Character breakers

[observer]

Anyone been on stage and had something from the audience stretch you to your limits of composure?

I had an ensemble role one time in a production of Camelot, and during the joust scene, right after Sir Lionel gets skewered by Lancelot, we all finished the song by speaking, aghast, "The spear has run him through!" A heavy moment, after which there is a pregnant silence on stage and in the audience. But one night, as if on cue, someone in the first couple of rows sneezed reallly loud in rhythm and rhyme, like "...run him through! (beat) ah-choo!"
I tried to keep in the moment, biting my cheeks. Hearing tiny squeaks and snorts of suppressed laughter from the lords and ladies of Camelot was not helpful. Our guy had just gotten killed, and virtually everyone was holding back the dam. Luckily there was an exit shortly, and we all exploded in the wings.

Suppressed laughter is one of the best things in life.

[bially082]

thats pretty funny.

[JamieMcG]

I was playing Jud in Oklahoma...yeah...picture it...in a regional theatre in MA. After the dream ballet, I had to walk across the stage to get Laurie, who was asleep on a tree stump, to go to the pahty. She stumbled just a little as she got up and a blue hair in the front row exclaimed "Don't worry honey, I have trouble gettin up too!" We went back across the stage, clutching each other, looking dead upstage so the audience wouldn't see the enormous grins on our faces.

[jboy1]

I recently finished a production of MUSIC MAN and it was in the audience that the funny thing occurred. It was onstage. It was the final scene when Harold Hill is brought in and we're asked to step forward if we think he shouldn't be tarred and feathered. After we do, the line the Mayor is supposed to say is "And the rest of you, standing there like a coat of Shropshire sheep..." Instead of sheep, he said, "...peep, uhh, sleep....uhh, sheep." I, along with several others, lost it. The funniest thing about it is we're supposed to be angry at Harold and we're fighting back laughter.

[touchmeinthemorning]

Broadway...Sweet Smell of Success...the biggest dramatic pause of the show...John Lithgow on stage alone...audience totally quiet...not even a cough.

And...cell phone goes off. Not just any ring. the charge music they play at baseball games. and, it rang and rang and rang.

John cracked a smile.

[ponine24601]

o god. when i was shelley in bat boy during 'whatcha gonna do?' when shelley does that beat-box thing someone in the audience said 'haha spaz!' and the guy playing rick and i just totally lost it.

Many years ago I was at a performance of LaTraviatta the San Fransisco Opera.

Two bars into the overature, a small child in the very highest balcony started to cry. and cry. and cry.

Finally, about half way through the overature, the conductor, I wish to God I could remember his name, stopped the orchestra, turned to the house, looked up the balcony and yelled "TAKE... THE... CHILD... OUT!"

Thunderous appaluse.

The child as taken out (or more hopefully suffocated)

He restarted the overature and the show went on.

[EponineThenardier]

In Carousel when Billy stabs himself, a guy in the audience was like "Holy S**T!" It ruined the scene, all of us backstage couldn't hold it. Yes we were miked, and yes we were laughing.

A couple years ago I was playing Ali Hakim in Oklahoma.

During "it's a scandal, it's an outrage" one of the guys' guns fell out of it's holster. I, being the fantastic improv guy that I am, picked it up on my next cross-over and held it in my hand for the rest of the number.

Problem is that on the last beat I pointed the gun in the air and accidentally pulled the trigger. I didn't realize it was one of the ones that would actually fire (thought only Jud had one) so when it went off I yelled "ah!" thankfully, the audience bought it as part of the numebr and laughed.

[broadwayguy2]

I did a production of Carousel..

two moments -- the director changed it so that Billy doesn't get stabbed.. bascombe shoots him.. the director thought accidental stabbing was was MUCH to harsh as opposed to murder... one night, when it happened, I was in the wings watching. An audience member said "that's not how it happened!" Another perormance, same scene.. emotional moment... an audience member bought an infant who started SCREAMING.

