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They had to do it EVERY performance

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#1

They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:00pm

I was thinking of some interesting pieces of business that actors couldn't fake onstage and had to perform at every performance.

Mary Martin had to wash her hair onstage in "South Pacific"

The cast of "Gemini" had to eat a spaghetti dinner onstage every night.

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

Updated On: 10/20/04 at 02:00 PM

#2

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:04pm

When I played Jan in GREASE (community theater) I had to eat a ton of food on my tray in the cafeteria scene, and in the slumber party scene I had to rapidly down two Twinkies and then immediately sing backup on Freddy My Love. It was years before I could look at a Twinkie again.

Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson

#3

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:09pm

Amanda Plummer had to simulate oral sex with a chicken leg every night in KILLER JOE. Let's hope she's not a vegetarian!

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#4

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:14pm

In the flop production of Birdy, Rob Morrow acted a scene where he fed his friend, Birdy. He did this by chewing up the food and spitting it into Birdy's mouth. I was sat close enough to tell you that it was definitely NOT faked. Ick.

Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.

#5

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:20pm

I remember hearing that someone thought "Two Ladies" in the '98 production of Cabaret was real. They were like "wait. People ACTUALLY have sex on stage?" Oh boy...

A work of art is an invitation to love.

#6

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:23pm

Rath-

ONLY 2 years?

I heard of one production of West Side Story that refused to use blanks in the gun or stage knives. Poor casting director had their work cut out for them

"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" - Willy Wonka

#7

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:24pm

i feel your pain rath,
i was kenickie in grease and had the same thing except with snowballs right before summer nights. plus as a gay man making out with rizzo for twenty minutes everyday(especially when rizzo is played by your best friend) is no fun. but hey, its theater its what i love so its the sacrafice i make, no complaints:)

""the gays love their presents. just wave something shiny in front of their faces, you can get whatever you want. Thats how we got manhattan from the gay indians" -Karen (W&G)"

#8

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:25pm

I played hansel in the opera hansel and gretel when I was 13. I had to do3wn junk food ALL through the third act. I still don't enjoy candy and chocolate as much i did before...

#9

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:27pm

What a coincidence, dididda. I WANTED to make out with our Rizzo...

Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson

Updated On: 10/20/04 at 02:27 PM

#10

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:33pm

I was in a production of "A Hotel on Marvin Gardens" which contains a scene in which the characters eat hotdogs. And the lines dictated that one of the characters had to completely eat his in time to say a line about asking for another.

Poor fella had to eat two each night...although they were fully cooked, they came "as is" right out of the package.

Yech!

Eating stage food isn't the most rewarding aspect of the job.

Updated On: 10/20/04 at 02:33 PM

#11

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 2:41pm

Think of all the 'liquor' consumed in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The play runs 3 1/2 hours.

Talk about the need for potty breaks.

"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

#12

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 3:15pm

Good thread, Goth. These are very interesting to me!

I think I would be sick after having to do some of these things!

"My friends have made the story of my life." -Helen Keller

#13

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 3:22pm

mine is even more horrific! at one performance, my brat of an understudy was goffing around backstage where he shouldn't have been and was upset that he wasn't able to go on in the role, so RIGHT BEFORE the scene, without anyone knowing, he sprayed the food I had to eat with fake snow-in-a-can to try and make me sick!

#14

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 3:23pm

Being in "Cats."
Period.

Variations on a Theme blog: http://panekattack.blogspot.com/

Updated On: 10/20/04 at 03:23 PM

#15

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 3:41pm

Good God, when will the Cats bashing end? It's not that bad and bashing it is so overdone. Let's move on...

In a world-premiere opera in Houston, I was a super with a spectacular death scene. The stage was raked 30 feet in the air and was incredibly steep. Every night, I had to burst onstage running to escape these prison guards who whipped me, beat me, and choked me to death as the entire cast of over 100 sang this huge intense choral number. Afterward, my lifeless body was left onstage as the cast left with only me and the tenor on stage throughout his aria. I had to lie there motionless for over half an hour and some part of my body always fell asleep. Immediately after his solo, a team of dressers ran on stage to change my costume in less than 5 seconds so I was ready for the next scene and I had to figure out how to stand there on that tilted stage when one of my legs had been asleep for half an hour and not fall over. The opera was an incredible experience, but that was hell to go through.

