Theater Mess-ups — Page 4

Justin, I remember that. It's Ally. That was a really funny thing, Laura looked a little confused. Luckily, it opened up just in time for Eden.

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Yeah...you sitting in front of Kerri Butler, Eden laughing at me during the show, backstage... that was a great day. *hug*

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Okay, I have a couple of ones from school shows. My brother was the boss in "How to Succeed in Buisness Without Really Trying". And durring the board room scene, he was sitting in a rolling chair that kept loosing the wheels. They had a collection going on the table, interrupting the scene every once in a while to add to the collection. It was funny. A year later we did "Guys and Dolls" and they lost the dice while doing "Luck be a Lady".

Then a couple of years later we did "Anything Goes" and durring one of the first scenes one of the characters fell while she was doing the dance. She responded to it by askng the guys in the orchestra if they were looking up her dress.

When I saw the Lion King tour, Scar fell off the cliff, and the orchestra played a note. They sustained it. And sustained it. After about a minute or so, they finally stopped, and a voice came on and told us that there were technical difficulties. Also, when I saw Miss Saigon this spring, at the end of act one during "I'd Give my Life for You", Kim started singing, and about 30 seconds in, there was a loud click. All the lights and sound equipment went off. The SM came on stage and told us that there were storms overhead, and that they'd lost power and would start again in 5 minutes. They didnt. 25 minutes later, they finally just sent us to a 30 minute intermission. They didnt finish the song(Which sucks, cause Jennifer Paz was good!)

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For Ebonic_Singer:

1) Yes, Kerry Butler was there. She was sitting RIGHT behind RustyJusty, who was on the side of the center orchestra, near the front. I never saw her sitting down, since I was in lotto seats on the other side, but when I went backstage, Eden was talking to Kerry just before she came to talk to me. I didn't want to bother Kerry, so I just smiled at her on her way out. She's so tiny!

2) Prior to the show, we saw Laura Bell come in, and I told her RustyJusty was there but had to go somewhere. She told me to tell him to meet with her backstage after the show, so I tagged along.

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I was conducting a performance out-of-town. We were in the second month of our run and the musicians were settled in comfortably. Near the end of Act Two, the leading lady had a very dramatic and important plot-advancing song that began with a very short introductory oboe solo in the pit. I cued the orchestra that a song was imminent and made eye contact with the oboist. Poised and ready, I gave the downbeat.
And nothing happened. In one of those freak occurrences, the oboist's reed simply gave out. One half of the orchestra, in sync with me, came in on cue. The other half, thrown by the
unexpected silence, didn't know what was going on and started playing willy-nilly. At which point the leading lady, unable to make heads or tails of her orchestral accompaniment, just plunged in and started singing her tour-de-force while throwing me quizzical looks. It was such chaos I thought I might have to stop everything and start the number all over again. In the meantime, I'm counting out measure numbers to the orchestra in a stage whisper the audience probably heard in the balcony. Finally, within a few measures, everyone came together and we were able to proceed smoothly. It was only a few seconds but my life passed before my eyes.

Updated On: 8/31/04 at 08:42 PM

Have those Wicked people ever heard about improvising? God.

I once watched musical director Jeffrey Huard scream and shout from the orchestra pit to halt the production of Pelagie, an original musical for CanStage, because the set of a suspended bridge began to slant drastically and he feared for the actors safety. Had they continued, I think the bridge would have given way and the actor (who will remain unnamed) would have fell some 20 feet.

I have never seen anything like it.

--M--

I saw Gypsy a week before it closed, and it was the time where Louise strips for her very first time. A curtain is supposed to come down behind her, but it never did. It was obviously wrong. She didn't notice, and just kept doing it, while you could see eveyone standing in the wings, just watching her. Right after she starts singing, the conductor stops conducting, and starts waving at her to get off the stage. Staying perfectly in character, she holds her boa tight around her, holds her head high and struts off stage. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing some technical difficulties. The show should continue in ten to fifteen minutes" Said the announcer. When the show did start again, 15 minutes later, they didn't start the song over, which was a little wierd. Instead, Tammy just picked up exactly where she left off in the song.

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