Biggest mistake you've witnessed on stage.- Page 2

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 5:22am

umm, during a production in high school i had the distinguised honor of being in control of ringing the phone. Well on opening night, the cord between the phone and the button i pushed got kicked by an audience member (we had a very small theatre) without my knowledge. When the first time came along for me to ring the phone, upon realizing the phone wasn't ringing, instead of makin the noise for the phone my self, vocally, i panicked and spent 3 minutes trying to fix the phone while the actors n staged killed time.

One time i was at a very amature production of Anything Goes and the set of the exterior of the boat fell apart, completely. I promptly left at intermission.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 5:25am

The biggest mistake I've ever witnessed was Katharine Hepburn walking on stage and attempting to sing in COCO. My ears are still bleeding from that one!

[AngusN]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 6:51am

Casting Julia MacKenzie as the witch in 'Into the Woods' London version of the show. BIG MISTAKE! Ouch!

[jacco]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 7:39am

When I saw Sunset in London the scenery had big problems. Norma's house would not come down or would come down too quickly. According to legend, the taxix' wireless system affected the hydrolics. During the performance I saw the show stopped after the car chase. Curtain came down and we waited for 10 minutes. When it went up again Norma's staircase was there. Norma entered and spoke the famous words: WHY ARE YOU SO LATE?
Whole audience cracked up. The poor understudy of Patti never recovered.

[Feathah]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 7:48am

I still love when the tomb at Aida got stuck on the stage. So as "Fortune Favors The Brave" began the soldiers all had to stop short when they ran out. Adam and the ensemble did their best continuing the number while people came out and struggled for quite awhile to push the tomb offstage.

[AnothaPartofMe]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 9:31am

VICTOR/VICTORIA ...

Liza Minnelli: Can you believe that? He thought I was a... a...uh... woman!
Toddy: No... he thought you were a man.
Liza: Oh right, that too.

[Candleshoe2]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 9:57am

During one of our performances of the Les Miserables, the revolve overheated during Gavroche's death. It was supposed to revolve after he died and the orchestra would continue. I was one of the dead bodies surrounding Gavroche. When the revolve failed to move, the lights remained on and it was a long period of silence before the revolutionaries quickly began to turn the barricade around thmeselves. The dead bodies and Gavroche, however had to get out of the way. All we could do was scoot off. I guess that death scene wasn't as emotional with the bodies drifting offstage...the show must go on!

[ilovespamalot]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 10:15am

When i was doing a performance of Much Ado About Nothing we were doing a very dramatic scene were Leonato was about to choke his own daughter,it was at that time when one of our actors said there line early, once he realized he said it at the wrong time he said "opps sorry!" and the whole cast started cracking up during the most dramatic scene of the whole show. Then the audience found the mistake hysterical so we had the whole house laughing.

[Mamie]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 10:22am

My all time favorite came during the revival of "Kiss Me Kate". It was a couple of weeks after 9/11 and all the locals who could possibly make it to Broadway were there to support the shows. There was a definite feeling of giddiness (sp?) and that probably contributed to this fun mistake.

Carolee was onstage singing "I Hate Men". There's a point where she picks up a tankard and sees some men peeking through the tavern door. She throws the tankard at them and one of them is supposed to catch it and throw it back. Well this time they all missed it and it flew into the darkened wing. One of the guys went after it and Carolee, realizing that it wasn't coming back, went on singing. A couple of minutes later the guy came back with the tankard and they opened the door and threw it out. By then she was no longer looking for it and the tankard ended up sailing clear across the stage and into the lap of a guy sitting in the first row of the left orchestra. Without missing a beat, he stood up and threw it as hard as he could back across the stage and toward the tavern door. Carolee stood on the stage, singing away, with her head swinging back and forth as the tankard flew by. It was an hysterical addition to an already hysterical song!

[new_philosophy_girl]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 10:25am

When I saw DRS in May during Ruffhousin with Shuffhausen (or however you spell it) Sherie and John were laughing and Sherie missed one of her lines when they sing back and forth the lines like, "fabric sheets with staticum" and so on...

It was kinda minor, but funny.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 10:48am

"The Lion King" on Broadway, early in its run. A performance I will never forget!

