Funniest mishap you have seen?- Page 3

[MusicalJunkie2]

Posted: 10/27/11 at 9:26am

Sorry! Missunderstood you

[ncgator]

Posted: 10/27/11 at 11:02am

The most fun one I saw was when I saw the last revival of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW on Broadway, they had announced at some point that it was Jarrod Emicks last performance before heading to London to be in THE FULL MONTY. During the second act, when he is basically only in boxer shorts, the cast kept trying to pants him in almost every scene. They were pretty successful the first couple times, but he caught on after that and was doing a good job protecting himself. During the curtain call, however, half the cast attacked and literally ripped his boxers right off  the audience definitely got the full monty. Luckily, there was someone up front who gave him a bouquet of roses which did a pretty good job covering him up.

Not as funny, but the biggest technical mishap I have witnessed was during the touring production of MISS SAIGON in Raleigh, NC. When the helicopter started to take off, instead of going straight up, it lurched forward and just stayed there for a few minutes. The actors finished the scene with the helicopter just floating there. After the scene, the lights went out and the orchestra just played. You could hear them trying to pull up the helicopter, and then there was a tearing noise and crash. The lights stayed out for a good five minutes, and when they came back on the helicopter was gone, but the whole center section of screens that surround the stage were hanging crooked and about halfway down. For the rest of the show, none of the set pieces could come out from the back (only the sides), including the American Dream car.

[wavingthrucomets]

Posted: 8/12/17 at 9:59pm

One time I was in a local production of Hairspray. During Without Love, there's a part where Link breaks Tracy out of jail. We had reused the cell set pieces from an older production of Chicago: they were all fronts only, so we basically had several around Tracy to simulate a little jail cell.

During this one rehearsal, our Link ended up swinging one away from her a little too hard. It fell over instead of just rolling away like it was supposed to. That would've been fine enough, but we weren't on stage yet: we were in a smaller, adjacent rehearsal room. So it ended up falling on our poor music director. She was fine, but our poor Link felt SO BAD.

[wavingthrucomets]

Posted: 8/12/17 at 10:00pm

One time I was in a local production of Hairspray. During Without Love, there's a part where Link breaks Tracy out of jail. We had reused the cell set pieces from an older production of Chicago: they were all fronts only, so we basically had several around Tracy to simulate a little jail cell.

During this one rehearsal, our Link ended up swinging one away from her a little too hard. It fell over instead of just rolling away like it was supposed to. That would've been fine enough, but we weren't on stage yet: we were in a smaller, adjacent rehearsal room. So it ended up falling on our poor music director. She was fine, but our poor Link felt SO BAD.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 8/12/17 at 10:13pm

When I was 17, I was Will Parker in my high school's production of Oklahoma, and my girlfriend was Ado Annie. During All 'Er Nothin', at the end button, I'm supposed to dip her and kiss her. On Opening night, the booth operator isn't paying attention, and he doesn't cue the light change. My girlfriend had her eyes open, so she could normally notice when the lights start to dim and get her footing. I had my eyes closed, however, so as the applause dies down, I let go of my girlfriend, dropping her, and she makes a hard THUD on the ground just as the lights go down. To this day, almost 2 years later, if I ever say I'm physically strong, she'll retort with, "Remember that time you dropped me?!".

[oncemorewithfeeling2]

Posted: 8/12/17 at 11:12pm

The first time I saw Great Comet at Kazino, Amber Gray stepped on her dress when hurrying across one of the platforms and totally wiped out. Head first flying.

I also saw Charlotte D'Amboise lose her wig during "Spread a Little Sunshine" in Pippin. Apparently, that happened a few times during the run of the show.

[Snee17]

Posted: 8/12/17 at 11:37pm

Today at Charlie one of the characters had a piece of their costume stuck to the floor. 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 1:08am

Tuesday March 15, 2017: first preview of HELLO, DOLLY! 

During Bette's walk on the pasarelle towards the end of "So Long, Dearie" she tossed her marching baton in a twirl which she missed catching and it landed into the first row.  A man leaned up and handed the baton up to her as she winked back at him all while still singing.  

Also, when the Irene Malloy's hat shop set turned around, her top counter hat display was on its side.  

Oh, and when Ermengarde won the trophy after the polka competition, the handle snapped off to the confusion of the actors who carried that trophy around on its one handle.  

Bette forgot her lines during the court room scene so she paused for an extended amount of time till she found her place while the actors looked down from the raised jury box set.  

[Malka2]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 1:48am

At the first preview of Anastasia, Christy Altomare was singing "Once Upon a December" while holding out a little music box, a key prop of the story, and one of the dancer's sleeves caught it during a spin and sent it crashing out of her hand and breaking the lid off. The first few rows all gasped, her eyes widened in shock but she kept going, someone handed her the music box sans lid and another dancer scooped up the lid and kept it until end scene.

