Trouble at Matilda Tour in Seattle

Direct links:

https://www.facebook.com/5thave/posts/10153607609273833

https://www.facebook.com/5thave/posts/10153608966828833

What a mess!

EDIT: also

https://twitter.com/joannelisosky/status/633832582921109504

https://twitter.com/shawnkemp/status/633845943591301120

https://twitter.com/yaytaytay/status/633846560137187328

https://twitter.com/SeattleLW/status/633874330414256128

(How long 'till BWW uses these links as a story?)

Updated On: 8/19/15 at 01:23 PM

So did they only perform the first act?

Hullo, all! My husband and I were at the first performance of Matilda in Seattle last night, so I took a moment to register so I could post our experience. (An advance caveat: I've done amateur theater for most of my life and I'm well aware that tech problems happen. That said, I think the situation was rather poorly handled overall, though I'm not sure how much of the blame rests respectively with the touring staff or the 5th Avenue Theatre staff.)

The show was scheduled to start at 7:30pm. We arrived at the theater at 7:20 and found the entire area around the building crowded with people. The block of sidewalk in front of the theater, the sidewalk and steps of the restaurant across the street, and the underground passage to the parking garages were all packed with confused audience members. The house doors had not yet been opened and no-one had been seated yet.

At around 7:30, an usher began walking around shouting as politely as she could that the house doors would not open until 8:00, due to (unspecified) technical difficulties, and asking for patience. We settled in to wait.

The house doors were opened a bit after 8:00 (I don't remember the exact minute). We got our programs, took our seats, and waited. And waited some more. A lot of people were milling around, taking their kids to peer into the orchestra pit, etc. The ushers couldn't specify much when asked, just continued to say there were technical difficulties and they were being worked on. The lights in the building cut out twice, then came back on.

Some time after 8:30, a staff member came out, apologized for the delay, and announced that they hoped to start the show in another fifteen minutes. She also assured us that the parking garages would remain unlocked that night, so that nobody's cars would be inaccessible after the usual 11pm lockup time. Some cheers, some groans, some applause. More milling about and waiting.

Just before 9:00, the lights finally went down, the audience returned to our seats, and the show started - about ninety minutes late.

Technical difficulties continued throughout the show. The sound mixing was muddled (a lot of people commented at the intermission that they couldn't understand the actors). The "School Song" was completely omitted; the scene with Miss Phelps in the library segued straight to the first scene in the classroom.

There were repeated issues with the schoolroom set. The desks would slide onstage about a dozen feet, then get stuck, which required the show to be paused so that the tech crew could come out and manually adjust them. It took three tries to get them into place, at one point. (There was audience applause for the tech crew, although it decreased in enthusiasm each time the problem repeated itself.) One child actor appeared to have fallen off his desk and/or been hit by it(?) when it came to a sudden stop - I missed this but my husband saw it and was worried.

During the intermission, there was a lot of grumbling and people leaving/asking for refunds/discussing the sound issues.

After the intermission, the curtain rose and Mr. Wormwood came out to deliver his usual apology for "some of the things that have been going on here tonight", then had to clarify after a wild round of applause and cheers that he meant "probably not the ones you're thinking of". "Telly" was performed, and Lavender came out to do her monologue about the newt.

Immediately after she left the stage, there was a long pause. Then the curtain slid silently down again (a wit somewhere in the audience shouted, "Goodbye, Matilda! We'll miss you!" at this point). After another brief pause, a staff member came on the sound system to say there would be another fifteen-minute delay and the show would resume shortly. Groans of disbelief from the audience. Several people got up to leave.

Fifteen minutes or so passed, and then a staff member came out in person to apologize profusely and announce that they had made the difficult decision to call the show for the night. (Given the point in the show that we'd reached, I can only assume the last straw had to do with the swings malfunctioning?) Refunds and/or rescheduled tickets would be offered to all audience members. Cue the mass exodus for the parking garages.

By this point, it was almost 11pm. My husband and I couldn't help chuckling a bit on our way out the door, when we realized that at least they'd managed to end the show nearly on time. Less funny were the numerous crying or unhappy-looking children we passed on our way out of the theater.

Overall, it was an extremely strange and hairy experience. I'm a little puzzled as to why they kept trying to limp along for a full three and a half hours, rather than just calling the show sooner. I also sincerely hope the experience won't put too many of the attending families off of musical theater.

We've already called the 5th Avenue hotline and rescheduled for next Tuesday, by which point they'll hopefully have the kinks ironed out. For the record, we've been subscribers at the 5th for going on three years now, and this was the first time we've ever had an experience of this kind. Their staff was very friendly and helpful with the rescheduling, and we plan to continue our subscription.

Thank you for the detailed report!

What a mess!

From reading the the Facebook and Twitter comments, it seems that just a few people went nuts and most were understanding and respectful of the situation.

Kudos to the 5th Ave staff for becoming so accommodating about refunds and rescheduling.

See, that's what puzzled me the most when I poked around these forums a little. Many of the same issues we had in Seattle seem to have been cropping up in other tour locations for months now? Albeit not to the extremes we saw, but still...

I don't see why they haven't at least worked out an alternate staging of some sort for "School Song" (the big number that establishes the frightening atmosphere at Crunchem Hall), rather than routinely skipping the entire number when things go wrong with the set. It throws off the whole tone of the first act.

LizzieCurry said: "Oh, wow. Thanks for that! What a mess.

Refunds thank god. I just think Matilda is too big a show to tour. The set alone could give any manager a headache

Updated On: 8/19/15 at 10:28 PM

I don't know how THIS is a BIG show to tour. I didn't see that much set. I mean, Wicked has a bigger set and the original Phantom ran for years.. THAT was a SET.

When I saw it in London, I had issues with the sound for the first 2 numbers. Could not understand a thing. And I was familiar with the score.

"Cancel this messy tour. I won't let them ruin this amazing piece of art and set a bad standard for when people come to see the mindblowing Broadway production. Just cancel it! People pay way too much money for them to be having technical difficulties months into the tour. This whole situation is messy and I heard the cast is weak and some leads mediocre at best. Shame on this tour"

I love when petulant 15 year olds act out.

FishermanBob said: ""Cancel this messy tour. I won't let them ruin this amazing piece of art and set a bad standard for when people come to see the mindblowing Broadway production. Just cancel it! People pay way too much money for them to be having technical difficulties months into the tour. This whole situation is messy and I heard the cast is weak and some leads mediocre at best. Shame on this tour"

I love when petulant 15 year olds act out.

"

I love when the eldery find their way onto the internet

"I love when the eldery find their way onto the internet "

I love it when 15 year old twits are too stupid to even be able to spell "elderly". Seriously, spend less time worrying about tours you haven't seen and more time educating yourself, because you're not very bright.