Break A Leg

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/22/04 at 11:59pm

According to The Producers, you are not supposed to say good luck on opening night. How did the phrase "break a leg" come to be in terms of a different way of saying good luck?

[CurtainUp]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 12:17am

I've heard two ways.

1) the leg of the curtain, opening the curtain, break the leg.

2) to bow to the queen after a show, bend or break your leg.

[Mythus]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 1:20am

I always assumed that understudies would say it to the actors, in hopes that they would indeed break a leg and the understudy could go on in their place. But that's just me being silly.

[Paul LW]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 2:58am

My English teacher said that it is just all based on superstition...that way back when they believed that if you really wished someone "good luck" the opposite would happen...so they wished you to "break a leg"...yet the original way was something along the lines of "break both your legs, arm, and your neck" etc...but it got cut down to just "break a leg"

That's what I believe it is. =)

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 9:21am

PAUL- I heard the same thing but CurtainUp's reasins make sense too.

[EponineThenardier]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 11:17am

Mythus, I like yours :)

[Menken Fan]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 11:39am

My official phrase origin guide (yes, one exists) says:

"Apparently wishing for something bad to happen is thought to be an insurance against it really happening. Another explanation is that 'breaking a leg' refers to bending at the knee in the act of bowing or curtseying when being applauded after a good performance. A further, rather fanciful, explanation suggests that it is an injunction to emulate the great Sarah Bernhardt, who had only one leg."

So, take your pick.

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 4:12pm

"Another explanation is that 'breaking a leg' refers to bending at the knee in the act of bowing or curtseying when being applauded after a good performance."
I had heard that before.

[SamIAm]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 6:16pm

From one theater glossary explanation: I've heard the Booth one but it doesn't seem to make sense

'Superstition against wishing an actor Good Luck! has led to the adoption of this phrase in its place. Popular etymology derives the phrase from the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth, the actor turned assassin, leapt to the stage of Ford's Theater after the murder, breaking his leg in the process. The logical connection with good luck is none too clear, but such is folklore.

There is no evidence, however, to suggest that this is the true derivation, and since the earliest usage of the phrase dates to the 1920s, there is much to suggest that it is not. The best that can be said is that the origin is unknown.

A DICTIONARY OF CATCH PHRASES (see below) suggests that there may be a connection with the German phrase Hals und Beinbruch, an invitation to break your neck and bones. The German phrase is used by aviators and is equivalent to the English phrase Happy Landings!. Both phrases arose about the same time, the early twentieth century, but the connection between the German aviation community and American theater is unclear, so they may be unrelated.'

The one I was told by my theater prof in my early days in theater was that it referenced the 'bend the knee' to the queen or king to whom you were giving the performance.

[lovettespies]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 6:25pm

I've heard the curtain explanation, but I heard more about it. The theory is that after enough curtain calls and openings of the curtain you'll "break the leg".

[secret-soul]

Posted: 8/23/04 at 6:29pm

In the theatre of Shakespeare, there were groundlings...the ones who stood right at the front of the stage. Now, these groundlings were played to, that's why there's teenage sex, ghosts, witches, etc. in Shakespeare's plays. The idea was that if the actors really pleased the groundlings, they would drool (as the groundlings often would) and "break a leg" refers to slipping and breaking your leg because you did so well that the groundling drooled all over the downstage area. It's gross...but that's the story I know...I've never heard of the others.