Technical difficulties at Broadway shows

[TorontoBroadwayFan]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 11:23pm

I was at Groundhog Day last night and there were technical difficulties that delayed the show for a few minutes. The bedroom set wouldn't turn around when it was supposed to. I'm not a local but have been coming to NYC to see 6 to 10 shows per year for many years now and this is the first time this sort of thing has happened. 

I was curious as to how often that happens? Any other stories out there Broadway Fans?

I live in Toronto and have seen hundreds of shows over the years at home and it actually has never happened to me there either.

My curiosity is definitely peaked... let's hear some other accounts fans? Any funny stories?

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 11:39pm

First, I'm 100% there is a thread out there about this. Second, I've been at Wicked where Glindas bed didn't move off the stage after "Popular  and another at Matilda before "Pathetic" the house lights came up and a voiceover called the actress by name and instructed to leave the stage while something was fixed.

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 4/28/17 at 11:51pm

Oslo was delayed for about 10-15 minutes tonight because the trap door didn't work. 

[ZellMorrowsPledge]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 12:09am

Saw Groundhog Day in previews and the show ran smoothly from start to finish without any technical difficulties or delays for anything surprisingly. The only time I've experienced a technical difficulty was at the beginning of Act 2 during School Of Rock in March. A part of the classroom set wouldn't work during a scene change and the show stopped for a good 10 minutes

[tdupuis14]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 12:15am

I was at an evening show of Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella with Laura Osnes and half way through the first act the props wouldn't move off the stage. So every set change the stage crew came on and physically moved the sets. The whole theatre clapped for them every time they came out. It was a great crowd and a lot of fun to be apart of! 

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 1:09am

Last week at the final preview of Hello Dolly, there was a tech stop because Ermengarde's mic was not functioning correctly. It took about ten minutes.  Voice of God came on and the actors left the stage in character, the curtain closed and the house lights came up. And the next day at Phantom, as the Phantom sang "down once more " at the beginning of the final scene, he went much faster than the music so he started to slow right as the orchestra went faster, so the conductor was frantically waving his hand for the Phantom to stop singing, which he finally saw and stopped. The show didn't stop but the director in me certainly wanted to stand up and "stop, stop we need to take that scene again, from the top please" lol

[Emmaloucbway]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 1:12am

I saw the current Miss Saigon revival in the middle of previews, and they had to hold the show for 10 minutes because of the helicopter (the initial descent was fine, but it would not ascend and leave the stage).

[HSky]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 2:04am

I can think of 3 times I've seen a tech problem. (I did see Groundhog Day this week and there were no issues.)

Just this past Tuesday at Great Comet, the cast finished the warning about cell phones  and were waiting for the Prologue to start. The MD got on the phone and kept glancing upstage. After a prolonged pause, they announced they were having technical difficulties and would start momentarily. It wasn't more than 1-2 minutes before it began but it gave the cast a little time to kill amidst the audience.

The first time I saw Dear Evan Hansen at Arena Stage, they were in the middle of Evan and Jared's conversation prior to dinner with the Murphys and had to stop not long after Jared talks about (trying to be spoiler friendly here) what he thought the Murphys would perceive as the letter's intent. Not long after the clatter of silverware could be heard offstage, the God Mic had the three actors stop the scene and leave the stage. (The scene has since been rewritten, but at the time, while they were having their conversation, it was periodically intercut with separate statements by Alana about knowing Connor, the verbal equivalent of having a social media feed refreshing in the background.) After several minutes resolving whatever issue they were having with the dining table platform, they restarted the scene.

Way back when during the original production of Les Miserables, there was one time I saw when a turntable issue prevented them from getting the Rue Plumet gate offstage. For some reason, I can't recall them stopping so there might have been alternate staging to complete Act 1 around the errant gate, but there was definitely an extended intermission to work on the turntable.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 4:05am

I'll agree with you that it doesn't happen often.  The more technical shows get,  however, the higher the chance of it happening.

Most recently, for me, it happened at DEH early in the run. Nothing interesting about it.

[MarkBearSF]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 6:09am

I'm surprised there haven't been Spiderman stories here. I saw it in late June, well after it finally opened. Still, in a scene, the flying mechanisms malfunctioned and there was an announcement that they would need to stop the show for about 20 minutes to reset things. Meanwhile Spidey was literally hanging there about 8 feet above the stage looking goofy and Patrick Page came up with some seemingly impromptu lines to keep the audience entertained. (I'm sure he actually had honed them over countless delays in the previous 9 months or so.)

I was happy to see it, since the malfunctions were as much a story as the show itself by that point (and to be frank Patrick's lines were better than most of the book) It made the experience complete. Not good. But complete.

Updated On: 4/29/17 at 06:09 AM

[asmith0307]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 1:14pm

My first broadway show was a Spider-Man performance with a technical hold. Patrick Page was in the air and he should not have been. It made Broadway a lot less scary. 

 

However, for the record, I heard that not only did Groundhog Day stop on Thursday, but Beautiful and the national tour of Aladdin did as well. I was at Aladdin, and there was a power outage in the middle of "Friend Like Me".

