Technical Problems

[ShowOff2008]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 5:44pm

Just interested in hearing stories about technical problems during performances. Especially interested in hearing about Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and Les Miz... anyone????

[once a month]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 9:24pm

Starlight Express was getting ready to open. During the second act, the bridge stalled, all the skated actors evacuated the higher elevations one at a time to much applause (?). ALW and a full fur coated Sarah Brightman were there, and left the theatre Although the cast finished the show on stage, the lighting was completely off, and the running time just went on and on.

[puppet]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:22am

During a performance of PHANTOM, the boat/bed stopped moving and the Phantom and Christine had to get out of the boat and walk through the mist to the front parts of the stage. It looked like they were walking on water.

Early in the run the police short wave radios caused havoc with the boat and special radio blocking technology had to be installed in the theater.

These happened early in the run.

[NSLV]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:30am

I saw a performance of the tour of The Lion King once and when the drop for "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" came in, it hit Young Simba on the head. They had to stop the show for about 15 minutes while they got his understudy ready to go.

I also saw a preview of the LA sit down of The Producers tour and the automation malfunctioned when the two pieces of the jail were coming on (for "Betrayed") and they banged into each other so hard that Jason Alexander, who was playing Max, jumped up startled. A couple of stage hands rand onstage and fussed with the unit for a few minutes will Jason improvised!

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:33am

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=940492

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=965770

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=958073

[Tag]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:48am

I remember hearing that the boat was driven offstage into the orchestra pit. Don't know what POTO production it was though.
In a related matter there was also a thread a few months ago about things falling on orchestra members and injuring them.

[Tag]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:48am

My second double post ever! Updated On: 7/18/08 at 12:48 AM

[TheKryptoniteKid]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 12:49am

My friends saw WICKED on Broadway earlier this year and Elphaba did not get off the ground during "Defying Gravity".
Updated On: 7/23/08 at 12:49 AM

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 2:07am

When I went to see The 39 Steps, the show started one hour late because they couldn't get the lights to work.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 5:04am

The first (maybe only?) time the Miss Saigon tour went to Nashville, the helicopter broke one night and just kept going and going towards the pit. They managed t stop it, but not before the musical director/conductor (who was the brother of a friend of mine) had cleared a bail out path in the pit so he wouldn't be decapitated. They had to stop the show and physically move it off the stage.

Updated On: 7/18/08 at 05:04 AM

[craftymarley]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 2:13pm

I posted this after I saw a performance of "The Wedding Singer" a couple years ago. They had to stop the show early in the second act due to a scenery problem.

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=910220#2477150

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 7:26pm

I was lucky enough to see one of those performances of Titanic where the ship didn't "sink."

One of my professors in undergrad saw Stratford performance of Carrie when Barbara Cook was nearly decapitated by the set, one of the numerous reasons she chose not to do the Broadway production.

[george95]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 9:33pm

At Phantom on Broadway about 3 years ago, there was a problem during Carlotta's "Think of Me". She is supposed to repeat the chorus of the song twice, and the second time is when backdrop almost falls on her--but at this show, the backdrop fell at the first chorus, clearly surprising everyone on stage, and it of course actually hit actors since they were not in place for the falling backdrop. The stagehands quickly pulled it back up, Carlotta kept singing, and the backdrop fell again at the correct time. I thought that anyone seeing the show for the 1st time would be very confused about why the cast ignores the backdrop falling one minute, and then the next, they all scream and yell, the lighting changes, the music changes.....

[Patash]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 10:21pm

During Miss Saigon (but in London) there was suddenly a huge crash. I mean a crash so loud that people in the audience screamed. We thought the building at been bombed. They dropped the curtain and said the performance would resume in a few minutes. More announcements, and finally it did resume about a half hour later. We never knew what that crash was -- but it was big.

The rolling bed in Wicked got stuck and I watched in hysterics as Kristen Chenoweth jumped on it as if it were a raft and started "swimming" to get it into position quicker. It still didn't move quickly, so she finally joined Elphaba on her bed and said, "let's share this one" or something like that. At the end of the scene it was just as slow going off -- more funny improv.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 10:44pm

I saw either the Detroit "White Christmas" a couple years ago during its first weekend of performances. There was a scene change towards the top of Act II getting into the scene for "Love and the Weather" where the curtain just seemed to be in for a really long time. My friend (a wig and makeup designer) both looked at each other at the same time and said, "I bet there's some broken automation." Sure enough, when the curtain did go up for the scene, we caught sight of a prop guy running offstage after obviously having shoved a bed onstage.

Later we met up with a friend of mine who was in the show, and she confirmed that the computer system running the automation crashed right after "I Love a Piano."

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 10:54pm

the elevator at legally blonde has the habit of failing at the most inopportune times.

Two I've heard about were;
the Delta Nu's were unable to enter for "bend and snap" so they delivered their lines from beneath the stage. Orfeh changed her line to "I hear dead people". then they stopped the show, and restarted the scene with the lift working.

More recently (and covered heavily in another thread) was Christian and the Elle's Door set piece for the title song. Laura Bell Bundy covered with a cut verse.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/18/08 at 11:03pm

A few from "Chorus Line"

According to Wanda Richert, Opening night at the Pantages in Los Angeles, the Mirrors did not turn OR fly in during "Music and the Mirror" forcing her to perform it in the black.

Deborah Henry mentioned that they were on tour and during her "Listen to Your Mother" line she looked up in time to see a pocket of water fall onto her, soaking her completely.

And the night a president came (Nixon I think), the lightboard flipped out and they fixed it with chewing gum, paper clips and scotch tape.