Food on stage

[bobs3]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 3:01pm

When actors eat food on stage is it prepared at the theater or is it prepared off-site by a catering company and delivered to the theater?

Also, if it is a hot meal (say a dinner scene) is it served hot/warm to the actors or do they have to eat it cold?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 3:21pm

Stanley Tucci cooked right onstage in Frankie & Johnny. And by "cooked" I mean "sexually aroused me."

[THDavis]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 3:25pm

Is he gluten-free?

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 3:31pm

It's going to vary from show to show and actor to actor. I haven't heard of any show that does an out and out caterer for onstage meals that are eaten (not to say it doesn't happen somewhere), but it is not uncommon to be going to the prepared foods section at places like Whole Foods, or any grocery store, and buying from there. Other times it will be something that is prepared at the theatre by the props crew, or sometime by stage management depending on the size of the theatre and crew.

In terms of temperature, again, that will depend on the actors' preferences. Some would rather eat something cold to avoid any possibility of it being too hot. Other times it will be warmed up. It may also be that only a portion of the food is heated if the director wants that steaming hot look, but the rest is served cold or room temperature, again looking to avoid something being too hot and potentially burning somebody's mouth on stage.

[morosco]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 3:56pm

I worked with a show once where the cast had to eat fried chicken during a scene. Half the cast members were vegetarians so the props department created little ceramic chicken bones and they would then take canned Pillsbury biscuits and wrap them around the bones and bake them until golden brown. They looked good from the audience.

And wasn't there always talk that the mashed potatoes Channing ate in Hello Dolly were actually just cotton candy?

On the SUNDAY IN THE PARK video you can see that Bernadette is eating a store bought Twinkie that's been cut in half while she sings "Everybody Loves Louis".

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 4:02pm

I feel like I've heard stories about Carol Channing, Hello, Dolly, and white bread and gravy. I don't know the show very well at all, so I assume that had something to do with what they are all eating at the Harmonia Gardens.

And yes, the stories I have of trying to make something look like something else are endless. Mashed potatoes as ice cream, decaf tea that is darkened for coffee, the list could go on for ever. There are whole discussion boards dedicated solely to ways of creating various alcoholic drinks. Then add in food allergies, or even just preferences, that actors have (either real or imagined) and it can just turn into a nightmare for the props and stage management departments.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 4:47pm

Random question, buit have there ever been any (in)famous examples of characters drinking real booze on stage? I know inthe soaps, actors have complained about getting sick of drinking weak iced tea all the times they're meant to be drinking something stronger.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 4:57pm

Jean Kerr once wrote, "Don't hire known alcoholics. The unknown ones will give you trouble enough." There has to be a collateral rule about drinking real liquor on the set. Don't do it. Not cool for you or the other actors. If the actors get "sick" drinking weak tea then switch to apple juice.

Back to food: the most versatile piece of food used is a banana. It can be fried, mashed, reshaped, dyed and changed into damn near anything. If it reads like a chicken breast across the footlights, who cares that it said Chiquita two hours before.

Dolly's dumplings were indeed spun sugar and all the major productions bought their own sugar spinners and the prop man used a mix of white and brown for the dumplings.

[Dubliner]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 5:09pm

As far as I know most drinks can be replicated to look realistic except for Guinness. This can make pub set Irish classics like The Weir and Conversations on a Homecoming tough going for the cast.

[thommg]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 5:12pm

Carol Channing ate "dumplings" in Hello, Dolly! They were made from tissue that was formed over a light bulb with the ends twisted. That is how she could get so many in her mouth, do her big chewing scene, "swallow" and then wipe her mouth (while spitting the tissue into her napkin) before speaking. It was always a funny bit and they made the "dumplings" fresh every night. I know because I watched them backstage during the late 1970s revival.

[Rainbowhigh23]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 5:24pm

N2N had some significant food onstage. How many loaves of bread did they go through a week when Diana made the sandwiches on the floor?

