned on the auxiliary lights came in. We went to black...and I told the lighting person take a deep breath, I'll go out and explain that we had technical difficulties and we'd have to start over, just bring up the lights. She did. But the actors had gone on stage when the lights were out, and we were two light cues behind. |
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| Marlene Dietrich fell into the orchestra pit, Shady Grove Music Fair November 1973 | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 01:26 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 01:17 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| As I've reported here, I grew up in suburban DC, and was a frequent visitor to the Music Fair, first as a tent, then a nice hard-top house that began to play year round in the 70s. Mostly book shows. But we saw solo and other performances. I was in the house on the cold November night when Dietrich fell into the pit during her curtain call. I'll never forget it, because she reached down to take conductor Stan Freeman*'s hand, and then suddenly, she was gone. She went in head first, and we thought she'd killed herself. After a few minutes, when we gasped and then fell into a silence unlike any other, we heard "Falling In Love Again" strike up and play, almost ominously. She finally pulled herself up, and leaning on the rim of the stage, waved. When we stood and cheered, she began to scream "Go home! Go ... HOME!" Unforgettable. Ordering us to leave -- she was injured, after all -- was the part that sticks in my head. The only part enhanced by memory (I was 22) was the actual house size. I was recently reminded that it sold poorly (I was there on a weeknight, about 60% full). I believe the press reported that her famous dress was the reason for the fall. But I distinctly remember that Davis took her hand, and then that's what pulled her down. No dress malfunction or tripping. She weighed about 85 pounds, and the one tug was all that was required. *Still fact checking this. I can't find the program The incident is reported in "The Blue Angel," a bio. And goes on to explain that she needed skin grafts -- poor circulation in her legs made the gash on her thigh slow to heal -- and she didn't perform for 4 months. Memory is an odd thing, because I recall her playing more that week. I went either the Wednesday or Thursday night. Obviously, she didn't finish the run (through November 11th), my memory unreliable as ever. |
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| Hello dolly on dec 5 | |
| Posted by: dramedy 01:02 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Donna came into the show and the door closed and curtain rod fell down and they had a heck of a time getting it back up and imthinkmdonna said she was stronger than she thought. But the best was when Horace is supposed to storm out and David slowly opens the door and gently closes it to roar laugh and clap from audience. | |
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| Sunset Boulevard - Final Scene | |
| Posted by: crewbway 12:46 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Elaine Paige (I think she was playing Norma at that time) descending the stairs and the beads in her gown somehow let go....you saw and heard all these little beads bouncing down the staircase. Elaine had to maneuver around them as she continued going down the stairs. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Last Edit: MarjorieMae 12:55 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| Posted by: MarjorieMae 12:45 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I was at the preview of Shogun when a fly dropped and hit Philip Casnoff. Thank God he turned out to be okay but he was lying on the stage and not moving for a very long time. They asked the audience to leave. Very scary. The mishap I didn't see but wish I had was a performance of My Fair Lady. Instead of raising a chandelier it was lowered. They finally managed to raise it, taking Rex Harrison's toupee (which got caught) along with it. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Circlevet 12:44 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| The suspended walkway crashing to the ground during a preview of Sweeney Todd. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: EvFoDr 12:19 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| It was a small but memorable moment. I attended a performance of Catch Me If You Can late in the run. There is a moment in the last song when Frank sings something like "there's lots of folks I'll miss along the way" and as he does his father (the ghost of his father) enters and give him a smile and salute. I saw the show another time early in the run so knew what this moment was supposed to be. It was really touching, I actually got choked up. Well the second time, as that line was approaching, Aaron Tveit accidentaly smacked Norbert in the face incredibly hard. They totally broke character and spent the rest of the song ad-libbing about the mishap. When Tom Wopat came out for his poignant moment, they both just laughed at him with red faces and he shrugged his shoulders as if to say "I have no idea what is happening here". It was a lot of fun to watch. | |
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| re: The 1976 Revival of Fiddler | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 12:15 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| ... at the Winter Garden. As the Wedding Procession enters to cross the stage (R to L), the two turntables spin and way and a drop comes in (or across) to create an 'in one'. The timing was off, and the house on the turntable ripped into the drop ... Without missing a beat, Zero Mostel took this in and chanted 'The Wedding will be delayed ..." |
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| Original "Angels in America" -- Perestroika | |
