Jim Parsons tripped onstage - Saturday Eve. performance cancelled- Page 2

[persephone88]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 10:20am

We were super disappointed. We came up from DC to see the show and found out 20 minutes to curtain it was cancelled. We'd love to still see it but the expense of repeat hotel and train tickets may prohibit us. Hope Jim Parsons is recovering, but really wish either Telecharge or the Booth would have emailed patrons in a more timely manner. It was a disorganized mess outside the theatre.

[Ravenclaw]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 10:27am

As others have said, it was very poorly handled. They didn't even let people go to the box office, which normally closes at 8:30. I bought my ticket in-person at the box office, and since they are dark on Sundays, I have to wait until tomorrow to go back to the box office and get either a refund or reschedule (I tried calling tele charge, and they couldn't help me because I hadn't purchased through them). I understand that accidents happen and understudies aren't usually well-rehearsed in previews, but the way front of house handled this was incredibly frustrating.

A few months ago, I went to a performance at Steppenwolf that was cancelled due to technical difficulties (what luck I must have!), and the front of house and box office staffs were both extremely accommodating and helpful. I was disappointed in the "just go away" sort of attitude the staff at the booth had last night.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 10:33am

I'm sure his u/s is rehearsing the part today and tomorrow in case he's out on Monday.

[Valentina3]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 11:02am

"And, second, when Mary Tyler Moore walked out prior to a matinee of Neil Simon's Rose's Dilemma. She had been served a letter of notes on her performance moments before going on and decided to walk. Her Understudy was asked if she felt she could go on but didn't have to because she hadn't had much rehearsal. In this instance, she went on as well and actually finished the run as Mary never returned to the production."

That's a fun anecdote, I want to know more! What was in the notes?

[smidge]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 11:13am

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1448762/Mary-Tyler-Moore-storms-out-of-new-Broadway-comedy.html

[EthelMae]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 11:30am

Valentina: Thx! From what I remember, Mary was having some trouble remembering lines. She supposedly decided on wearing an ear piece. Then, right before a matinee preview, Mrs. Neil Simon, actress Elaine Joyce, delivered a letter to Mary's dressing room from Neil Simon saying, among things, "either learn your lines in my play or you're out of this production". I don't know if those were the exact words but it was something to that effect. Mary picked up and walked out of the theatre at that point, moments before curtain. Her Understudy went on and continued for the rest of the short run of the engagement.
Soon after, Mary was one of the hosts at a benefit held at the New Amsterdam Theatre. I happened to be in attendance. This Neil Simon story had made the rounds of the papers by this time. Mary came out and started to speak. She seem to be having trouble remembering what she wanted to say. She stopped and went off stage and came back with this huge earpiece attached to her head. It was very funny and just the thing to break the ice on this thing. Mary knew everyone there had read about what happened and she got thunderous applause to be able to make fun of it. I loved Mary even more after this. I always thought the way that Mr. and Mrs. Simon
apparently handled the situation was shabby to say the least.

[EthelMae]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 11:42am

Thx, Smidge, for the link. If the Telegraph article is right, apparently Mary did do the matinee after getting the Simon letter but failed to show up that evening. I guess I remembered it wrong. I always thought she walked right out moments before the matinee. Guess not!

[PatrickDC]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 12:42pm

Why couldn’t the understudy be on book? Or with an earpiece? I’m not familiar with the show, only the film, but it’s not a musical with extensive blocking, choreography, and notes to hit. Given the prospect of having the performance canceled or seeing one of the actors with a script and who may not be as polished, I’d bet 99.9% of the audience would be ok with it. Aren’t previews the time to work things out anyway, so minor disruptions are acceptable?

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 1:16pm

I received a refund for the cancellation this morning. I’m very lucky to be a member of this site, I saw this post within minutes of the theater and out of frustration just turned around. Good thing I didn’t actually get to the theater, sounds like it was a mess.

I also live in NY so it makes rescheduling easier. I’m very sorry that your trip was affected persephone88.

A real shame that this wasn’t handled better by the staff (of the Booth and Telecharge). 

[Wick3]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 4:18pm

PatrickDC said: "Why couldn’t the understudy be on book? Or with an earpiece?I’m not familiar with the show, only the film, but it’s nota musical with extensive blocking, choreography, and notes to hit. Given the prospect of having the performance canceled or seeing one of the actors with a script and who may not be as polished, I’d bet 99.9% of the audience would be ok with it. Aren’t previews the time to work things out anyway, so minor disruptions are acceptable?"

You bring out good points but Jim Parson's role is quite significant in the play. There are certain key scenes where I think it would look awkward to have a script/folder out there. 

I do agree that the theater handled it quite poorly. The matinee ended by 4pm and I'd think it reasonable for the theater to make a firm decision about the evening performance by 6pm the latest? 

To prevent this from happening again, I do wonder if they'll just cut out a lot of the confetti or play around with the phone cord placement as those are what Jim tripped on during the matinee.

[Skip23]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 4:31pm

Gee...if we're lucky, they might replace Parsons permanently!

 

[Theatre_Mom]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 4:46pm

We just walked by the Booth and a car was parked right outside the stage door. I wonder if Parsons is there helping rehurse the understudy.

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 5:43pm

What an incredible f*ck up for Telecharge.  Sending a basic email would have saved so many people time and money.  But, they have understudies that are being paid.  When a show starts, they should be prepared to go on. This is show business. Things happen and understudies need to be used sometimes.  This is professional theater.  Ugh, what a mess.

