Your Most Embarassing Theatre Moment- Page 2

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 11:19am

Late to the theater for a performance of Pirates, I ran onstage not realizing I was in the middle of the ocean and the curtain was up.

I belched into the microphone while performing "Something's Coming" in concert...I was a kid.

[mikeyb16]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 11:22am

i remember 1, i was in a school play called Kings Magic Cloaks back in 2001 and i had to dance to Dancing Queen and because i had to be on the right hand side edge of the stage, i was soooo close to falling off and loads of people were looking but i didn't think anyone noticed

another was a couple of weeks ago when i went to the New Theatre in Cardiff to see 'Buddy Holly', my dad never wants to turn his phone off as he always talks loads and loads in his phone to various people and at this 1 point 2 minutes before the show started, his phone goes off and speaks, it was sooo embarrasing and the auditorium was packed that night

[alanimal]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 11:47am

We did Saint Joan, by Shaw. It took four hours. No more than three people knew their lines. The audience later complained that they could hear the prompter better (and far more often) than the actors. I was wearing a glorified velour housecoat as Yolande D'Aragon. Oh, do I ever not miss high school.

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 11:49am

When I was Les Mis, when I came into the Thernardier's home with Little Cosette, my fly was wide open and like the shirt was hanging out, so, it looked like, well, that something fishy happened on the way from the woods to the house.

The director came running backstage at intermission to say "You molested Cosette! It looked like you were molesting Cosette!"

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 1:04pm

this isnt all that exciting, but when I went to see RENT in March, I was getting to my seat in the middle of the row, and i tripped over this guy, and fell on the floor.
yeah
i felt stupid

[Renthead#1]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 1:10pm

When I was in Guys and Dolls I forgot my line totally.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 1:14pm

Pronoucing Mano's name wrong in front of Stephen Sondheim. Also, when I first met Mr. Sondheim, freezing up so bad that I actually started to stutter. I couldn't say a damn word.

[Renthead#1]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 1:15pm

Thats how I felt when I mett Anthony Rapp

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 1:16pm

I played Oliver when I was 12 and had a MASSIVE crush on the guy playing Bill Sykes. When he aggressively dragged me onstage, he grabbed only my shirt and not my shoulder - the poppers on the front ripped right open and my bra was exposed to the whole audience.
One of my friend's parents came up to me after the show and said "Don't worry! No one saw!"
And that was on the night it was recorded for sale to the school.

[Calvin]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 1:19pm

Oh, wonderwaiter, you reminded me of a story (that I might have already posted on here -- I can't remember)

I was stage-managing a production of The Piano Lesson stage in the round. One of the patrons at the far side of the stage decided in the middle of Act 1 that she needed to use the restroom. However, she got confused and went through the curtain beside her instead of walking back up to the front exit, putting her backstage where it was nearly pitch black.

One of the maintenance guys at the theatre found her squatting in the corner in the dark, peeing on the floor because she didn't know where she was. This lady was probably in her 40s or 50s, BTW -- not exactly a 95-year-old matinee-goer wearing June Allyson diapers. The maintenance guy didn't realize what she had done until she got up and returned to her seat.

Yes. She returned to her seat and stayed for the rest of the production, as if nothing had happened.

[JasonM12480]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 1:45pm

During a performance of "Das Barbecu", I played this character named Wotan. Well, for anyone who knows "Das Barbecu", it consists of 5 actors playing almost 30 roles. It also has some of the fastest costume changes in musical theater history! Anyway, this one night, I was backstage - I had just played a giant, and in the black out, I came running backstage, and had my dresser helping me out of the giant costume, and back into Wotan. The last costume piece I needed was an eye patch; this is pivitol to the story, as Wotan is blind in one eye, and sings about it. Well, my costumer, bless his little heart, dropped the eye patch in the dark, and could not, for the life of him find it. So we were frantically trying to find it, and I literally had seconds before I HAD to get out on stage. I finally said screw it, and went onstage to sing my big power ballad, "River of Fire", in which one of the lines goes...

"Just one eye means I don't view the world the way that most folks do."

I sang the entire song with my left eye shut. It was so embaressing, and I had to really stay focused to make sure I didn't open my eye. Luckily, the next character who joined me onstage, brought me my eyepatch that they had found after I was already on. The audience cheered, and I put it on. Ridiculous, embaressing, and great theater moment :)

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 2:01pm

I came out of the stage door after doing a production of A Chorus Line and tripped and fell flat on my face, go figure you do a huge dance show and then you trip and fall on your face... yeah I'm graceful I sware!

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 2:29pm

These have been a pleasure to read, all of them! Thank you for sharing.

