Your Most Embarassing Theatre Moment- Page 3

[broadwaybaby221]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 6:28pm

Not about me but about my mother. She was in the show No No Nanette a LONG time ago and she had a costume change. She played the mother, I think, though I can't really remember. Anyway, she went to do her costume change and she needed to find her black bra to go with her dress. She didn't know that her mic was on at the time and the whole crowd heard her say "Where the hell did my black bra go?"

[mrslovett7]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 6:36pm

omg I feel so bad for you guys!

When my friend and I were in the city looking for a show to see at TKTS and this young guy walked up to us and asked if we wanted tickets to All Shook Up. i said, "oh no thanks it looks really bad."

he just kind of blinked and walked away and I heard him go up to the people next to us and say, "Hi, I'm from All Shook Up and I have some extra tickets to today's performance..."

oh. my. god. I felt sooooo bad!! but hey, it DID look really sucky.


Everytime I meet Gary Beach something embarassing happens with the camera but he's so nice about it.

[IWannaDance!]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 10:00pm

I have two.

One was during a production of Oliver! I was playing a bar wench. I had this silky shirt on that fastened around the shoulders with a ribbon. One night, we're singing Oom Pah Pah, and it feels like the shirt is a little loose. I look down and realize that the ribbon had come undone, and the shirt was around my waist.

The second one was in college, and I was performing with an improv comedy group (think Whose Line). We were playing Helping Hands, where another actor stood behind me and his arms replaced mine. At one point, we were reacting with shock to something, and he put his hands to my chest in horror, except he forgot that on a girl, that's where the breasts are. So basically he felt me up on stage in front of the entire audience. He did have the decency to turn bright red as soon as he realized what he had done.

[lilprima2b]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 10:01pm

I did Thoroughly Modern Millie in February at my school (I was in the ensemble). We had one set piece that our director had told us repeatedly was ridiculously unsafe - the wall that served as the lobby of the Hotel Priscilla (on one side) and the laundry room (on the opposite). When it was flown in, two techies would crawl onto the 16-foot turntable that they had built and attach it to hinges with metal pins. The fly crew would let in enough slack so that it would be able to be turned on the turntable and serve as two sets. The cord would twist as the turntable turned and they would turn it the opposite way, detach the wall from the hinges, and fly it out.
Anyway, during the LAST scene of the LAST show, the techs in charge of the turntable got kind of lazy and TURNED IT THE WRONG WAY. We were all waiting to come on for the finale, and I was standing in the wings behind the tech teacher's daughter (who was in the show) and she looks at the wall, just about to be disconnected from the hinges and flown out, and says, "Oh my God, it's the wrong way." The flycord had been twisted twice instead of being untwisted. So we have no choice but to walk out as they fly it out, and the 300-pound-wall begins untwisting itself MIDAIR AS THERE ARE 50 KIDS WALKING UNDER IT. Anyway, it just started spinning faster and faster until someone had the presence of mind to grab it. It was PROBABLY the scariest moment of my life... hahaha but in retrospect it was freaking hilarious. The band director had this terrified look on his face (probably mirroring all of us) and then he just gives this enormous cue to start the music for the finale. It was crazy. It was a shame it kind of killed the end of the closing show (although most of the audience had no idea what was going on).

[MissElphie]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 10:26pm

Dress rehearsal for Bye Bye Birdie. I was Rosie. We performed the dress for a local group of seniors. I changed into my flowery skirt and blouse for the last dance, and forgot that Albert spun me across the stage. I should have worn shorts as my skirt flew up to my chin. I gave those seniors more than they paid for.

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 10:49pm

I was just reminded of another one of mine.
Again in Guys and Dolls, during the crapshooters dance there was this one point where we all got in a line, and we passed back our hats. What we did was at intermission we would put our hats in a pile in the order that we were in the line, so when they were passed back we would get our hats. Then the first person in line would take the first hat and put it on his head, then the second person took the hat off and put it on theres while the first person put another hat on his head, and then the third person took it off the second persons hat and put it on their head, until we had 14 hats going down the line. Well my hat was on the 8th count (we were going a hat a count, and it was going very fast) and I had to pass back six hats. Well it started and it was going fine, until I don't know what happened nor do I remember it, but I stopped. I all of a sudden wake up, and realize that the kid in front of me had three hats on his head, because I never took them off! It was awful.

