Chitty disaster — Page 2

wow thats scary! hopefully everything will be okay. good thoughts to the man and his family.

is my typing that much of an issue? let's be serious.

Seriously!
Forget the spelling, the car almost didn't fly!

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Updated On: 9/10/05 at 12:33 AM

i'm glad you gave me THE benefit of THE doubt on "car" "didn't" and "fly". I'm not sure I would have gotten through those words with any mistakes.

I guess this is my punishment for cheating through all of my type to learn classes in middle school. Plus, I find laptop keyboards much trickier to type on than normal ones. anyone agree?

That is so terrible.

When my aunt saw TBFO, the a/c wasnt working and she said it had to be over 100 degrees in the theater and one person passed out, the other had some kind of irregular heart palpitations.

But, this Chitty story is very depressing.

Something similar happened when I was at Cabaret once. Molly Ringwald noticed IMMEDIATELY, and stopped the show and walked off-stage. It was taken care of and the show resumed at the exact point, and at curtain call, they told the audience that the woman was taken the hospital, but it wasn't serious. That's how things should be handled, I think, though obviously, especially in a house as large as the Hilton, it's not always possible.

can you tell me who the understudy was tonight for raul.

thanks joseph

God, that is so awful. When I was at The Boy From Oz last summer a man had a heart attack right before the first act curtain, and he was way up in the balcony so no one knew...All I remember is an announcement saying the show would be delayed and then seeing a few paramedics with a stretcher trying to navigate through the very tight balcony area to the center where the man was seated. It was awful because they couldn't get him out, and the show didn't start up again for almost 40 minutes. I just watched in horror as they tried to get this man out of the center and on to the damn stretcher.

I can't really think of a better way that they could have handled it. He was just in a really really awkward place in the theater.

I hope the man at Chitty is ok...

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it did NOT take them a long time to acknowledge it. the reason why Jan said what she did was because at first, it sounded like a mother reprimanding her child or something.

does anyone know how long it takes for an ambulences to get to a scene in Manhattan? I was trapped in an elevator once and had to wait for nearly 45 minutes for it to get there. Around the time of the Bombie Samba, a bunch of ushers came running to get one of the managers and they immediately called 911. The paramedics were there in less than 10 minutes.

the man was sitting in one of the boxes, and about 12 fire fighters had to carry him out, wow.

it was very frightening, but I just thought I'd clear up that they were NOT trying to ignore the problem.

I"m sorry if i made it seem like theyw ere trying to ignore the problem, I don't think they were, it just sounded like it took them awhile to realize what was going on, and all I could really see was the wife standing up so I was going off what I, and people around me were hearing. I know that she first started screaming before chuchy face and that they stopped the show after What Do You See, and people were saying that the paramedics had just arrived, so that seemed like a long time to me, if they got there earlier than that was my mistake.

If I may, I'd like to set the record straight. I was working orchestra last night and was in the lobby taking my break during Chu-Chi Face. As I was about to go back in, an usher from the Dress Circle came running out and said to call an ambulance- which the house management did immediately.

The performance did resume for a few more minutes, as it is not the actors' decision whether or not it goes on. Since the man was sitting in a Dress Circle box, the situation was pretty visible to most people in the Orchestra as well as the DC. Within a minute or so, a physician was found sitting in his section. Several other physicians and nurses in the orchestra offered their help, but the EMT response was amazingly quick. In actuality, from the time the call was placed, the EMT people arrived in just over 4 minutes. They could visibly be seen working on the man for a few minutes when the decision was made to stall the performance- right after Doll On A Music Box. Rick was about to launch into the fight scene when word came from offstage and he was stopped from continuing by one of the ensemble who heard the call. A voice announced that it was necessary to stop, and that there was no danger to the actors or audience.

The performance was held for about 20 minutes. After the man was removed from the building, the Production Stage Manager came out and informed us that he had in fact been resuscitated and was on his way to the hospital. He then said that "with your permission" they would like to finish the performance. The remaining audience members (a surprisingly small number decided to leave) applauded their approval and- when the actors came back out to resume their positions- they were greeted with a large ovation. Everything else went according to plan. Rick was on as Caractacus and was excellent as always. Also it was Bobby Creighton's first time going on as Goran, and he too did a great job.

Overall, a scary and memorable theatre experience. Hopefully the man is doing well and hopefully those poor children in the audience aren't too traumatized.

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Updated On: 9/10/05 at 12:03 PM