Heather Headley (as Nala) fell on stage and injured her ankle. It was just after the "grown up Simba" had come back home. The two characters, not recognizing each other, have to go through a choreographed "stage combat" moment. It was during this sequence that Heather got hurt. She sat there on the ground, not moving for about a minute, and Jason Raize finally gestured for the stage manager to lower the curtain (which they did).

Then it got even stranger. We sat there, audience buzzing, for over twenty minutes. I figured they were getting an understudy ready, but even then, 20 minutes seemed really long! Children in the audience were chattering away, asking their parents what was happening. Finally, the stage manager stepped out in front of the curtain and made an announcement. Heather was going to the hospital for x-rays, but he assured us she would be all right. However there was still a problem. BOTH her understudies were out: One was very sick with the flu, and the other was away on vacation. The stage manager informed us that a chorus girl, who had never done the role before and wasn't an understudy for it, would be going on to finish the show with the script in hand. She would sing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and keep going to the end.

It turned out that she was amazing! They sort of walked her around the stage a bit to help her with blocking. But her acting and singing, and her (nervous) engery, were really terrific. The excited audience gave her a HUGE ovation at the end of the show (deservedly!). I will never forget that. Such a trooper!

[lamentingenvelope]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 10:56am

At 'Dr. Dolittle' in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, the bird flew into the chair at one point.

[Starchild]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 11:08am

C'mon Camthorn, if you've never seen worse than BKLYN, you've led a sheltered life. Consider yourself lucky.

I saw Steel Magnolias and I thought 1) Christine Ebersol was really miscast and 2) Marsha Mason flubbed her lines at one point. She was also miscast I thought.

Updated On: 8/5/05 at 11:08 AM

[timmetzner]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 11:18am

I saw a production of Into the Woods with some terrible problems. My favorite, which i still laugh about today, is during the second act prologue and the witch comes into the bakers house to discuss what could have destroyed their house. The song is supposed to start "do you think it was a bear?" and continue until they conclude its a giant. However the baker goes "Do you think it was a giant?"..... The witch awkwardly says "....Yes" and walks off-stage.

Also There was a production of West Side Story I saw where Chino runs out to kill Tony in the end, but forgot to grab the prop gun. He pauses, pulls off his boot, and throws it at Tony screaming "POISON BOOT!!!" Without missing a beat the rest of the cast continues even with Maria saying "How many Poison Boots? Is there a poison boot for you and you and one left for me?" It was hilarious.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 11:26am

Oh, I forgot one! The Lion King story made me remember.

When I saw The Lion King, when all the animals were coming in during The Circle of Life, one of the giraffes stepped on a lady's purse strap and it got caught on its leg. It dragged the purse all the way onto the stage. Then, a little boy, about 10 or 11, ran up onstage after the purse. Not center stage, just at the top of the stairs. He snatched it and got offstage.

At intermission, the usher came to our area, freaked out and asking if a boy had climbed onto the stage. He must've gotten in trouble for that one.

[Orsomething]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 11:27am

The stage manager informed us that a chorus girl, who had never done the role before and wasn't an understudy for it, would be going on to finish the show with the script in hand.


aww...that whole story made me happy lol...
what was her name?

[AngusN]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 11:32am

During the Royal Albert Hall concert / production of Les Mis when the young Cosette is singind and the gun goes off unexpectedly. The young performer was so professional, she kept it together and continued as if nothing had happened.

[worrell4077]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 11:41am

Last year when I saw The Producers,during Leo and Max, Brad Oscar's cane somehow flung out of his hand causing both him and Hunter to start laughing. The second time during the summer that I saw it, when Max whips out his stopwatch to time Leo's minute, Brad dropped the watch, which then caused both him and Hunter to start laughing.

When I went to Hunter's last show, when Carmen introduces himself to Max and Leo, Richard Kind just started laughing leading to Brooks going "Carmen Ghia, vrooom-vrooom." Then when Max and Leo are sitting on the couch with the lips pillow, Richard and Hunter just starting laughing for a couple of minutes leading Hunter to say "Work with me here, I'm leaving".

The last time I saw La Cage, Robert Goulet would laugh when the others said their jokes, but one that sticks out is the beginning when Georges is trying to get Albin out of his room, and the maid(I forgot his name) did something that once he left, Robert Goulet turned and said "And he's not on drugs".

