Funny and Unforgettable Ad-Libs- Page 3

[Kicks8567]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 6:40pm

Bruce Vilanch in Hairspray! "Wilbur, if Russel Crowe calls, tell him to hold the phone" and "I was a ballerina once- did you ever see Fantasia? Third hippo from the left."

[Ladyofthe Lake]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:03pm

"The night I saw Spamalot, after the minute or so of gibberish as the Knight of Ni, Hank added, "So come up to the lab -- and see what's on the slab!" And of course, being Hank Azaria, he was able to make his voice sound exactly like Tim Curry's. It was extremely funny! Tim looked so surprised and then so delighted..."

I would have *loved* to hear that variation! Thanks for passing it along.

[jasobres]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:17pm

Bump

[Winokur_fan]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:22pm

When I saw Hairspray, during Timless To Me, Stephen DeRosa (wilbur) started laughing and he couldn't stop, because of the way J.P. was lookin at him. He couldn't control his laughing for about a minute, and J.P. kept patting him on the head, feeling his rear end, making funny noises, and then at the end he says somethinlg like "are you ready now?" lol

[feinstein9]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:25pm

closing night o' taboo, liz mcartney is explaining that her character works at an unemployment agency. she briefly breaks the forth wall to add- "ironic, isn't it?" see... unemployment, last show.. heh heh....

[jasobres]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:29pm

By the way, it's a little known fact that the now famous phrase of The Producers: "Who do you have to @#$% to get a break in this town," was not originally in the script. I believe the story was that Nathan Lane ad libbed it in a rehearsal for it and Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan have taken credit for it ever since.

[DivaBrigader]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:34pm

A famous one from the original production of "Annie" happened when Allison Smith was playing the title role. During the "Tomorrow" scene, Sandy started puking all over the stage. When the Hooverville-ites come over to Annie and ask her if she's hungry, Allison ad libbed, "No, but my dog is!"

[jasobres]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:40pm

Please excuse the double post, but when I saw The Rocky Horror Show, Penn & Teller played the Narrator (er...Narrators?). Of course, you know, The Rocky Horror Show is known for its audience par-ti-ci....(SAY IT!!!!!)....pation! Well, there was this one guy in the audience who kind of mock insulted Penn & Teller and then Penn gets mad and yells, "Mother@#$%^&!" And both of them did a magic illusion making it seem as if they were killing the guy (complete with red liquid.) And then they go back to their place in the middle of the theater and Penn says, "As I was saying..."

By the way, of course, everyone knows that Teller doesn't talk, right? Well, here, he did kinda talk (he was covering his mouth when doing so.) And he did a lot of silly ad libs. Like so: "And crawling...on the planet's face ("What do you put on your pizza?") / Some insects...called the human race ("Where's all our money?") / Lost in time... (Teller and Audience: "What's your favorite television show?") / Lost in space... ("What's lacking in our careers?") / And meaning."

[Huey's Pop]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 7:50pm

When I saw Spamalot, Jerry Lewis was in the audience. (I talked to him during intermission - nice man, seems to have his health problems behind him.)

Apparently word got backstage, so the adlib during the Nights who say Nih part was to add "Hey Lady (in that unforgettable Jerry Lewis voice)" to their banter.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:06pm

I wasn't there, but apparently the night Robin Williams saw Spamalot, Hank Azaria added "na-noo, na-noo" into that ad-lib.

[ProducersFan]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:11pm

I knew about the Nathan's ad lib-turned real line story - it's in the Making of book. I would love to know how the original line went!

And Teller does talk on occassion - when I saw their show in Baltimore, they were in the lobby signing autographs and he said something to these people who were standing near him. I was so surprised!

These ad libs are great - keep them coming!

~Jessica

[wickedbway]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:12pm

Bruce Vilanch in Hairspray! "Wilbur, if Russel Crowe calls, tell him to hold the phone" and "I was a ballerina once- did you ever see Fantasia? Third hippo from the left."

I saw that too! Hilarious! But.. you sure it was an ad-lib??

[elphieisperky]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:21pm

Millie42-Here's what mine meant:

Chocolate and Cheese was when Idina and JLT were promoting the Tsunami disaster. Then Idina asked if JLT had anything to say, and she said, "I like cheese!" Then Idina goes, "I like chocolate!" Then both of them, "I like cheese, I like chocolate!"

Buckets I don't know as much about. But I think it was another fund raiser, and Shoshana said to put the money in the buckets, and before Sho could say buckets, JLT screamed it on the top of her lungs. Then the whole cast jumped back when she said it,
and Sho goes, "they have a whole new choreography for you now!" I don't know, I found it somewhere, thought it was funny, and now it's something to talk about. Maybe I should become a reporter.
Updated On: 6/21/05 at 08:21 PM

[DoogieB]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:21pm

I remember when I saw The Producers with Lane and Broderick, I believe Leo was having his panic attack when he and Max first met and he put his blanket over his mic and it made a fuzzy noise. Lane goes "a little static electricity there," to which Broderick responded "oh, man, anything can happen when I'm this nervous." They seemed to ad-lib alot, sometimes if some technical problem occured, but that's one I remembered clearly.

[Kevo711]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:24pm

wickedbway- im pretty sure the third hippo from the left was not ad lib... but i too started cracking up when i heard it!

