Bret Michaels' Issues His Own Response To Tony Award Injury

[WishingOnlyWounds2]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 8:50pm

"It was evident I was backing up and moving in the direction to exit the stage for at least 30 to 40 feet and it is plain to see I had no clue this prop was descending. For God sake, they have at least a five second delay to prevent the airing of unapproved expletives and nudity!"


"Had no clue."
Did the set not descend at the dress rehearsal?

Bret Michaels' Issues His Own Response To Tony Award Injury

Updated On: 6/13/09 at 08:50 PM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:02pm

What does nudity have to do with it?

[defyingravity07]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:07pm

It DID come down at rehearsal.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:10pm

Well you see everyone move out of the way, and Brett just stands there waving at the audience and THEN decides to move. And yes, that HAD to be rehearsed with the sets and all

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:13pm

...watching The Fortune Cookie on TCM right now....maybe Brett should hire Matthau!! LOL!

No, really, I've seen a couple near fatal "accidents" on the Bway stage, notably Nick & Nora, and some magic type show years ago when Gregory Peck's daughter almost got severely injured. Can't remember the details??

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:16pm

The mention of the 5 second delay has more to do with his pride being hurt from him hitting knocked horizontal on live tv than with him being injured.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:17pm

I will say that Bret comes off a bit more sympathetic by not blaming anyone in particular but he needs to say that he was drunk or high or lip syncing or about to drop trou, or blinded by Angela's glow.
He is generating his own press.

[scott68]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:31pm

Considering this is probably the most press Bret Michaels has gotten in years, I'm almost impressed at the good humor and restraint he's shown in his response to the incident, because I would have expected him to milk it a lot more.

However, the reason he didn't notice the fly dropping at rehearsal is because he either wasn't paying attention to anything going on around him or sent a stand-in. The rehearsal performance of the opening number, which they ran through twice, went perfectly smoothly.

[singer73192]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:36pm

I remember on a Twitter from the Tony awards they mentioned a stand-in for Bret Michael. I'm not sure when he was used.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:41pm

even if thats the case, tis still his fault for not attending the rehearsal.

[bundy5000]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 9:44pm

I blame Nancy Pelosi for this mishap!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:15pm

Why do Bret and his people keep calling it a "prop"?

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:16pm

I know I read somewhere that he skipped the rehearsal, but I don't recall if I read it from a reliable source.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:30pm

He wasn't even AT the rehearsal.

And the piece flying in is called a SET PIECE, not a PROP.

GD whiner.

[defyingravity07]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:31pm

I heard he missed the first run through & was there for the second.

[TonyVincent]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:34pm

Someone was there for the second. I thought it was him but maybe not. Whoever was there was lipsynching, so at least there was some consistency to the actual performance.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:35pm

If he had been at a rehearsal, he would have known.

period.

[DAME]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:42pm

The Tonys were a technical disaster PERIOD.

[morosco]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 10:45pm

That cowboy hat and the way he was wearing it very low down on his head probably didn't help the situation. Can't see much with that.

[heo1128]

Posted: 6/13/09 at 11:55pm

RE: that last line...did he expect them to censor his mishap? I don't believe the FCC hands out fines for airing embarrassing moments.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 6/14/09 at 12:44am

What a douche.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/14/09 at 1:14am

Sigh. He was merely pointing out there are contingency plans for all sorts of things. Like a 5-second delay to bleep swears and cut away when there are wardrobe malfunctions. So, he is saying he is surprised that the descending wall was apparently unstoppable. That is all.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/14/09 at 1:32am

For what its worth... I do agree with him that someone should have been monitoring the lowering of the drop and slowed it down or stopped it completely seeing that Bret Michaels was heading towards it. His beef is just that -- that no one did off-stage was noticed that an obvious accident was about to take place.

They can have a 5-second delay to prevent airing an accidental expletive slip or flash of nudity but they can't have someone monitoring set pieces being rolled on stage or raised and lowered?

I agree with him on that.

Also, he does take responsibility for not seeing the set piece coming down as it was out of his sight-line -- due to his cowboy hat, obviously. Even someone with a simple baseball cap wouldn't have been able to see that set piece coming down unless they were looking up. He was looking straight forward.

[jennafan]

Posted: 6/14/09 at 2:47am

People, let this story go... It's OLD!

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 6/15/09 at 10:51am

Re: the rehearsal...to try to set this straight once and for all...

Before they started the actual run-through, they ran-through/rehearsed the opening number, stopping to work on the finale. Bret was not there for that part. (He actually didn't even have a stand-in, it was pretty weird watching the Rock of Ages number with two groups on the right and left, and thinking...shouldn't someone be in the center?)

Anyway, then they finished work on the opening, and said now they will start the run-through beginning with the opening. Bret was there for that one.

Updated On: 6/15/09 at 10:51 AM