"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

Updated On: 10/20/04 at 03:41 PM

#16

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 3:46pm

We did Woyzeck at my college.

Maria had to lay face down dead for about a half hour with a mixture of chocolate syrup, food coloring and tide bleach running along the side of her face and just try desperately not to get any in her eye.

Woyzeck ended the show drowning in this pool we installed under the trap door of the stage.

Luckily for me, I was neither, lol.

If I show you the darkness I hold inside, will you bring me to light?

#17

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 5:34pm

When I played Nicely Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls, I knew I had my work cut out for me. The singing was the easy part; I had to create a believable character. Since I was only 135 lbs, I had to make my character a little different. I made it funny by EVERY time I entered onstage I would have a different food item AND be eating it. Seriously, I ate more food in that show each night than normal meals. I ate CrackerJacks, Peanuts, Submarine Sandwich, Bananas, Lollipops,Cheesecake, Coke, and for the my big "Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat" number I entered the prayer meeting with a plate of BBQ Chicken and Jojos. It was Fabulous fun, a challenge though to eat and then sing, but it was a BLAST!!! The audience thought it was hilarious!!!

And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before... After the Sky. -Into the Woods (Jack)

#18

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 5:52pm

when i was shelley in bat boy i had to have my shirt taken off, and then i was quickly covered up with a white, see through shirt, during 'Children, Children'. so i was like stuck there in my bra for like a minute. i hated it. but hey, it's theatre!

"People asking questions, lost in confusion. Well I tell them there's no problems, only solutions." ~The one and only John Lennon

Updated On: 10/20/04 at 05:52 PM

#19

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 6:02pm

When I was in Brighton Beach Memoirs we had to eat dinner on stage every night. Which often consisted of powedered potatoes- gross. The last night they made us steak- which everyone loved- except for me. Can't stand steak.
When I did Cabaret, our Sally and Cliff had to drink the egg and worstechire sauce every night.

#20

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 6:12pm

I'm in "The Diary of Anne Frank" right now. The dinner scenes consist of us eating potatoes and kale which is HORRIBLE. The Franks had so little food, and what they had was the minimum. We have to eat a spice cake at one point, and drink "cognac" which will just be colored water. Also, at the beginning, the Franks have to be DRENCHED in water as they had just walked 2 miles in the pouring rain to the Annex.

I personally like this aspect of a show because it helps you feel it more. Don't get me wrong, I hate kale and potatoes, but the Franks hated it. The fact that I actually have to be drenched and later eating kale helps me get into the character of Otto Frank.

Theater geek all the way

#21

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 6:33pm

I saw the Nicely Nicely bit with the food at a local high school production. It was very effective.

#22

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 6:46pm

Anyone else remember Tina Howe's very funny THE ART OF DINING? I saw it at the Kennedy Center, the cast included Kathy Bates. It's about a new hip suburban restaurant. Whole meals were cooked and at least semi-consumed at every performance. Apparently, it was sheer hell to do 8 times a week, because a certain amount of it simply couldn't be faked. Bates said it made them all ill. It's rarely done, since it requires all that food.

But I remember the Zefferelli production of SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MORNING in which Joan Ploywright cooked an entire Sunday meal on stage, the aromas wafting into the audience. It was served and eaten in act 3. Lovely play, and Olivier was the grandpa (though he'd been replaced when I saw it in London).

"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling

#23

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 7:23pm

Quibbler....really??? where are you from???

And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before... After the Sky. -Into the Woods (Jack)

#24

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 7:25pm

I live in PA. I saw it in Gettysburg.

#25

re: They had to do it EVERY performance

Posted: 10/20/04 at 7:29pm

oh...darn... I must say I was very funny!!!

And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before... After the Sky. -Into the Woods (Jack)

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