[eponine88]

This isn't actually something the audience did that made the actors lose character, it is actually something an actor did that forced both the audience and the rest of the cast to lose it. I was in a production of the King and I, and halfway through the run, the woman playing Anna broke her leg. We restaged quite a few of the numbers enabling her to do it on crutches, and some of the actors also altered a few of their lines so that it would make more sense (ex: Mrs. Anna could obviously not "run down the hall" when the guards were going to beat Tuptim, etc.)
However, by far the funniest of the changes came in the final scene of the first act where the king is praying to Buddha and everyone else is repeating what he says. In the script, the king ends the chant by promising to give Mrs. Anna a house of her own, a brick residence adjoining the royal palace. Someone came up with the idea to add a bot to this line, and so the king chanted "And Buddha I promise you I shall give this unworthy woman a house, a house of her own, a brick residence adjoining the royal palace (pause)...with handicap access." The king's children, as well as the audience were completely unprepared for this and completely lost it. After a few moments, the laughter had dies down enough for us to continue, and the cast finished off their section of the chant by repeating word for word what the King had said, which 'caused the audience to lose it again. Every night we used that line, it was always quite fun to see the audience's reaction to it.

[BroadwayBound06]

If anyone has worked at a theater on an Army base they can relate to this. Well every show the last dress rehersal is a "Troop Night" it is where all these army people come in and watch the show. Well the guys in the audience tend to get very loud, with cat calls etc. Well I wad doing How To Succeed In Buisness Without Really Trying (I was Bud Frump) and I had to to a silly samba bit at the end of Act One, well after my dance someone in the audience yells "HE'S GAY" I cracked up when I got to the wings, that preformace was really funny, with Secretary is Not a Toy and all the sexual jokes. The troops loved it.

[NYCbabe3789]

I was in a production of "Joseph..." once, and there was this kid in the front row belting along to every number. LOUDLY, and not in tune. So towards the end of the show when I'm onstage right in front of her, I give her a death stare and she shuts up. I know, I'm bad.

[LittleFish8386]

When I got cast as Ariel in Footloose, I was super duper self conscience about playing the ho of the musical. Opening night, I'm singing The Girl Gets Around, and my mother screamed out "And let me tell you she does get around.." I thought Chuck was going to pee himself.

Later on in that very same performance, when I had to kiss Ren (my first stage kiss infront of an audience) someone in the audience screams out "You tell him girl! You kiss that boy!" and I died.

I have a lot of other ones, mostly of my mom making cat calls, but I cant remember any good ones right now.

[Sunfish]

Can't take that mother of yours anywhere, huh???

[shlamdiddly]

This is somethign that happened onstage that at the time made me want to cry...but now we all make fun of it. During our production of Much Ado About Nothing (in my theater class) on girl had her script on stage (being the procrastinators we are, none of us had ALL of our lines memorized) and one section where I didn't know the lines that well, the other girl on stage whispers "I don't have that page." My friend who was onstage too just walked off. It was an awful awful experience, but now its really funny.

[NoDayButToday2]

In 'Anything Goes' one of the leading men fell into the orchestra pit in the middle of the song

in 'Oklahoma' someone was supposed to shoot a gun and the sound effects would come from backstage, well the crew members completely forgot about the sound and so the poor guy just sort of froze for a moment and said 'ummm...bang?' The audience and cast totaly lost it

I was Mimi in a summer camp performance of RENT once and durring one show 'Roger' was having some serious trouble getting the candle to light in 'Light My Candle' in rehersals so whenever we were actually performing I would think about the hundred of times we tried to light it and have to work really hard at not smiling. Our 'Roger' also had some serious trouble keeping a straght face on 'They say I have the best ass below 14th street.. is it true?'


These moments are what makes theatre so great sometimes...

[Jess1483]

I was in a performance of Pirates of Penzance one time, and during the part where the Police Sargeant is instructing the police officers, the Sargeant started babbling incoherently. It sounded like he was saying things in a completely different language. We were supposed to respond to what he was saying, but we were all really confused. It was so hard to keep from laughing, we almost died... We got off-stage as soon as we could and burst out laughing.

