Theater Mess-ups — Page 2

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#26

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 11:31am

I was Frank in Annie Get Your Gun this year, and we had had one of our best performances... until Anything You Can Do came around... The line is supposed to be "I'm gonna give you a lesson in marksmanship you'll never forget" followed by annie saying "You couldn't give me a lesson in long-distance spitting..." For some reason, I'll never understand why, I turned to her and said "I'm gonna give you a lesson in long distance spitting." lol. She replied "Oh yeah, whatever" and started the song. Now that would seem as if it's enough, but it's not. I had then managed to lose my composure, and in the song the line is supposed to be "Can you bake a pie?" and I'm supposed to reply "No." I turned to her and said with a completely straight face "You bet!" Ah! Why!? We somehow finished it out and during curtain calls we were both in stitches... Good memories!

#27

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 11:33am

"Sitting Bull forgot HER cue???"

#28

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 11:40am

i had a cue mishap this year with guys and dolls. It was the night that the understudy adelaide was in and i fealt liek i was doign a completely differnet show. IT WAS AWFUl. WE didn't ahve an orchestra and were using a tape. Well the adelaide never said her line to start the music and so i found myself saying half of her lines to get the music going. then she screwed up the words to the song and instead of being really desperate at the end i just walked off stage.

#29

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 11:48am

When I was Charlie Cowell, I made a suitcase with the name on it, etc. and we put weights in the suitcase so (like in the movie), when I said, "Charlie Cowell. Anvil salesman," I would drop the suitcase and it would make a loud bang. Well, I did that and everything's fine and then when Marion makes out with me, I drop it again for comedic effect. Fine. But when it came time for my last line and for me to storm off the stage, I picked up the suitcase and it EXPLODED. Weights flew everywhere, wood flew everywhere. There were pieces all over the stage. The audience went crazy and poor Marion had to continue the scene without laughing. ANd the Quartet nearly tripped over some of the pieces. So, later in the show, when I see Harold on the foot bridge and the line goes "Missed my train, probably lost my job, but I got you now..." I added "...and I broke my lucky suitcase, but I got you know, Hill..." Well, the audience again went crazy. That seems to be the thing that everyone remembers from our production of "The Music Man."

Good times.

#30

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 11:56am

When Hairspray was in Denver earlier this year and Carly Jison (Love her!) lost it during the jail scene with the guy who plays Link. They tried so hard not to laugh and it took them about 5 minutes to get it together. The theatre was absolutly on the floor.

Also, at a Saturday matinee of the Wiz when it was playing the B'way Theatre, someone took a picture during the number 'Be A Lion". Stephanie Mills and Ted Ross were kneeling on the floor on one side of the stage. She got up, walked across the stage and into the wings. Ushers came down the aisle and removed the person that took the picture. Stephanie Mills then walked back across the stage, kneeled down and picked up right where she left off. During all of this, the audience ad libbed and Tedd Ross licked his paws!!!

Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#31

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 12:03pm

During Popular, Cheno farted. Seriously. Idina was hysterical.

Right before Keep It Gay, when Carmen Ghia does the yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss thing, it literally went on for a minute. The audience was roaring with laughter and Nathan and Matthew were laughing so hard.

#32

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 12:15pm

I friend of mine went to see Wicked just after Joey McIntyre (gag me!) started playing Fiyero. He skipped a line in "Dancing Through Life"!

#33

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 12:17pm

Okay, I meant, A friend of mine, obviously.

#34

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 12:43pm

This isn't a huge mess-up, and it isn't too funny. Meh. In The Producers, when Max starts singing Along Came Bialy, he's supposed to put on his jacket as the curtain comes down (scene change). I swear, for the entire solo part, he was fiddling with the jacket. When he first put it on, it got bunched up in the back, so he was trying to sing, look composed and pull the jacket down at the same time. It was weird.

And, this wasn't professional theatre, but I was in a production of The Chronicles of Jane: Book Seven and I had to pretend to punch someone in the stomach, step on their feet and then punch them in the jaw. I never learned how to pull a punch, so I guessed a little. It worked well during rehearsals. One show (only one, I swear), I actually stepped on her foot (she was barefoot) and punched her in the jaw. It was horrible, because I couldn't apologize onstage. But I did, later, and she was fine with it.

#35

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 12:51pm

When I saw Millie on the 19th, one day before close, Susan Egan during the "Tom Sawyer.. is he sexy?" scene got totally stuck in the typing chair thingy during her pratfall, missing the time to get back up on the seat to say the line, so she just stayed down on the stage, did one of those "head back, leg up" poses and asked if Tom Sawyer was sexy. It was hysterical, she said it was the biggest laugh she ever got from that scene.

#36

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 1:34pm

I LOVE these stories! I have a million Carol Channing stories when we did Dolly.

In the resturant seen Carol went up on here lines because she had spilled a glass of water in Horace's lap....After a couple of minutes of trying to find the line she just looked at Horace, looked in his lap and asked "Is that cold Horace?" the crowd went crazy. Couldnt continue the show for a good 5 minutes.

"It never bothered me that she called me a c*nt, it bothered me that I answered to it!" Carol Channing about Ethel Merman filming an episode of "The Love Boat"

#37

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 1:52pm

By the way, Sitting Bull in my production was played by a girl, for any confused people.

#38

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 1:52pm

Heard a rumor story about the Dolly tour with her...she asked the Barnaby (who was stealing scenes from her) to come into her dressing room after a show. The scene that ensued went like this:

Carol: What is the name of this show?

Barnaby: Hello Dolly.

Carol: Is it Hello Cornelius?

Barnaby: No, Ms. Channing. It's Hello, Dolly.

Carol: Is it Hello Irene?

Barnaby: No, Ms. Channing. It's Hello, Dolly.

