Funny/Horrible Mistakes on Live Performances!

[La Vie Boheme]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:21pm

Hey Guys!

I think these "voice your experience" type threads are kind of cool so i decided to start one on a funny or horrible or noticable mistake you have seen on a Broadway or Professional show.

Mine was in Wicked when one of the beds didn't come out (Galinda's). Kristin and Idina did a ton of ad-libbing and everyone was cracking up! I thought it made the show even better.

What about you?

[Dreamcatcher]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:22pm

well I heard about the whole flower incident where JLT couldnt get the blue flower into Sosh's hair and she was practically climbing on top of her to try and pin it in. Must've been hilarious.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:22pm

Brooke Shields' voice was cracking all over the place during '100 Easy Ways' when I saw her in Wonderful Town.
And she kept running out of breath which led to awkward phrasing.

[Dreamcatcher]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:25pm

I saw a showing of Christmas Carol this past December and there was this one part where one of the characters was supposed to light a match taht was taped to the candle to light it but the match wouldnt light no matter how much they tried and it ended up breaking. So what followed was a ton of improv and added lines and someone running offstage for a minute to find a new match. It was very well covered but hilarious none-the-less.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:25pm

i have a few....

1. (my favorite) In Annie get your gun, Bernadette and Tom started intentionally screwing each other up in Old Fashioned Wedding, up to the point where she had to walk off stage to finish the song.

2. In the Producers, the "choreographer" in Roger's production team came out packing a lot more than most men in his pants. Nathan stopped the show laughing for about ten minutes after seeing this.

3. I was at the "La Cage" where Daniel Davis walked out due to illness.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:26pm

When I saw La Cage, one of the doorknobs flew off when Daniel Davis was trying to exit. He walked off Stage Left with the doorknob instead.

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:27pm

In Rent, the orchestra forgot to play in Over the Moon. Maureen kept snapping, but the orchestra wouldn't play.

[Johnnytoc]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:29pm

When I saw Wayne Brady in Chicago, the conductor and him cracked each other up and just stopped and laughed for a few minutes.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:30pm

When I saw The Producers, the motorcycle Franz arrives at the theater in (before Springtime for Hitler) wasn't working, and wouldn't drive back off the stage. A couple of stage hands had to come wheel it off, and Gunter walked off, behind them. Nobody broke character, and the rest of the scene went smoothly, so I don't know if this classifies as "horrible." Pretty noticeable, though. Then again, my mom didn't realize it happened...

[Jwaa]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:31pm

In the preview to Bat Boy in the westend.....
1)chorus would mess up timing
2) (MAINLY) Rick was untrained and didnt breathe properlly and so he missed out the "tonights" in his song, and he was absoluetly pathetic beyond anything i have ever seen staged, ameteur and professional!

In 'Anything Goes' in london the side of the boat actually fell down during the sailors tap dance and they all ran and saved it....was a dissapointment because i missed most of tehir tap dance, though it was really funny to see two of them just carrying on ignoring the set, as they thought the director would love them up! idiots!

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:33pm

I have so many - but don't feel like typing them

[stagemomfromhell]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:34pm

In a local Dinner Theatre Production of "Brigadoon", in the "find him" scene a very long curly wig fell off of a villagers head. The thing looked like a dead animal laying on the stage. No one picked it up. People just kept looking at it and stepping over it.

[zippyjen]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:35pm

I have seen Drew Lachey and Merld D crak up in Tango:maureen twice. It is actually funny to watch.

[Letty2]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:39pm

I saw the Urinetown tour last April and in "Act One Finale" the guy playing Cladwell B. Cladwell forgot what he was singing and he was like, "so you want happy mr. strong...mumbles..mumbles.. and I don't know what I'm singing...". It was hilarious!

Also on Bombay Dreams closing night.. I was sitting front row and I saw two costume pieces fly off the stage during one of the big dance parts.

[edenespinosalover]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:45pm

During "Hairspray", I don't know who it was, but there were chorus people dressed as soldiers I believe (I dunno) that came on stage from the aisles right before Linda Hart's number, and one of them tripped coming up the stairs.

