Character breakers — Page 3

I played Sally in YAGMCB and right before my speech about ice cream, which I was supposed to be upset about, we added a scene and these girls walked across and said the stupidest line. So, opening night, they were walking across and I was acting mad, and one girl's bow got caught on this string on the side of the stage. Instead of removing it with her hands, she kept trying to walk while her head was attached to the string, she had to have done it at least 15 times. I was trying to hard not to laugh but the audience was cracking up and when I looked to my director for encouragement, I saw her doubled over wiping tears from her eyes and I lost it. I made it seem like a part of the show though so it turned out ok.

---

i just finished a (if i say so myself) FABULOUS run of seussical, in which I was a wickersham. it was the last scene. the trial.

for those of you unfamiliar with it everyone is ridiculing horton and overruling gertrude's objections.

and horton is supposed to let out this humongous elephant roar. well our sound was late. so the guy playing horton just goes "MEAAAAAAHHHHHHHRWWWWWW!!"

the audience died. luckily, everyone on stage except gertrude was "allowed" to find this funny within charachter limits, so we all kindof shook. but then the sound clip played. and we all lost it.

THEN. the egg hatched, and horton says "what will i do? i'm slow and i'm fat." which was greeted by a "YEAH YOU ARE!" from the audience. now gertrude, who couldnt laugh at the first thing was now like, shaking trying not to laugh. and her blocking was to take the baby elephant and come show it to the clump of jungle animals. needless to say, as soon as he back was turned she lost it.

great night. great show. one night a little kid screamed out "I CAN SEE THE WHO'S HORTON!!!" hysterical.

I was teching for my high school's production of Kiss Me, Kate two years ago. I was in the stage left wing with a headset on as the battery/mic change guy. Well, in the scene leading up to the song Where Is The Life That Late I Led?, three servants came on silverware and Mutton, which Fred proceeds to throw back at them. Well, our director insisted on real mutton, but it wasn't too bad because it was sealed in plastic wrap so it didn't stink. On our opening night, when he threw the mutton back, the crew member who was supposed to catch it missed. And the thing just exploded all over stage left, on stage and in the wing. And then a second later I hear our director on the headset, "Someone clean up the freakin' mutton. I can smell it from the back of the audience!" And our Fred even restaged his song so he wouldn't have to go near the mutton. I was cracking up the entire time.

I know I have more...I have to think.

---

Last spring I was playing Hope Cladwell in Urinetown. At the end of "Follow Your Heart," there're like 3 lines of (deliberately) awkward dialogue and then a kiss. So it's closing night, and we get through the little scene and we kiss, and as we break apart we hear someone in the audience yell "WOOO! KISS HER AGAIN!" The only saving graces of the moment keeping us from bursting into hysterical laughter were that our blocking thereafter didn't require us to make eye contact, and that we were far enough from the audience that they couldn't see us shaking not to start laughing. Hilarious.

I also just finished a production of The Pajama Game; at the top of Act 2 before "Steam Heat" we all were onstage during Prez' speech at the union meeting. As we all accepted this as the most useless thing any of us did in the entire show (and were only partially visible to the audience in the first place), we periodically would try and mess with one another with our ad-libbed reponses to to Prez while keeping as much in character as we could. So one night, Prez says "We've got a little entertainment..." by way of introduction, and somebody next to me says, "I hope it's about getting hot!" [For those unfamiliar, later Prez says, "And this here number is right on the money, because it's about gettin' hot. And fellow union members, that's what we're doing. Getting hot!"] I LOST it, and of course, was the only one blocked far enough onto the stage so as to be 100% visible to the audience. Not one of my prouder or most professional stage moments...

The second Broadway cast of Wicked had such a bad reputation for character breaking for a while.

I was in Beauty and the Beast as the Beast, and when the scene came for me to lock Belle in her room (before "Home"), I must have been extra angry because a child in the audience started to cry when I said my last line and slammed the door. Lucky for me I was on my way offstage, but my poor friend playing Belle was STUCK. God bless her, she didn't miss a beat.

I've got two; decades apart!!!

This happened at technically a dress rehearsal, but we would invite the locale senior citizen housing folks to watch...so it was pretty full in the house. When I was Ermengarde in Hello, Dolly, we had gotten to the courtroom scene (after the debacle at the Harmonia Gardens) The very end of the courtroom scene the blocking required that everyone BUT me exit stage R. I went stage L to plant a kiss on the judges cheek. About halfway TO the judge my "dancer's knee" gave out and I faceplanted on the stage. Straight down, splat. The only other person on stage helped me up and got me off stage. (We were sure there was going to be a breakout of heart attacks.) But the funny part comes in the next scene. We all show up at Vandergelders to claim what is our. I made my entrance with my Ambrose (heavily leaning on him) and all you could hear sweep through the audience in whispered tones: She's there, there she is. And then one VERY loud voice: "See, I TOLD you it was part of the play!" Hard to say who lauged harder...the audience or the cast!

A few years ago, I choreographed The Pajama Game. During the performances, the director and I keep a set of doors open because we watch the show from the lobby. My daughter (who was 6 or 7 at the time, and SHOULD have known better) didn't have a seat because her father was picking her up (at any minute) and she was watching the show with us from the back. And then she was missing. NO one knew where she was. After a few frantic moments, my set designer taps me on the shoulder and points to the stage. There on the downstage right corner of the stage is my daughter sitting directly on the stage. At center stage a group of girls were singing the hell out I'm Not At All In Love. And my daughter is inching over toward them. (The actor's never noticed her, btw) And inching, and inching. Luckily we have ailses on the outside of the audience seats, so I was able to get to the front of the house with minimal distraction to the audience. Thankfully, I was able to get her attention and get her off the stage. (Of course, by now most of the audience DID indeed see her!) I think her plan was to just become a part of the number...when she finally got to them!!!

---

Only one comes to mind.

i was an ensemble part in Oliver! And it was right after Oom-pa-pa! when Nancy is getting it from Bill Sykes. He's pulling her hair whilst in the bar and trying to get her to be a spy to get Oliver back. So the ensemble is sitting and watching in shock and awe when Bill slaps Nancy. Then all the sudden from the audience, (sunday matinee y'know?) screams out "SLAP HIM RIGHT BACK!"

The rest of us bit the inside of our cheeks, trying not to break character in this serious scene... and as we clear the bar glasses, not making eye contact till we get offstage and burst into laughter.

It was amazing.

I remember flubbing a line in "Antigone" a few years ago. I was the comic relief part, so it worked. i can't remember the exact line now but it was to the effect of "...IS blah blah blah." I said "...IS LIKE..." and couldn't finish or else the line would make no sense. So after what seemed like forever, I blurted out "...blah!" Seriously, I said "blah" in a classical Greek tragedy. The audience laughed, appropriately, but I could see the chorus and Creon trying so hard not to crack up.

Later, in that same production, our Creaon was grieving over his family's dead bodies, and spitting ALL OVER THEM. Thank god our dead bodies had their faces upstage or else the audience would have seen them trying not to burst out laughing as they got showered.

I'm sure I have more of these (with better details), but I'm too tired now to think of any more.

---