What's the most embarrassing thing that happened to you on stage?

[TomMonster]

Posted: 7/10/06 at 12:07am

For me:

1. Split my pants in the behind while under a table. The crew were sewing them up while I continued the scene (which fortunately was still under the table with back to audience).

2. Someone missed an entrance as I was to leave. Other actors panicked and left me alone onstage to improvise the last line of the scene

Clearly that last one was NOT in a professional production, but I want to hear about anyone's embarrassing experience, pro or not!

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 7/10/06 at 12:10am

During Sound of Music, I ate it coming down the stairs in the back of the house. Painful as well, since I tumbled down a few stairs in character shoes and played the rest of the show with a screwed-up ankle.

[Duckie93]

Posted: 7/10/06 at 12:14am

Durning H2$ we had a piace of felt as our paris oragail dresses the a leatard i was in the frount row and mine riped off... and both performances

[thejcm]

Posted: 7/10/06 at 12:18am

I was in a production of Rocky Horror where the set had two levels and to get to the top from backstage there was a set of steep and little stairs to climb up. Well I was going down those stairs after curtain call one night and while everyone was still watching us exit, I slipped and fell down half of them and just started laughing and then realized how much it hurt.

Then I realized it was opening night and that the pain from that was going to haunt me for the rest of our short run...and it did.

[jam_man]

Posted: 7/10/06 at 12:24am

When I was in Once on this Island, part of our choreography for "Pray" was to bend over and slam the ground quickly. Well, during the first time I had to do this in one of our last dress rehearsals, I tore the seem on my pants. I had to stand there in our greenroom as they got sewed and I missed the next ensemble number. And then, a few days later, during our last performance, I DID IT AGAIN!!! I didn't just split the seem that time - I RIPPED THE FABRIC!!! And it happend at the EXACT same spot in the show!!! I did make it on for the next number that time, though.

[StephenSondheimWHOO]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 5:48pm

oh i have a great one for this. i was in Sor Angelica (sp) at new york city opera, and i played this mentaly ill kid and i was supposed to get up and storm off to the side of the stage but I fell asleep and totaly missed my que!! this woman playing a nun that took care of me kept nudging me and finaly i woke up. it was so funny

[Popular]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 5:55pm

Jim Caruso has a short video he made interviwing b'way stars on this exact topic.
Jim Caruso is Prying

[SarahBeth]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 6:03pm

When I did Beauty and the Beast I played in the orchestra pit but I also performed in the ensemble. So whenever I wasn't onstage I would be in the pit. Well one night I was running from my chair in the pit to make my entrance and I slip and tumble through the curtain.
Another thing in that show that wasn't me but it was still hilarious was during the Mob Scene when Belle slaps Gaston his wig falls off and we are all trying our hardest not to laugh sing its such a serious scene.

[theatrewolf]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 6:19pm

I was in a production of The Diary of Anne Franke and during the (serious)prayer in the seconed scene, the actor playing her father is suppossed to light candles. Well, the actor used a box of matches and during a performance was holding the box upside down. You can tell where this is heading. Every single match ended up on the ground. I think I actually chewed thru my tongue trying not to laugh.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 6:30pm

Just saw the video from Jim, Popular. Too funny! It reminded me of a show I worked on with Quentin Crisp. His mic fell into his pants before the show and the entire audience heard him pissing and farting before coming on. I was doing sound design, so I just told everyone it was a "special" moment before the opening monologue...

Similar story with the Fantasticks... The Old Actor at the time was notorious for his gas backstage (he sometimes would go outside and would still be heard in the theatre).

One night, while he was standing on the trunk with backside to the audience (at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, was less than a foot from the front row...) and as he was stepping down, let one rip so loud and long that the other actors couldn't get to the next line. The audience was up for grabs! The piano player actually pee'd himself and had to change during intermission. After the show, so many people asked me how the actor does that each night... Practice, I said.

Updated On: 7/11/06 at 06:30 PM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 6:41pm

That story reminds me of a performance of NO NO NANETTE. We had been doing it for so long, that members of the cast started to throw-in a little thing that I would do as Tom, when Nanette showed me the money she had. I would mimic a take that was done in the OUR GANG comedies, where the eyes would bug-out, the head would jerk forward, and the mouth would open. Little by little, everyone in the cast would throw it in, at one point or other, during each performance. Well, this one night, when she showed me the money, not only did I do it, but every single person on stage (almost the entire cast), did it. it wasn't planned, it just happened. I managed to keep it together, long enough to say my line, at which point I turned my back to the audience, anyway; but Nanette had to stand, looking straight into the audience, while the entire ensemble sang NO NO NANETTE. This one guy in the ensemble, started to laugh, and one by one, everyone was laughing, and no one was singing. Even the audience was laughing. Everyone was laughing so hard (except Nanette, who kept a straight face, throughout), that one of the guys peed his pants. And, he was wearing beige, so it got darker, and VERY noticeable to the audience, who just roared with laughter. I found it somewhat embarrassing, that we were so unprofessional; but nothing like the guy who wet himself!

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 6:47pm

When I was about 10, I had the lead role in one of the local community college's summer children's theatre plays. I accidentally farted onstage. Only the cast heard. But these mature adults made fun of me later in the greenroom. Granted, now that I think about it, it WAS hilarious. But I was a mama's boy so I probably cried--not sure--I've blocked much of it from my mind.

[west end artist1]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 6:52pm

Opening night in fame in london(thank god not press night)we sing pray i make PA then run down the stair's to enter the fame high school.The stairs were so thin and scrawny and have no railing's i just slipped and fell from top to bottom ,knocking one of the dancers down with me.
I nearly died and i heard all the audience laugh,but i got a huge cheer at the end hehehe.

