Character breakers- Page 2

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 9/24/04 at 9:04pm

During a production of "Sleeping Beauty" the jester has to carry this cauldron that is supposed to be "filled with magic potions" across the stage. While she was doing this a little kid screamed, "Is that really heavy?" She looked right at him and grunted "YES!" All the adults started cracking up, and all of us backstage were doing everything we could to stop laughing.

[observer]

Posted: 9/24/04 at 10:34pm

These are great! You couldn't make up some of this stuff. That's what's so much fun about live theatre.

This is slightly off the original topic, but as this has become a war story thread...
So one time we were doing The Wiz, and I was working crew, watching from the wings. The Tin Man is supposed to throw his axe to one of the Yellow Brick Road members (that's a role for several dancers by the way). They are to pass it between themselves, afraid of it, and then he is supposed to get it later that scene to vanquish this big snake. So... either the throw was bad or the catch, but the axe hit the stage and the head broke off the handle. What to do? The "brick chicks" gamely pick the parts up and pass it around. In the mean time, I went to get my screw gun, some screws, and some gaffer tape. When the parts got to the nearest brick to the wings, I tried to get her to bring it to me, but she held it. In the heat of the moment, I walked a few steps on stage (hoping to be unnoticed), screw gun in hand, to get the pieces from her. The audience roared. We got it back together well enough to finish the scene, more applause as it made its re-entrance, and from then on, the audience and cast fed on each other. It was a running gag for ad libs throughout. The prop lady put the back-up axe in the Wiz's bag, and after giving the Tin Man his heart, yes, he got a new axe too.
Sometimes the best shows happen by accident. Updated On: 9/25/04 at 10:34 PM

[NoDayButToday2]

Posted: 9/24/04 at 10:47pm

'Sometimes the best shows happen by accident. '

Too true

[bwaybabe87]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 1:46pm

haha..these are all funny..

i got two:

when I was in Annie a long time ago we had a problem with little kids in the audience. It got so bad that kids were actually sitting on the stage and throwing popcorn and running around dancing..lol..ok that wasnt a good one..

and then recently i was in music man..and at the end when we're all waiting for the band to start playing and its supposed to be all tense and stuff..there was this old lady in it who was soo dramatic..and shed always make these wierd noises during different parts..but one night when it was completely silent waiting for harold to conduct the band she let out this "OOOH!!!!" noise and all the teens had to hold our breath to stop our laughter...once finale came we laughed the whole way through it lol

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 3:12pm

Again, slightly off topic, but...

I was the Baker in ITW and Jack's Mother had just been killed. The actress was a LARGE girl and by necessity, had to "die standing up" (Hey, it worked for old Cap'n Cotchipee!)

Anyway, the Steward and I had to take her up by the arms and drag her offstage after her demise. In doing so, we dragged her heels over one of those access plates in the floor for light cables? You know, the ones with the crosshatching on them?

The sound produced by her heels was like the loudest fart in stage history, and the Steward and I died in the wings. We couldn't even come back on for a minute.

Posted: 9/25/04 at 3:21pm

Well, this is actually something I did that made the audience lose it. I was in a community production of "Brigadoon," and my character was supposed to be dancing around, all drunk. So I had a cup of ale in my hand, and I'm swinging it around. There was a part when I had to fall on the ground. When that time came, I lost control of the cup, and it rolled down, into the orchestra pit. It landed on a piano, made a loud noise, and some people in the front lost it. I was freaking out at the time, but it was so funny.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 3:27pm

My father went to a performance of Equus. And about 20 minutes into the play an elderly couple was seated late. Anthony Hopkins was on stage doing a monologue and totally snapped out of character. He stopped the show and started yelling and scolding the couple. Then the show went on.
This happened to me at camp when my show had to see the dress rehersal of the other show in our theatre, Oklahoma (we were JCS) and we were an outdoor theatre and across the lawn from us was another theatre (indoors) that was doing a WW2 play. Right after the "Oklahoma!" finale, they said "Oklahoma! YA!" and two seconds after there was a gunshot and a scream from the other theatre. Perfect timing.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 3:32pm

