Cherry Jones Blanks Out!

[darwinsf]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:01pm

I saw "Doubt" on Tuesday, September 13th. Good show! It deserved the Pulitzer Prize. However, I do not feel that it deserved the Tony Award for "Best Play"; that honor should have gone to "The Pillowman".

I also think that Billy Crudup should've received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, over Bill Irwin. I do, however, think that Brian O'Byrne's performance as Father Flynn was better than Bill Irwin.

Cherry Jones won the Best Actress in a Play for her role as Sister Aloysius. In my view, Kathleen Turner should have gotten the prize as Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

In the performance I saw (and this might have tainted my feelings regarding Cherry Jones), Cherry Jones blanked out in one of her scenes. I have never seen this on stage before, a Broadway stage even. And she was never ever able to rise above it.

She asked for her line! Offstage, a man's voice boomed and gave her her line. But she kept forgetting her lines even after that. After much effort, she asked the audience if she can use "the book" just during that scene.

The audience clapped. She then walks offstage and returns with script in hand and for the rest of the scene, she reads off her script.

Anybody else here saw this performance?

[magruder]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:03pm

Guess what? Actors are human.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:04pm

I guess even genius' are entitled to a brain fart now and then.

[neomystyk29]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:05pm

Wow... that's pretty bad.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:05pm

a long run is hard enough on anybody. everyones allowed to have a bad day. Cherry is still highly respected in my book, and this was only a minor mishap.

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:08pm

I wouldnt mind it, it happens to every actor! Every actor will slip on their lines or songs once or more during their run

[magruder]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:08pm

Many great actors have "gone up". It happens more often than you would think.

There's a recent story with Philip Bosco suddenly losing his way in Copenhagen, turning to the audience, and exclaiming, "Six months in and I still don't know what I'm saying."

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:12pm

Richard Kiley famously forgot the words to "The Impossible Dream" once -- after he'd done the role some 3000 times. Every great actor in a long run has a story like this

[bare_nakedlady]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:12pm

I love Cherry!

But I would love to know the circumstances leading up to this! As many have said actor's are human too! Sometimes it is hard to put the cares and worries of your normal life behind you when you hit the stage. I wonder if something was bothering her? Just yesterday I was doing a show and at the 5 minutes call my leading lady found out her father had just had a stroke and was headed for the hospital! But you know what they say 'The Show must go on!'

I am glad she continued the show even with the book because she is amazing! And one of the nicest people EVER!

[otis33]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:42pm

Cherry Jones rocks my world! She's definitely earned the right to make a mistake now and then.

[ocean]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:49pm

Fox news.com reported on it

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169338,00.html

Cherry and the Mrs.(Sarah Paulson) showed up for the Naked Girl on the Appian Way dress rehearsal and were seen chatting it up with everybody so I guess she's very busy.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 3:50pm

Just prior to playing her 5.000th performance as Dolly Levi, the glorious Carol Channing blanked out in the restaurant scene. She had no idea what scene she was in, what play she was in or what planet she was on. Her co-star, Jay Garner, looked just as befuddled as she was. Luckily there was someone in the audience (whose name I know as well as my own) knew the show by heart and shouted out the line: "Horace, you know I'm a woman who likes to manage things but I could never manage anything as out-of-control as your household". Carol then remarked: "I'm hearing voices and they're telling me exactly what to say". She then went on with the scene without a hitch. During curtain calls she asked that particular theater-goer to stand and take a bow.

Updated On: 9/17/05 at 03:50 PM

[Kyirin]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 8:44pm

From talking to my actor friend who was playing a leading role in a long run show on bway...sometimes, its that those things just happen out of the blue and just throw you off...and many times for several performances there after, its hard to get back on track to what you were used to do doing, from the sheer shock of the incident. She had to revisit the script many times to fix those errors, and almost rememorize and reprogram the lines and intention etc to get her through....crazy huh? but lets be serious, havent you ever walked into a room to do something and just utterly stood there wondering what it was you walked in to do? Same kind of phenomenon....its a tough thing

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 9:02pm

She had no idea what scene she was in, what play she was in or what planet she was on.

Good lord, the exact same thing happened to me when I was supposed to do a monologue for my theater class in high school. I was so embarrassed about that, but if it can even happen to Carol Channing and Cherry Jones, than I was definitely okay.

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 9:20pm

Joe Mantegna blanked during the opening night of Glengarry Glen Ross at The Goodman in Chicago, right in the middle of his giganto monologue.

I saw Yul Brynner's 1 millionth or so performance in The King and I on tour in Chicago:

Constance Towers: Your Highness, what are you doing.

Yul Brynner: I have no idea where we are.

Constance Towers: Well, let's see if we can get this back on track, your Highness.

And they did.

[morosco]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 11:40pm

A recurring nightmare for me...being suddenly onstage again in a show I did years ago but not able to remember any of my lines.
Updated On: 9/17/05 at 11:40 PM

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 9/17/05 at 11:42pm

Nobody's perfect. And that's a big relief.

And one more thing, Cherry Jones rocks!

[Adoannie925]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 12:57am

It's normal for actors to blank out. and the can also bounce back and do their thing just as often. It's all good. I saw the show tonight and Cherry was incredible.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 1:20am

I really expect more from a pro, especially on Broa

what was I saying?

[DreamFlyer22]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 1:30am

Wow. That's awesome... and pretty freaky to hear about, as a theater student myself. Cheers to her for getting through every actor's worst nightmare. I'm sure if it WAS just a blank moment and not something otherwise plaguing her mind, she went back to the script and fixed it.

[buffyactsing]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 1:36am

I love it when actors and singers fluff a line or go off key every now and then. It shows that they are human, and not perfect.

Sometimes I get a little scared of people who are ALWAYS on top of everything constantly. They must be aliens!

[bially082]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 4:10am

Yeah, I know. I feel the same way. It makes for a much more memorable performance anyway.

[Sant]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 5:59am

Happens to the best of us.

KIM CRISWELL was playing Grizabella in L.A.'s CATS and said she left the show because she was having trouble to remember the lyrics to her only song - MEMORY...

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 7:04am

It happens, at least she was upfront and didnt just stand there for like 15 minutes ( and yes, Ive seen that happen)

I still adore her.

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 11:26am

Rex Harrison went up on the lyrics to A HYMN TO HIM on opening night of MY FAIR LADY.


Jerusha Bromley
Walpole, Mass.