I read this amusing (and lengthy) article on some interesting onstage moments. By Playbill.com from RC in Austin, Texas Flubbed Lines and More
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
"Tovah Feldshuh Theatre by the Sea, Matunuck, RI – as Sophie in Star Spangled Girl by Neil Simon – during a quick change, for some reason done onstage – the lights came on too soon. I leave the rest to your imagination."
That was pretty interesting. I really liked the ones from Laura Michelle Kelly and Victoria Clark.
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
Jack Lemmon used to love to tell the story about the time he was doing TRIBUTE on Broadway and during a very emotional scene with the actor playing his son, an actress made an early entrance. He looked at the actress and said, "Excuse me dear but we are having a private conversation."
When Angela Lansbury brought her production of GYPSY to South Florida after it closed on Broadway, Zan Charisse was replaced (her choice) in the title role by her sister, Nana Tucker.
The "runway" for Gypsy's strip number and "Rose's Turn" was a wagon of runways that stretched from one side of the proscenium to the other and the director was attempting a cinematic effect where the wagon moved forward during "Let Me Entertain You", approximating the illusion of a camera zoom.
Unfortunately, everything was done manually in those days and nobody thought to put up guards along the apron of the stage. So on opening night, the wagon was pushed forward, over the edge and into the orchestra pit.
Nana calmly stepped off the back of the wagon just as it went off the stage and continued, never missing a note even as the members of the orchestra scurried to avoid the falling wagon. They had to stop the show and recover for "Rose's Turn", but Tucker finished her song!
***
Even better: for those who don't know the show (and who would that be?), Gypsy has a number of quick changes during the number to show her climb up the ladder of burlesque "success". One night, a costume got stuck and the wardrobe mistress had to go on stage with a pair of pliers while a stage hand held a fan in front of Nana as they struggled with the clothes.
Without missing a beat, Nana Tucker turned to the audience and said, in her best Gypsy Rose Lee, "My clothes don't want to come off me! Can you blame them?"
She got the biggest laugh and the second biggest hand of the night (after Angela's "Rose's Turn").
And Nana was all of 19 at the time. I was very impressed with her poise.
In A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, I had this rant about how I thought my real parent were gymnasts. I was saying this to my adopted father, played by Richard Thomas, and we literally stopped the show because we were laughing our asses off. We just thought it was so ridiculous. I was crying from laughing so hard that I had to put a couch pillow over my face.
I don't know the play, Phyllis, but as Morrison explains the moment, it does sound pretty ridiculous. Maybe the absurdity of "my real parents were gymnasts" just occurred to them and once they had the idea in their heads, they couldn't let it go.
This is a story I heard -- don't know if it's true or not.
At one of the performances of THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG an actor accidentally dropped and shattered his champagne glass. Linda Lavin, who was playing Gorgeous, ad-libbed "Now all we need is a wedding."
My Favorite story is from "A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine." David Garrison was playing Groucho Marx, and one night the Margaret Dumont character picks up a bell to ring for him (his entrance cue) and it falls apart in her hand. So he enters and says, with a perfect Groucho leer "I told you if you played with that thing too much it would fall off!"