Most Awkward Moment You've Ever Witnessed Onstage?- Page 2

[VivaBohemia]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 1:02am

A friend of mine owns a bootleg of Rent. Jeremy was playing Roger and Josh Kobak was on as Mark. Near the end, Mark is supposed to wheel out a projector to show off his film hes been shooting throughout the play. Josh flies out with the projector and as he goes to stop, the projector tips over and spills the film EVERYWHERE.

Josh looked so helpless, the line was "Turn the projector on.." but since there was no film, He just looked at the projector and said it more like "How do we do this now."

Jeremy was chuckling the whole time. When the lights cut out Jeremy, who was totally on, said his next line "Ah well...maybe we wont screen it tonight."

One of my favorites.

Updated On: 10/1/05 at 01:02 AM

[LouieLovesTheater]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 1:06am

I was in a recent production of Applause and during the dancing section of the bows the woman playng Bonnie fell right off the stage flat on her face. I've been hard pressed to find a time where I've laughed harder or longer and still kept singing and dancing.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 1:23am

not something i saw personally but a story eric mccormack told on a tonight show interview. Apparantly one night while he was doing the music man he forgot ALL of the words to 76 trombones, and ended up scatting the song.

[Kringas]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 1:42am

Ann-Margret in a tour of Whorehouse. I her defense, she'd recently hurt her wrist, so I can only assume she was a real trouper and went on with the show after a healthy dose of pain killers. At one point she repeated the first verse of "Little Bitty Pissant Country Place," stopped, looked around for help, got some shrugs from her cast and then just giggled for a minute. It was surreal.

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 3:49am

During Dracula...when Lucy's clothes get ripped off and she has to run butt-assed naked into the bed. It was just like...WTF?

Also, when Mina and Drac take out their boobs during that one song in Act 2, that was just bizarre.

[EugLoven]

Posted: 10/1/05 at 4:56am

Wicked National Tour
Opening Night San Francisco
August 5, 2005

Kendra Kassebaum (Glinda) had such a hilarious "Popular" where everything went wrong, but fortunately, because of the nature of the song, that means it went right!

It all began when she said:
"Don't worry I'm determined to achieve" instead of "succeed"

Her eyes bugged out and she realized she'd messed up, and drew a blank... so she just hummed the next few lines like so:

"Don't worry I'm determined to achieve... Hmm Hmmm Mmmm... And You... Will... Hmmm See..."

And through it all, she was snuggling her face into Eden Espinosa's (Elphaba) neck, while Eden was like OMG! The people who knew the song were laughing hard.

Then, during "Laaa Laaa Laaa Laaa" Kendra's dress opened in the back and she kept flailing to zip it up. So during the part where she gets the mirror before teaching Elphaba how to toss her hair, she literally stops what she's doing and turns around and zips her dress back up. It was just so funny I was hiding my face in my hands!

[Raggy Q poo]

Posted: 11/11/05 at 11:44pm

Updated On: 11/11/05 at 11:44 PM

[BwayLeadman]

Posted: 11/11/05 at 11:59pm

When I did Into the Woods, the Baker's Wife pulled off Rapunzil's hair so hard, half of the wig ripped off.
Think of when she had to put it in her pocket and later feed that load of hair to the cow.

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:21am

This story happened tonight as I watched "Bat Boy" being performed. I was working backstage as part of the wardrobe crew a few weeks ago and that was supposed to be my job throughtout the run of the play. Sadly, hurricane Wilma got in the way. So, afterwards, the play was rescheduled. Unfortuantely I couldn't work backstage because this weekend I am busy. However, I went to see the show tonight.

A bit into the second act, there was only 3 people onstage. Everyone had microphones and they weren't working very well. All of a sudden we hear a little voice saying "...but 2 more performances and..." There were a few of these cut in's with off stage mics. After about 45 seconds, I wanted to run out and into the backstage door and tell them all to shut up! Finally, it stopped but it was very scary. I tend to notice things that others don't but everyone in the audience was laughing. I felt terrible!