I wish I had one to contribute, but I really don't. Most of my productions have gone smoothly- and the one I can thnk of was when I was seeing the opera CARMEN. The director had a fit and stopped the show and ridiculed the cast. Why, I do not know as it seemed to be going well in my eyes. I felt embarrased for them and for having to see that.

[SNLMedia]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 2:52pm

I was in a small production of "Christmas in Oz" in middle school, and I was playing three different roles, one of them being a flying monkey. The monkey costumes all had long tails sewed onto the seats of the monkey "shorts" that dragged along the floor. At one point, the whole group of us monkeys are supposed to circle around the wicked witch. As we were circling, just as I was in the portion of the circle nearest the audience, the monkey behind me stepped right on my tail, down went my shorts, and for a few seconds the entire crowd could see my undies. It got a huge unintentional laugh and I know I must've turned beat red. I still haven't figured out if my costar did it on purpose or not.

[Fabrizio2]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 3:34pm

This isn't one of my own, it is one of my friends.


She was in a show, (I think Angels in America) I think that was the show, and she had to do a special showing for juvenille delenquints. Yes. She was stripped down to her bra, and one the guys shouted "take it all off baby take it all off" everyone was laughing, but she kept going. This was a smaller community production of it, but she still talks about how embarssing it was.
Updated On: 6/1/06 at 03:34 PM

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 3:50pm

I heard this from my voice teacher, but I know the girl and saw this production.

A friend of mine played Dorthy in "The Wizard of Oz". For some very stupid reason, they had her holding Toto almost the ENTIRE show(2 1/2 to 3 hours!). During one of the performances, eairly in Act one, Toto peed on her and the entire side of her dress was just dog pee. To make matters worse, she had to perform in the dress for the rest of the show.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 3:50pm

I was doing a children's theatre production of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and during a performace, I did two seperate runs of the show, I was so out of it that I totally zoned out and yea. Embarassing is what comes to mind, right after mortified.

[Dre2387]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 4:08pm

I though I had none, but I do.

I was co-stage manager/light operator for a show for kids done by high schoolers at my community theatre called "Jolly Roger." There is this one light call that goes from completely light to complete black then fade up to regular lighting.

well, during a performance, I decided to take pictures of the action on stage with my camera phone and had my right hand poised for the light cue. I knew it was coming up. The actors were onstage, and it was a funny moment so I decided to take a picture of it. Unfortunately, instead of pushing the camera button with my left hand, I pushed the light button with my right hand. It went completely dark. But my friend had a great adlib for it (he was the captain of the ship): I guess a storm is upon us." I finally fixed the light and he said: "Well, that was a quick one." very funny now, but I was panicing upstairs.

fun times.

[theatahguy]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 4:31pm

Here are a few:

The Fantasticks. I'm playing Matt. We're doing the Rape Ballet and I'm swordfighting my little heart out with the little wooden rods, which were actually relatively thick (read- "we didnt think they'd break"). Well, of course when El Gallo & I are really going at it at the end, my sword decides to break about 4 seconds before I'm supposed to stab him. So El Gallo dies due to a wound from a 2 inch sword.

The Fantasticks...again. Still playing Matt. End of the song "Metaphor." "...my mysteryyyyyyyy...of Looo-oooo-oooo-ooo-ve." On the last note of the song, Luisa and I are supposed to step up onto the bench where the "wall" is. I step on the bench wrong or something and the thing tips over, very very nearly taking me, Luisa and the mute with it.

The Fantasticks...one mo' time. Playing Luisa this time. Kidding. Still Matt. The lines goes a little something like this-- "Hucklebee: Walls dont have eyes! Matt: Then what do you call (take flower that Mute is holding, hold it out to father) this flower?" So everything is rolling along swimmingly, I take the flower from the Mute and it goes flying across the stage. The line now reads "Then what do you call....that flower over there?" Luisa's next line (which gave a chuckle to the cast)? "Sweet God, he's clever."

The Glass Menagerie. I'm playing Tom. The "Opium Dens" speech. "...You'll go up, up on a broomstick over Blue Mountain with 17 gentlemen callers, you ugly, babbling old witch!" And per the stage directions, I toss my jacket in the direction of Laura's Glass Menagerie. My poor jacket must've caught a draft in the theater (haha) because it slammed into the large shelf on which the Menagerie was sitting and in slow motion, the shelf fell, all the glass breaking and flying everywhere. ...the audience thought it was a great effect...

[leon1489]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 4:51pm

Oh God... so many.