| Posted by: UpstateGuy 12:11 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Ron Liebman as Roy Cohn, in his hospital bed with a table attached. The set begins to roll off at the end of the scene, but the table runs into and gets stuck on a descending flat. Everything screeches to a halt-- it's scary. The Stage Manager announces a stop, the cast leaves the stage and the deckhands come out to get things right. After a 10-minute pause, the show restarts with the next scene -- it's at the LDS (Mormon) Visitors Center. Harper's first line: "There's something wrong with the machinery." Audience explodes... | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Last Edit: jhs7521 12:12 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| Posted by: jhs7521 (jhs7521@aol.com) 12:11 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| During the 1983 production of “On Your Toes,” there was a scene where Natalia Makarova was angry and threw her shoe. The scene took place in her apartment, and the shoe hit a vase that was filled with clear glass marbles. The vase cracked, and some marbles fell on stage. As the scene continued, every time someone moved on stage, more marbles rolled out of the vase. A dance number ensued, and the dancers had to maneuver the stage without tripping on the marbles. At the end of the scene, the “maid” character came out with a dustbin and broom and swept up as many marbles as she could. Fortunately, no one was injured. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Snowysdad 01:42 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - jhs7521 12:11 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| Just have to let all of you know how much I am enjoying all these memories. Please..................keep them coming. Bill |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: showtunesoprano 11:04 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| When I saw the Roundabout Noises Off, one of the door handles (which had not been closing properly all night) fell out of the door and onto the stage. It added a little extra farce to the show. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: carolinaguy 11:01 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| At a performance of WICKED, the bubble caught in Glinda's wig during the opening sequence and started to drag the actress across the stage. (I wish I could remember who it was; it was when Ana Gasteyer was playing Elphaba). The bubble stopped and one of the Ozians came forward to disentangle her. Then she turned and gave the bubble a very Glinda-ish withering stare, got a big laugh, and went on with the scene. | |
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| Kate Baldwin breaking a window in SONGBIRD | |
| Posted by: TimDunleavy 10:52 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| The door in the back wall of the set was a vintage, weathered door from the 1930s used for authenticity - but the door jammed almost every time they opened it. At one point during Act Two, at the end of an argument with her son, she had to make an exit through the door. She turned the knob and pulled hard - and instead of the door opening, the frosted window pane in the top half of the door shattered! Erin Dilly, who was standing next to her, immediately started asking "Are you all right?" and the two of them made it clear to everybody else that Kate wasn't injured and they wouldn't need to stop the show. After a short time they got over the shock and were able to open the door and continue with the scene. Later, actors walked on to their scenes early with dustpans and brushes to clean up the fragments of glass. After Kate's exit, the next line of dialog was an actor saying to Erin "Is she OK?" Erin's response: "No, she broke a window!" |
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| Longish group of anecdotes. | |
| Posted by: Charlie_Baker 10:51 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| A few off the top of my head, first two personal: A community theater production of Hello, Dolly, where the hat shop set was prematurely struck, leaving the actors absolutely nothing to hide behind once they are interrupted by Vandergelder. A stock production of Mame where the robes of the Lithuanian bishop were caught under the casters of a pouf stood upon by Mame and young Patrick and being rotated by the ensemble. Robe pulled off and immediate blackout. That was the most exposed I've ever been on stage, though probably very few of the audience caught it. A way back from the Broadway run of Lena Horne:The Lady and Her Music. Ms. Horne was speaking and noted two women in the front row were agitated. "What's worryin' you?" she asked them, breaking out of her monologue. They pointed at the floor, and there was a mouse scampering around the hem of the star's gown. Ms. Horne had a good laugh, picked up the mouse by the tail and calmly crossed the stage to give it to a crew member. Resuming her place center stage, she deadpanned, "It's an OLD theater." And the show went on. More recent: in the Signature revival of Burn This, Catherine Keener's character says she spent too much on a couple elegant wine flutes. Then one of them is accidentally broken. Ms. Keener, I think, made her stage debut in that production, and was a total pro. She chuckled briefly, then adlibbed, "I think I might have another," and sure enough pulled one from a cabinet. At the dress rehearsal for the current cast of the Met's Merry Widow, Susan Graham had a line about it being time for fireworks, and there was supposed to be a sound and projection effect. Nothing. She repeated the line in classic fashion, and with a brief delay the effect happened. Then her next line is about how the fireworks are always so prompt. Those are my old theater geezer's tales for today. :-) |
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| re: Longish group of anecdotes. | |
| Posted by: wwxyz 01:14 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: Longish group of anecdotes. - Charlie_Baker 10:51 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| The version of the Lena Horne story I heard was that a mouse fell out of the flies and landed near her on stage. She said 'I've worked with bigger rats than that' and threw it offstage. | |
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| re: Longish group of anecdotes. | |
| Posted by: Charlie_Baker 01:39 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Longish group of anecdotes. - wwxyz 01:14 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I personally witnessed the incident I described. Maybe it turned into a running mouse bit? :-) | |
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| re: Longish group of anecdotes. | |