Turns out that happens to him when he gets migraines, so it became even more entertaining after the fact.

[Yankeefan007]

I was in a production of "Sound of Music," playing Uncle Max. we changed it around (so much that the R&H organization wouldnt be happy) so Max has a bigger part so I can use my great comedy skills. the director let me adlib the whole scene at the concert. we had the Singing Nuns (doing edelweiss) and the von Trapps (doing Lonely Goatherd). there were big spaces in between (the actors had to change costumes), so i got to improvise during it. when i was announcing the winners of the contest, one of the nuns didnt stop bowing, just stayed there on the stage bowing to the audience. i picked her up (like i was supposed to) and carried her off. the audience went nuts! oh, yeah. we also added an 8th von trapp kid: Heidi...and they were all girls

[MTGoddess]

Here's a pretty disgusting one!
I was Ronnette in "Little Shop of Horrors" at a community dinner theater during my freshman year of college. I don't know what it's like in most dinner theaters, but in ours, the food is eaten before the show and then some of the audience can move down to chairs to be closer to the stage. A family with a young kid, after eating, came down and sat in the middle of the front row. It was a pretty good night, and we got to the last song, and just as I started singing my serious, soulful, somewhat menacing "Subsequent to the events you have just witnessed . . ." solo at the beginning of "Don't Feed the Plants", the kid in the middle of the front row, well, threw up. EWWWWW! I guess the man-eating plant was too much for him. I'm lucky that I'm not terribly squeamish, as he was right in front of me. And only one of the other cast members saw it happen, so it didn't really throw any one off too badly!


___________
My life flows on in endless song above earth's lamentations!

[marge2033]

Opening night of The Sound Of Music. At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 1, it is very solemn, the nuns are singing. Backstage someone's mike was on, you could hear them talking, and then going into the bathroom! Tinkling and then of course the FLUSH!!!! The nuns onstage could barely control themselves. It has come to be know as the infamous "Flush Night"!

[jonartdesigns]

last year i was playing george the hitman in sorry, wrong number and at the last show there was a group of girls there who apparantly determined from my first appearance was the best looking thing they'd every seen so they whisteld through my frist set of lines...so then we get to the final scene when i was supposed to slip out of the curtain and slit the old lady's throat- i came out of the curtain and they all stand up and start screaming like they were at a concert... i managed to not break character however i had to cover over our mrs stevenson's body because she was laughing so hard post "death" her whole body was shaking

[timote316]

During a performance of Copacabana, my mother came in at intermission, and I didnt know it. During my song, I said "IT takes me hours just to pee", and my mother, who has a very distinctive laugh, laughed. Hearing this, I almost lost it. It was only my second ever solo, so I was nervous as it was, she didn't help matters lol

[BroadwayDiva]

I was playing Adelaide in Guys & Dolls, and during "Adelaide's Lament", this kid started coming up on stage. I was so shocked- so, I just held the kid's hand and led him back off stage- I didn't know what else to do, all the while singing. It broke my concentration, and I slipped out of my Brooklyn-ish accent, but I still finished the song.

Ugh- I hate when that happens.

[spiderdj82]

I never had an "audience" problem, but last semester when my college did TAMING OF THE SHREW, I was Gremio and the last scene was at a table with the whole cast as Kate proves that she is tamed.............anyway, I was the only character who actually ate because I thought it would be funny if I was chowing down on food as everyone else talked about their own stuff and my director agreed.

Anyway, I was tearing this chicken, fruit, and bread up (I mean, I was STUFFING my face) and all of a sudden Baptista says, "What does Gremio think of this?" I didn't realize that the time came to say my last line of the show and I had all this food in my mouth. Like they say, THE SHOW MUST GO ON, so I said my line and food in my mouth flew everywhere.......on the actors, on the table, etc. The actors and the audience was roaring with laughter. I mean, it took us forever to get back into the scene because no one could stop laughing. The funny thing is, everyone in the audience thought it was intentional so I did that for the next two days of the show.