"bloopers on stage" stories?

In a production of SWEENEY TODD for which I was Musical Director 20 years ago, during the Finale, the Judge is supposed to sing:

"They went to their makers impeccably shaved"

Well, the actor got a case of mush mouth, and what came out was:

"Mumble mumble pecker impeccably shaved"

Who knew Sweeney did that kind of barbering?

Haha, i was lucky enough to see Wicked when Shoshana fell off the stage, glad she wasn't hurt though.

Also at DRS:

Sara Gettelfinger during her number where she is shooting at John Lithgow. She pronounces to the audience "This is a gun", holds her fingers in the "gun" position and then commences to shoot, sound effects and everything. Then 15 seconds later, John Lithgow goes off stage and then comes back with a gun.

I thought it was part of the show but my friend told me it was a missed cue.

I saw the tour of Wicked in SF. During the scene after the house falls on Nessa, Glinda is supposed to kneel down and place flowers on the ground, then she gets up when Elphaba enters. Kendra got on the ground and placed the flowers there, but when she tried to get up, she was standing on her dress. Everytime she tried to stand up, she fell back down. Eden came on for the big confrontation, and started laughing. She said something along the lines of "You okay? Do need some help?" very sarcastically. Kendra was finally able to get up, went to the side of the stage, crossed her arms in a huff, and said "No, I've got it" laughing. The audienced laughed for a few minutes, and Eden and Kendra were laughing through the scene until they got to the fight, which is funny on its own. The whole thing was hillarious.

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I recall a tale of Tallulah Bankhead onstage with Estelle Winwood when in this play and not on cue, a ringing phone sound effect started. The evil Miss Bankhead said to Miss Winwood "Get the Phone Daahhhling!" - Winwood went over, picked up the phone and then said to Tallulah "It's for YOU!"

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During a September performance of "The Phantom of The Opera," there were tons of mishaps in Act One.

The boat ran into a candelabra during the title song.

After Hugh Panaro and Rebecca Pitcher had stepped from the boat at the end of the title song, the boat nearly ran Hugh down. Later, as he was about to remove his cape, the pole swung free from the boat and hit him in the back.

He was having a rough day off-stage, too.
Then, at the first unmasking, Rebecca dropped the mask on the floor by Hugh's feet. As he jumped to chase her in that scene, he had to step clear of it and ended up falling hard instead of the usual staged fall at that point. There was no real way to retrieve the mask and he had to ad-lib the scene from there.

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during "Thoroughly Modern Millie" tour when Darcie roberts does the whole flailing under the desk bit, she gets stuck and cant quite configure herself, so the bit was a lot longer then it should have been

When I saw the Wicked tour in Toronto, Glinda was trying to give Elphba her pink flower out of her hair in Popular, and it was stuck. Kendra pulled and pulled and eventually broke character. The audience cracked up too. Her and Steph ad-libbed a little then finally got it out and got on with it.

Akiva

This was in the RENT tour. During the opening scenes, and the song, there was a cereal box on the table. It fell off and someone picked it up. That happened about six more times. The box would fall and someone would pick it up, and it would happen again. It was hilarious.

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There's a line in Razzle Dazzle "Give em an act that's unassailable".... one night Bernard Dotson sang "Give em an ASS that's unassailable"... I found it pretty amusing considering he has quite the nice ass

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This is one I heard secondhand, but it's too good not to include, even if it isn't true:

During a performance of ANNIE, the dog playing Sandy relieved himself on top of a light fixture backstage. The instrument exploded, killing him and propelling him through the air. He landed onstage in the midst of the "Hard Knock Life" number, traumatizing all the orphans for life. The curtain fell and did not rise again.

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No, it apparently really happened at some regional theatre. Of course I heard it secondhand, from someone who probably heard it from someone else, so it might be urban legend. But it's still too good a story not to share!

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