What made it funny was that right before that first show they had posted a picture on the show's instagram of several copies of the music box sitting on a shelf "in case one breaks!" Jinxed themselves I guess :)

[VotePeron]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 1:59am

At Matilda, during the song Telly, one of the books Michael tosses to Mr. Wormwood hit the microphone stand center stage, caused it to topple over, and then...roll down the center staircase into the center aisle. The actor playing Mr. W at the time (Can't recall, I saw so many actors in the role), RAN to the edge of the stage, grabbed it as it bounced down the first step, and he sang the rest of the song sitting on the edge of stage. That's a great memory from my many viewings of Matilda.

Updated On: 8/13/17 at 01:59 AM

[SweetLips]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 2:57am

The smoke machine for the opening number went beserk and couldn't be turned off. The music and performers were there somewhere and not only the stage but the entire auditorium was filled with smoke.

The side door had to be opened to let the smoke out, the machine finally turned off and set to very low, and the show restarted.

Certainly a night to remember, and one of the funniest.

[StephieElise]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 9:05am

Last year I was at a concert of the songs of the late Nick Enright, an Australian musical theatre composer (he also wrote the book to The Boy From Oz) at a small theatre converted from an old church in Melbourne. The theatre has a large foyer/bar area and 2 performance spaces with the seats on bleachers and the 'stage' usually just being the flat floor. My mum and I were sitting in the front row (also on the floor) and we had our empty glasses and the rest of our bottle of wine under our seats. A performer was in the middle of singing when suddenly my mum's glass falls over and from under her chair shoots a POSSUM! The possum ran out onto the stage, turned and faced the audience and stood there just stunned for a couple of seconds then bolted up the aisle of the bleachers (and presumably then made its way back under the bleachers). The performer didn't miss a beat and when the host David Harris came out afterwards he thanked the performer 'and his possum'. He then joked that the possum was Nick Enright reincarnated! 

[jo]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 10:05am

Not necessarily comical but we all had grins on our faces 

On Broadway's THE RIVER at Circle in the Square where one can have a seat within an inch of the stage -- Hugh Jackman as The Man was  shedding the fishing waders he had on in one scene. But because the character was somewhat annoyed, he shed the waders too vigorously.  And he split his pants at the back!

Hugh went on for a few minutes not minding what happened to his outfit -- he went on with the scene and after a few minutes the character had to leave the stage. When he came back a few seconds later, he had brand new pants!  Hey, maybe their costume guy can really sew fast 

 

 

Updated On: 8/13/17 at 10:05 AM

[ethan231h]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 10:54am

i can't say it's funny but it certainly was amazing to watch, American psycho towards the end of its run...it was fleet week and there were many sailors at the show ESPECIALLY in the first few rows. during "killing spree" Patrick is supposed bend down to the first row and say "hey pretty girl" but this time he said "hey pretty sailor" but then because a lot of the music to the show was pre recorded something happened ( not sure whether it was just a random flook, stage manager called something too soon, etc) but then the music went crazy going on at different times etc. given that most music was pre recorded this sorta kept on going on for a while....however the cast was amazing and just continues dancing everything as normal but then the music paused and one of the guys in the box controlling music said "go ahead" and benjamin walker then started and really played with the humor of the song...long story short the audience went CRAZY, applause for about 4 min, it was like nothing i've ever seen (well except for the first prev of pippin!) 

 

at groundhog day in june, during the tap number a ensemble member (i think travis) his hat fell of and he just continued picked it right up continued tapping. what made this really cool was that during the tap number they are moving to different areas of the stage while tapping, super cool! 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 11:16am

September 1980.  Minskoff Theatre.  Broadway revival of WEST SIDE STORY (first Broadway revival; entire original team reconstructed the original 1957 Broadway production). 

At the end of "I Feel Pretty" Josie DeGuzman (Maria) didn't catch the hand mirror thrown to her.  She ad-libbed an "aw, chucks!" fist gesture. 

During one of the dance breaks in "America", Nancy Ticotin (as one of the Sharks girls) missed a landing after one of the leaps and sprayed out flat on the stage.  

[HSky]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 12:31pm

Several weeks ago at Groundhog Day, every time they set up the diner scene and were putting the main counter into place, the cake plate with the sticky buns kept falling over. I'm not sure if something was misaligned on the deck because it kept happening. At least one had to be chased down before it fell into the pit, and some dialogue had to be delivered while recovering the sticky buns.

