Broadway stage mishaps/accidents

Poor Simone.

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I don't know who, but one of the Elphaba's nearly fell out of the lift during "Defying Gravity". In the middle of her verse, she just quit singing and yelled for help. The show stopped for about a minute. It's up on YouTube somwhere.

Saw Bring It On for the first time last night, and during one of the tumbling stunts in the Truman High performance for nationals in the 2nd act, one female cheerleader got hit in the head as someone was coming down from their basket toss. This shook her up enough that she was clearly out of place and she got hit again when one of the male cheerleaders did a backwards tumbling pass to the corner of the stage. They collided downstage left (but seemed fine afterwards).

With all the crazy stunts in that show, I'm sure this isn't the first bang up....but it seemed timely based on the start of this thread!

Updated On: 12/12/12 at 08:02 AM

Nathan Lane messed up his leg descending through a trap door in The Frogs. He landed on Simone, who died.

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Wasn't Simone always smoking right outside the stage door during intermission?

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Not Broadway - but during the Pre-Broadway run in Chicago, the Tomb in Aida (which originally "floated" in mid air)collapsed during the final scene. It sent Adam Pascal and Heather Headley crashing to the floor. The show was stopped and the Stage Manager literally asked the audience if there was "A Doctor in the House."

Don't forget Idina Menzels fall in Wicked, and the actor's fall from the ship in Little Mermaid.

Also, the set for Sunset Blvd was notorious for moving on it's own (well, due to cell phone "waves") and occasionally tripped up actors.

I once saw "Bertha" the Elephant fall when it was taking the stage in the parade at the start of Lion King. The entire thing went over taking down all four "legs." They got back up, and the audience cheered, but it was obvious once one leg goes - they all go.

Updated On: 12/12/12 at 11:37 AM

I guess he put his stamp on her!

Fixed! Half asleep homophones!

Anne Crumb - OUCH

What about Gmerchant's Sondheim story? Is that true? Sounds apocryphal to me, at least the part about stopping the show. (This is not to blame the poster. He said he heard the story secondhand.)

K8eeyore-- I'm curious where a trap door is used in Fiddler...?

Phantom is famous for its mishaps, possibly because the staging and makeup are so complex. I read about one Phantom (I forget whom) who got stuck in the angel. The audience started razzing him. He tried to stay in character by scowling at the jokers while the stagehands tried to lower the angel so he could get out. Apparently, the Phantom's prosthetic lip has fallen off during the kiss with Christine (she maneuvered it back on). I saw video of the scene where Buquet is supposed to scare the young dancers with stories about the Phantom -- only Meg wound up singing the song instead. (I assume that the actor playing Buquet was suddenly taken ill). My favorite, however, isn't a mishap at all. Instead, it was probably a method to avoid heart attacks. In the Las Vegas production (now closed), because there was no intermission, the chandelier crashed at the end of the show, as it did in the 2004 movie. Just before it plunged, the Phantom would shout, "Bring down the chandelier!" Even with the warning, audience members always screamed at the fast-moving, computerized chandelier careening towards them. I'm convinced that someone insisted that the Phantom shout the "Bring down the chandelier" line to avoid panic, since it made no sense for the Phantom to be ordering someone to crash the chandelier for him.

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1.) The Phantom also has a line - though a different one - in the 'full length' Phantom of the Opera.

2.) Mary Martin's crash had nothing to do with an equipment malfunction, it was actually operator error.

3.) Someone in a Tree, the revival of Fiddler used a trap door during the nightmare scene.