Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
#1Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:03pmI've done it, three or four times...
#2re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:05pmWhat do you mean exactly by "the audience dies" & "I've done it"?
#2re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:10pmDeadly shows. Ambulences outside the theater. Medics, 911 calls and "IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?"
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#3re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:11pm
Moose Murders
In My Life
Ring of Fire
Good Vibrations
...oh wait, we would have rather died...
keen on kean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/06
#4re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:13pm
Grim subject. But I was at the MET when a man committed suicide by jumping from the balcony during the Scottish opera.
It was a Saturday matinee - I still have not seen the complete opera as they did not finish that performance. But they are performing it next season at the MET so I will have another chance - maybe with a stiff drink first. I actually saw him jump...
Updated On: 3/18/07 at 10:13 PM
Dibbledl01
Stand-by Joined: 1/7/07
jimnysf
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/10/05
#6re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:18pm
#7re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:21pm
"Grim subject. But I was at the MET when a man committed suicide by jumping from the balcony during the Scottish opera."
Oh my gosh, how terrible!
Amneris
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
#9re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:39pm
"I was at the MET when a man committed suicide"
Was that a Saturday matinee? I remember a broadcast that had a lot of confusion because of a suicide.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#10re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:43pmWell, similarly there's the time baritone Leonard Warren dropped dead on the stage of the Met in the middle of a performance of La Forza del Destino.
#11re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:47pmAnd the time in Tosca with Raina Kabaivanska when the Cavaradossi was actually "shot" with one of the pistols in the execution scene. (Though they were only air shots, it was enough to draw blood and make Kabaivanska faint). I don't know if it was at the Met though.
ThankstoPhantom
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/05
#12re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 10:51pm
The Barry Williams Providence leg of "The Sound of Music" Tour...
I know! Of all shows to kill someone. During the "Now Way to Stop it Number" someone had a heart attack on the balcony...and they didn't stop the show.
#13re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 11:03pmThe Scottish Play. Yeah, it's not a musical. Sue me.
#14re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 11:08pm
husk_charmer
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/19/06
#15re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/17/07 at 11:23pm
Didn't one of the cast members of "70, Girls, 70" die during Out of Town tryouts?
Jerome Robbins' sister (or something) died right before curtain at the opening of "Fiddler" in 2003.
rockfenris2005
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#16re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:03am
At the curtain calls for the "42nd Street" revival, Gower Champion was pronounced dead.
I'm also sure that every house on Broadway was silenced after Hammerstein's death.
This isn't theatre but does everyone remember the actor Dick Shawn? He was Hitler in "Springtime for Hitler" in "The Producers" (196
.
I think it was 1987 or 1988, not sure, but he was in the middle of a stand-up routine and fell back. This story varies from version to version. Some say he hit his head which triggered a fatal stroke. Some say he fell back from the stroke. What's worse is that his son was in the audience.
The audience, of course, thought it was apart of the act until an audience member got up and screamed for an ambulance. Very tragic story.
I know of the one Margo refers to, Leonard Warren. The line he was singing was also pretty significant.
Most recently was the death of a Judas actor in a Greek production of "Jesus Christ Superstar", killed in the hanging stunt in "Judas' Death".
Also, a near-death incident that caused her to walk from the show: Barbara Cook in the London production of "Carrie" was almost decapitated by a falling set-piece.
ThankstoPhantom
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/05
#17re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:11amChampion died the night of the original production's opening.
rockfenris2005
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#18re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:19am
That's right! I don't know why I confuse it as a revival. Maybe because it was a famous movie? I don't know.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#19re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:33am
Champion actually had died much earlier in the day on the afternoon of the the original production of 42nd STREET's opening night. Producer David Merrick, always one to capitalize on the press in any way he could, withheld the information from the cast and everyone affiliated with the production until the curtain call that night after the show (tipping off the news media himself to make sure cameras would be in attendance) before announcing the shocking news. By making Champion's death into such a seemingly dramatic event, Merrick was rewarded with the sort of free publicity that you can't buy --front page coverage of 42nd Street's opening night by every newspaper in NYC and several papers around the country, as well as the top story on all the local news channels. Merrick made sure that Champion's death would ensure his show becoming a major hit (which it did overnight).
Merrick was a scoundrel, but no one has EVER manipulated the media for the sake of Broadway (or should I say fo the sake of the shows he produced?) better than he did.
#20re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:36amI was at a performance of "Long Day's Journey..." at Dallas Theatre Center when one of the patrons did die during the third act.
#21re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:48amKeen: I was at that performance of "THE SCOTTISH OPERA" as well. I still have nightmares from it.
rockfenris2005
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#22re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:54am
I can't even begin to imagine. What exactly happened? If that's OK to ask, of course.
rockfenris2005
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#23re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 12:58am
Margo, I'm presuming "42nd Street" was a bigger hit than it should have been* because of this? Champion had had a series of flops before this production (one in particular the grisly "Rock-A-Bye Hamlet")
#24re: Musicals in Which the Audience Dies
Posted: 3/18/07 at 1:00amA very disturbed man decided to kill himself during a performance of MACBETH at the Metropolitan Opera by jumping from the top level of boxes. What I remember was a commotion pulling my focus and I saw this dark shape plummeting down. The rest is all sort of fuzzy. I was, like nearly everybody else in the house, in a state of shock. I kind of remember just leaving the theater and going home, very quietly. It was a long time before I could bring myself to go to the Met after that, and to this day I avoid looking up at that section of the house.
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