Most Awkward Moment You've Ever Witnessed Onstage?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 12:51pm

What's the strangest, most awkward, most "Oh. My. God." moment you've ever witnessed onstage, either you in a production or you watching from the audience?

I've never witnessed anything JAWDROPPINGLY awkward but there have been times when I've been in plays where people would try to cover up the fact that they have absolutely no idea what line they were supposed to be saying. Definitely when a cop was arresting me in a play, and the cop thought for a moment, paused, and said "You'll be spending a lot of time with a guy named Bubba soon." In hindsight, it's not really such a big deal but this play was set in the '40s, so....

[andyf]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 2:27pm

Melanie Griffith in Chicago.





Every second.

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 3:08pm

Ted Ross having to improvise in The Wiz during Be A Lion when Stephanie Mills walked off the stage after someone in the audience took a flash picture. A full 5 minutes he had to sit there and lick his paws until she returned to finish the song.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 3:13pm

Why didn't they stop the show?

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 3:13pm

Seeing Brooke Shields as Roxie and the current London cast of The Producers (esp. the Leo!!!! and of course excluding the ever so wonderful Leigh Z) and the whole show of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in London!!!!

[Jamie Hat]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 3:19pm

When the car lowered into the stage in Good Vibrations and everyone onstage knew how lame it was.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 3:23pm

Melanie b. in rent. From the first moment to the last.

[ally_kay_on_broadway]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 3:29pm

performing in wss watching from offstage- chino fires his gun at tony...and the stupid thing doesn't work. The moment was totally killed when our percussionist improvised and just hit one of the drums. It was hilarious...but awkward....ok...more hilarious.

"TONY!" * LOOONNNNNG pause.....DUNNNNNGGGGG*

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 3:52pm

Speaking of WSS, I once heard a story, which in theaterlore has been attributed to the 1980 revival, but I've never known anyone that was there to confirm it.

Maria is at her big moment at the end where she is saying "How many bullets Chino?". She is waving the gun around and it accidently fires. Two of the extras fall down dead and then one realizes that only one bullet was fired and so has to get back up.

[ally_kay_on_broadway]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:01pm

BAAAHHH HA HA HA HA! Thats great!

Now THATS some classic theatre!

[lildogs]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:08pm

Another Chino/bullet story: When the gun didn't fire, Chino made two gun sounds (like "pow pow") and ran offstage...must be a WSS thing...

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:09pm

Probably when Sutton, Marc and Gavin all lost it during the resturant scene. It was awkward at first but then just turned into hysteria.

Also, not Broadway, but still onstage...A few weeks ago i saw BATB in Hickory...Lumiere completely forgot the words to Be Our Guest..He looked around and then finally just did a cliche Frenchman's laugh for about 10 seconds.

Updated On: 9/30/05 at 04:09 PM

[paphillyguy]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:15pm

Linda Dano attempting to sing and dance in Mame at the Bucks County Playhouse. Very akward!!!

[jam_man]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:21pm

At last year's Illinois All-State Thespian Festival, the All-State show was Ragtime. At the performance we got to see, there were a couple of technical difficulties. First of all, they were using some projected slides as part of the scenery, but during "Gliding," someone must have moved the mouse on the computer that was doing the projecting, because the arrow started to be seen. There was some laughter from us, the audience.

HOWEVER, that was nothing compared to what happened later in that performance. Right after one of the most important points in the enitre show - Willie Conklin trashing Coalhouse's car - Conklin (who was played by a senoir from our school, by the way) was supposed to drive the car in reverse off stage. But the car wasn't cooperating. I guess it was a hair too far downstage, because he looked like he was trying to back into a parking space that the car wouldn't fit in. After about 2 or 3 minutes - with Coalhouse and Sarah desperatly trying to stay in character while looking right at the madness - they had to bring on one of the techies from off stage drive it off. However, despite both of those goofs, I still consider that show the single most amazing show I've ever seen, for many reasons. And if the thunderous roar of the ENTIRE audience (they got a standing ovation when the pit stood up before they started the entr'acte) ment anything, everyone else who saw that show would probably agree with me.