Edit: Also, during another show I did another cast memeber accidently smacked me in the genital area with a bottle of whisky, and I jumped a mile high and went AHHHH real loud in the mic, and that was the night it was taped. Updated On: 6/1/06 at 10:49 PM

[soapguy17]

Posted: 6/1/06 at 11:03pm

I have an interesting one. When I was a waiter in "Hello Dolly!" I had one TERRIBLE night perfroming that number. During our jumpy-spiny-turning-thing the guy infront of me fell. Me being a weirdo I didn't look infront of my and stated my spin; tripping over him and nearly knocking over Cornelius,Barnaby,Minney-Fay, and Mrs. Malloy's table. Then as I went out to the stage for the gallop finale they peice that held the tray to my hand fell off and I had to actually hold the tray while dancing. Ugh!! Yeah it was a fun night.

[SpellRENT777]

Posted: 6/2/06 at 4:09pm

I too have an embarassing moment.
I was doing a production of PIPPIN and I was cast as the young boy Theo. In the final scene, I am stripped of my big dress-cloak thing. The stage crew was supposed to leave it on the side of the stage for me to pick it up and wear it for bows. But, on the second night, one of the crew took my costume and put it back in the dressing room! I ended up going out for bows in Charlemagne's huge cape, but it didnt cover much. It was pretty embarassing!

[Emcee4ever]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 2:22am

Neddyfrank, your second one cracked me up! ^^

[Radioactiveduck]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 3:57am

My friend went ot the bathroom during a dress rehearsal, and her mic was still on. So we heard this SUPER loud toilet flush out of no where and we had to stop the run for probably 3 minutes.

John Owen-Jones (london phantom) once got an erection during a performance.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 9:35am

^Oh, poor JOJ...that must have been interesting.

This isn't mine, but a girl was playing the female lead in Man of LaMancha in my area, and while she was being raped/beaten on stage her grandmother ran on stage screaming "Get you hands off my granddaughter!" She started hitting the men and kicking them.

[Kouji]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 10:17am

haha neddyfrank, i lost a shoe durring havanna

[London 2]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 11:51am

wow, it's been fun reading all of these. The only time I ever screwed up during a performance was, of course, in my biggest role so far. I was playing Nancy in Oliver and I was singing Fine Life and everything was going great, until I looked down to see my intire family in the first three rows(there was,like,30 of them...) and man did I freeze. The words went right out of my head. And then I did one of the dumbest things, I started to hum. I just hummed along with the melody thinking that at some point someone might break in and help me, but no. I had to glare at the conductors head until she told me the words. God, it was so embarassing. But, I kept going and didn't let it phase me onstage. But when I got offstage I cried like a little baby. And for the rest of the night I was terrified of forgetting my lines. But everything else that night and all the other nights went well...so embarassing...

[wickedfanatic34]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 1:18pm

i was playng muff potter in the long island premier of tom sawyer and i had alot of family in the audience and it was opening night and i had jitters and when i got out i forgot one of my lines and just couldn't remember it so the man who played injun joe was add libbing and said"give me some kind of money" and so i went " money yeah thats right i forgot thats what i give you" I was so embarraseed.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 2:13pm

I was playing Victor Frankenstein in a community theater production (thank God) about a million years ago (actually,I think it was 1983) and I had a two page monologue that was a b*tch to memorize. One night, I ended up doing half of it over again, because some of it was repetitive and I ended up going in circles until my fellow actor got me back on track by asking me something that I had to respond to in a very specific way. But man, that was hell!

[Weez]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 7:31pm

Thesbijean's Cosette molestation made me laugh out loud. It's going to take all my self-control to not relay the story to everyone I know for the next week or so. XD (Most people I know don't care quite as much about theatre, so the set-up would take too long for the pay-off to be quite as amusing to them. Sads. ;_

[wexy]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 8:50pm

Not an actor but I had tickets to see something (think it was Twilight Los Angeles) was going with a friend and while she went to the ladies room after dinner, I took out the tickets and they were for the next night. Oops.

Went to the theatre anyway and told them of my dilema. The woman said "At least you're at the right show." The tickets were mezzanine and the house manager sat us eighth row orchestra.
So being brain dead actually paid off :)

[matt schneider]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 9:07pm

When I was a kid I had a horrible lisp, so durring my one solo of this play no one could understand me. People were laughing the whole time. And I cried at the end because of embarrasment, only a dress rehersal (thank god)
reminder: I was only 6.