Finally, the second time that I saw SpamAlot, during the black knight scene, Chris Sieber was about to say one of the most well known phrases from Holy Grail, but he started to laugh and when he stopped, he said continued by saying "It's just a flesh wound."
________________________________________________________________
"Back off man, I'm a scientist."
-Ghostbusters

[LuvBroadwayHugs]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 11:50am

Hmm. Well when I was in the fall play last year (it was a comedy we re-wrote. The original was called...Sea Cruise maybe?) we used a real banana as a prop and someone slipped on it, fell and there was a bit of chaos. The only broadway oops that comes to my mind is in POTO when the person is hanged. There was some sort of malfunction and the dummy never fell so the dancers just started screaming. It was pretty entertaining.

[JayKid]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:00pm

Never witnessed a broadway mistake...

but in my senior year highschool production we did Les Miserables. And well, the Marius made numerous mistakes, being casted was the first made, but the fact he couldn't hit the notes and messed lyrics up was the next...

I was Enjolras and had to sing his last note in red and black for when he says "the color of despair." I guess it's better than noone even singing it though, but a few days before the show, I asked him if he wanted me to since he couldn't get it, at all. He said yes and really really thanked me lol...

He messed up lyrics, notes and such here and there (one day more didn't even say his last words sometimes cuz he couldn't get the notes of like "dare" and stuff) and most these slip ups were minorish, but noticable...

However, I was on stage frozen at the barricade for "A Little Fall of Rain" and just listening to this hurt me so bad.

Correct lyrics...

But you will live, 'ponine, dear god above
If I could heal your wounds with words of love (and with correct notes)

His lyrics....

Dear God Above, You will live, 'ponine (as well as shaky)
If I could heal your wounds with words of love.

At least he the second half right, but for some reason was so painfully sharp... oh man.

And well our director cut at some songs, one being empty chairs at empy tables (THANK YOU! even tho i love the song and it should be there, he would have ruined it)

He did a really bad job though (I wanted to be frikin Marius! lol, it's ok though, I loved my part anywayz).

[pndmnd]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:07pm

I actually have several (both from things I've seen and things I've done), but timmetzner's Into the Woods story reminded me of the production of Into the Woods that I did in summer stock. The guy playing Jack was singing Giant's in the Sky, and went blank on the lyrics. So, he kept energized and acted the song the same as usual, but just kept singing stuff like, "And you climb, climb, climb, you climb up so high, and your way up high, and you climb, climb, climb!"

[Herbert_Von_Krolock]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:27pm

At POTO a few years ago, I saw Rebecca Pitcher as Christine and she made a few fubars in the lyrics as well as being off pitch throughout half the show. In the title song, she sang "My spirit and my voice", which threw off Howard McGillin but luckily they got back for the last few measures of the song. Then in Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, she sang "Too many ears, fighting back years"..Oy! Then, my friend and I weren't sure if it was an accident or on purpose, but after the Wandering Child bit, when the Phantoom was shooting fire out of his staff, it looked like the last ball landed on Rebecca's train heheheh

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:34pm

Ooh! In a production of Little Shop I was in, our plant broke mid-show and we had an unplanned intermission to fix it!!!

[musicnmath]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:44pm

best12bars -- wow!!!

[Atrias]

Posted: 8/5/05 at 1:07pm

Well,this was several years ago during the middle school production of My Fair Lady I was in, but...

Basically, our director was lazy. She didn't bother to hire anyone to play music with our singing, so we were forced to sing every song a cappella, without a starting note even. The only actual track of music we had was for the waltz at the end of the first act( our director didn't hire anyone to teach us how to dance, either, but that's another story). The second night, our one stage crew person couldn't get the track to work, so we were just standing there with our partners, waiting for several minutes, until the girl playing Eliza said, "So...what's going on?" And the Higgins said something like,"Well, that guy over there is trying to expose you, but don't worry, I'll protect you." They sort of went on from there, with pauses in between when they were cracking up, and finally, someone from the back said,"Well, let's just dance!", so we all danced without the music, to great applause. Needless to say, I never auditioned for one of those plays again.