| Posted by: wwxyz 02:10 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Longish group of anecdotes. - Charlie_Baker 01:39 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| I have to admit your version sounds more likely. I was working at the Nederlander, where it supposedly happened, when I heard it, and at the time that theater was a real dump. I could easily imagine a dead mouse falling out of the flies. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: JAllenC3 10:41 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| One that I found memorable was in the original Broadway run of Les Miz. During the wedding scene at the end when the Thenardiers are caught trying to steal the silverware, the platter that fell out of Mme. Thenardier's dress decided to roll all the way downstage and right into the orchestra pit. Nick Wyman was playing Thenardier at the time and had a fun little exchange with the conductor trying to get it back. Normally that type of thing would bother me since I'd prefer that it just be ignored and on with the show, but since the conductor is already acknowledged in that scene by the Major Domo as playing the diegetic music for the wedding reception it actually worked quite well. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Alison 10:39 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - GrumpyMorningBoy 10:15 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| A professional production of Macbeth, set in 1930s Scotland (Lady Macbeth was costumed and wigged to look like Wallis Simpson, very effective). During the banquet scene the rest of the cast was seated along a long banquet table upstage, facing the audience, while Macbeth soliloquized downstage. At one point a bottle of champagne was opened ... and went EVERYWHERE. With absolute poker faces each cast member passed the prop napkins they had in their laps one by one silently down the table and cleaned it up. Macbeth never missed a beat. It was hysterical. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: pfolson 11:10 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - Alison 10:39 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| 1972: Summer stock production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC with Ann Blyth at the Milwaukee Melody Top. During the final scene, as the nuns are bidding farewell to the Von Trapp's before their escape into the mountains, the flat representing the Abbey gates suddenly starts to rock -- and then tips over. If not for the quick thinking of the actor playing Captain Von Trapp, who leapt forward and caught the falling flat, there would have been several nun/actresses with serious headaches. Much more recently: a high school production of CYRANO. Valvert slaps Cyrano. Cyrano's prosthetic nose flies off and goes sailing across the stage. I was stage managing that show, and during the next scene change the kid playing Cyrano asked me if he should put the nose back on or leave it off. "Won't it look silly if I suddenly reappear with the nose?" he asked. It was a valid point, but I explained that we had no choice but to reattach it. After all, half the lines in the remainder of the show referenced Cyrano's nose. Without the prosthetic, large swaths of the script would have been rendered meaningless. Fortunately, the nose stayed on for the balance of the evening and our two remaining performances. |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Billhaven 11:42 am EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - pfolson 11:10 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| At the climax of "Lips Together, Teeth Apart", Christine Baranski, Nathan Lane and Swoozie Kurtz pull out Anthony Heald from the onstage pool where is trying to drown himself. They were kneeling, clustered around him and as they pulled his head out of the water he let out a substantial fart. My first thought was to wonder how he managed to do that on cue every night. But when I saw their shoulders shaking with helpless laughter,as well as the first 6 rows of the audience (it didn't reach the back row apparently) I knew we had witnessed a once in a lifetime event. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 12:09 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - Billhaven 11:42 am EST 12/20/17 | |
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| One from my long-ago high school days. We were doing a production of Mary Chase's "Mrs. McThing," and I was play Ellsworth, the chef. After a commotion onstage, I am cued to enter, poke my head through the kitchen dutch door, and say, "What's up? What's the beef?" Opening night, the stage crew hadn't fastened the set very well, and, in the commotion preceding my entrance, the entire set collapses--I then had to enter and utter my deathless line. I took one look at the stage, burst into laughter, and walked off (VERY unprofessional of me!). Forty years later, I still think of it and it gives me a grin. Poor Mr. Radford (the director)--we made is life such hell. | |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: Gustave 05:19 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - BruceinIthaca 12:09 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| My Catholic boys high school put on "Song of Norway" with Jon Voight as one of the principals. (Yes, THAT Jon Voight!:) The show has a slightly off-color section of dialogue involving young guys and gals getting frisky during some festival. (It would be tame now, I'm certain, but this was the 1950s.) The cast rehearsed the original dialogue, but the director, a priest, decided not to use it. Everything went well until the Saturday matinee when, traditionally, the audience consisted entirely of invited priests, nuns and religious brothers. I was backstage when Voight inadvertently went into the original dialogue and the rest of the cast followed. The director/priest, standing next to me, immediately began tearing out large sections of the script and throwing them on the ground. Poor Jon caught hell when he finished the scene. PS. Why has no one mentioned Rex Harrison's legendary fart during the run of "My Fair Lady"? |
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| re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? | |
| Posted by: blfan 06:31 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
| In reply to: re: What are the 'best' onstage mishaps that you've seen in live theater? - Gustave 05:19 pm EST 12/20/17 | |
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| "Putting It Together" - opening number of Act 2, "Back in Business". Carol Burnett, George Hearn, Ruthie Henshall and John Barrowman all onstage. Midway through the number, Burnett's skirt simply falls to the floor. Audience goes crazy, as does Barrowman, who drops to the floor in hysterics, then gets up,, turns and shows the audience where he completely split the seat out of his pants in Act I and they had repaired them with duct tape. The show went on after a hasty costume change. On a personal note - In college I was in a production of Terrence Rattigan's "Separate Tables", which had a wonderful semi-revolve that moved back and forth between the lounge and dining room scenes. Last performance, last set change, the revolve jumps the track. Actors entering the dining room stagger, silverware, table centerpieces go flying, soup slops out of bowls. Everyone calmly gets seated, picks up everything as if it were a normal occurence and prepares to start the scene. The first line is from the maid to one of the old ladies: "Goulash or chicken fricasee?" Except what came out was: "Goulash or frickin chickasee?" The cast choked on their soup and the actress playing the old lady later said: "Thank God my line was 'goulash'!" |
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