A few weeks ago, I played Albert Peterson in "Bye Bye Birdie" and 2 things come to mind. On opening night, right before "Honestly Sincere," our Conrad gave the mayor of Sweet Apple such a push that he fell right off the podium. I had to break character to turn around and make sure he was ok. Secondly, in our production, we added the Tyne Daly number,"A mother doesn't matter anymore" for the woman playing my mother. Well, on closing night, she gave such a hilarious, showstopping rendition of it, that after the applause had died down, and I was about to launch into my next line, she decided to throw in one more exaggerated sob which sent both the audience and myself into hysterical fits of laughter. I didn't feel too badly though. It was closing night of a very succesful and problem-free run and we already had the audience right in the palm of our hand, they loved it. :)

Posted: 9/25/04 at 4:15pm

Just a silly story that stopped a show for a bit:

My high school did A Midsummer Night's Dream. The director got the idea to have Puck fly in. We did have the fly space, but everything was VERY low tech, so her solution was to have Puck hanging up there on a rope held by four football players she recruited who would then provide the 'flight'. Unfortunately, they had to stand on a platform in the wings that gave them a birds eye view of Titania's decolletage. Of course, one evening Titania spread her arms wide, and the entire front of her dress split completely open, spilling its contents out into freedom. Needless-to-say, the football players became transfixed, and Puck came falling out of the night sky directly on top of Titania's tits.

If I remember correctly, it took approximately ten minutes for order to be restored and the Dream to continue.

[DestinyBeckoned]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 4:20pm

Hey, thats cool, we added "mother doesn't matter" too, it was a great number.

Man, this thread is really entertaining. I haven't really experienced many funny audience moments, but there was a really rude one in our production of Dracula. When Lucy goes out into the audience and is being all creepy and vampirey, these kids from our school decided it would be funny to follow her around. Poor Lucy didn't know what to do, but eventually they sat back down.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 4:25pm

I was 13 doing Hansel and Gretel, the Hunmperdink oper aversion. I was playing Hansel.

one performance.. the actress playing the witch caught her shawl in the gingerbread house door. She had to wiggle out of it and ended up having to go through "the side door" every time she had to go into the house because she had jammed the set door.

final dress rehearsal.. we had an audience of several girl scout troops that had been invited. act three.. "gretel" and I push teh witch into the oven, the stage lights go trhough a chase sequence as roar builds, there is suppossed to be a sound effect of a big explosion and the lights go to black. well, when teh explosion went off, my stuck up obnioxious spoiled brat of an understduy was leaning against the 6 foot tall effect speaker backstage, forgot about that, and when the effect went off, EVERYONE in the place could here him scream "Oh SH*T!!" EVERY girl scout in the places gasped at the same time.. the lights fade up, gretel and I are DYING.

[Type_A_Tiff]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 4:34pm

I was in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest, playing Gwendolyn. It was closing night, and we had all been trying to make each other laugh on stage to no avail, and then I had the scene where I heatedly show "Cecily" my diary. Before the show, I had stuck in my diary a crude image that shows us, the four leads, in a...compromising position. (God bless Photoshop.) So the actress who plays Cecily gazes at the diary for a beat, nose flared, misses her line, and looks at me. And who starts laughing? Me. Yep. And I'm hysterical. And there's no way this can be written into the show because my character is supposed to be pissed. And I've got tears of laughter running down my face, and Cecily looks aghaust (as does my director who's sitting in the front row). I finally pull it together and finish the scene, and look to the wings to my not-very-amused co-stars. And then what do I do? I burst into tears. On stage. And break the forth wall, stop the show, and apologize to the audience and blame it on closing-night jitters.

The crying continued all through intermission, and they had to delay the start of Act 2 because of me.

