Actor injured in Spiderman tonight- Page 13

[iabwayfan]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 6:20am

Two things first:

1. I wish this all were turning out differently and Spiderman was hitting it off as a success.

2. I wish nobody was getting hurt and that those injured will recover and continue with their careers

Now, my question:

I'm very confused because doesn't Cirque du Soleil do all kinds of crazy aerials all over the place? I guess I don't hear of injuries like this happening to them. What is different in the safety in Cirque than in Spiderman?

It just seems crazy to me that Cirque can do such complicated looking things without me hearing about disasters. Might be just me, but what am I missing?

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 7:24am

"I know about Adrian Bailey and Ann Crumb, but what happened to Judy Kuhn in Chess?"

Not sure about Judy Kuhn, but anyone remember Philip Casnoff getting hit in the head during Shogun?

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 8:50am

RE: Wicked injuries-yeah there have been multiple injuries with that show (Steph J Block's cherry picker one comes to mind) BUUUT you're talking about injuries happening over YEARS of performances. Spiderman isn't even open!

Theatre is dangerous, but it shouldn't be made more so by expecting your actors to perform in stunts seen in film.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 10:16am

Did you not see the first line of my post? I wrote "Odd the priorities among SOME posters here." (Capitals now mine). That means the five or six posters who just go on and on and on about how unfair people are being to Taymor and the show, while showing precious little concern about the people getting hurt. Not only do I find it depressing, but I also find it disgusting.

I did. And as I said, I find the dozen posters who go on and on and on bashing Julie Taymor to be just as disgusting.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 11:36am

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/broadway-star-rips-spider-man-does-someone-have-die-23408

[After Eight]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 11:47am

"I did. And as I said, I find the dozen posters who go on and on and on bashing Julie Taymor to be just as disgusting."

Well, at least you find the six I was talking about disgusting as well, so we do agree on something here.

[ActingIsLovee]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 12:22pm

am I the only one who does not understand how the accident could have possibly been human error?

[BrianS]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 12:41pm

Had the cable snapped, it would have been mechanical error. The official word is that it is human error meaning that whomever was supposed to confirm that the cable was secured to both the actor and the anchor failed to do so. Based on the video, it looks like the cable wasn't properly fastened to the actor as the cable does not look like it travels with him as he falls.

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 12:45pm

Isn't the harness clip that the actress who plays Elphaba somehow rigged so that if it isn'r clipped on correctly the lift doesn't go up? Wonder if they could do something like that with this show.

Also, any more word on if an audience member was actually hit with the cable?

[Eris0303]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 12:46pm

Based on the video, it looks like the cable wasn't properly fastened to the actor as the cable does not look like it travels with him as he falls.

That's really hard to say. You can clearly see the rope being pulled taut but after that it's too fuzzy/dark to see if the rope travels down with him or snaps back.

[WestVillage]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 1:26pm

The rope would not travel down with him because he's not supposed to fall over the edge. He runs to the edge of the bridge and lights go out just as it appears he is going to leap. The cable, I imagine, is to keep him from falling.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 1:34pm

The rope would not travel down with him because he's not supposed to fall over the edge. He runs to the edge of the bridge and lights go out just as it appears he is going to leap. The cable, I imagine, is to keep him from falling.

Yes, the rope is there to keep him from going over the edge. If the rope was tied secure to him but not whatever was anchoring it then it would travel with him since that is what it's attached to. If it was secure to the anchor but not to him then it would not.

For arguements sake let's say you have a rope tied around your waist but the other end isn't tied to anything. If you fall the rope is coming with you.

Right now all we know is that it was "human error" but the details of what really went wrong are murky. It's all hypothesis right now.

[ActingIsLovee]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 1:35pm

Thank you BrianS. I was under the impression that the cable had snapped.

