Biggest mistake you've witnessed on stage. — Page 6

Ok, Dance of the Vampires has been closed for how many years now? Where's that beating a dead horse graphic when you need it!

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The biggest mistake I've witnessed on stage was, Nancy Hess' performance in the revival of Chicago.

Legally Blonde:
This was RIGHT before the stagehand strike:

I went to see Legally Blonde on a night when Noah Weisberg [sigh] was on as Emmett. During "Blood in the Water" the desks on the right side where Laura Bell, Richard and Kate sit never came on, but the left side came on. The cast could not stop themselves from smirking and trying not to crack up. The ensemble stood but Laura Bell not missing a beat just sat on the floor and pretended as if there was a seat: Micheal Rupert made his entrance and said his line then turned and looked away to crack up. The following scene where Emmett tells Elle her law career is not over, Noah said the line and then Laura said "Thats so not the problem, but, there weren't enough chairs in there." The audience roared. Then during "Positive", the classroom doors from "Blood in The Water" never moved, until a stagehand came out and moved it, so Laura Bell spun to cover the hole in the stage and almost fell but Richard and Kate pushed her forward slightly to keep her from falling.

Also during the same performance, Noah didnt drink enough of the Redbull and Laura spun with Bruiser and it spilled onstage.

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Small ones:

During Wicked once, Eden completely skipped the "for the first time I feel wicked.." line and moved on to the next line and Derrick sort of freaked and just kissed her again to cover it.

During Hairspray, the Corny Collins podium got stuck coming on and a stagehand had to shove it onstage.

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Updated On: 2/13/08 at 08:01 PM

A regional production of Tosca in the early 80s when the woman playing Tosca flings herself off the wrong part of the battlements at the end, completely missing the crash pads and putting herself in the hospital. She didn't make the curtain call.

She was behind in her blocking as she ran up the stairs and decided to jump with the music rather than wait until she got to the proper place on the set.

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The lion king a long time ago nala fell broke her leg and her understudy was out so they sent some random person with a script out!!

Yeah, I think we went over this three years ago in this very thread.

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When I went on the "Wicked" behind the scenes tour someone asked our hosts about things going wrong in shows they were in. Here are the stories:

1.) One of them made their B'way debut in "Titanic." His big moment was toward the end of the show when he was playing the lookout who spotted the iceberg. He was supposed to shout "Iceberg! Iceberg!" as ice chips fell onto the set. Well, one night for whatever reason he just went blank, and all he could say was "Ice! Falling Ice!"

2.) One of them was a Swing in "Wicked" and said one night he came onstage for "No one mourns the Wicked". He got about half way through the number when he looked next to him and saw the person he was supposedly swinging in for. He had gotten confused and was doing the wrong track - so there were two guys doing exactly the same thing, and one big gap onstage.

That's not to mention the times when the Titanic ship didn't sink, or in Phantom when the boat malfunctioned and started going backwards with the Phantom and Christine still in it.

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At Lieutenant of Inishmore at Syracuse Stage, some nights the cat wouldn't come out for the end, so they would make noises from offstage of a cat meowing to give the actor a reason to go get it. The cat became such a problem, they made it an actual sound cue that was ready to go on.

Also, one of the nights, the blood dispenser went off a good two seconds after the gun was fired. It looked a little funny with the delay

Last May, I was 'Eddie Flagrante' in a production of ZOMBIE PROM. One night, during "That's the Beat For Me" my mind was evidently somewhere else (in truth, I had just found out that a dear friend had passed away before going on). So, I'm working the second verse, and all of the sudden, I turn to the audience and I'm all, "--It's live theatre folks!" and I went right into the chorus without any problems. It got a good laugh from the house that night.

Also at ZOMBIE PROM, I believe it was that same evening, during "At the Dance" (the lead-in to "Expose"), I fell going UP a narrow staircase (that's what I get for 'side-stepping my way to Delilah - literally), and as expected, I fell (HARD) on my knee. The audience gave a collective gasp, and without thinking, I lept right back up and continued the number, working the tango like never before with a busted kneecap. Little did I know, there was blood (quite a bit). Of course, I didn't take notice until after I got back to my dressing room.

Then, there was one performance thereafter, when I was feeling al the more giddy, and wanted to 'change things up a bit' for my buddy playing "Jo(h)nny" - Backstage, I remember telling him, "I'll take care of you out there, just follow my lead." So, we get out there during "Come Along and Join Us" at the T.V.Station, and the girl playing the Station Manager did her bit (hilarious stuff), and there was one instance in particular when she glared at Jo(h)nny 'just long enough' for me to turn to the audience, back to the manager, and then, take in Jo(h)nny's facial - the whole 'nervous', 'what'd I do?' kinda thing - and this came out, "Hey ,don't worry, kid. *beat* She won't hurt ya!" During the dialogue before "Expose", the audience was giggling to themselves 'cause we were 'getting frisky' (as it were) and so, I turn to the house and go, "Oh yeah, we're goin' there!" They howled for that line, which made me feel really good about the performance. It was a wonderful run throughout, despite all of the personal obstacles I had to overcome at the time...

When I saw the Capitol Steps (political satire group) they were doing a John Kerry and George Bush skit, and John Kerry said to George in the middle after a line mistake, "Uh, George why don't we stick to the script?" and George replied, "The problem with playing George Bush is you start to become him after a while!" The audience loved it!

Carrie

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I think the socks are supposed to come down - I feel it gives Moritz a more scattered, anxious look.

Anyway, I saw RENT on tour and during La Vie Boheme, Mark fell off the table when he was dancing. Ouch!

Personal - We were doing a production of Our Town, and since it's not a very lively play, we decided to add our own little quirks to some characters. In one scene, Mrs. Gibbs gives Mr. Gibbs some pancakes for breakfast, and our Mr. Gibbs decided he was just going to continue pouring the syrup throughout his entire long-winded speech. We thought the audience wouldn't really notice, but as he continued talking, giggles and mumbling could be heard. Then, someone cried out, "He's still pouring!" and the entire audience burst out laughing. Our Mrs. Gibbs couldn't contain her own laughter and interrupted him with, "Honey, why are you using so much syrup?" Joel paused, looked at his plate for a few moments and finally announced, "I'm feeling sweet today!"

The cast of the current revival of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE.

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