Also, I feel bad because this throat sickness is going around and Bat Boy has to kiss Shelley and some of their voices were crackly. Bat Boy sang notes in a different range because he would crack in the middle of the note and Merideth sounded so congested. Uhh-- I hope they can make it through 2 more shows!! The singing teacher told them that after they left, that they couldn't go out and had to go home and sleep and they couldn't talk until they came for the next performance. She also told them to drink tea with honey and all that stuff. Now I'm just wondering which of the cast members actually followed those rules...


EDIT: The story actually happened LAST NIGHT if you want to get technical with the midnight timing thing.

Updated On: 11/12/05 at 12:21 AM

[temms]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:28am

I was conducting "Evita" on tour in Switzerland, using the Hal Prince production with all the projections. The computer that ran the slides malfunctioned during the press opening, and all through the "Requiem", on the gigantic, full-stage-size projection screen with the orchestra blaring and the chorus singing grandly, was the image of the desktop with the Windows shutdown procedure.

"The program has crashed - do you wish to restart?" The mouse furiously rolling around the screen. "Are you sure you want to restart?" More furious mouse rolling. "You have applications that are still running? Quit?" etc. All through the beginning of "Oh, What A Circus" when the projections stop.

Fortunately the reviews were in German so we were spared having to read them.

[hypertruffle]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:30am

The only awkward moment I've ever experienced was during a performance of Cinderella at the Paper Mill the other night. During the first scene, someone announced that they had techincal difficulties and had to stop the show for a couple of minutes.

[Vespertine1228]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:31am

Most awkward moment for me was definitely last year at a performance of "Shape of a Girl" at the Eve Alvord Theatre at the Seattle Children's Theatre. The actress was about 20 minutes through the one woman show when a man HOBBLED ONTO THE STAGE. The entrancce of the theatre is such that the door backstage and the door into the audience are next to each other, and since there was no running crew the man somehow went through the wrong door and continued down the hall until he emerged on the opposite side of the stage.

The worst thing is that he stayed there for a good minute or two. He didn't realize what he was doing or where he was. He finally hobbled off the stage into a seat in the first row. The actress just sat down and folded her hands while she waited for the man to make her decision, but it was the most awkward three minutes I've ever had in a theatre.

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:38am

temms, that is hilarious, but tis' awkward!

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:41am

Hands down "Brooklyn" in it's entirety.

[littleredridinghood]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:59am

Kind of like temms'...I went to see my friend's Les Miz, and for the drop-down scenes (like "Montreuil-sur-Mer 1823" etc), they were using a Powerpoint. Well, one time something went wrong, so the Windows welcome screen dropped.

Once during rehearsal of our Les Miz, our Marius had to run offstage because he suddenly got very sick and had to throw up, but nobody knew/saw him/was told, so we were all very, very confused.

[thespian geek]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 2:05am

This wasn't awkward for the audience, really. Just more or less absolutely HYSTERICAL. But it certainly had to be awkward for one of the actors.

So during a performance of Altar Boyz... during the song "Something About You" - which is, you know, a song about waiting to have sex until marriage... Scott Porter goes into the audience to pull up a girl during the song as is normal. He ended up pulling up this woman who was SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT.

Needless to say the entire audience was dying of laughter. Even the actors, minus Scott, were having the hardest time keeping it together. I don't think I've laughed so hard at anything but poor Scott.. I think he was at least a tiny bit embarassed.

[aegeusrocks]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 2:17am

Ok, I've said this story before on the board but whatever:
During the pre-Broadway tryout of Spamalot, right after when Lancelot has the "gay number" and the knights all gather back together, Hank Azaria comes running on in his knight costume, but with the flower in his hair from the flamenco costume poking out of his helmet. All of the other cast members just stared at him for a good two minutes until he looked and saw the flower sticking out, then quickly tucked it under his chain mail. Funniest happy accident I've ever seen, though not really too awkward, considering that it's Spamalot.