[BrianS]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 1:39pm

exactly. What really bothered me in this Post article:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/fourth_spider_man_actor_injured_oG3gj9Es3u7om0UXZAAyzL/2

Was this quote from the guy who builds the equipment:

“The stage crew would have been responsible for making the connection for hooking him up,” Fisher said. “The actor is responsible for making the final check that he’s good to go. It’s sort of like packing your own parachute."

That clip obviously hooks onto the actor's(stuntman?) back. How can he personally confirm it's secured correctly? To in any way infer that the actor is even partly responsible for this absolute lapse in safety is insane.

[BrianS]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 1:49pm

Eris, I believe the cable wasn't connected to the actor.

From the video, you can see the cable is at least 15 feet long. Had the cable been attached to the actor and not attached to the anchor upstage, when the actor fell, he would have fallen down, but for 15 feet+ of cable to follow him, it would gain phenomenal momentum toward the audience as it went around the lip of the ledge he fell off of. If you look at how close the front row is to this effect, that cable would have flung out like a whip and done serious injuries to audience members. None have been reported.

I guess it will all come out eventually, but I believe someone failed to secure it to the actor.

P.S. can you imagine if that cable did whip out into the audience at speed?

Updated On: 12/22/10 at 01:49 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 2:06pm

No, but do you get a little tingly in your down below as you imagine it?

[Harpz2006]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 2:28pm

Apparently Chris Tierney had surgery today to repair three cracked vertebrae. His dad wrote on facebook "Ok everyone, just got word that Christopher is out of surgery and everything went according to plan. The doctors are very optimistic." ~ Tim Tierney

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 2:36pm

You know, a lot of Americans were optimistic too that people weren't actually getting systematically murdered in Europe during WWII. Until Pearl Harbor happened anyway.

It's kind of funny, but there's a large group of people that still are very optimistic that the Holocaust never happened...

Weren't the news reports stating that ribs and internal bleeding were the issues? Since when were vertebrae part of the damage?? Next we'll find out he needs pins in his skull as well. It "was" a two story fall.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 2:37pm

For the magic man

[tazber]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 2:52pm

Thank you, Namo! I was trying to think of what that was called ever since magic mushroom man's Hitler comparison.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 3:06pm

Thanks for the wikipedia article. I'd like to trust that y'all didn't go ahead and edit it to your tastes before posting. Because god knows that you can

But, part of it did stick out to me. Let me break it down for ya'

"The law and its corollaries would not apply to discussions covering genocide..."

Well, actors consider themselves a different breed of people than most. And they're the ones getting hurt in near death experiences on this show.

"...propaganda..."

Reports that Chris was fine and all signs looked good by the Spidey team to find out that he was in fact in critical condition later one.

"...eugenics (racial superiority)..."

Well, Julie thinks she's better than everyone. She's made that clear by getting so upset that people are judging her art.

"or other mainstays of Nazi Germany, nor, more debatably, to discussion of other totalitarian regimes, since a Nazi comparison in those circumstances may be appropriate."

A totalitarian regime. Working for Julie Taymor. Being silenced by the production staff.


I guess Godwin's law doesn't apply to me here. Tee hee

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 3:14pm

ARE YOU EVEN REAL?!

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 3:19pm

Can we please distinguish that 'serious' condition is actually different from 'critical' condition? The latter meaning doctor's wouldn't be sure if he was going to live.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but when I watched the video of him being wheeled out of the theatre, he looked calm. He didn't look to be in intolerable pain. He didn't look like he was clinging to life.

I think by 'serious' condition, they probably mean that they've stopped the internal bleeding and are now checking him hourly (or periodically) to make sure it doesn't start again.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 3:21pm

I doubt it. Magic Man sounds like he's just making sh*t up for the attention. Either that, or he's Goth's sock. Same use of logical reasoning.

[Disneyland Magic Man]

Posted: 12/22/10 at 3:21pm

Check the threads, they did surgery on three vertebrae this morning. That means there was spinal injury as well. That's critical condition.