"bloopers on stage" stories?- Page 2

[theatrebabe]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 12:49am

I was in a production of Seussical over the summer. One night, during Amazing Mazie, our Mazie's tail fell off. Her tail was a bunch of feather boas pinned to her dress. It looked awesome, but that one night it fell off, which is bad because the entire point of that song is for Mazie to show off her tail, which she didn't have. She covered it well though, on her way off stage, she picked it up and swung it around her head in time to the music, it worked.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 1:31am

Its good to know even professionals have off nights.

[itsmeeeee]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 2:44am

In March 2003 in Hairspray, Penny's mom was running toward the stage for the finale, and she fell into the lap of a man sitting in the front row. She sat in his lap for a few seconds and said "well, the ticket price doesn't seem so high anymore, does it?"

[Dreamcatcher]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 3:41am

During the run of Teahouse of the August Moon that I'm in, we have a villagers scene where, in the beginning, all the villagers gather in the town square to listen to a lecture on Democratic theory by the American captain, Fisby and present him with gifts. Well one of the women gives him a basket of 3 eggs and to prevent rotting etc, the 3 eggs are plastic in it but aren't really secured in their basket so later in the scene, when Fisby is handing the gifts to Sakini, the translator, one of the eggs fall out and does a bunch of high bounces and it bounces all the way off stage into one of the tunnels (its threatre in the round so we have tunnels instead of wings). We all just kind of stared at it literally do these knee high bounces off the stage before Sakini said "Oh look boss, Miss Higa Jiga's egg hard boiled!" We where all kind of biting our lips to keep from laughing but the audience loved it.

And because we have a live goat for the show, it gets a little unpredictable and so we had one point where someone didn't tie its tether tight enough and it broke loose and went over to some person in the front row and tried to start eating their raisinettes or something. It was pretty cute though, I must admit and the person didn't seem to mind. :-P

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 3:46am

Check out this crazy turntable accident that happened during Les Miz last year.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/lesmiz/258420.html

[Sant]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 9:38am

THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK: There was this scene where all the leads (Lucy Arnaz, Maria Friedman, Joanna Riding) were standing outside of a house, behind a piece white picket fence which was attached to a 'rail' on the stage floor. All of a sudden the fence fell over for some reason. Maria Friedman, who played Sukie, was eating ice-cream in the scene and she scooped this huge spoonful of ice-cream and quickly put it in her mouth to keep herself from laughing. Lucy Arnaz (Alexandra) and Joanna Riding (Jane) just stared the fence and started to crack. Somehow they managed to finish the scene - with the fence on the floor - and they went off the stage. A few seconds later Maria Friedman returned and picked the fence up and just simply walked off carrying the fence.

[AspectsofLoveLover]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 11:19am

okay. When I saw Jekyll and Hyde on Broadway for my second time Robert Cuccioli tripped over a chair and fell flat on his face. These next two are from friends of mine:
West Side Story gone wrong-
Chino ran on stage to shoot tony at the end of the show and couldnt find his gun...so someone threw him a shoe from offstage and he screamed "poison shoe" and threw it at the actor playing Tony who dropped dead from the "poison shoe."
Carousel crash and burn-
At the end of Carousel when everyone was singing you'll never walk alone (the directors wanted doves to fly out) so they put doves in nets up by the lights. Opening night they went to release the doves and plop plop plop they all fall to the stage dead during the finale. They had been burned to death by the heat from the lights.

[mikewood]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 11:25am

During Les Miserables in "Confrontation", the Valjean u/s broke the chair and must have had some extra performance energy as a leg went careening into the orchestra pit. They barely missed a beat.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 3:06pm

This didn't happen to me personally, but I read Alan Jay Lerner's ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVE in which he mentions that, during the at-home tea party at Mrs. Higgins' house (ACT II), Rex Harrison had a bad case of flatulence and let one rip loudly. Shortly after, he had to deliver the line, "My manners are just as good as Pickering's" which caused the audience to roar with laughter.

[pndmnd]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 3:24pm

I've had some that have happened in shows that I was in, and some that I've seen (although I've not noticed any huge ones on Broadway or Tours--little things like a hat falling off and stuff, but nothing big).

I know that everyone has an off-night at some point, and that it's live theatre, so mistakes do happen. I do, however, think that it's wrong to break character and start laughing. I know that even that might happen at some point, but there are certain Broadway and tour actors that I hear about this happening to on a regular basis. Ticket prices are expensive (see other threads) and quite frankly I'm not paying that kind of money to see an actor laughing on stage at their mistakes. The best bloopers are the ones that you aren't even aware of. To me, that's the mark of the best actors.