[EthelMae]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 1:24pm

Back in 1979, at a performance of Sweeney Todd: the Judge was in Sweeney's chair for the final time. Len Cariou pushed down on the chair lever and it didn't work. The Judge remained in the chair. Then Johanna came out of the trunk (Betsy Joslyn) and the look on her face was priceless. She knew the Judge should have been gone down the shoot by that point and she was next in the chair. Stage Manager hands were seen poking up around the chair trying to release the chair. She and Len Cariou played their scene without Johanna being thrown into the chair. She exited as she should have down the stairs. The set spun around where we see Mrs. Lovett screaming but the Judge wasn't there. Len Cariou entered and said his line, "why did you scream?" Angela Lansbury responded with her line, "he was clutching on to me skirt but now he's finished." But still no Judge in his place on the shoot. The two leads continued and suddenly the Judge popped out where he should have been!

I bet the talk backstage that day was ripe!

[EthelMae]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 1:27pm

One more Sweeney remembrance: at one performance, Angela Lansbury forgot the lyrics singing By the Sea. She "la-la-la" it till she recovered. The conductor helped with a lot of vamping!

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 2:37pm

I was at a performance of Phantom where the chandelier didn't fall. That wasn't so funny, but the audience's confused reaction when the lights came up was.

[Itonlytakesajourney]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 6:08pm

The infamous Bette mishaps are my favorites. In previews, she tripped over the door frame/her purse hit the door (I believe it was both) and shouted "It's live!" with the trademark Bette smile and a comically horrified look. Then Will Burton does his jump with his luggage and trips, and that just sent the audience rolling in their seats. 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 8:24pm

The infamous Bette mishaps are my favorites. In previews, she tripped over the door frame/her purse hit the door (I believe it was both) and shouted "It's live!" with the trademark Bette smile and a comically horrified look. Then Will Burton does his jump with his luggage and trips, and that just sent the audience rolling in their seats.

This is from the circulating video bootleg of Bette in  HELLO, DOLLY! with Gavin's understudy that was filmed in late March 2017 and no, the audience doesn't roll in their seats with Will's barely noticeable stumble.  

[helvizz]

Posted: 8/13/17 at 8:48pm

Last year I saw a regional production of Oridnary Days, and in the show a character rents a house and she starts describing it. She says something like "It's quiet, it's very quiet", and as soon as she said that a baby in the audience started crying very loudly. Of course, the entire theater laughed instead of being angry at the crying baby (or, more specifically, their parent/guardian who took them to the theater), even the actress did, and she used the situation to get laughs from the audience. If it had been during I'll be here, I'm sure people would've complained, so I can just say that it was some perfect timing.

[thedrybandit]

Posted: 8/14/17 at 9:26pm

ethan231h said: "i can't say it's funny but it certainly was amazing to watch, American psycho towards the end of its run...it was fleet week and there were many sailors at the show ESPECIALLY in the first few rows. during "killing spree" Patrick is supposed bend down to the first row and say "hey pretty girl" but this time he said "hey pretty sailor" but then because a lot of the music to the show was pre recorded something happened ( not sure whether it was just a random flook, stage manager called something too soon, etc) but then the music went crazy going on at different times etc. given that most music was pre recorded this sorta kept on going on for a while....however the cast was amazing and just continues dancing everything as normal but then the music paused and one of the guys in the box controlling music said "go ahead" and benjamin walker then started and really played with the humor of the song...long story short the audience went CRAZY, applause for about 4 min, it was like nothing i've ever seen (well except for the first prev of pippin!) "

I was there for that one too. Still not totally sure what was going on with the music, but Ben made it work incredibly well. Absolutely hilarious to watch.

[Itonlytakesajourney]

Posted: 8/14/17 at 10:19pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "The infamous Bette mishaps are my favorites. In previews, she tripped over the door frame/her purse hit the door (I believe it was both) and shouted "It's live!" with the trademark Bette smile and a comically horrified look. Then Will Burton does his jump with his luggage and trips, and that just sent the audience rolling in their seats.

This is from the circulating video bootleg of Bette in  HELLO, DOLLY! with Gavin's understudy that was filmed in late March 2017 and no, the audience doesn't roll in their seats with Will's barely noticeable stumble.  

 

Maybe they didn't roll in their seats, but they laughed (they did for Bette though). I did too, it was funny in my opinion. His stumble was not barely noticeable, you can see that he tripped and he stumbled over his words. 

 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 8/14/17 at 10:25pm

At the very end of Dolly! when I saw it with Bette, right before Dolly sings "Here's my hat, Horace," she lifted her hand up and accidentally knocked her hat off of her head to the ground. Her literal hat. Bette being Bette, she repeated the line and handed her hat to David, who was on the verge of breaking. In such a tender, sweet moment of the show, the audience was uproariously laughing. It was amazing.