Most Disastrous Performances?- Page 2

[dramamama611]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 4:34pm

I've seen 3 Dianas. Alice is by far the best (IMHO).

[Wicked Fanatic]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 4:49pm

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.

[undercoveractor]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 4:58pm

For me..

Joel Grey in ANYTHING GOES...for just the shear badness of seeing a Tony & Oscar winner ruining every moment he was involved with...
Norbert Leo Butz in IS HE DEAD?...for a performance that was the ultimate in masturbatory acting. I call that 'make a funny face' acting...it's all just cheap. That said I have really enjoyed everything else that I have seen him do.

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 5:11pm

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.

[rougeduck]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 5:31pm

For overall disasters, gonna have to go with Women on the Verge. Everyone just wasn't good and there were 2 hilarious bloopers!
There was a scene where Brian Stokes Mitchel was talking to Justin Guarini and in the middle of Guarini's line, Brian held up his finger and was like "Wait." then a random television moved across the stage...also at another point a building got tangled with a curtain or light or something stopping the scene.
Once again, the whole boring score/horrible pacing/completely underwhelming performances thing didn't help either.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 5:39pm

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.

[egghumor]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:02pm

Hey, dollypop, thanks. Yeah, I remember all those stories cirulcating about Burton's performance at the time. How uncanny it was that Burton was ultimately (tour and Broadway of that production) by Richard Harris, who flailed and skidded (literally) and flounced himself through the performance of CAMELOT I witnessed months later. Clearly they both were doing it for the money, which in turn caused them to behave so contemptuously toward the show and audiences (far from one of my favorite musicals).

Updated On: 6/26/11 at 06:02 PM

[Okayfine]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:21pm

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.

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:27pm

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

I saw an open-captioned performance of Blithe Spirit. Let's just say that the words appearing on screen were not the words coming out of Ms Lansbury's mouth.

[Barcelona]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:29pm

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

[Okayfine]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:32pm

Gathering this wasn't a union production....

[gypsy4]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:48pm

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.

[PennybankBill]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:59pm

Dollypop, are you talking about the same William Parry who originated the roles of the Boatman in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, The Proprietor in ASSASSINS, and Papa Mizner in ROAD SHOW?!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 7:08pm

Yes, that's the same William Parry.

[James885]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 7:38pm

When I saw the Aida tour, one of the museum set pieces got stuck in its track and wouldn't move. The stagehands came out to get it, but they had so much trouble with it that it was halfway through "Fortune Favors The Brave" before they finally wheeled it away. It was funny watching watching the cast dance around the crew and the totally out-of-place set piece. There was a round of applause mid-song when they finally got it out of there.

[quizking101]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 8:43pm

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,

[binau]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 8:48pm

I haven't seen a relatively large amount of shows so I don't have much to report, but Elaine Stritch's performance in NIGHT MUSIC was easily the most 'disastrous', there were line flubs, mistaken lines and audio prompts. Although this wasn't her first performance as previously reported, but near the end of the run (December) :P. Still, I enjoyed her performance a lot. It's a shame she didn't do a Lansbury in Blithe Spirit and Cook in Sondheim on Sondheim and have a earpiece/video feed or something..

Updated On: 6/26/11 at 08:48 PM

[LegallyBroadway2]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:19pm

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]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:29pm

I'm going to go with any performance of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark.

Game over

[LegallyBroadway2]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:30pm

@Luner_onTheatre, I eat poop

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

[redmustang]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:38pm

I once saw a high school production of Mame in Ohio. The only song in the show was "Mame" and the entire cast waved to family and friends the entire show. Without music, it ran close to 3 hours. I had to take a valium when I got home.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 11:25pm

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

[Marianne2]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 11:56pm

qolbinau-I saw A Little Night Music 5 days before it closed, and Elaine Stritch still flubbed a lot then. I recall Bernadette and Katherine McNamara trying to give her hints.

[jpbran]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 12:09am

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.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 6/27/11 at 12:16am

It's a shame to know that Elaine Stritch had many nights where she flubbed lines terribly, but I must say that the two times I had the privilege to see her, she didn't flub her lines once. The worst it ever came to was she paused for a slight second at the beginning of act two for the line "We mustn't be seen sitting around like bohemians." Other than that, she was on her game.

I will say that the most blatant "I don't care" performance I've seen recently was Chester Gregory in Sister Act. He just stood around on stage, barely looking at anyone and pretty much just throwing his lines around. The only time he put in any effort was his one song. I'm sad to say that because he put in an effort for that one moment, the audience still gave him a big round of applause.