Paradise Square-Tech Stop

I was at Paradise Square on Saturday night. Really great show, and Joaquina was off the charts as the Tony proves. This show deserves so much better and it saddens me that it probably won't survive 2022.

That said, there was a brief tech stop right before Breathe Easy. I have been to quite a few Broadway shows recently and I've never seen a tech stop. A friend who has been to even more shows than me said they've only seen 1 tech stop outside of previews. Still, the incredibly talented cast handled it well and this show and Joaquina deserve better.

Yeah, it just happens sometimes. I've seen one in my Broadway going career (Gentlemen's Guide a few months into its run).

My first Broadway show was in January 1974 and I have seen over 600 Broadway shows. I only recall one tech stop. It was at Putting It Together just before New Year's Eve 1999. Carol Burnett was in the show, so she came downstage as the house lights came up and she took questions from the audience, just as she did on her TV variety show. It was a fun 15 minutes until the tech issue was resolved.

Company has been stopping consistently for months.

TaffyDavenport said: "Companyhas been stopping consistently for months."

I saw one of the few performances pre-shutdown, and that also stopped for about 20 minutes.

I had a pretty lengthy tech stop when I saw Mean Girls and it was almost a year into the run. I vaguely recall a few others over the years. So it's rare but it does happen occasionally.

CreatureKitchen, I also had tech stops during Strange Loop and Company in mid June. Both for pretty much the same reasons: the set pieces were supposed to automate into place and instead stagehands had to come out and move them.

I’ve experienced only two tech stops over the years, one as an audience member and one as an actor on stage. As an audience member, I was watching the 1996 West End revival of Oliver! when the curtain came down just after Oliver ran away from the Sowerberrys due to computer issues. As an actor, I was waiting to perform the finale of a matinee of a fringe festival show on August 14, 2003 when the Wings Theater along with the entire Northeastern United States experienced a total blackout. The cast joined the audience out on the sidewalk where we told them what happened at the end of the show, then we performed the finale a cappella.

About 2 weeks ago, I attended a performance during intermission. The intermission lasted longer than Act 2, which impacted momentum, but the show was still very much fun.

I wonder whether the increased dependency on technology is the underlying culprit.

The only other time I experienced a lengthy tech stop was in Les Mis, decades ago, when the barricades wouldn't role in. They eventualy got it to work, but the break was long enough that I wondered if they were going to cancel the rest of the performance.

TaffyDavenport said: "Companyhas been stopping consistently for months."

I know Company was stopping frequently but I thought it got resolved after they cut the rain back in February. If that didn’t fix the issues I wish they would have brought the rain back.

I was there. It was not such a short stop. In fact, because of that, the late start to the show, and a very long intermission, we missed our last train home and had to take a $50.00 car service. Thanks, Paradise Square!

I think that was due to the rain mechanism - they stopped using it b/c it caused too many issues...

I was at the same performance and people, please go see this show. Yes, the book isn't the strongest thing and the plot could use some trimming but the highs absolutely outweigh the lows. The choreography is stunning and the 11 o'clock number is an absolute showstopper.

I saw it on Saturday and really loved it! Joaquina is phenomenal and I’m sad you missed her but Aisha is amazing. I saw her as Anna in Frozen and she absolutely blew me away. I agree the book has some issues but overall I loved the show. Totally cried and was so moved throughout the whole thing ♥️