WIZARD OF OZ
On the last performance, we generally play pranks on one another onstage, but we have to make them subtle enough where the audience won't notice. Well, during one scene, I had a talking crow hand puppet, and my friend stuffed baby powder, glitter, and sprinkles inside. What she didn't realize was that there was like a little opening in my crow, so when I would make it talk, puffs of smoke would come out. So basically on the last performance, I was the "high crow". That same night, I was supposed to be eating an apple during the last scene, and it shot across the stage and like fell on the Wizard's feet.

LES MIS
I played Valjean, and since there's like a ridiculous costume change between scene one and scene two, I had to find ways to cut corners... well, I'm supposed to try and attack one of the farmers in the first scene, and as I run and try to be intimidating, my mic pac fell into my pants, so I'm basically like clutching my legs together trying to keep the pac from falling out. Then, after about every scene, I had to age myself, which was a disaster in its own way. There's a part where I'm supposed to go on a platform that was the garden, and my sister, who played Cosette, was doing her solo... until I like got on and the platform slid a good two feet towards the edge of the stage... Then I had to carry Marius for one scene... Marius was like an inch shorter than me and probably a little lighter than me, so getting him on me was quite a challenge, especially since his butt was in my face and mine was on his... One of the nights, we barely made it out in time, so Javert had to like sit around there for ages, since he couldn't really improvise. And during the last scene, I'm supposed to be in white since I'm dead, only I made the stupid mistake of wearing black boxer briefs... so the whole time, as I have the spotlight shining on me, you can like softly see the outline of my underwear.

LES MIS
The first time I did Les Mis, I played Enjolras... and during the whole rehearsal process, everybody would take my lines and fool around with them and make up new ones. So I would joke around backstage and say them, and then on the last performance, I got like nervous onstage and started blurting out random things that we said backstage... not fun. And since I was like in shock that the fake line came out of my mouth, I did some sort of weird R&B riff, which although on key, was not fitting of Les Mis.

ANNIE
I was playing rooster, and one of the nights, my mustache fell off onstage as I was supposed to be dancing with Miss Hannigan during Easy Street. That same night, I'm supposed to bring out a check for Grace to look at, only I forgot to bring it out, so I had to like, turn upstage to make it look like I was showing it to her, and I looked totally retarded.

There's worse, but I'll save those for later.

[MusicAndPassion]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 5:24pm

This March I was in a production of Fiddler On The Roof.

We did a small performance twice infront of the entire school, just segments from the show.

The last number was "To Life" and we did the curtain call once before the performance.

I ran on stage at the wrong time, and realized it. The two most disguisting and people I hate in the world were suppose to bow, so I ran off stage.

The entire school laughed.

Oh well, that's theatre for ya!

Posted: 6/1/06 at 5:39pm

During my middle school's production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, I was playing Mordcha the Innkeeper and during the final scene when the town is being forced out, I was one of the ones leaving and I was holding a crate and walking down these stairs to exit our cafeteria and I tripped on the wire to the lighting rig and fell down every step and landed on my ankle. I thought I broke it but it was twisted. All the little kids (it was one of those school preformances during the day) laughed their little butts off. It was so embrassing.
Updated On: 6/1/06 at 05:39 PM

[WiiCKED x3]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 5:54pm

I was in my school's production of Anything Goes, I was one of the angels who are with Reno Sweeney. Our school did a different way of the angels being with Reno. I was Angel #1. I was ALWAYS with her, even in the scenes I wasn't supposed to be in the director thought it'd be cute if I was in the backround. I think he was obsessed with me, eveyone thought he was. Scary. So during the opening night curtian call he kept telling us that Reno comes out last and I come out 2nd last. All of a sudden he changed his mind and wants ME to go out there with her. I was already out onstage so he kept screaming: "DANIELLE, COME BACK!" So I went backstage again and he told the girl playing Reno to go and wait for me behind the curtian of the stage. So she goes and waits for about a minute. She thought I was right behind her so she went onstage and got a huge round of applause. The director was screaming at me to get onstage. I ran onstage, trip on some random wire running across the stage and fall flat on my face.

It didn't really hurt.

I was so embarrassed.

Posted: 6/1/06 at 6:16pm

Ah. Anything Goes- how I love it.


The Purser- fun stuff. fun stuff.

[Emcee4ever]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 6:24pm

In our school's production of 'To Kill A Mockingbird' seomething went wrong every night. On our first night, the rifle didn't fire at first. Luckily, the guy playing Heck tate covered it up with 'My God, this thing's not loaded!'

On the second night, the lightbulb for Aatticus at the jail didn't go on. He ad-libbed, 'They don't make them like they used to.' After a few seconds, it came back on.

On the third night, Atticus showed up late to the courtroom. He said, 'I had car trouble and had to walk.'

:P