Carol: Is it Hello Barnaby?

Barnaby: No, Ms. Channing. It's Hello, Dolly.

Carol: Good. You're fired.

Is this a true story or no?

#39

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 2:08pm

That was the 1983 Tour...Story goes that He was primping in one of her changing booths as well as taking away from scenes. she called him into the her dressing room and asked what the name of the show was and he replied "Hello, Dolly!...to which she said...Thats right...its not Hello, Dolly! After that he was no longer with the show.

Apparently, same tour, in the Bridal shop scene he kept moving further and further downstage from here. Finally Carol took him by the shoulder and pushed him to the edge of the stage...sat him down and said....That is as far as you can go!

"It never bothered me that she called me a c*nt, it bothered me that I answered to it!" Carol Channing about Ethel Merman filming an episode of "The Love Boat"

#40

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 2:09pm

Carol makes me giggle.

#41

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 2:10pm

Oh Carol... What a diva. I love her! Raspberries!

#42

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 2:11pm

Oh there are a million stories. She is a funny, funny lady! I learned alot from her

"It never bothered me that she called me a c*nt, it bothered me that I answered to it!" Carol Channing about Ethel Merman filming an episode of "The Love Boat"

#43

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 3:43pm

Opening night performance of West Side Story where I played Action, I was supposed to hit Anita during the torment scene. I was so afraid to hit the actress, that we just could not get it right during rehersals, finally Elise (who played Anita) said "Just F**KING Hit me for real!" Opening night, I haulled off and whacked her a good one - her giant hoop ear ring flew out into the audience, and hit a woman in the third row.

#44

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 4:04pm

Not really funny: But this year we did the Music Man at my high school, and we had really complicated scenery that never worked. So during the set-up of the library scene, the dancers were supposed to assemble themselves onstage while the library flats came down from the ceiling. Well all of a sudden, one of the flats just fell down and practically killed every single one of the dancers on the stage right side. It was so scary.

And this year when we did Neil Simon's Fools, there was a part where I (Sophia) was supposed to interact with my mother who was in the audience, then say a line and exit. Well, the girl who played my mother just went on and on and totally skipped my line and left me in a situation where I had completely no idea what to do. I was all the way stage right and had to exit stage left---I've never taken such a slow exit in all my life.

#45

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 4:09pm

i would have liked to be at the performance of hairspray when harvey fell outta the can and then said damn hells or when marissa fell but that was sad that she got hurt

"gimme a bottle of bourbon and half a chicken and i'll conquer the world!"

#46

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 4:11pm

During a production of Auntie Mame I was in last year, we were doing the scene where Patrick's fiance and her family come over and there are supposed to be flaming drinks of some sort... but we weren't allowed to have the flaming drinks in our theatre... soo... our director had concocted some multi-colored substance as a subsitute that we (I played Ito) were supposed to "plop" into their glasses. Closing night someone had forgotten to get the stuff (I think it was cool whip mixed with something else and food coloring) so someone quickly ran out and bought ice cream. They still had the food coloring, so they put that in, and everything should have been fine... Except we ended up spilling the now melted ice cream all over them (including a real mink stoll that was rented... oops) and making a huge mess. I think it added to the insanity of Mame's house personally, and it got a huge laugh.

#47

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 5:25pm

once at avenue q - stephanie and john were doing the intro to "everyone's a little bit racist" and stephanie was doing the "when i was a little monster speech" and this music starts up behind her - well she gets about a sentence into it when there's a pop and the music cuts out. Well she just kind of freezes and smiles. john was behind her and could see into the wings. someone obviously was signaling to him to keep going. So he says in his princeton voice "you were saying?" and stephanie starts talking again but realizes her mike blew too. amazingly she was able to project to the mezanine where i was sitting.

they made it to the cue for "racist" and were still waiting for the music when John (still getting signals from the wings) said in princeton's voice "we gotta go" and he and stephanie ran off stage.

a stage manager came out then and announced that they had lost the orchestra's audio and to please remain in your seats while they attempted to fix the problem

10 minutes later he came out again and thanked us for our patience saying that the show would resume from the top of the scene

stephanie and john got a ton of applause as they walked out on stage to try it again

it was so cool to see the improvise!!

"Nothing is an accident, We are free to have it all, We are what we want to be, It's in ourselves to rise or fall!!" - "Fortune Favors the Brave" from Aida - the love that never died

#48

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 6:39pm

"Not really funny: But this year we did the Music Man at my high school, and we had really complicated scenery that never worked. So during the set-up of the library scene, the dancers were supposed to assemble themselves onstage while the library flats came down from the ceiling. Well all of a sudden, one of the flats just fell down and practically killed every single one of the dancers on the stage right side. It was so scary."

Ahh we had complicated sets for "The Music Man" too! Except our problem was the giant 6 foot tall tree cutouts kept falling over and nearly killing the stage crew.

#49

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 6:44pm

This was absolutely hilarious- but I think that I was the only one who noticed it.

During "The Internet is for Porn," (AVENUE Q), they have the puppets singing in the windows- and I saw that one of the puppets fell over the window- and you could see two faces in the window- looking totally shocked! (I'm almost positive that one was Jen B. but I'm not positive) It was like puppet suicide, the puppet (it might have been Rod, I'm not sure) was just drooping over the sill. It would have been even worse if it fell out of their grasp and hit the ground.

I let out the loudest laugh, their faces were hilarious- but they picked up the puppet and kept on going. Good for them. And absolutely no one knew what I was laughing at.

Oyy.

Updated On: 8/27/04 at 06:44 PM

#50

re: Theater Mess-ups

Posted: 8/27/04 at 6:51pm

How is the orchestra set up in Avenue Q? Where is it located and how come they need an audio feed to be heard? I saw the show was curious as to where the orchestra was.

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