[Fizz]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 3:27pm

This past spring I was in a production of Chess, and part of our set involved a rather large raked chessboard, where all of the chess matches and restaurant scenes were held.

I believe it was the second performance, and everything was going wonderful. Then came the Terrace Duet. Florence leaves for the terrace, and partway through the song, the wine bottle rolled off the table and down the chessboard, and then slower along the stage. My friend Ty, playing the KGB agent who asks for the salt, got up from his chair to casually get it, seeing as his part of the stage was dimmer than where the action was happening. He pushed in his chair... which slid down the chessboard. He pushed it in several times to no avail, then had to push it, dive for the bottle, and grab the chair before it fell off the chessboard.

That same night, during the "I Know Him So Well" scene, there were tables again set on the chessboard, but seeing as it was supposed to be a fancy restaurant, the tables were more elaborate... and much heavier. Right in the middle of the song, the table started sliding down the chessboard and there was no one there to stop it. This was especially dangerous because the edge of the chessboard stopped a foot from the pit.

One of our tech guys, Zach, tore off his headset, flew out from the wings, and stopped the table just as it was about to tip and crash onto our musicians. He then proceeded to run off and the scene continued flawlessly.


Needless to say, we put better grippers on everything after that show.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 3:46pm

Thios was during a December 2003 performance of the now closed ITW revival...

Adam Brazier was playing Rapunzel's Prince and Chrios Sieber was playing Cinerella's Prince. While they were both playing the wolves during the beginning, Adam's wig fell off, almost going into the pit! He caught it. Chris was loaughing, but in charazter, and made a gesture about how Adam's wolf was bald, awhile his was not. Adam ran off the stage before the end pretending to cry or something so that he'd be able to collect himself. It was really funny.

[SignoraDiva]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 4:03pm

I was in The King and I last Spring and at the part where Anna is supposed be meeting the king in the middle of the night to talk about the visit from the Europeans, Anna had some costume difficulties and had to go out onstage without the hoop underneath her dress. This of course wrecked the comedic bit at the end of that scene when she is trying to keep her head lower that the king's.

[Dre2387]

Posted: 11/13/05 at 4:29pm

this really isn;t a blooper but it happened onstage when it shouldn't have.

I went to see DRS for the 4th time and I was sitting front row during Act 2. John Lithgow was out and his standby, Dennis P., was on. It was the scene right before the Dirty Rotten Number song. the music started playing and Dennis was supposed to sing but he forgot his words. FOR 40 SECONDS!!!! he was looking at Norbert and the conducter for help and i even heard the conducter singing very softly to help him. a few times, he sang a word but then realized it was on the wrong note so stopped. finally, halfway through the first chorus, he caught on and sang the rest of it. 40 SECONDS! felt like a lifetime. it was his like 20th or so time performing in the role and he only has two parts to play; Lithgow's standby and greg jbara's understudy. it boggles my mind that he couldn't remember the words.

Posted: 11/13/05 at 5:03pm

"Dre", I was there then as well and noticed his mistake. I was shocked that he broke character for a little while and that after so many performances he forgot those words. But overall, he did a good job in the role.

[roseaddams]

Posted: 10/20/07 at 11:58pm

I was in a children's production of Seussical playing Vlad Vladikoff. We didn't have a flying rig, but there was a huge high platform, which was completely dark until my entrance, when a dozen spots hit it at once from all directions. It was pretty sweet. So I get Horton's clover, and I'm supposed to run down the steps from the platform onto the main stage, where I run in a circle with my arms outstretched like a bird, keeping the clover away from Horton. But for some reason my cape flew over my head once I got onto the main stage, so I just stopped dead trying to undo it. I finally got untangled at the point in the music where I was supposed to stop, and Horton was maybe six inches from me. So I switched the clover to my hand farthest from Horton, and tried really hard not to laugh at how really dumb I must have just looked.

Then there was the time where going down the steps from the platform to the wings I tore my pants and bruised my leg pretty badly. When someone pointed out that I had torn my pants, I looked down, saw the damage, and yelled the f-word... then turned around to find the ten-year-old we had playing JoJo. I apologized, but she laughed and said it was cool.

