Cherry Jones Blanks Out!- Page 4

[Lamc16]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:04pm

I'm sorry, but I think it is inexcusable. Yes, all actors flub their lines here and there, but you do not "leave" the world of the play and bring your lines on stage with you--you just don't! Otherwise, once you leave the world of the play, you are forcing the audience to leave as well, and therefore you are breaking their experience of the play as a whole. Now, I'm sure that if Ms. Jones had gone off stage for a few minutes and read her lines there, she would have jogged her memory enough to return and finish out the scene. Also, wasn't there a post a few months back about her losing her place at another performance?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:12pm

It was in the first scene with Sister James.

She was very sick the first time and she was not well this last time.

Maybe next time, she shouldn't go on. But, then you guys would be harping about how unprofessional it is to miss shows--that Ethel and Harvey have never missed.

[Pippin]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:18pm

yes, but LAM, it would have been even more awkward to "pause" the show for a few moments while she went off and read the script. this way, she kept the momentum going like a professional the best way that she could. also, earlier in the thread, it said that the audience applauded her decision to choose to read the script. she is such an engaging actress, that I'm sure the audience was with her all the way.

[midtowngym]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:22pm

I disagree--it's more awkward to break character then to step offstage for one minute in character. It doesn't matter where they are in the show. 'Sister James, i want you to contemplate what i've said. I'll return in a moment.'
I have no problem with an actor messing up--we all make mistakes. But this is not Boy From Oz or Spamalot.

Updated On: 9/19/05 at 03:22 PM

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:23pm

Blair Brown called for a line when she was in the New York run of Humble Boy when it was in previews. There are numerous instances when an actor is replaced very late in rehearsal or in previews and they have to go on with a script in their hand for the WHOLE performance. Everyone cuts them some slack.

In almost 300 performances, Cherry has flubbed twice. Both times she was under the weather. I saw her on the Thursday night last week and she said she was feeling weary and when I commented that she had a 9 show week to get through, she was like "Lord, I know." I'm sure other actors who never miss (Chita, Harvey, etc) have gone on when they haven't been feeling great and have had a screwy performance or two in their time. Quite as to why this has to be such a big deal is beyond me.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:25pm

It's more acceptable than leaving the stage and abandoning your fellow actor to sweat it out in front of the audience, all of whom would be thinking "Um, I'm pretty sure this isn't meant to be happening", midtown.

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:25pm

For the love of (insert higher power here)! This is ridiculous. It's live theatre people. It's life! Sh!t happens and you do what you have to do at that moment to make the best of the situation. So, she called for line and got a script. Yes, I would prefer that not happen but it did. She did what she had to do to get through that moment in time. Anyone who has been on stage before knows that you can go up and that feeling of complete despair that succumbs you as you desperately search for the right words and try to figure out what is going on. I say more power to her.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:27pm

Yeah--that would be a terrible thing to do to another actor--make THEM cover for you. She took credit for the brain fart.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:29pm

isn't it true that she has no understudy? i'm sure the stage manager consulted with the company on what to do if that situation arose again.
god knows i've seen all sorts of things happen onstage but as long as the actor maintains his/her focus and intention even if they leave the stage-- the audience stays right with them.
for my part, i wish i had seen it just to see how she handled it. it's everyone's nightmare. it can be unnerving and scary for the audience to see an actor at a loss and floundering. i'm glad cherry took the matter in hand and kept her command--just as sister aloysius would do.

[bwayfan215]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:29pm

This is what makes live theatre live folks. I love it when something unplanned occurs, I don't care what it is. I would've loved to have seen this performance rather than the one I saw a month ago where nothing unusual happened (that I know of).

[robbiej]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:29pm

You know what kills me...the fact that everyone is like, 'Well...I would have preferred if she...'

You know who would have 'preferred' more than you? Cherry Jones. I'm sure she hates the fact that that happened.

[Kringas]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:32pm

What if Cherry said IN CHARACTER--'Now Father, you contemplate what i've said --i'll be right back.' She reads her lines offstage while the Father sweats it out. That makes more sense.

