What's The Most Embarrassing Moment You've Ever Seen In a Musical?- Page 3

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 2:12pm

I've got to say that the production of "State Fair" that played on Broadway in the 90s was an embarassment.

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 3:24pm

When I saw Merlin with Doug Henning (Somebody gave me tickets), not only was the show awful, but in the performance I saw, almost every single magic trick and illusion went wrong and everyone could see how they were done. The longest performance I ever sat through.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 5:28pm

Dottie,

Really? I thought just seeing the pig was worth the price of admission! (Rumor has it he used to play Arnold on "Green Acres")

:)

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/14/04 at 9:54pm

The most embarrassing moments I've ever witnessed on Broadway were any time a cast member opened his mouth to sing in JEKYLL AND HYDE. How could anyone mistake that tommyrot for music?

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 1:29pm

The Deborah Gibson tour of FUNNY GIRL. She looked like she was having a ball, and I've got to hand it to her---the girl worked her tail off. But the rest of the cast seemed mortified, like they knew they were in a horrible show. The embarrassment was palpable. At the curtain call, when Deborah came out for her bow, several audience members including many in the front row jumped up and bolted for the exit, in full view of Deborah and the rest of the cast. Deborah seemed oblivious and continued to bow as if roses were being thrown at her feet. I wanted to crawl under my chair. I happened to be sitting next to a gentleman who had flown in specifically to see the production to then decide whether or not to book it for his theatre, and he turned to me and said, "That was the worst piece of crap I've ever seen."

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 2:18pm

I never heard of the Deborah Gibson tour of FUNNY GIRL, so I surfed the 'net and learned the tour played five of its scheduled dates and then was ABRUPTLY canceled! :)

[Corine2]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 2:38pm

On Thanksgiving last year, sitting through Jackie Mason.
The man a few rows back was snoring very loudly and another person was whispering to a friend, we left the turkey for this turkey.
It was so loud the whole row heard it.
It was agony.
Oh and the scene in URBAN COWBOY in bed with the bees.
I only sat through Urban Cowboy because Matt was so hot, but that is not the reason to see a show.

[doitagain]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 3:02pm

once i was in pippin and there was so much fog in the opening number, that i couldnt see the edge of the stage and went sailing into the pit. terrible.

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 3:47pm

Tammy Blanchard singing Little Lamb. Apparently the words "on pitch" aren't in her vocabulary.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 3:53pm

You Know Ebonic,

I think "Little Lamb" is the ONLY song that could be cut from GYPSY AND NOT BE MISSED. :)

[bjivie2]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 3:58pm

Yeah, Type_A_Tiff, it was in late April. It happened during my first trip to New York and is one of my fondest memories.

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 10/15/04 at 4:06pm

I completely agree Mary_Ethel. It isn't even a good song to begin with. So awkward and right in the break of a girl. Even for a guy I bet. I don't know, I've never tried to sing it.

[gypsy#12]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 1:21am

Bernadette peters, the musical cats, donna murphy, lynn redgrave and others who have made their way onto a broadway stage. I really don't think you need to be "embarrassed" for any of them. It's funny how a few moments when they are not "great" sit in your mind. Perhaps it's just that envy bone looking for something to say wrong about someone who is more successful than you are. It's sad...so sad..such a sad situation... always in the audience, never being watched.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 1:34am

Styne loved Little Lamb (for some reason). Jerome Robbins, a genius but legendarily difficult to work with, insisted on cutting it and in fact did so for one performance out of town over Styne's objections. Tired of being bullied by Robbins (and perhaps just to get even with him), Styne did a power play of his own -- he threatened to withdraw the entire score of GYPSY if Little Lamb wasn't put back in the show by that evening's performance. With great reluctance, Robbins caved in and reinserted Little Lamb -- so we're all stuck with that damn number for all eternity, the one weak spot in an otherwise perfect show.

Robbins was right all along and if he hadn't been such a bastard to Styne, he might have gotten his way.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 2:01am

The reason Styne wanted "Little Lamb" kept in GYPSY because it was the only Act I solo for Louise, played in the original production by Sandra Church.

You see, Styne had the "hots" for Ms. Church... (rumor has it she reciprocated right back to be cast as Louise) :)

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 2:51am

OK. Love4Cheno. You want to bag Steinman? I'll get the mafia after you! (Only kidding, LOL). The most embarrasing moment, which I heard through a friend, was at the Phantom of the Opera. Christine tripped on her costume, but she was still singing. She was squirming about on the ground, and she was still singing! He quickly figured she'd been lip-syncing! When I heard it, I cracked up laughing. For me, in person, the most embarrasing moment was this all-important stunt at a new show. It didn't work. It was the whole point of the show and it didn't work!

Updated On: 10/22/04 at 02:51 AM

[sean martin]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 4:34am

An appalingly bad piece of work called BARBARY COAST that opened in San Francisco in the mid 80s with John Raitt. Overproduced and underwritten, it never made it to NY -- instead the truckloads of scenery and costumes were offloaded to a nudie revue in Vegas.

[blueroses]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 9:32am

Rosie O'Donnell in the revival of Grease.

Kevin Anderson's whole schmaltzy Vietnam sequence in Brooklyn--I was embarassed that the actor from Orpheus Descending was saddled with such horse****.

[broadway86]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 10:26am

Hassellhoff in "Jekyll & Hyde".

During 'Dangerous Game', I was trying so hard to supress my laughter. First, I put my Playbill in front of my face, then I actually had to leave the theatre for a few minutes to gather myself. I go into the lobby and start laughing hysterically, and a kind lady actually asked me if I was all right. I lied and told her that my friend whispered something funny in my ear.

[Bobby457]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 12:06pm

Raquel Welsh in Victor/Victoria

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 12:54pm

The gang bang ballet in Thou Shalt Not.

[Bal]

Posted: 10/22/04 at 3:46pm

"Idina just stood there the whole time with this pained look on her face."

My, how unprofessional of our beloved green princess.

ANYways...

Hairspray. God, the ensemble SUCKED. They sleep-walked through the whole show. Maybe it was just because it was a matinee, but if so...they should be ashamed of themselves.

And, as has already been said, Rosie O'Donnell in GREASE. I really liked the revival, but... No. Not as Rizzo. No, no, no.