[sanda]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:46pm

Les Miz

read this. This is classic.

http://blog.chinamusical.net/more.asp?name=sanda&id=652

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:50pm

During a local "Little Shop" production when Seymour fishes Audrey out of Audrey II and she's dying she got really in the moment when he was carrying her, and Audrey swung her head around and knocked the mic clean off his face (it was an outdoor production and the mic was huge!) he had to shout his last words to Audrey, whist trying to reattach it to his head.


And during Funny Girl, when Fanny and (her love interest, can remember his name) are having a romantic dinner at his house. There was a little side table that came up through the trapdoor. It would go up and down throughout the entire scene, something was wrong with the trapdoor. Finally they sent a crew member out to hang on to it, and keep it from moving. Meanwhile Fanny and her guyfriend are making out on this couch, while a crew member is hiding under the small table like some peeping Tom, trying to keep it from upstaging the actors. It really added to the scene.

[LightMyCandle125]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:50pm

1. when martin short made jason alexander crack up during the LA run of the producers. and jason said: and to think that i wanted to cast adam sandler as leo. cute.

2. matthew broderick in the foreigner. when he was teaching them how to speak his language, they all started cracking up b/c matthew was just so funny!

3. in wicked, after jlt slaps shoshana, shoshana slaps her back, but she missed completely! my friend and i thought it actually made sense and they should write it in. how elphaba has magic powers and can slap glinda from far away.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 7:54pm

(re: Sandra's post about Les Mis) Oh my god, that's horrible! And funny! And horrible! And it reminded me of something I read once where the poor guy playing Marius's pants ripped, some time into the show (I think it was during A Little Fall of Rain... maybe). Ugh, I have to go find that. Updated On: 1/30/05 at 07:54 PM

[cturtle]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 8:23pm

lightmycandle, the "cracking up" in the scene in THE FOREIGNER is actually part of the script

[Mythus]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 8:27pm

In the Producers, the "choreographer" in Roger's production team came out packing a lot more than most men in his pants. Nathan stopped the show laughing for about ten minutes after seeing this.

Yankeefan007...that's supposed to happen. I mean, Scott having a huge bulge in his pants isn't a mistake.

[CatieElphie1]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 8:27pm

my favorite mistake is still and always will be "POISONED BOOT!"
but a few others...
I went to go see Damn Yankees and the flash powder cigarette lighter thingy wouldn't work for the guy who played Satan...he stood there for like, five minutes trying desparatly to get it to work, but finally he chucked the entire thing into the audience and yelled "smoking is redicuously bad for you!" and then proceded with the scene.

In our local high school production of "and then there were none", the gun broke, so thusly the last last scene was halarious....Sara (one of the actors) must have tried ten times to get it to go off...finally, she set the gun down, walked over to the actor, grabbed a lamp, and clubbed him over the head with it!...and then the sofa broke.....that was the funniest thing...the entire bottom dropped out all of the sudden..

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 8:34pm

Not really a mistake, but there were a few hysterical ad-libs during the final week of TABOO:

1.) When Big Sue (Liz McArtney) told the audience that she worked in an unemployment office, then she added for the final performance "Ironic, isn't it?" It was hysterical.

2.) During one of the last performances during the argument between Phillip, George, and Marcus (Gary?) Raul picked up the microphone stand and attacked Carey Shields with it, then stormed off stage. Euan couldn't stop laughing, and by that point the majority of the audience had already seen the show a dozen times and couldn't stop laughing.

3.) During Ich Bin Kunst, George would always say random things that would crack me up. Just a few that I can remember:

(grabbing his chest) - Janet Jackson, eat your heart out!

-That Justin Timberlake is so gay - no straight man can hit notes that high.

-It's funny how the country that gave us Michael Jackson think's I'M strange

I can't think of any more right now, but they were certainly priceless.

[cturtle]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 8:34pm

i saw a production of THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN in which CAROL LAWRENCE fell into the orchestra pit! it was at the beginning where molly and her brothers are singing and she pretends to be a queen with a bucket on her head and a blanket as a cape. they marched out on a runway around the orchestra pit, and suddenly carol disappeared! the brothers were left standing there with the blanket, singing by themselves, not knowing what to do. finally the conductor boosted her back up, to rapturous applause. when we talked to her backstage later, she was apologizing profusely for breaking the saxophone player's hand!

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 1/30/05 at 8:34pm

This is reminding me of that whole chapter from "Making It On Broadway" about "The Thrill of Live Theatre".