Updated On: 5/13/18 at 05:43 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 6:19pm

EllieRose2 said: "When a show starts, they should be prepared to go on.This is show business.Things happen and understudies need to be used sometimes. This is professional theater. Ugh, what a mess."

 

I don't disagree with you, but as others have already pointed out, it's pretty standard in the industry not to rehearse understudies until after previews have begun. You may not like it (I don't either), but calling them out for being unprofessional is essentially saying that every Broadway production is unprofessional. 

Also, for those saying they could have done more to send McGrath on: we really don't know. We can ask with "why can't they just..." and "why didn't they just..." all day long, but at the end of the day, they made a judgement call that we just can't judge because we weren't in the room, and we're not in McGrath's head. There could be any number of reasons why they went with the path they did. 

Doesn't excuse the way they handled the announcement though! 

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 6:50pm

What?  I never called anyone "unprofessional".  That didn't happen.  I made a statement about theater.  Thanks.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 6:57pm

EllieRose2 said: "What? I never called anyone "unprofessional". That didn't happen. I made a statement about theater. Thanks."

Forgive me for putting a specific word in your mouth, but you did say "this is professional theatre" (a direct quote), with the implication that you were angry that something like this would happen in professional theatre - in other words, not up to professional standards (i.e unprofessional). Criticizing them by saying "this is professional theatre" implies that they are not being professional. If that's not what you were saying, then please clarify. I'm sorry if I misunderstood you but I don't think it was an unreasonable leap to make.

Updated On: 5/13/18 at 06:57 PM

[Huss417]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 7:15pm

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "I received a refund for the cancellation this morning. I’m very lucky to be a member of this site, I saw this post within minutes of the theater and out of frustration just turned around. Good thing I didn’t actually get to the theater, sounds like it was a mess.

I also live in NY so it makes rescheduling easier. I’m very sorry that your trip was affectedpersephone88.

A real shame that this wasn’t handled better by the staff (of the Booth and Telecharge)."

You also mentioned this last night 10 minutes prior to curtain. Odd you wouldn't have checked out the theatre than take someones word for it as you must have been right there.

"F*ck me. I paid the most I have ever paid for these tickets and I only found this out because I checked this site ten minutes before curtain. 

I hate to be selfish right now but this was a really important night. I wish JP all the best. I hope I can get a refund."

 

[dmwnc1959]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 7:30pm

JBroadway said: "Forgive mefor putting a specific word in your mouth, but you did say "this is professional theatre" (a direct quote), with the implication that you were angry that something like this would happen in professional theatre - in other words, not up to professional standards (i.e unprofessional).Criticizing them by saying "this is professional theatre" implies that they are not being professional.If that's not what you were saying, then please clarify. I'm sorry if I misunderstood you but I don't think it was an unreasonable leap to make."

 

I didn’t read his comment as meaning “unprofessional”, but that they should have been better prepared, had already initiated a contingency plan should something arise. They were in Previews, but that’s an excuse, not a reason, and had an understudy, and still failed. 

 

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 8:01pm

Thank you ^^^^^^^^^^^  That is exactly correct.  

[JBroadway]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 8:36pm

dmwnc1959 said: "JBroadway said: "I didn’t read his comment as meaning “unprofessional”, but that they should have been better prepared, had already initiated a contingency plan should something arise. They were in Previews, but that’s an excuse, not a reason, and had an understudy, and still failed" 


Yeah, that's all well and good. But none of that negates everything I already said about Ellie's "this is professional theatre" comment. The point that they should have better prepared was clear in Ellie's post, but by saying "this is professional theatre" to support that point implies that their lack of preparedness is unprofessional. But this is all semantics. I was just using the word "unprofessional" as a means of concisely summarizing Ellie's comment, but it seems to be distracting everyone (including me) from the point, so let me rephrase it from scratch:

My point is that saying "this is professional theatre" (regardless of whether you meant it to mean they were unprofessional or not), is irrelevant. Because this IS the system in professional theatre. It may be broken, but we cannot have expected more from them just because it is professional. Lots of professional theatres don't even have understudies, and those that do typically don't rehearse them until later. You may not agree with this system (I admit I don't either), but them being professional is not a reason to have expected better. 

 

 

 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 8:37pm

EXCEPT: that's not how it works with professional theater.  Since EVERYONE on the production is working on getting the production on its feet, including (likely) daily changes, who is going to get the understudies ready?   Where can they prepare this?  When?   There are only so many hours in a day.  This is what happens when, unfortunately, things happen in previews.   

 

I understand those with tickets (esp from non-locals) would be disappointed, but there really isn't much the production can do.  It doesn't happen often.

[Tag]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 8:51pm

^Exactly.

Understudies aren't usually rehearsed until after opening when there is time.  There are Equity rules that stipulate when these rehearsals need to take place by.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 9:01pm

the thing with a show in previews and not getting an understudy rehearsal time is that the show is being tweaked during the day and there simply isn't time for an understudy rehearsal. If this happened after opening then I'd be questioning why the understudy didn't go on or wasn't ready?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 9:20pm

I really don’t know why this is difficult for some people to understand. Shows in previews don’t have time to rehearse understudies when they’re spending the day focused on getting the show up and running and rehearsing the billed cast. It’s that simple.

[rjnyyz]

Posted: 5/13/18 at 9:36pm

Question--Now that it is explained why understudies may not be ready during previews, can someone with knowledge please explain just out of curiosity.   What are understudies typically doing during previews?   Are they paid?  Are they watching the performances so that they can be ready for when the show officially opens?   Or are they not present, since there is no time for them to be rehearsed?  Or does each show and/or actor have a different protocol?   

Thanks in advance for any insight.