Toxic Avenger Show Cancellation Due to Injury - I Was There

[EugLoven]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 4:22pm

STORY:
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/THE_TOXIC_AVENGER_Cancels_76_Performance_Due_To_Star_Injury_20090706

Superheroes are not infallible it seems, as The Toxic Avenger sustained an injury that caused two performances (July 5th at 7PM and tonight's performance, July 6th at 8pm) to be cancelled. In an ironic twist, The Toxic Avenger was the victim when an audience member decided to use the stage as their own personal storage facility. Toxie suffered a torn leg, but is expected to make a full recovery. He will go back to saving the earth and "ripping polluters in two" on Wednesday, July 8th.

-------

I WAS THERE! And it was scary!!! Though I really dont think ANY of the audience members were aware of his injury... I tend to watch shows from the perspective of a spectator (purely entertainment) but the other half of my brain is constantly analyzing what is going on technically (lighting-cues, unbeknownst lyric flubs, costume changes, etc). Also, because I was sitting dead-center 5th row, I had a perfect few (plus my relative height) of what happened.

During Toxies epiphany, when he sings/decides that EVERYONE must die, he is gallivanting around the audience (standing on chairs, etc)... and a little old lady comes onto the stage (actually The White One, Jonathan Root, in drag).

Nick Cordero (Toxic) whips around and growls at her menacingly and is supposed to prowl onto the stage and rip her head off.

Only yesterday Sunday July 5 at matinee, when he prowled back to the stage, he tripped on an enormous bag in the middle of the front-aisle, slammed down (loud bang when his hand hit a toxic-barrel), and his shin sliced up against the edge of the stage.

There was an audible OH! from the audience that heard/saw it, but without missing a beat, he prowled up onstage, still singing, and killed the old lady.

All I could think about was how badly he must have hurt his leg (but like a trooper, wasnt physically letting the audience know)... but the penultimate scene, when he has to scale the toxic-barrel mountain to sing his last lines, he hobbled up precariously.

It was then that I noticed blood was trickling down his leg onto the center-stage. Lights out! Scene change (rather costume change for many actors) and The Black One (Nicholas Rodriguez was the u/s yesterday) hurriedly ran onto stage with some paper-towels and mopped-up the blood. Lots of it. Goopy.

Nick was off-stage for a few minutes during a scene, so I imagine they were bandaging his leg off-stage. But unbelievably, he finished the show, and didnt seem to be shaken. Must have been running on adrenaline (and perhaps wasnt aware or letting-on to just how bad his injury was).

Hope it heals well!
Updated On: 7/6/09 at 04:22 PM

[The_Toxic_Avenger]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 4:24pm

What a trooper.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 4:29pm

Thanks for the story
Its awful when stuff like this happens

On friday night performance of 'M' here in the UK i did something similar. During a scene where my charachter is getting strangled on a work counter by an intruder the scene took a grizzly turn. Once i have got the attacker of me im supposed to fall to the floor behind the counter. Unfortunatly for some reason a glass from what im guessing was a previous scene was left behind the counter and i fell straight on it cutting my knee straight open. It didnt hurt so much so i carried on.

I had 3 scenes left in Act 1 all back to back except for one when i have to do a quick change, it wasnt until that change when i took off my dressing gown to put on my next costume (sweat pants) that i noticed blood was gushing down my leg, i looked back on to the stage and notoiced blood all over that to but i had to go straight back on.

Throughout the next few scenes my grey sweat pants turned red, gushing with blood, i could tell the audience noticed.

At the end of Act 1 i was bandaged up and back on for Act 2, it was bloody painful

Then then saturday i had 2 more performances where my knee was killing, but hey you just get through it.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 4:36pm

So glad to hear the actor is healing, but I must say I always have a problem with stories like these where performers continue on despite physical injury. I think they're totally wrong.

As an actor, if I was feeling horrible pain and there was blood coming out of my leg, I would stop the show and get help. No show is worth more than your health for the rest of your life.

Am I the only one that feels this way? I don't mean to say anything bad about Cordero or anyone else who's been in a similar situation, but it just seems ridiculous to me.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 4:37pm

http://talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat/d.php?id=1747111

[BroadwayBaby21]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 4:51pm

Oh wow, I was there too! I was volunteer ushering, and then was able to watch it. I saw him trip (and was one of the ones who gasped), but did not even realize he had hurt himself that badly.
This was my first time seeing it, so when the Black Dude came on to wipe up the blood (in the back I couldn't see what he was wiping up), I thought that was supposed to be there.

I totally couldn't tell that he was hurt, I didn't notice anything. Hope he heals quickly!