Actor injured this afternoon in Little Mermaid — Page 7

Jez! That list of injuries in The NY Times is eye watering! My god, how lucky is he?

---

Its at the beginning of this thread Winston- i read 2 mins ago!

---

For what it's worth - a few thoughts:

A friend of mine (in fact, best man at my wedding) works on Little Mermaid, though he was not backstage when this terrible event happened. He has told me (in confidence so I will not repeat details) what he THINKS happened, but was not in any position to see it first hand. For what it's worth he believes that it was a true combination of unfortunate circumstances, not willful negligence that led to this situation.

He is also a long time B'way vet, and says that the carpenters in charge of this production are perhaps the most conscientious that he's ever worked with. However, should this lawsuit get ugly, undoubtedly somebody will need to get blamed, whether it is/was their fault or not.

I have worked for Disney in the past (here on B'way) and found that (in my opinion) they are as conscientious as they are legally required to be regarding safety. There are some situations and circumstances that are difficult to foresee, and other situations where the person who foresees an accident is ignored. I have no idea which applies to this - my friend (whom I trust) seems to think that there's no fault of anybody missing a specific checkout or inspection. I am no fan of Disney, but I will withhold any judgment until I can find out more specifically what happened. Do bear in mind; there is no better company on the planet at creating their public image.

I have met Adrian Bailey way back when he was in Smokey Joe's Cafe and he's a fine guy, extremely talented singer and I hope he can make a full, speedy and minimally painless recovery.

I also hope that the two girls that he almost landed on will be able to move past their trauma. I cannot imagine what any of those involved have been through or what they will go through as their minds try to process all this.

'nuff said (for now)

---

Willful negligence is an actual legal term Curtain.

From the Legal Dictionary:

"Willful Negligence - Intentional performance of an unreasonable act in disregard of a known risk, making it highly probable that harm will be caused. Willful negligence usually involves a conscious indifference to the consequences. There is no clear distinction between willful negligence and gross negligence."

As I understand it - it means someone didn't do their job, (ie saftey inspection, etc), even though they knew that injury or harm could occur.

Updated On: 5/17/08 at 09:28 PM

^ Exactly. Thanks jordangirl.

"I don't know the legal meaning of "Willful negligence" but I am sure no one thinks this was anything but an accident, but there are basically two scenarios.
1. Whoever was in charge of securing the trap door missed a step.
2. The door itself was faulty and just gave way. "

While I wouldn't assume it to be absolute fact, all logic points to it being #1. If it was #2 and the door was faulty, wouldn't they shut down the production and not allow the set piece to be used? I mean, they used that trap door in performance the very night the accident happened. If they really thought it was structural, I cannot imagine them using it a mere hour later.

---

This has been on my mind a lot lately and I'm praying for Mr. Bailey's full recovery. Whosever fault it is and whatever happened...it's truly unfortunate.

Brody...I did not go to the link you posted until just now. I totally remember when that happened. It was a big deal.

---

Winston-

You truly cannot link accidents in the Disney parks to Broadway shows. The 'physical' producer of the show is Thomas Schumacher, who is a sort of 'representative' for Disney. He's the one making the decisions as to where the money is put and used, etc. If you're looking to blame it on Disney, you're blaming a company so large that it's useless to even point a finger.

To pull the Walt Disney Company's 'death-track record' from any and every division to use toward an argument about an accident with an actor in one of their Broadway shows? Ignorant. I am in no way defending the Disney Company, but I cannot see what an accident on a rollercoaster more than a thousand miles away has to do with an accident on a show's set in New York City?

Stageishome,

I was using the parks as a way to create an example of how Disney does cut corners and how they don't do things as safe as they can. Keep in mind that earlier in this thread people were talking about all the saftey issues with some of their other Broadway shows. But, it was only after this particular situation that all the other ones slowly came out of the wood work.

---

I don't know about accidents per se, but I know that the swings are constantly on due to injuries, both chronic and acute, (as well as the usual vacations and personal days). There is one swing who was on, injured himself, for more than three months straight. When he finally got a day he thought the men would all be in, he was thrown on at intermission because of a sudden act one injury.

I don't know who has been going on for Bailey since his accident, but I do know people who have been called in to audition for his track since it happened. Some have said yes, some have refused for various reasons.