Good times.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 7:07pm

thought of another- in my school's production of annie we had a runway built around the orchestra pit which the actors all knew that it wasn't the sturdiest thing in the world however the choreographer did not. for the nyc number she decided to have a set of rockettes (don't ask why it was the only constant between the 35 staging changes of that number including 2 during the run) do a kick line on it...needless to say at one rehearsal we heard a resounding crash and the 6 girls disappeared as the musical director screamed out "they're okay keep singing!"

[WhatDoINeedWithLove?]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 8:28pm

I was in a production of Pippin and at the end Pippin doesnt do the "finale" and so the players go downstage and basically beckon audience memebers to do the finale and this girl in the front row thought that the audience was really supposed to go onstage so SHE DID! lol, i admit i probably laughed a little. another cast member just took her backstage like it was part of the show, it was pretty damn funny though

[milliefan1922]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 11:17pm

Many years ago I was in The King and I. During the ballet scene somehow (I was onstage during this part, so I actually didn't SEE it) one of our "walls" onstage fell over and everyting going on backstage (there were about 5 frantic costume changes taking place) could be seen. And those of us onstage just keep going...and you could see one of the parents in the front row who was video taping zoom in on everyone scrambling to put the wall back up. It was hilarious.

Another time (in the same show) The fireworks sound effect (which was the kids' cue) didn't go off...so Tuptim tries to wave the kids on, and they come on, exactly as they are supposed to, screaming because they are afraid of the fireworks...and there are no fireworks going off, the looks on the audience's faces were priceless. They were all so confused. It was very amusing. My that was a great show.

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/25/04 at 11:58pm

One time when I was playing Amarillyis in The Music Man, I had to dance with this girl (dressed as a boy) in Shapoopi. She had THE WORST B.O. in this entire nation. But, the show must go on, so I never mentioned anything.. One night, the director switched it so I danced with Winthrop (which makes much more sense..) so the girl playing Gracie Shinn was with "stink-pot". So, during that first performance with the partner switch, the song is going great.. but during the dance break when Tommy says "Come on Professor, show us some steps!".. we all begin to dance and this little girl goes "AW MANNN!!!! You smell like an onion with.. (mic comes on) DHIREA!"

The whole cast died. So much for the dance break!

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 12:32am

bump!

[MyNameInLights]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 12:49am

DollyGirl, that is the funniest thing I have ever heard in my life!

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:05am

Later on she fell in the pit! It was a crazy night..

[MyNameInLights]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:09am

The stink pot fell in the pit?

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:17am

Gracie Shinn.. (I wish stink-pot had!)

[LadyGuenevere]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:19am

I was in a production of Sleeping Beauty, and for the part where everyone was asleep and the forest grew there, we had a big green net of leaves that the fairies covered the stage (and the royal family/servents/SB with).

This net was ridiculous, each performance I was so worried that it would catch on something and we would drag something across the stage when we uncovered the stage when Sleeping Beauty awoke.

The last performance, I was dragging the net back, and I heard the kids in the audience shriek with laughter. I looked back and I saw that I had pulled off all headpieces, crowns, all the like. I ran offstage before I burst out into laughter.

After the show, the kids asked me why I stole their crowns and everything. That killed me.

And there's plenty more from where that came from.

I played Rebecca Gibbs in a black box theater (Our Town), and when I was supposed to make my exit, I jumped up from the table and took a step, and the CHAIR MOVED WITH ME. My dress got stuck to it. Wally already forgot about me and ran offstage, and I just stood there- warning myself not to scream "OH SH*T!"- and I yelled "MAMMAAAA! I'm going to be late to school!" at the top of my lungs, and she and George had to remove the dress from the chair- which took a minute.

I ran into the dressing room and cried. That was awful (of course I'm laughing at it now).

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:22am

the stink pot's dad was about 300 pounds overweight, and also stank..

[DollyGirl]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:27am

Meip!

Updated On: 9/26/04 at 01:27 AM

[MyNameInLights]

Posted: 9/26/04 at 1:30am

Oh my God, ew!