Posted: 6/5/15 at 7:42pm
Apparently during Thursday nights performance a lady in the audience collapsed and Kelsey and Matthew where on stage at the time and stopped the show to make sure she was ok. It was on Twitter.
I am surprised that actors could be that aware of the audience mid performance when the lights are dimmed and it's a big crowd.
Updated On: 6/5/15 at 07:42 PM
Posted: 6/5/15 at 8:05pm
Actors can see WAY more than most of the audience thinks from the stage.
Posted: 6/5/15 at 11:03pm
so what happened exactly? they stopped the show, and then did paramedics arrive? did they wait until it was all clear before continuing?
Posted: 6/5/15 at 11:03pm
**OOPS, DOUBLE POSTED***
Updated On: 6/5/15 at 11:03 PM
Posted: 6/6/15 at 12:49am
A friend of mine and his wife were at the performance, they said the show was delayed about half an hour while audience members (who were doctors or nurses) attended to the woman who was having what appeared to be a seizure. The FDNY EMT's arrived and took her to the hospital and the show resumed.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 2:51am
No matter how professional an actor is, I suspect that having something like this take place disrupts their concentration. It must be hard to be interrupted by something upsetting and then have to resume a performance while the actor is probably still worrying about whether the audience member is ok.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 3:03am
Just like fire drills in school, casts rehearse for this. They are well prepared.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 4:07am
"Just like fire drills in school, casts rehearse for this. They are well prepared."
As Tag said, this is not at all true. At least, not on Broadway. Some theaters are better prepared than others (specifically stage and house managers), and every situation is dealt with on a case to case basis. Sometimes a patron can get out under their own power, otherwise the show must be stopped til the first responders get there - and even then, sometimes they will need to care for the patron in situ before moving them.
I have never heard of a cast rehearsing for a medical emergency. Not ever. Sometimes it is an actor who stops the show (Tucci famously did it nude, in Frankie and Johnny), but far more often, it's the stage manager, who has been notified by an usher or other front of house worker. Often another patron. The SM will announce over a god mike that the show will be stopped, and the house lights brought up.
The extent of the cast being "well prepared" consists mostly of walking off the stage when someone tells them to. What is there for them to rehearse for?
This also happens far more often than you would think.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 4:39am
"No matter how professional an actor is, I suspect that having something like this take place disrupts their concentration. It must be hard to be interrupted by something upsetting and then have to resume a performance while the actor is probably still worrying about whether the audience member is ok."
It's so true. I've heard audio of Laura singing Dying Ain't so Bad in Bonnie & Clyde, and she had started the song but had to stop it for a medical emergency and by the time the show resumed, you could tell, even without having other performances to compare it to, that she was shaken by the whole thing, and the performance was extremely emotional, probably twice as emotional as other performances i've heard of her singing that song. It definitely effects them, professional or not, their human, not robots, they can't just see something like that happen and then brush it off, it has to be difficult to keep composure for sure.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 7:30am
The lady who was sick felt better the next day apparently, and wrote a cute note to Matthew and the cast.
https://twitter.com/Matt_Morrison/status/606965813875195904
Posted: 6/6/15 at 8:38am
Sylvia Weinstein, Harvey's sister, earning her Christmas bonus from her brother six months early.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 8:42am
They rehearse to stop the show - not to take care if the emergency. I've seen it happen several times over the years, and the actors know exactly what to do to stop the show. Then they just wait backstage until they get the all clear.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 9:52am
"Sylvia Weinstein, Harvey's sister, earning her Christmas bonus from her brother six months early. "
You guys are starting to sound paranoid. Everything is a show put up by Weinstein. I'm actually Harvey Weinstein writing here.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 10:03am
Is he a long lost, previously never heard from relative Of David Merrick?
Posted: 6/6/15 at 10:06am
"They rehearse to stop the show - not to take care if the emergency. I've seen it happen several times over the years, and the actors know exactly what to do to stop the show. Then they just wait backstage until they get the all clear."
No, they don't. Actors in Broadway shows do not rehearse how to stop a show. They instinctively know how to stop a show, just like anyone else - they stop what they're doing. The calling Stage Manager tells them, the crew. and the audience exactly what to do once the show is stopped.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 11:51am
I find it weird, how did they notice someone "collapsing" while sitting in a chair? Wouldn't they just look like they were asleep? I mean collapsing while standing would definitely be noticeable but while in a chair? Was this person standing?
Posted: 6/6/15 at 12:01pm
Posted: 6/6/15 at 12:06pm
Actors dont rehearse emergencies like that, they just stop when they're told to. The FOH staff are the ones who train for emergencies.
Only three people can officially make the decision to halt a performance: The House Manager, Tech Director, and Stage Manager.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 12:32pm
^Well technically the performers can make that decision…when they stop performing. There is no such thing as a "tech director" who would be at a performance with that capability. The house manager also can't really stop a show. It comes down to the stage manager, nothing happens in the theatre without the stage manager initiating it.
Posted: 6/6/15 at 12:34pm
"Sylvia Weinstein, Harvey's sister, earning her Christmas bonus from her brother six months early. "
HANUKKAH bonus! Ecch. Goyim!
Posted: 6/6/15 at 1:22pm
"They rehearse to stop the show - not to take care if the emergency. I've seen it happen several times over the years, and the actors know exactly what to do to stop the show. Then they just wait backstage until they get the all clear."
Where have you seen these rehearsals? Actors don't need to rehearse to walk off the stage when told to and wait in the wings to come back on and resume. I have seen shows stopped hundreds of times - only twice did an actor instigate it - and one of those times was when an actor collapsed on stage. Every other time it was a SM, and even then there is deliberation as to when, how, and if to stop the show.
Actors have little to do with it and I'm curious as to where you got the idea they rehearse these things.
eta: previous thread on the subject:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1079404
Updated On: 6/6/15 at 01:22 PM
Posted: 6/6/15 at 2:06pm
Posted: 6/6/15 at 2:13pm
Posted: 6/6/15 at 9:52pm
When I worked at the Miami Beach Theatre for the Performing Arts, it was a rare performance when we did NOT call for an ambulance for one of our patrons. It was a barn of a theater (3000+) and, no, we never stopped a show while the patron was carried out.
In a bit of graveyard humor, we called every passing ambulance siren "the official city anthem".
It was only interesting when, as in a sold-out matinee of Lansbury in MAME, a man had a heart attack and the paramedics were trying to get his wife to come in the ambulance with him. She yelled angrily, "Are you kidding?! Do you have any idea how hard it was to get these tickets?!" (Unfortunately, the run was sold out so we couldn't offer her tix to a later show; but she did eventually go with her husband to the hospital.)