[markcohenwannabe69]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:30pm

The rocky Horror show, a group of friends and i went when Dick Cavett was narrating, and at one point i dont remember the line, but my friend amy and i shouted something out about him, and he stoped what he was saying, looked over in our area, and said " I will bitch slap you to the curb" and just went right back to what he was doing. it was hysterical to say the least.

also when i saw wicked bak in january...jan 5th to be axact. during the scene when the wizard sings wonderful, idina was saying a line, and she bumped her hat with her hand, and the mic that is in her hat, made a really loud noise, and george hearn jumped back, and laughed, and idina looked up to the booth where her mic was controlled from, tapped her hat agin, it made no noise, and she gave a thumbs up, and they went right back to what they were doing.

[Elizabeth_DeBris]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 8:31pm

Just remembered one: when I saw The Producers with Brad Oscar and Hunter Foster, when Max throws the water on Leo, Hunter started choking on it. Brad stood there trying not to laugh, and Hunter added "and I'm choking!" to the "I'm wet! I'm hysterical, and I'm wet!" thing.

[DefyingPopular]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 9:54pm

to clear up the buckets thing.

Jennifer has an obsession w/ the word 'bucket' and so everytime they did the BCEFA speech, Shoshana would allow Jennifer to have her moment of glory and say 'bucket'. So it became known that every night JLT would scream out 'BUCKET' or do something w/ the bucket. Eventually apparently Michelle Federer *i think*, lead the ensemble to do a spin whenever JLT would scream bucket, at first apparently Sho & JLT had no idea they were spinning, or pretended not too... and eventually it caught on and they noticed it. On JLT's last, Shoshana mentioned something about 'not forgetting the bucket' or 'oh crap the bucket' or something at the end of 'for good'... and an homage i assume....quite cute actually...


As for my favorite ad lib... it was probably May 29ths Wicked, JLT's last, and JLT was doing popular and kept adding flowers to Shoshana's head. And she handed Sho the mirror and was like 'Elphie.. look at you, you're beautiful' and Sho burst into laughter and said 'Oh Yea'.. but totally out of character.. it was just really funny... the whole picture of Shoshana w/ 5 flowers on her head.. and yea ..

Another hilarious adlib was Norbert was late coming onto the stage during his entrace in DRS, and Lithgow was sitting on the 'train' and reading his paper, and he started saying how 'Ohhh this paper's in German.. this will come in handy later in the show' and 'ohhhh my partner seems to be late...' and just sat there 'reading'.. and then Norbs walks on and he sits down, the waiter asks for his order and he said 'Sorry..... can u give me a few minutes? i'm still stuck in my dressing room!'... it was hilarious! but you probalby had to be there!

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 10:19pm

another rocky horror one. my school went on a field trip to a preview (yeah my schools a little weird) and one of the girls from my group was singing along the opening lines of touch-a touch me and all of a sudden alice ripley turns to her and goes "would you like to finish or can i go on?" then waited for a few seconds and kept going, the girl turned 8 shades of crimson.

Posted: 6/21/05 at 10:33pm

Last year when we saw Lily Tomlin do her revival of SEARCH FOR SIGNS . . ., she stopped suddenly about 2/3 through and said, "I need some water." As she leaned against the proscenium enjoying a drink, she turned and said, "I'm sorry, I'm old." (she was 65 at the time) That garnered her ONE of her standing ovations that evening.

I couldn't do that show now at age 42 - we won't even discuss her at 65!

[jasobres]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 11:02pm

I love this thread.

Bumpity-bump!

[Tirso de Molina]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 11:09pm

I saw Jewtopia this past Christmas Eve (it was the only show playing that night, I think), and during the Act I scene where Adam is quizzing Chris about "authentic" Jewish behavior, they threw in what was probably a pre-planned ad-lib:

Adam: Oh, here's another one: what do Jews do on Christmas Eve?
Chris (triumphantly, after a pause): They go to the theater!

They got a huge laugh for that.

[JRTO2]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 11:29pm

I worked at The Lion King and Hairspray in Toronto, so there are many lines- but my favorite has to be from Lion King. Before the stampeed scene one show the elevator in the stage was stuck and the crew told Scar (I think it was Richard MacMillan)to keep it going while they tried to fix it. He was left out in front of the curtain with simba when he picked up his tail, twirled it, walked a little and said "So... anyone want to know how I got my scar?" Very funny

[tumadre2]

Posted: 6/21/05 at 11:38pm

A famous one from the original production of "Annie" happened when Allison Smith was playing the title role. During the "Tomorrow" scene, Sandy started puking all over the stage. When the Hooverville-ites come over to Annie and ask her if she's hungry, Allison ad libbed, "No, but my dog is!"

^^^^^^^^^^ I thought "No, but my dog is!" was in the actual script? It's in the one I did! lol

[chinkie azn jai]

Posted: 6/22/05 at 12:06am

When I saw The Boy From Oz a few days after the Tony's, some beauty pagent winner was supposedly in the audience. So during BiCoastal, he yelled into the audience to try to find her. Then someone from the audience yelled out, "She left!" Hugh starts cracking up and says, "She must be at Avenue Q!"

Also during Hairspray, when Jacki went through the audience, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "OH MY GOD, you payed 6 dollars for a bottle of water?!"