Funny Unplanned Things in a show

[puppet]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 12:58pm

When I was in a production of Macbeth, we had a matinee and had not checked for blackouts as it was normally scheduled for evening only. The 3 witches were on a low platform benind a large cauldron. There was a stage hand in the cauldron shining colored lights on the witches faces. At the end of the scene there was a blackout and the stage hand would stand up in the cauldron, pick it up and run off. In this matinee, there was a sky light over the stage that let in enough light so the actions on stage could still be seen. Suddenly, the cauldron sprouted legs and ran off. The audience roared and broke the mood of the show.

[outdamnwench]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 2:12pm

Who the **** designs a theatre with a skylight on the stage?!?!?!

Better yet, who the **** puts on a show in a theatre with a skylight on the stage?!?!?!

[Weez]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 2:14pm

Usually these threads are filled with things that raise but a small smile or a hint of a chuckle, but the cauldron growing legs is a genuinely hilarious thought. XD

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 2:34pm

And it comes with a ready-made excuse-- magic, of course.

[oohshizz146]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 6:02pm

Well, it wasnt on Broadway, but when I was in Once On This Island at my school, during the PREY scene, the dancers never did the eerie screams you hear on the recording because they had to sing and not kill their voices, but on our third (and final) performance they all decided like 10 minutes before they went on that they were all going to do the screams, so all of the leads and ensemble on stage didn't know, and like half of us jumped out of our skin it freaked us out so much.

It was funny =)

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 9/20/08 at 6:05pm

I have two, I guess...

My first was when I did "Wizard Of Oz" approximately a bajillion years ago. (Okay, it was six years ago, but it seems like a bajillion.) I was playing the Wicked Witch of the West, and it was such a small, low budget production that when I melted, I was supposed to lay under a black sheet onstage. I had to lay there while the cast danced around and sang "Ding-Dong, The Witch Is Dead!"

Well, I had on these fake fingers-- green and warty with long red talon-type nails. I thought it'd be funny if they were sticking out from under the sheet. But wouldn't you know, someone accidentally kicked my hand, and the fake fingers went FLYING into the audience. You can imagine there was all kinds of screaming and crying from the little kids in the audience after that.

My other, and MUCH more embarrassing one, was when I played Lydia Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice" about two years ago. Now, Lydia is, to put a fine point on it, a total harlot, with a good bit of bimbo mixed in. And it being "Pride and Prejudice," the whole cast was wearing these lovely low-necked, floor-length empire waist dresses that had elastic around the neckline and under the bust.

Well, there were about four dance numbers in the play, even though it wasn't a musical-- people went to balls all the time back then-- and in one of the dance numbers, my partner stepped on the hem of my dress. Which caused it to fall down, so I was naked from the waist up. Luckily, I was wearing a bra. Even more luckily, I was at the back of the stage, near the curtain, so I just went offstage and didn't come back on until I had a line. Surprisingly, no one in the audience that I talked to saw anything, probably because I was in the back, but several of the other kids onstage saw.

[ThatTheatreKid.]

Posted: 9/21/08 at 1:23am

Another Wizard of Oz blooper that happened in the production I was in was that when we were dancing to "Jitterbug", the Scarecrow was supposed to fall back and have the Lion catch him, but the Lion wasn't ready and the Scarecrow fell to the floor in the middle of the dance with a large THUD. They covered it up really well and nobody in the audience seemed to notice it wasn't supposed to happen.

[geekgirl06]

Posted: 9/21/08 at 2:09am

We did a production of Play On! at my college (hilarious play by the way) and at one point, one of the characters has to say "Put down your pistol and surrender!" Well... he accidentally said "Put down your surrender and pistol!" It was a miracle nobody broke character.

Also, in the same play, that same actor had to do a face plant into my lap. Well, we had put too much makeup on him, so when he got up, there was a face print on my dress for the rest of the show.

[Godspell_Girl]

Posted: 9/21/08 at 9:32am

Last year, my school did a collection of myths and i played a pageboy in the tale of King Midas. The second night of the show (i must have gotten hit with the clumsy stick that day) i knocked the tray of fake food all over the floor, spilled a "drink" on king midas and knocked over a "rock" containing a stagelight that blinded the audiedence. Add to that the fact that i fell off the stage the day before during rehearsel, and it looks like a drunk actor in the the cast. But the audience did find my horror in dropping everything funny.

[jagfkb]

Posted: 9/21/08 at 10:21am

in our school's production of Les Miz, we had the most messed up first performance ever! Our costume designer had designed many of the costumes for the leads who have fast changes to come off easily in one piece, including Jean Valjean's costume. However, during our first performance, he forgot to wear a belt, and when he ripped open his shirt in Who am I?, he ripped off everything else. so there was an 11th grader... standing in nothing but a dance belt... in a school production of Les Miz...

Let's just say EVERY COSTUME WAS REDESIGNED...
Updated On: 9/21/08 at 10:21 AM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 9/21/08 at 10:36am

If you read the most recent page of the Legally Blonde understudies thread, the golf cart very nearly ended up in the audience yesterday afternoon...