Updated On: 9/27/12 at 05:24 PM

[OKBroadwayFan]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 6:03pm

My daughter and I were sitting in the front row, directly in front of Alice Ripley in N2N as she made those sandwiches. It bothered me to watch her waste the food! :) My daughter always makes fun of me when I wince at such things.
The food was very real.

[winston89]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:23pm

Considering that the bread in Next To Normal wasn't being eaten and was more of a prop, couldn't they reuse it? I know that it would be a different situation if the scene called for her to make sandwiches and then have everyone eat them, but clearly that wasn't the case.


Also, it's important to take allergies into account when making food. Regardless of if you believe the allergy to be true or not. I was working crew on a community production of Charlie Brown. During the lunchtime scene, Charlie Brown eats a PB&J. However, the actor playing the role had a known peanut allergy so we were using cashew butter instead. The main prop guy who made the sandwich was out one performance and the person replacing him never got the message about the allergy and used peanut butter by mistake. All I can say is that I wish I had known and that I still feel bad for the young children in that audience. Most of whom were at their first theatre performance.

[allery]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:36pm

I saw a show years ago inwhich an actor cracked an egg into a clear cup and drinks it. Ive always be curious as to what could be used in that situation, I just can't imagine an actor drinking the real thing

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:41pm

Some actors will indeed do that, allery. When I did Cabaret in undergrad both of the actresses playing Sally (the role was double cast) drank those raw eggs for the prairie oysters with no problem.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:44pm

Years ago, I did props on a show where an actor was supposed to eat a thick, juicy, rare steak on stage. We made it out of watermelon.

In AH WILDERNESS, the family eats a lobster dinner. We got leftover lobster tail shells from a local restaurant, and they were filled with mashed potatoes.

Scrambled eggs can be simulated with cottage cheese and yellow food coloring.

[artscallion]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 9:04pm

Having Our Say has the two main characters (elderly Southern sisters) prepare and cook an actual entire Sunday dinner throughout the play. They intentionally did things that would carry food aromas into the audience like sauteing onions or peeling oranges while a ham baked in the oven. Would drive the audience nuts! Us too. But we did get to eat a nice ham dinner after the show every night.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 9:07pm

Did anyone see Blasted at SoHo Rep? Woof.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 9:17pm

I know all the food for the big dinner in "August: Osage County" was all Boston Market every day and they ate it. Most of them ate light dinners. When there was a theater-wide pot luck party on the sign up in bold letters someone wrote "NOT CHICKEN!!!"

[justoldbill]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 9:36pm

There's a line in the HELLO, DOLLY! script where Mrs. Levi describes the dumplings as, "Lighter than air, they are." I've always had the idea that this line came about the first time an errant spun-sugar dumpling wafted lightly to the floor.

Updated On: 9/27/12 at 09:36 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 10:05pm

Carol Channing went through two types of dumplings in HELLO, DOLLY! The first was the spun sugar, or cotton candy substance, which gave the "lighter than air" line meaning. However, after consuming so many of these sugar laden delights eight times a week, Carol's blood glucose level rose to rather dangerous levels and they devised the tissue paper version that was used from that point on.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 10:17pm

I didn't know what the food was made of, but that scene was a classic in Channing's hands. One of the funniest scenes in musical comedy, imo.

[Quiche2]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 12:59am

In JERSEY BOYS, isn't there a scene where Franki goes into a rant on Tommy and they all have a glass of wine? I'm sure they wouldn't have real wine on stage, so is it grape juice or something?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 9:04am

Carol Channing did eat the corn, however.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 9:17am

Yeah, that's grape juice. I think it's the only scene in the show where they have cups that aren't covered by plastic. (When Mary is drunk and fighting with Frankie in Act 1 and has a cup of booze to wave around, it's all fake and sealed. Though at least once it's broken and she's splashed Frankie in the face on accident.)