Most Disastrous Performances? — Page 2

For me mine is when something went terribly wrong with the set on December 18, 1993 at a performance of Sunset Boulevard.

This date is ingrained forever as one of my greatest musical theatre experiences! I had the extreme pleasure of seeing the incredibly gifted actress Glenn Close take one of the greatest female movie acting roles and bring it to the stage in the American premiere of Sunset Boulevard at the beautiful Gershwin Theatre part of the ABC Entertainment Complex in Century City in Los Angeles which unfortunately was demolished in 2002 and replaced with an ugly modern glass high rise--Ugh!

What an evening it was complete with a major set breakdown in the 2nd act about 15 minutes before the finale. It began when Betty (Judy Kuhn) and Joe (Alan Campbell) were working on their screenplay in the office at two desks. At the end of the scene one of the desks would not move off the stage and got stuck at the far right.

The scene continued with Glenn Close coming out on a bed being massaged. She sang but we couldn't see her since the desk was in front of her face and the stage hands continued to try and pull it off. Glenn didn't miss a beat in the scene.

Then the scene shifted back to the office but since the desk was still stuck on stage Joe & Betty just stood until it was time to take a stroll on the Paramount back lot together. The set then changed to fronts of buildings while they sang their song, "Too Much in Love To Care". As the building turned around to reveal marquees one of them got stuck on the desk which still hadn't been pulled off the stage. The whole set started moving back and forth as it turned but Judy Kuhn and Alan Campbell just kept on singing as if nothing was going wrong. If it had fallen on them someone would have been hurt seriously. When the scene ended the curtain came down and we heard the voice of Glenn Close say that obviously they were having problems and that they wanted to make sure we got our hard earned money's worth so the performance was being stopped for hopefully a short intermission.

For me I had already gotten my money's worth from all the great performances in the show--Campbell, Kuhn, George Hearn and Glenn Close. All together the set malfunction didn't diminish the fact that it was ***** show and performances for me.

I saw 9 to 5 in previews, and it was a technical disaster, and Allison Janney was a wreck as Violet. Also, Richard Kind as a repalcement in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a mess.

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In the revival of CAMELOT that played at Lincoln Center about 25 years ago (Christine Ebersole was Guinevere), Richard Burton was so filthy drunk that he wobbled about the stage calling out Merlin's name. In "I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight?" he was several beats behind the music. At the end of that number, someone dressed in a knight's costume came out and stood in front of Burton with his back to the audience. Obviously he was telling the actor something. He left and moments later the curtain came down with an announcement that Richard Burton was unable to continue with the performance. There would be a fifteen minute break and the show would resume with William Parry assuming the role of Arthur. Someone in the audience shouted out "Give Burton another drink" and the PA system quickly kicked on with an announcement that Burton had hurt his arm and was experiencing a reaction to Tylenol (Huh?)

We stayed for the show and William Parry was brilliant as Arthur.

The next day the newspapers were filled with stories about the event and it was learned that Burton had spent the afternoon drinking with Richard Harris.

We also got full refunds for our tickets.

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Wow. This thread is fascinating. The tuba story is still my favorite.

I guess I've seen so many technical problems it's hard to narrow it down, but there are many. A recent one is Nina Arianda getting her pegnoir caught on the stairs & falling, poor thing. The miracle of the thing is that it never happened until then.

Also saw a flying set piece in The Producers come unbuckled & swing wildly so that Broderick had to duck. I'm not sure it was all that close to him, but I would have ducked, too. That sucker was MOVING.

Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit ad-libbing until she could remember her lines or be prompted.

Stuff like that.

I was involved with a production of Beauty and the Beast where some sort of machine was used to lift the Beast during his transformation. But nobody knew how to operate it, so he fell numerous times, including opening night

when I saw the Phantom tour there was a Mishap with the chandelier at the top of act one that led to a 10 minute delay it didn't rise during the Overture the actress playing Carlotta who was in character came right on to the stage singing her first note not noticing that the chandelier was right in front of her she took a look and ran right off.

Yes, that's the same William Parry.

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I have two that I wouldn't call disasterous, but they were pretty bad:

1) Sherie Rene Scott in WOMEN ON THE VERGE...Let's just say I never realized Pepa was "americano".

2) Colman Domingo in CHICAGO...He has the slick ruthlessness that Billy Flynn requires, but could not sing "We Both Reached For The Gun" worth his salt. It definitely killed the performance for me to a degree,

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During a scene in Hello Dolly at my high school, a performer on a stage extension around the orchestra moved her dress over the clarinet player's head during a song. To see him try to get out of there was hilarious. He was a teacher. As she danced the dress would liffftttt and he would frantically reached his lips to the instrument to pick up, then the dress would plop back down on his head. a riot. The last couple nights, he ducked during that song.

@Luner_onTheatre, I eat poop

Updated On: 6/26/11 at 10:30 PM

Nothing will ever top this...

The guy's reaction "Well that's not good" is priceless.

And then just when you think all is well....well, just keep an eye on John.
Peter Pan set fail

The Peter Pan video never fails to make me laugh. Poor kids.

PS: this line from earlier: " Reeve entertained us with some harness tricks." Also made me laugh. Kinda hot too.