Broadway Mistakes- Page 2

[amcchemist]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 4:35pm

Well technically I saw the production in London where the mistake occured, but it was still funny. It was the night after opening night in London of WIW. During the graveyard scene in WIW, where Glyde (Oliver Darley) is lamenting the loss of his wife Laura, he is supposed to be singing to Mr. Farley (Edward Petherbridge). Well, Mr. Darley is singing away, but is singing to an empty wheelchair. Evidently, Mr. Petherbridge managed to miss his cue for the scene. So, while there were some lines for Farley in that section, Glyde was essentially singing to himself with no response from Farley. I was with a group of friends who also managed to get tickets opening night and so had already seen the show once. We began whispering to each other "Where's Farley?" Of course, the actors went on as if nothing had happened, so another friend who did not attend opening night never realized a big oopsie had just occured. At the end of the scene, the actor who was playing Farley's assitant/butler whatever, dutifully wheeled the chair off the stage. Rumor had it that Mr. Petherbridge missed his cue cause he fell asleep, but I don't know if I'd hold much truth to that. Still, I bet someone made sure he didn't miss another one.

[brandonm]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 7:15pm

When I saw Wicked for the first time, during Popular, Glinda (Megan Hilty) got the pink flower tangled in her hair and couln't get it out and it was really funny. Then on what wuz supposed to be Idina's last night Glinda couldnt get the flower to stay in Elphaba's hair. It was funny

[PitPro2004]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 7:34pm

I was watching one of the final performances of Crazy For You and the left side Lanks Hotel set piece refused to budge while the other set pieces moved. There was a deafening CRACK and a tech guy backstage started yelling STOP STOP!! They brought the curtain down for about 13 minutes and you could hear banging, scraping, shouting, and maybe even a little cussing! Finally, the curtain went up, the set was in place and the audience applauded. Unfortunately, because the set was where it wasn't supposed to be durring an ensemble members' exit, he ran into it,and gouged himself on a nail. He needed a tetanus shot and thankfully he was okay.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 8:07pm

As soon as I saw "DRS" Dre, I had a feeling it was your post

Same guy messed up a couple of lines in "The More We Dance" (same performance) and at another performance made a similar mistake to the one previously mentioned--it was during "Love Sneaks in"--maybe a little more than 10 seconds of silence.

[TLKfan]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 8:08pm

oh my gosh, how horrible! Quite interesting...

[Dre2387]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 8:10pm

i know WRQ. i know.

and pitpro, i love Crazy For You. First show I ever saw.

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 8:16pm

In a middle of a performance of "The Frogs," I forget what happened to cause this, but Nathan Lane momentarily stepped out of character and sarcastically said, "Ben Brantley should have seen *this* performance!" It brought the house down.

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 8:19pm

Hairspray National Tour-

Michael Cunio was on for Link and during Motormouth Maybelle's record shop scene where Link must decide against the segregation movement with Tracy he exits through the door and falls flat on his face, his legs are visible the whole time and he is then dragged off stage by a stage hand!! haha! Charma is a *****!


Wicked National Tour-

Katie Adams on as Glinda. During "What is this feeling?" she fumbled the line "unusually and exceedingly peculiar, etc" it came to sound like a bunch of jibberish.

Then in Popular she couldn't un-do the flower in her hair and said "just a second...just a second..its almost there.."

[Mamie]

Posted: 2/19/06 at 8:33pm

The last time I saw DRS (2/5) there was a little goof - nicely saved by Mr. Jbara. In the last bedroom scene with Christine and Freddy, you see Christine wearing a sheer purple negligee. In the next scene, you see Andree approaching Lawrence from stage right to tell him that Christine never got on the train. As he approached Jonathan, Greg saw that the purple negligee was laying on the right side of the stage. This wouldn't have been a major problem except for the fact that the next time you see Freddy, he's wearing that negligee! So Greg very smoothly continued talking to Lawrence while walking over to the negligee, rolling it up in a ball, and pitching it nicely into the wings. A little later - there it was, on the back of Mr. Butz.

[DirtyRottenGirl]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 2:18pm

When the Wicked Tour came to Chicago during Popular Glinda totally messed up her words and just went la la la. She also kept lifting up her skirt and saying ew. She did this for a whole verse. I know this isn't Broadway but I thought I would share.

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 2:19pm

Why was she... lifting her skirt and saying ew?

[tim10086]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 3:57pm

On the Australian tour of Mamma Mia, at the Civic Theatre in Auckland, there was a city-wide power outage the night I saw the show.

It happened during the "Thank You for the Music" when Sophie is handing out the room keys to her "dads". There was a massive CLICK sound, followed by the lights going out but then the working lights came on, evidently via a generator.

The superb girl playing Sophie kept singing, even though there was no band under her, barely audible of course, due to no amplification, at which point the actor playing Harry, John O'May (Australian Theatre LEGEND), pretty much told her, "no, just stop."