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 1:21pm

When I saw "Carrie" during previews, I sat behind Debbie Allen and the scene that takes place at the drive-in when Chris asks Billy to help her with the blood, the left side set of "cars" got stuck midway through.  So through the whole number, the stagehands were banging on different parts of the mechanism to get it to move.  They finally did, at the end of the song.  The other thing I remember was an abnormally long intermission, and Debbie Allen didn't return to her seat until halfway through Act Two...

[HanonO]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 3:32pm

Not a show-stopping moment, but I was at a performance of PHANTOM on Broadway back in the day (Timothy Nolen/Patti Cohenour/Steve Barton but there were some standbys on)  and they got to the scene where the Phantom strangles Raoul with a noose. He's supposed to loop the actor's neck and throw the loose end in the air where it hangs magically (by an invisible wire), but the standby OG was a little overzealous and threw the noose so hard that it came completely off and went dancing hilariously across the deck pulled by the wire.

The guy playing Raoul (whom I think may have also been the standby) made the split-second decision to solve this by faceplanting on the stage as if he had been electrocuted and continued to sing the entire scene into the floor. The cool part is the mishap goosed all three actors' actual adrenaline levels and the singing in the scene suddenly became ten times more intense and thrilling as a result.

The Phantom didn't know what to do as the orchestra was vamping for him to release the noose, so he kind of made a hissing noise and a feint with his candelabra at Raoul to get them to stop. They did an overall great job covering, and I imagine the majority of the audience without an internal "technical issue" spidey-sense didn't even notice. 

[@z5]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 5:39pm

When I was the revival of On the 20th Century with Chenoweth, the show started about an hour late because they had lots of set and technical issues, and didn't open the doors till about 40 mins after the show was supposed to start. 

 

Only time I've had something happen during the actual show was "Misery" with Bruce Willis. About a minute after the lights went down, there was a voice that are on and said there has been a technical difficulty wit the stage. Literally only a minute later, the show went on as normal...was very quick.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 5:48pm

Worst one I ever experienced was at Rocky.  The show had three stops for 20-30 min. each time time due to set issues.  It was so frustrating and hard to really get into the show because of the stops and starts.  

 

The other was at the first preview of Bridges of Madison County when a decently large set piece rolled into the audience.  The actress froze, and stage managers told her to come to the wings while they checked on everyone in the audience and pit.  Thankfully, everyone was fine.

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 6:43pm

I once had two tech holds in one week, the first being opening night of Kinky Boots on tour in Philadelphia and the second being Something Rotten on Broadway. During Kinky Boots, it was near the very end just as the scene with the Milan fashion show was about to begin when the Milan stage manager didn't come out and the music stopped. After a moment, someone came over the loud speaker telling us they were having technical issue and would be starting up again shortly (the hold lasted about 15-20 minutes). 

During Something Rotten, the hold came when the Bottom house didn't come out on stage and the show had to stop once the scene focused on the money box. Brian had turned in search of the money box, prompting Heidi to ask him what he was looking for to which he replied "I'm looking for our money box, which is somewhere backstage at this theater" and then hold. The show began again after about a ten minute hold with the scene starting over and including Heidi adding when Brian asked how her day was - "I feel like I've told you this before". During that same show, Brad Oscar during A Musical tossed in a mention of "and sometimes there's technical difficulties" which got a huge laugh and applause.  

I did have a tech hold at Groundhog Day at what was their second (third if you count the first preview) preview but it was a brief 10 minute hold just before the end of the first act. When the curtain came up after the hold, Andy Karl was standing position with his fists in the air victorious as the show began again. 

Updated On: 4/29/17 at 06:43 PM

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 7:32pm

No hold, when I saw the "Cabaret" revival (the 1998 version), there was a big mishap at the end.

For the final moment, when the orchestra has left the stage but their stands and chairs are still there and the front of the platform with the doors flies out, the front got caught on one of the stands, lifted it up in the air about 10 feet or so and then dropped it, causing it to shatter on the platform.

Much credit to the poor chorus girls walking out underneath who managed to mostly keep character as they were dodging chunks of metal flying at them.

Updated On: 4/29/17 at 07:32 PM

[showchoirguy]

Posted: 4/29/17 at 7:48pm

Phantom 2011- Right before "Notes" sequence, there was a crunching noise and the actor playing Firmin starts singing without the orchestra before stopping and telling the audience we'd be taking a quick intermission. It was for a school trip and the stage managers came out and started talking about how the candelabras broke during the scene change. 

Come From Away- I saw the show a few weeks ago (Adored this show by the way) and the turntable was acting really wonky during 28 Hours/Wherever We Are and the Darkness and Trees sequence and then during the next scene during one of the changes, a bunch of stuff was knocked over and Astrid Van Wieren yelled "Jesus!" in character, but you knew something was wrong. Then they stopped the show for about 5 minutes and tested the turntable which worked smoothly through the rest of the show!