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

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.

"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?

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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.

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?

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.

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 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 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

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.

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.

^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.

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.