Peter Pan Flying Mistakes

[Phantom487]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:01pm

With all the talk to the new Peter Pan tour, and all the posts about glitches and mistakes about the flying scene in Wicked... I was thinking... has anyone seen/experienced any flying mistakes in Peter Pan??

At a theatre workshop I attended, Cathy Rigby told a funny story about in the last tour of Peter Pan she did in Boston. During a rehearsal of the "audiencd flight" at the end, something happened. Apparently there are two people pulling wires at the point. One to pull her UP, and one to pull her OUT. Well whoever was pull her UP missed the mark or something... Because Cathy went off the stage and straight out toward the seats. She said she kept thinking "Up! Up! Up!"... before crashing into the empty seats in the audience. Luckily the seats were cushioned, and she wasn't hurt badly. She said she just got banged up and a few bruises. Thank god this was only a rehearsal!!!

[NYC_or_Bust]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:05pm

when we did peter pan, we had the same problem during a tech rehearsal. We didnt do the audience flight (couldnt get permission from the theatre owners), but we had the same problem during a window enterance. She went out but not up, hitting the window ledge, getting banged up and what not...good thing she was also a former gymnst. haha

[me101]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:16pm

I saw a school performance of it, and it was so funny. There were so many flying mistakes, but the best one was at the end when Jane started to fly and they accidently made her fly off into the wings, and then she came back on stage and had the little michrophone box on her shoulder. It was a lot of fun

[CapnHook]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:22pm

Mary Martin flew into a wall once and was hurt.

Not really a mistake, but I see many school production (ironcially all used Foy). All the actors dangled. They would wave their arms to try to move faster. And they never did a diagonal. It's always up first, left and right, then straight down. Why pay thousands of dollars if your not going to even try to make the flying seem smooth?

[Phantom487]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 3:46pm

Even Cathy Rigby said ZFX is FAR better than Foy...

[mfshutte]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 5:01pm

There's a murder mystery called "Who dropped Peter Pan?" about a regional theater's production of Peter Pan where the actor playing Peter is killed after flying in the harness. Its set at a real regional theater, but I won't mention which one.

[CatieElphie1]

Posted: 4/17/05 at 5:32pm

that would be good....and fun, methinks. I saw peter pan once at a community theatre, and that was pretty funny...no flying allowed, due to insurance costs. they just jumped off the stage. It was lame.

[SMiller]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 1:10pm

This must be a long time ago cuz I think the audience flight is just one person. If you go to www.theflyguy.com there are some video clips of this flight and it shows one person.

I thought Paul Rubin was doing this tour, not ZFX. I saw the show in La Mirada and ZFX wasn't in the playbill.

SMiller
www.theflyguy.com

[WickedShopofQ]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 3:19pm

i was recently in a school production of Peter Pan, (i was Capt Hook) and we used FLYING BY FOY. at the first performance, Michael flew straight up and almost died. Otherwise everything was fine except during rehearsals when Peter flew around way too early at times. humorous but annoying. FOY was a real hassle to work with. not nice people and real expensive. not worth it

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 3:22pm

There are many reasons the walls of the nursery are scrims...hitting them is one.

[cturtle]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 3:47pm

the MARY MARTIN anecdote i originally posted here is told better and more accurately by BROADWAYGUY2 ... see his post below!

Updated On: 4/18/05 at 03:47 PM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 3:52pm

sorta...

in 1960, PETER PAN was filmed in color for NBC (that is the Martin version most folks know and can still view). During a rehearsal at a theatre (right across the street from where she was performing in Sound of Music), she was demonstrating flying techniques for the new kids in the cast. One of teh flight crew dropped his rope, Martin says that he "simply believed" in peter flying... and swung too far and slapped int a brick wall. After healing, she returned, flew up again, and saw that the stage crew hang hung a mattress with the "Mary Martin slapped here" sign where she had hit.

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 4/18/05 at 5:51pm

LOL we did Angels in America @ my college and my good friend was the angel and she flew at the end...My two friends that were flying her had always brought her down really slow since the rigging was new and they weren't used to it. then at one rehearsal they decided to drop her really fast *like it would be for performance* but didn't tell her..so they dropped her and she thought she was gonna die.

and then she let go of one of the lines and it flew up into the ceiling and they had to fix it...

that's my story...

yay flying!

[SMiller]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 12:30am

That's funny. Was it Angels pt. 1?

SMiller

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 12:47am

Yeah we just did millenium approaches...we were thinking about doing Perestroika *spelling!!* but it's WAY TOO technical for us...there are like in air battles and stuff...!

[ticenewyorkcity]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 4:21pm

Sandy Duncan tells the scary story of how she dreamt she was flying in the show and looked up to find that her wire was wrapped around some lights
it happened in real life and she left the production soon after

[morosco]

Posted: 4/20/05 at 4:25pm

"Even Cathy Rigby said ZFX is FAR better than Foy... "

Perhaps I'm wrong but wasn't Rigby partly responsible for the development of ZFX?

Check out the cool ZFX website. It has lots of clips showing their company's flying used onstage.
The ZFX Website

[boatsintheghetto]

Posted: 4/21/05 at 12:16pm

We did Peter Pan in my Middle school when I was in 7th grade. We used some flying system, i dont really know what it was, but the ropes hooked onto Peter from both sides of her. Well at rehersal, she didnt get hooked on both sides in time and only her one side was hooked in, but no one really knew, so they lifted the bar and she went flying and she was like on her side, it was really funny.

[SMiller]

Posted: 4/22/05 at 2:48pm

I think you are incorrect but I could be wrong. I will look into it but I bet the Captn knows.

Any insight Captn?

SMiller

[CapnHook]

Posted: 4/22/05 at 4:31pm

Paul Rubin was the apprentice of the recently deceased flying legend Peter Foy. Paul left Foy to create ZFX Flying Illusions with other co-founders (I believe).

Cathy tried the ZFX harness and said it allowed her to do several things she couldn't do in the Foy harness. Also, the ZFX trusses took less than half the time it took to setup the Foy trusses.

So, I believe Rigby's several Pan productions allowed ZFX to become a Nationally known flying company in the theatre world. It was their 'big break' - so to speak.

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure the above is correct.

[Justice]

Posted: 4/22/05 at 4:48pm

My school did PP two years before I went there, and I heard stories of how they had to have a bucket on the side of the stage, cuz the girl playing PP kpet throwing up, due to the harness.

[pndmnd]

Posted: 4/22/05 at 5:27pm

This wasn't a mistake in Peter Pan flying, but I saw a production of Fiddler where Fruma Sarah flew, and something happened where the wires got caught, and she was faced up stage for the entire scene.

[La Vie Boheme]

Posted: 4/22/05 at 7:08pm

On theflyguy website they have someone flying in a Suessical workshop to "It's Possible"

Has anyone ever done a school production of Suessical when they used flying?

Was this flying for the Bway Production? DId they use flying for the Vlad Vladicoff sequence on B'way?