[Di2]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:44pm

I went to see a regional prod. of Into the Woods and the Prince Charming had a habit of squatting a bit when he hit high notes so when he sang "Agony" every time he "squatted" he revealed to the audience that his fly was open.

He flashed us his tighty whities at least 20 some times over the course of 3 minutes..

And he had no idea..He told other cast members that he must have been really "on" during Agony because the audience was just going crazy with laughter..


poor guy.

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:47pm

At the end of the title song of Phantom, Christine hit the really really high note and farted really loud...it gave the Music of the Night a whole new meaning.

[Taryn]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:49pm

In my senior musical at high school, we did Into the Woods. Friday night was kind've our disaster night, but I think the worst that I saw was when the Mysterious Man didn't come on for his "When is a cow not a white cow?" scene with the Baker to give him back the money. So our Baker ran on with the money, said, "Look what I found!" and ran back off.

[FrancisGumm]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 4:53pm

all shook up's that all right mama boob scene and ofcourse them making fun of each other w/the orgy thing.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 6:22pm

We were doing a few shows a night at my college and the night before this happened, was my show.

Anyway- In the beginning of the show, the phone is supposed to ring once and the women picks it up and the show contines. Not on this night. The phone rings and she picks it up and says hello...it rang after picked she said "Hello!" even louder. Yet again it rang, and she said "Whats going on? I've gotta call the telephone company...my phone has a mind of it's own!!" It stopped ringing after the third ring *Thank G-d* but it was pretty crazy. I talked to her after and she said she would have no clue what to do after the 3rd ring. I think she did well with what happened.

Needless to say, the next night, someone else was working the sound booth.

[DramaDork925]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 6:39pm

When I was in Bat Boy: The Musical our Bat Boy performed the entire "Let Me Walk Amoung You" with an open fly. It was quite hilarious and I had a hard time keeping a straight face.

The most hilarious thing I've seen was when I went to see my high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof and during Lechaim one of the ensemble members accidentally dived headfirst into the bar (he was OK) but all the glass bottles shattered. It was quite funny though and livened up an otherwise dull production.

[greenifyed]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 7:59pm

Not really *funny*, because no one knew what the HELL was going on, but one of the most awkward theatre experiences I've had was being at Wicked on January 8th when Idina broke her ribs. Poor Jennifer Laura Thompson just sorta stood there after all the commotion and said "Elphie.." before they closed the curtain. And then the most awkward was when Shoshana was just sorta standing there at the end of the show, didn't want to bow, just like.. hanging around. Everyone was sorta like... "okay... this is what we do..."

Just odd. I mean, it was an interesting show to have been there for. I guess.

[kas]

Posted: 9/30/05 at 10:04pm

during contact (in rent) you know how the actors make noises under the sheets? well someone obviously did a weirdo noise (to be funny) and you could hear everyone else laughing while they were trying to sing. you couldn't see them, but you could hear them. so funny.

[amcchemist]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 12:03am

Well, I hear that they have changed it, but I think one of the most ackward moments I remember was in the Woman in White in London. The projections were used to easily move from one area or scene to the next. There was one moment where the characters were to go upstairs and the projection showed the motion of moving upstairs. The two leads, Maria Friedman and Martin Crewes had to jog in place to try and make it look like they were going up the stairs. Needless to say, it looked quite funny and there was some quiet laughter in the audience, as none of us were sure whether it was truly meant to be funny. I loved the rest of the show, but that particular moment always seemed really odd to me. I've heard that the show in London no longer has that particular scene, so I'm wondering if it will also not appear in the Broadway version of the show.

[Elphaba3]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 12:40am

The very end of Defying Gravity on understudy day.

[liotte]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 12:50am

"all shook up's that all right mama boob scene and ofcourse them making fun of each other w/the orgy thing. "

That wasn't awkward, that was hysterical!