Updated On: 7/26/06 at 09:07 PM

[HOUFlip04]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 9:36pm

Ok. The Music Man in Summer Stock. I went on for Man #1 who is a featured chorus member. One of the quartet could not be in the show so his understudy went on and I went on for his understudy. I got through the entire show with no problem. Then came the scene where the town finds out Harold Hill is a phony and tries to find him.

Well, the woman before me says, "I want my money back!" and I was supposed to reply, "Money back? I want his hide!"...but instead I said.."Money back? I want MY hide!"

I swear there was silence for like 3 seconds after I said it and then the entire cast does a choregraphed chase scene all over the stage. Every cast member was laughing their heads off. During curtain call, one of my friends said, "Did you do that on purpose?"

I got an award at the end of the summer. "Best Line Reading".

Updated On: 7/26/06 at 09:36 PM

[My Fair Lady]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 10:04pm

Meeting Sutton Foster:

Sutton Foster: Hello!
My sister: Hi, my sister's obsessed with you!

[gertiecummings]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 10:18pm

The Cosette thing was awesome. I made my roomate read it.

ThankstoPhantom, yours was awesome too.

When my high school did Oklahoma! our Curly forgot to words to Surrey With The Fringe on Top, so he made them up. It went some like "The wheels are yella... and everything's brown...and you know it's yeller...(something I don't remember)...and we're gonna go around the town." And we were taping that night. The following Monday we watched it about five times.

Not in a show I did, but it was from my prof's old school. During West Side Story the guy playing Chino forgot to bring out the gun for the final scene, so he took off his shoe and threw it at Tony yelling "Poisoned boot!!" I still do not look at that scene in the same way.

[PaintWordPictures]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 10:51pm

First time my family saw LesMis (second time for me) after Bring Him Home, the house is going crazy with clapping and cheering. My mom gives him a thumbs-up from the back of the balcony.

Stage door Chicago Wicked - Mom to Ana Gasteyer - "I loved your work on SNL!"

****MOST EMBARASSING THING EVER***** Me, first time I saw LesMis, Valjean was understudied (by Bart Shatto, who I still think is amazing). I read the understudy insert, knowing nothing about the show. I turn to the girl next to me from school and said "Eh, I hope this Jean Valjean guy isn't IMPORTANT or anything." (I'm embarassed to say that was ever me.)

In real theatre - one of my friends had a quick change on stage, the tech's brought the lights up too quickly. There's Lisa in her underwear, lights full, and guess what - its dress rehearsal, all the parents are taping. Beautiful.

[LadyLizaElliott]

Posted: 7/26/06 at 11:19pm

Ok, after reading a whole bunch I finally came up with right now, was my most embarassing theater moment.

I saw LION KING with my theater group and we had just come from that great souvenir store under the Marquis hotel, and I bought one of those "EMERALD CITY" street signs for my sister. Well, our seats were in the HIGHEST balcony at the New Amsterdam theater and I put the sign standing up next to my seat. Well, in the middle of a song between Mufasa and Simba, I hear a clatter. My BAG falls over and the sign goes sliding down the aisle like a SLED! all the way down into the darkness. Completely flustered, i crept down and went all the way to the bottom of the balcony to retrieve the sign and went back to my seat!

Come to think of it, crying all the way through The Woman in White in London TWICE was actually embarassing now that I look back. It's good to cry but not non-stop.

As for High school memories, horror stories. Nothing onstage ever happened to me, though by god there were many chances. I'd have to say for that, the most embarassing thing would have to be when I witnessed my cast's costumes in THE MATCHMAKER and THE GOOD DOCTOR fall apart. Vandergelder's wig fell off in the first five minutes, and the "Defenseless Creature" woman's skirt fell down and she was holding up her skirt and her petticoat walking off.

[Elphaba43]

Posted: 7/29/06 at 7:09pm

I saw Spamalot and my cousin Amanda was so hammered! So, she was talking to everyone around her in the theater and even to the actors onstage, mid song!! I was so embarassed and she laughed at things that weren't even funny. I will never see another show with her again!

[Emcee4ever]

Posted: 8/14/06 at 3:43pm

>_>

<_<

Any more? :)