[henrybutler]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 12:34pm

APSECTSOFLOVELOVER!!!! that is so weird, because this guy i work with must have been in that same regional production of West Side Story that you're talking about, though he tells the story a little different.
he says during the end of act one fight scene, bernardo is supposed to stab Riff, but somehow the knife got hit out of his hand and flew into the audience. He was left with NO WEAPON and no way to kill bernardo (which is the CLIMAX of the first act, Bernardo has to die!!!) so he frantically looked around and then announced to bernardo "I will know kick you with my poison boot!!" and kicked him. Bernardo died and the cast played along and mourned the loss of Bernardo by way of poison boot.

And my friend says that during intermission he tried to convince Anita to sing "A boy like that - will KICK your brother!" but she refused.

So the story is actually quite different the way he tells it, but it MUST be the same event! Dont you think? they're too similar to have happened to different times. somehow our two stories must have changed along the way through storytelling or faulty memories.

[sparkleofenergy]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 12:43pm

During curtain call in one of the shows I was in high-school (forgot which one). I had a wig and a hat. So I went and took my bow and my hat and wig fell off stage. They had it on film and I had this "OMG NOOOOOOO!" look on my face.

[Pascal/Menzel/Bundy]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 1:13pm

Not TOO funny but...

During LB, it was the scene in the middle of What You Want when Elle goes to ask her parents for money for Harvard and her dad is playing golf and he's supposed to hit a golfball into the hole. He missed, and whoever was playing Elle's mom tried to just kick it in like 3 times and kept missing. Then, Annaleigh was finally able to pick it up and she just carried it around, dancing, until she was able to subtly make her way over to the golf cart and drop it in the golf bag.

Also, (same performance of LB as above):

When Laura tried to break through the Bruiser "Harvard or Bust" sign, she didn't quite make it the first time and she and a couple other ensemble members were laughing as they sang.

[...5678]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 1:34pm

1. In Legally Blonde Remix when Paulette and Kyle are having their moment I notice on the side LBB had one shoe on. Couldn’t see a 2nd. Looked away for a moment then looked back and she had NO shoes on…then whoever was behind her was passing BOTH shoes back to her when she then put them on…

2. Same show…Chip On My Shoulder @ Thanksgiving…LBB: “Bye Warner!! Merry Christmas!! Enjoy Vaa…I MEAN…Happy Thanksgiving!...” and so on.

[henryt]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 1:44pm

These are both small.

During a preview of Trazan, there is a scene with a water fall. It is really just a piece of blue cloth coming out of a hole that a stagehand shakes. So, halfway through the song, it just stops shaking.

During a preview of LB, during the jump-rope number, one of the girls (I think it may have actually been Leslie Kritzer) lost her jump-rope. It flew across the stage and she did all the choreography without a jump-rope. I was in the balcony, so I could see everything. It was pretty funny.

[SAluva2]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 1:57pm

On the Rent tour right before 'Today 4 u' Colins comes in from a rised platform and throws things down to Mark and Collins. One think he threw down was a metal pan and it cluncked Mark right in the head! Not only were they laughing threw the whole scene, but the mark looked wayyyyyyyy out of it!

[broadwayjoe476]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 2:04pm

Here's a couple:

At Wicked, near the end of the run of Shoshana Bean and Megan Hilty... David Ayers as Fiyero in the second act was supposed to say to Glinda "remember saving the Lion Cub" Instead of saying that he said "remember the Lion King"! Everyone broke out of character and was laughing. The audience was laughing for a good 5 minutes. No one could gain composure for about 5 minutes. I was followed by impromptu puns from there on out against David. Poor David, maybe next time....

I was also at Shoshana Bean's last performance as Elphaba when the popular scene was unique with the pink bloomers and the puppet and the seizure like hair toss. Classic

In Mary Poppins, in A Spoon Full of Sugar number the door at the back was locked so Rebecca Luker could not make her exit. Ashley Brown just told her to exit on stage left. "here's your exit mum!" Classic, the theater was laughing for about 30 seconds, not too funny but enough for a good laugh

[big_girls_don't_cry]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 3:27pm

In september i went to see Legally Blonde and it was in the middle of the song "Chip on my shoulder" and Laura messed up her words and you could tell because she started laughing. She said "theres a chip on my boulder and it's big as a boulder" which it is correctly said as "theres a chip on my shoulder ......" now mostlikey you'd never catch that phrase int the song being messed up unless you knew the song before you went to the show, but it was really funny.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 3:33pm

i was speaking with Boyd Gaines and he told me how threads like this are hurtful. so please keep in mind of that when you post these things that the actors and actresses you speak of are real fallible people.