The show was down for about 30 minutes.

Posted: 2/20/06 at 4:03pm

dre...I saw that! It was my second time seeing the show and I think I was kind of in shock.

[MrBundles]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 4:04pm

When I saw Rent a few years ago when it came here on tour (at the aladdin), during No Day But Today, the power in the building went out. The theatre went black, and the cast kept singing, and the emergency lights came on, and they kept singing. It was an amazing finale.

[Dre2387]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 4:40pm

broadwaylover2: i know! my friend (who has seen it about 15 times) and i were in the front row and when that happened, i was looking down, embrassed, and she was looking up, embrassed. it was so sad.

mamie, you never told us that! cool! lol.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 5:38pm

Hahaha, that was funny Dre. It wasn't so much embarassed, as I guess we couldn't even watch, and just looked in opposite directions.

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 5:41pm

I saw "Hairspray" I think 2 years ago when it came on tour in L.A. (or it might have been last year, I don't know), and whoever the Penny was totally forgot to say "PLEASE!" at the beginning of "Mama I'm A Big Girl Now" -- Amber and Tracy said it, and she came in halfway through the word and for like 1 second after, it was Penny going "eeeeze!" Lol, you had to be there.

[thetheatrekook]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 5:43pm

my favorite one ever (that I unfortunately didn't see...I was told about it):

National Tour of Les Mis...the girl playing Cosette forgot the words to "In My Life", so instead of singing "In my life, there are so many questions and answers..." she just sings "In my life, in my life in my life in my life in my life in my liiiife" Ha! I wish I could have seen it.

I also Wicked while Taye Diggs was in it, and he threw the broom to Elphie and TOTALLY missed...everyone just lost it, and they started the scene over again. It was GREAT.

[musicalkid]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 5:47pm

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in London -

how can a show with SO MUCH scenery not get stuck each time with SOMETHING!
(a very obvious spoiler ahead!)
when i saw it, there's the part in the end, where the childcatcher is surrounded by lots of kids and tied up lifted to the top of the theatre (i assume that's what supposed to happened- since it never did)- the kids took alot of time trying to hook him to the string that's supposed to lift him up, and when they didn't make it a stage hand appeared from stageleft and they all rolled him out of the stage.

(the spoiler was that the bad guy is caught-if you missed it)
it was all quite clean and quite and wasn't that obvious until Mr. Potts shoots to the theatre ceiling (where the childcatcher was apperently supposed to be) and the childcatcher's screams were heard while the thingies fell.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 9:25pm

I saw 42nd St. during one of it's first previews. During "We're in the Money" several dancers(4 or 5) fell and during the finale while dancing down the steps and dancer fell and knocked down two other people. Supposedly (according to an usher)they used a new type of floor wax that made some parts very slippery. And during "Lullaby of Broadway" one dancer clearly forgot the steps and walked off stage. I guess that's what previews are for.

[ALWrules]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 10:13pm

Thetheaterkook- that is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I saw WIW on Broadway in Late December and their were two notable mistakes, one from the cast and one from the orchestra.
The one from the cast was near the end of the show, and had to do with the projections. When Glyde leaves after getting Mr. Fairfax to sign away Laura's estate Ron Bohmer exited right through a bookcase on the wall. I don't know whether he went to the wrong door or the projections were wrong, but it was really funny. The orchestral mistake was at the end of Everymore Without You, where as he holds his long last note, the french horn repeats the motif of the song in a dramatic fashiom (people who are familiar with the song know what I'm talking about) and this time the horn completely muffed it. It sounded terrible and ruined the entire moment of the song, but I just laughed.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 10:18pm

Mr. Fairfax - haha thats from Jane Eyre. In WIW is Fairlie.

[ALWrules]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 10:19pm

Lol, talk about a slip! Probably its because I am listening to Jane Eyre right now. I love that score!

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 10:30pm

I saw Hairspray in Boston 4 times. During one scene, Link says he has a Zippo lighter and a can of hairspray to break her out of jail. I think whoever was playing Link forgot to bring the can of hairspray out on stage, because when the line came up, he paused in the middle of his sentence:

"Well, I have a Zippo lighter, and [pause], yeah I have a Zippo lighter!"

And I forgot if it was Keala or a standby playing Tracy, but she proceeded to adlib and mention how he used his "council ring" to help bail her out of jail, rather than the Hairspray can.

[sognatora]

Posted: 2/20/06 at 10:39pm

when i saw wicked in march of 05 (with idina and kristin), in the scene when elphaba slaps glinda in the face, the slap sound effect went on wayyy before idina actually went and slapped kristen. I'm talking a full second or two. They both kept a straight face until kristen said, "Ow". And then they just burst out laughing. I actually think the sound effect went off twice, come to think of it...