[Salad_Fingers85]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 6:53pm

I have two most embarrising moments. The first was in Wizard of Oz and I was the Munchkin Mayor, and while running to go and hide I ran into the munchkin house and it fell over, revealing all the munchkins hiding behind it. Another was during Robin Hood, I played Prince John and the Gypsys robbed me of my gold and most of my clothing well one night, the accidently (according to them) took too much of the clothing and I am too busy in the scene to notice and was left with far too little clothing

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 7:03pm

I was in my fifth year of theatre camp. I took a class called On The Scene (haven't taken it since for personal reasons, not this one.) We did an abridged half hour version of You Can't Take It With You (hilarious play, by the way). I was Mr. Kirby. I was supposed to say, "I may have had silly notions in my youth, but thank God my father knocked them out of me. I went into the business and forgot about them." And then the guy playing Tony, my son, was supposed to say, "Not altogether, Father. There's still a saxophone in the back of your clothes closet." And then the scene would progress. Then the guy playing Grandpa was supposed to put his arm around me and say, "So...before they clean out that closet, Mr. Kirby, I think I'd get in a few good hours on that saxophone." Well, the day to perform the thing finally arrived. I missed the line about the silly notions and didn't even know it. The poor guy had to adlib, "So, Mr. Kirby, I think this marriage is a very good thing." I couldn't have been more sorry for him. I missed a line and the poor guy had to cover up.

[SarahBeth]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 7:19pm

I got another one. When I played Beth in Little Women I have to be asleep in one scene and I'm woken up from a bird chirping and my line is "oh! That's my bird!" Well one night my bird never came on. So I really had no reason to be waking up and I'm sitting there thinking oh god what do I do? I believe my words were "oh..do you hear my bird? I think I do.." and it never came on. The cast made jokes saying Beth was so sick she was hearing things.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 7:36pm

Good cover up, "Beth"...!

[singingshowgirl]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 7:37pm

when I did Cinderella (with Boxers7 haha have i confirmed i knew you were on this???) years and years ago, I was playing one of the evil stepsisters. For the end of the show (the wedding), i had to wear a long dress...at the blackout, i rushed to the back of the wing because i was towards the end at the bows. midway through the bows, my long dress gets stuck on a chair. i couldn't get it off and it was becoming closer and closer to my bow. Finally I said that I'd just have to go on with the chair attached. The guy who was the prince was saying, "I can't let you do that!" so he pulls the chair as I'm walking on and my dress rips. It wasn't anything major. nothing revealing and it didn't even rip above my knee hahaha....and thank god I wasn't Cinderella. at least this was fitting for a stepsister hahah...the bigger pain was that we still had a whole extra weekend of performances and my dress needed to be fixed!

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 7:53pm

i was in annie(high school), we entered from the back of the house for nyc (which for the record was terribly concieved since there was no set for that number) well one night we actually had a monitor feed of the show in the back, so i'm sitting there and going "hey! i've never seen this scene before..." and then realized that it in fact was the scene immediately before my cue i had to barrel through the hallways, through the lobby and down the aisle. And to make matters worse i was supposed to "lower" warbucks' high tenor singing voice for the number, so until i got down there he sounded awfully high.

this one wasn't on stage so much as forgetting we were in the middle of a HIGH SCHOOL. The director wanted us fully ready for dress rehearsals prior to the 1:00 abbreviated performance to make the english classes come see the show (abbreviating 4 one act plays into half an hour is...rough to say the least) well eventually we got sent to lunch in the cafeteria, And it took a long while before i realized i was getting stairs since i was; in a bad 20's suit, covered in almost orange makeup(i'm pale the lights don't like me), with a mustache drawn on, and a body mic sticking off my forehead (which was on, so my ass was glowing green).

[PirelisMiracleElixir]

Posted: 7/11/06 at 8:01pm

I was Bomber the paperboy in Inge's "Picnic". In the first scene I throw a newspaper at the Owens' house to scare Millie. So, during the dress rehersal, I threw the paper a little too close to the house, and it bounced off into the audience, and, if I'm not mistaken, hit someone in the first row. Talk about having the fourth wall come crashing down on you.

[LyTeMyCanDyI]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 12:12am

I was in Guys and Dolls recently. Our Sky was in a bad mood for some personal reason, I guess and he totally missed the whole part where he writes Sarah the marker for 12 sinners. The rest of the show made no sense. Later on he mixed up all of his lines in the short conversation he has with me (General Cartwright). Later, he missed his cue and Sarah and I had to adlib for quite sometime til someone shoved him onstage.

[sondheimsweetie07]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 3:09pm

in sound of music at the big ending our sets of the hills we were all right in front of fell down right on us. The girl who played gretel started crying lol.

also i was a stepsister in cinderella and during the ball my dress un velcroed.
yes velcro. pretty self explainitory how bad our costumes were.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 3:10pm

I try not thinking about it.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 7/12/06 at 3:14pm

I was recently General Cartwright in Guys & Dolls. before I went on, I had forgotten to safety pin my cloak closed. It was jsut kind of sitting on my shoulders. I managed to keep it on, but towards the end I just felt WHOOSH and my cloak was on the floor.

[BruceWayne5148]

Posted: 7/13/06 at 11:24am

i was sky in guys and dolls and in the scene in the mission when sarah opens drawrers to hand me the phamplets the tech crew had put handcuffs and condoms.......needless to say we almost lost it when she opened the drawrer and for the rest of the scene into "i'll know" you could tell we were smiling more that usual.
it may have been one of those "you had to be there" moments....