[enjolrasissex]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 6:02am

I saw Wicked in Chicago and at the end of 'As Long As You're Mine', Kristoffer Cusick burped in Ana Gasteyer's face. Needless to say, it kinda ruined the romantic atmosphere.

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 11:48am

This moment started in the audience. I was at Pillowman. This part of the play was pretty serious and quiet when Goldblum was questioning Crudup-about 20 minutes into the play. A latecomer was seated and immediately YELLED out-"AM I IN THE RIGHT SEAT?" I mean YELLED. The entire house heard it. To make matters worse, someone across the house YELLED back-"BE QUIET OR I'M CALLING SECURITY" "NO, I WILL NOT BE QUIET!" etc, etc. I never felt more uncomfortable, know that the actors heard this and it wouldn't stop. I was sure Goldblum would announce that the play would stop immediately. Thank goodness the yelling ceased and the actors hadn't completely lost their focus. I'm also glad it didn't ruin the experience for me, as this was the most exquisite theatre I have ever seen.

[Yankgrl46]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 11:52am

Seeing Joey Fatone in Rent. Talk about painful. He looked so incredibly out of shape, that I wasn't sure he was going to make it through the first act.

Off stage, the lasy who busted out a five course meal while seeing the final show of Les Mis. She popped open her snapple bottle just as Eponine was dying. The popping sound, mixed with the silence made me cringe.
Updated On: 11/12/05 at 11:52 AM

[GClef2]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 11:57am

LOL

Okay, I was playing Captain Hook in Peter Pan and right at the beginning of "Hook's Waltz" my microphone fell of my waistband and dropped to the bottom of my nickers. I added some choreography and cleverly tried to make its retrieval look casual, but the mike pack was at my knee, and the pins from the headset were pulling at my hair. So, I just quickly clipped it to my sword holster.

But wait....

Captain Hook passes out each time he hears the crocodile. So, a little later in the show, i hear the crocodile and "pass out" as i fall, i land on my Mike pack/ sword holster and the sword breaks in half. No one realized this but me, and, if you are familiar with the show, you know that right after the final "pass out" there is a very important Sword fight between Peter and Hook. At a quick moment, appropriate for all the other actors, I ran off stage and grabbed another sword. It was the scariest moment of my life.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:05pm

There was a similar thread not too long ago about the "biggest mistakes you've witnessed on stage."

I'm not trying to shout "SEARCH" to the original poster of this thread. But I thought some of you might want to read those responses as well, in addition to these. Some pretty amazing stories, including my own experience watching a very awkward, unusual and inspirational performance of Broadway's "Lion King" early in its run.

Biggest Mistakes Seen On Stage...

[zippyjen]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:06pm

i was at the first performance when the car broke down in chitty chitty bang bang. While awkward it was so much fun!

[CaroleeFan]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:08pm

At a drama competition several years back, a girl used a scene from Miracle Worker, where they run around and shake each other. There was no dialogue except "B-A-D. BAD!", and then she did a monologue she wrote herself about Henry the 8th or something like that. The entire audience looked so uncomfortable.

[Sant]

Posted: 11/12/05 at 12:27pm

THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK: There was this scene where all the leads (Lucy Arnaz, Maria Friedman, Joanna Riding) were standing outside of a house, behind a piece white picket fence. All of a sudden the fence fell over for some reason. Maria Friedman, who played Sukie, was eating ice-cream in the scene and she scooped this huge spoonful of ice-cream and quickly put it in her mouth to keep herself from laughing. Lucy Arnaz (Alexandra) and Joanna Riding (Jane) just stared the fence and started to crack. Somehow they managed to finish the scene - with the fence on the floor - and they went off the stage. A few seconds later Maria Friedman returned and picked the fence up and just simply walked off carrying the fence.