Perhaps it would have made more sense, but I doubt she (or anyone, for that matter) would have had the presence of mind at that point. If I were in her shoes, I would have panicked and tried to figure out the quickest way to fix what had gone awry. It sounds like that's what she did.

And jrb and popcultureboy are right. It would have been much more "unprofessional" of her to leave the other actor in a lurch, rather than do what she did, which was take responsibility and fix the situation.

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:33pm

I absolutely agree, Robbilicious. I would HATE to know what she felt like through that experience - much less afterwards. She obviously is a very dedicated performer, and she must have been positively mortified. I'd want to run up onstage and give her a hug at curtain!

[midtowngym]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:33pm

Hey Robbie--how did YOU not forget your lines with all those hunky men onstage for Fleet Week?

Updated On: 9/19/05 at 03:33 PM

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:33pm

She has an understudy, but she was cast very late and wasn't in the initial print run of the playbills. But she does have one.

And yes, Cherry hates that she went up on her lines and couldn't recover it. What actor wouldn't?

[midtowngym]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:43pm

Well, i don't think the audience cares who 'takes responsibility.'
What is taught in acting school about how to handle this?

Updated On: 9/19/05 at 03:43 PM

[JMVR]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:43pm

I think it's perfectly understandable that an actor may forget a line or blank out onstage, as many have posted. But I do think that actually stopping the show and getting the book in order to read through a scene is a bit of a stretch. To me, it's the equivalent of having an actor in a musical flubbing a lyric and asking the audience if he can lip synch hust that one song!!

[magruder]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:46pm

Actually, Cherry's understudy is not listed, by the understudy's choice.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:48pm

I didn't know that, magruder. I heard the late casting version of the story.

[sanda]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:48pm

What I don't like about this thread is that a lot people critisize the poster too harsh. Hey, this person paid top money, with a high expectation to view a wonderful performance. What he got is such a huge disappointment. The only thing he can do is to complain in this thread. Come on, it is easy for you to say to be tolerant when you didn't experience this.

[robbiej]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:50pm

I DID flub in FLEET WEEK! Totally sang a wrong verse all the while looking like Cindy Brady on that quiz show.

It's a terrible, TERRIBLE feeling. I've never experienced something as drastic as Ms. Jones' ordeal...so I really don't know how I would handle it.

But I know I did a show recently where the lead, who spoke A LOT and had very little time to learn the show (as did we all) went up...and none of us knew quite what to do. I think as an entire case, we had NO IDEA what was going on. It's horrifying. We all laughed about it afterwards, but it is a brutal thing to experience.

[HamletWasBipolar]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:52pm

Mr. Wood,
I should certainly hope you don't think you are better than Ms. Jones, that's painfully obvious without even being said. I also NEVER said anything negative about Walmart cashiers, I simply used that to make a point that a job is a job, no matter what it is, and being human exposes all of us to the possibility of error. Your inference of such, leads me to believe that YOU actually find cashiering at Walmart subservient. Shame on you, to judge like that. The Simon Cowell of community theatre strikes again! Unfortunately, the whole point went over your head.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:52pm

And it's easy for others to criticize who ALSO weren't there. For the record--I was there.

Middie--that's the problem. Acting school doesn't truly teach people how to handle everything. You can learn the "rules" and they still not apply. Most of what an actor learns takes place in doing shows.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:53pm

sanda, just because we didn't experience this particular flub, doesn't mean we've never seen shows that have GIGANTIC flubs in them ourselves. And frankly, from what I have read of this flub, if I had seen an actress as flawless as Cherry Jones in a show as fantastic as Doubt have a little trouble in the beginning of the show and flub her lines, it's much more preferable than sitting through a flub free rendition of half the dreck clogging up Broadway right now. God, that was a long sentence.

[sanda]

Posted: 9/19/05 at 3:54pm

jrb, how many times have you seen doubt? Is that your first time?