Worst show mishap

One time Alice Ripley kicked one of her heels into the audience at next to normal. There were also several times that the silverware would rebound off the table/chairs and fly into the audience. These are both pretty minor but I think they're funny.

I saw one performance of an Oklahoma revival on Broadway in 2002 where a large screen fell down from the rafters and knocked over two performers. They were not seriously hurt (so lucky) and were able to get up but it was scary when it happened. The screen was stuck in the position on the floor. It was close to the end of the show and the cast performed the finale and curtain calls in front of the screen...in an area that was about 1/4 of the usual stage space.

That was definitely the worse live moment I ever saw.

I once saw "A Chorus Line" and several cast members' microphones went in and out during the Montage. I guess that's a pretty minor mishap compared to some of these!

Ghostlight, that thread you linked provided much entertainment (granted while wincing through a lot of it).

I do not know if this is true. I wonder if any else has heard about this. About 10yrs ago I heard that an actor playing Judas in JCS actually died by a mistake hanging during a live amateur production. To my understanding it was not in the US.

Updated On: 7/18/13 at 02:55 AM

Chad Kimball's performance in Memphis.

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I can think of a couple mishaps I've seen:

A couple of the times I've seen Wicked there hasn't been any bubbles during NOMTW.

I saw a concert version of ALNM about a month ago and Madame Armfeldt's microphone kept cutting out. It was out for most of Liaisons but she kept going, bless. Luckily my friend and I were sitting in the front row, about three feet away from the actress so we could still hear her.

I have a few Les Mis ones:
- The first time I saw Les Mis the couldn't get the gates off of the stage after the factory scene so for most of IDAD there were two stagehands trying to wrestle them off stage.

- I saw Les Mis last minute in february last year (my friend and I were in standing at the back of the upper circle) and during the First Attack one of the blanks went off a lot louder than usual. I didn't really think anything of it, but Chris Jacobsen (Who was on for Valjean instead of Ramin that day) kept lifting his hand up to his ear for the rest of the show. When we got to the stagedoor after the show there was a paramedic car and again, we didn't really think a lot of it. Chris was one of the first one's out. He got into the paramedic car with half the Valjean makeup on without the wig and shirt. When I spoke to him at the stagedoor a few weeks later he said that a blank had misfired.

- I saw Jonny Purchase's third performance as Marius last year with my choir and the only mistake (besides Sierra's casting as Fantine) was that he sang "And not a day shall pass, your home shall be with us"

- The last time I saw Les Mis Adam Linstead was on for Thenardier. He made a couple of mistakes that performance, most notably he couldn't get the trap door up during One Day More and during Beggars at the Feast he sang "Paris in the dust, Paris at me feet".

I think I've seen a couple other things but nothing has come to mind

The story about the chorus member getting shot during the finale of WSS sounded really bad ( and hilarious).

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I saw Newsies in January. At the end of Seize the Day - the Newsie who was doing the turn (not Ryan Steele - I forget who it was)lost his balance as he was coming out of it. He fell head first into the orchestra pit. The entire audience gasped. To the kid's credit he climbed right back out and hit the final pose.

First time I ever say anything major like that happen in a show.

My daughter and I were at the last preview of Bye Bye Birdie. There is a scene in the living room and then it goes to the train station. Well, the living room couch stayed in place, the train station sign came down and the teen girls came running out to meet Conrad. But the couch remained in the middle of the stage. About that time the back panel of the set (the whole set was a series of panels that moved in and out) fell to the floor and there stood about three members of the crew.
About that time John Stamos came running out and told the girls that the train was not going to come to the McAffee living room.
He then turned to the audience and said "We have a slight issue with our set, we are going to fix it and be right back" Then they dropped the curtain.
Shortly after that he came out and began chatting with the audience. It just so happened that Bob Saget was in the audience so John had him come on stage and they talked about the show and what was going on. The only mic was the one in John Stamos' hairline. So you had Bob leaning over into his forehead to talk. About this time a man in the audience started yelling "hey get on with the show", "Will this ever start up?", etc.
It turns out the heckler was Don Rickles. For the next 10 minutes we got to enjoy a banter between Rickles and Stamos and Saget.
Even though the show was delayed by about 30 minutes, we had an unique broadway experience!

During Defying Gravity in the London production of Wicked, Kerry Ellis was about to harness herself in the lift and her arm pushed the lever. (The lever is normlly pushed with your back) When the lift started rising she started screaming and hollering since she wasnt locked in all the way. The show was stopped and sometime later she sang the rest of the song without the lift shaken from the incident.

My friend saw the recent West End Revival of Sweeney Todd and during a scene where Tobias was being chased by Todd, Tobias slipped from a raised stage and fell quite far. He got up and carried on but the stage manager came out and stopped the show for a wee bit. The curtain went down for 10 minutes then the showed continued from the same point.

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