The first night of the national tour of Will Rodgers Follies in Dallas - one of the dogs from the previous dog show scene got loose and scuttled across the stage in the middle of the next scene. The actresses on stage started chuckling and couldn't stop! Then audience started laughing and this went on for about 10 minutes! Then, after the laughter subsided, the actresses chuckled throughout the scene. They didn't know what to say or do. It was silly.
If you want utterly hilarious Broadway bloopers straight from the actors themselves, you absolutely have to read Making It on Broadway! I was in Starbucks reading it and could not keep myself from laughing out loud...I got some very strange looks.
LOL strStuckDreamr9, that was a good plug for the book. It sounded like what one of those people say on the info-mercials. hahah sorry, just had to point it out.
"Chicago is it's own incredible theater town right there smack down in the middle of the heartland. What a great city! I can see why Oprah likes to live there!" - Dee Hoty :-D
At Les Miz in Las Vegas a few years ago, Javert's mic started going out right before the scene preceding "Stars." He had to run off stage, change, and get a new mic. Was interesting to watch Javert start to disrobe during Thénardier's "It was me who told you so..."
He didn't come back onstage on time, and the orchestra did a nice "Theme and Variations on Stars" which would put ALW's "Variations" to shame. When Javert came back, he got a nice round of applause.
Apparently the mics were a mess for that whole run; he had had to sing "Javert's Suicide" unmiked on opening night.
I'm reading Making It On Broadway as we speak... It's fast-reading and very enlightening. Sometimes "Life Upon the Wicked Stage" is not at all what its cracked up to be. The blooper chapter was very funny. I'll second that 'plug.'
GYPSY During the song "Small World," Bernadette Peters sat on a wicker (no, not WICKED), basket... more like trunk... but it was wicker nonetheless...she sits down, and begins to sing. "Funny, youre a stanger who's come here, come from another town..." Just then, the lid slipped into place, and Bernadette nearly fell off of the basket! It wouldn't have been so bad, other than the fact that the next line she sings starts out, "Funny..." For the rest of the scene, every time Bernadette Peters and John Dossett sang the word "Funny" they cracked up! No one really noticed somehow.
THE PRODUCERS Nathan Lane was just about to cough out the punchline to one of the greatest jokes in the book, when someone in the audience cracked up prematurely. Now that I think about it, it was premature e-crack-ulation! Nathan looked in the direction of the man, and gave the most disturbing look I have ever seen (to be expected from the so called "King fo Broadway"). The joke didn't work out in the end, and Nathan was distraught the rest of the scene, later telling the singing old ladies to "SHUT THE H%LL UP!"
URINETOWN I defy anyone that ever saw URINETOWN to tell me that Hunter Foster and Jennifer Laura Thompson didn't almost crack up after singing "FOLLOW YOUR HEART." I miss that show...
I think the dog in WILL ROGERS was a planned blooper...I remember my brother saying that it happened at the show he was at on Broadway...and I recall him saying that he learned it was planned, but I could be VERY wrong...
When I saw Aida, there were these two flies flying around in the spotlights all through the second act. Anytime someone would stand still, the fly would land on their head. During "A Step too Far", one of the flies landed on Adam Pascal's head AT LEAST three times. He tried very hard to stay in character, but eventually cracked up. They were also circling Saycon's head all through "Easy as Life" and I seriously thought one was going to fly in her mouth.
Making it on Broadway is a really great book. It's great to see just what people had to go through to get where they did. I unfortunately have never seen any bloopers personally(at least not on Broadway...local professional theatres are another story).
My friends were at JCS the day the understudy fell into the pit. It was Manoel Felciano. I wasn't there but I would've been worried that he actually hurt himself....
Yes! I didn't have the article with me so I was going by memory... but now I recognize the name. I felt bad just reading about it.Getting to replace a lead... only to fall down the orchestra pit. Poor guy.
I've seen Urinetown more times than I can count (or want to admit) and almost everytime Jen and Hunter would crack eachother up during 'Follow Your Heart.' Also, during the Act 1 Finale, when they have to silently talk/kiss/reassure eachother Hunter was like feeling her up and doing all these crazy things to her, and she was just dying.
Come to think of it, the cast was always trying to get Jen to laugh. John Cullum frequently would mess up the lines in 'Don't Be the Bunny,' resulting in him calling Hope, Sue--so it would rhyme. I love that show....
Well, these arn't really bloopers, but when I saw WICKED, I was sitting in my seat, waiting for the show to start, and I could hear Jennifer Laura Thompson warming up for some odd reason. Then, one of ensemble members came out on the top of the staircase-thingy and was just kind of standing there, looking over the railing at the audience before the show even started! So I waved at him, and he smailed at me.
I can't control
my destiny.
I trust my soul
my only goal
is just to be
someones cell phone went off durring Act 2 of Hairspray the night I was there, like right before they kiss in the jail scene. Matt said Tracy I can hear the bells
not a b-way show but
I saw a production of Chicago in July and durring cell block tango Velma was running up the steps at then end of the song and sliped and fell.
I did Grease a few years ago and Sandy PASSED OUT literally at the end of Summer Nights. I mean the break between the aplause nad the scene starting again. Fell busted her chin on the edge of the stage. However I was on stage but didnt see it cause I had already gone back to my book (can u guess who I was). We had to cancel the show because of that, no understudy. Later at auditions for another show they were watching the archival tape and she evidentaly bounced 3 times when she hit the floor
In the words of the great MargoChanning
"Broadwayworld.com -- Your One Stop on the Internet for All Things Broadway, Nasty Political Discussions, Meltdowns, Name-Calling and General Nonsense along with being a Premiere Pick-up Joint for Hotties, Shut-ins, Rambunctuous Teenagers With Bad Grammar, and All Manner of Bitter, Jaded Theatre Queens with WAY Too Much Time on Their Hands"?
This is not mine really, but there's been a couple of shows of WICKED with the bed not coming on stage during popular. Once it didn't come on and Kristin started ad-libbing, looking at Idina 'Are you doing magic again?? Well stop it!'
I saw THE PHANTOM OF... about a month ago and the boat was broken during ACT II, so after 'The Point of no return' when Phantom and Christine return to Phantom's lair they had to walk across the lake. Someone behind me muttered 'This thing just turned into Jesus Christ Superstar - he's walking on water!!' In the final scene the boat was working fine!
In London I saw A.Lloyd Webber's WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND and in the final scene, which takes place in a burnt down barn the burnt barn wall set piece didn't come all the way down, instead it was hanging in the air half way down. The actors just waited a little while for it to come down and then went on with the scene.
In London's CHICAGO: during the court room scene where one of ensemble plays the jury, this guy was doing the drunk guy part of the jury and he 'emptied' the flask and was supposed to pass out. Just before he passed out he belched really loudly and half of the ensemble standing behind him cracked up.
In London's CHICAGO, Clark Peters was playing Billy Flynn and during his court room speech someone in the audience sneezed so that everyone could hear it, and Peters stood still for a sec, looked the sneezer and with a deadpan look on his face said 'Bless you, honey!'