Now THAT'S f***in' commitment!

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 2:38am

what is the most amazing commitment to a play you've seen from a fellow cast-mate or feel that you, yourself, have pulled off?

[thespian geek]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 2:49am

Opening weekend of a production of Jekyll & Hyde, I was getting ready to come down from the dressing room upstairs and ended up falling down the entire flight (head first!) about 5 minutes before I was supposed to go on. My main concern was staying quiet as to not disrupt the show and hoping I didn't ruin my costume, LOL. Banged the hell out of my leg and made a couple of pretty ghastly scrapes on my left arm (I still have the scars and this was about 3 years ago). Did the rest of the show all battered and in pain... haha.

Yeah, that's my "the show must go on!" survival story.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 4:40am

During a performance of Noises Off while I was in college I fell while climbing the stairs (I was Frederick, and had my pants around my ankles, which made stair-climbing difficult). Blood was running down my leg, but I kept going...people probably thought it was part of the show, lol. Of course the costume designer wasn't happy that I got blood stains on my costume!

But hey, I'm tough, and it was just a cut. Oh, and I got beaned in the head by a piece of flying scenery during another show in college too. Thank God it was a relatively small set piece...

[dancinfan]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 8:34am

Jeff Mays in I Am My Own Wife. The whole performance.

[GClef2]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 9:02am

Victoria Clark in Titanic and Light in the Piazza.

The Sweeney Todd Revival Cast...

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 9:23am

I got sick mid performance of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and continued through the finale of the show. I played multiple characters and had no understudy, and I pushed myself so hard to get through it.

I was at a Christmas party and sprained my foot/ankle really badly and could ahrdlyt walk on it. The next day I had to stage amange a show that was already sold out. The stage manager's booth is at the top of the theatre and a built in ladder is used to get there. I teared going up those stairs, but I did it for the show and I was pleased that I did.

[jjoey076]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 11:16am

During "The Odd Couple", I got sick one weekend and was out for a few days right before the show opened...I was Oscar. I still went to rehearsal and read.

During Oliver!, I locked my keys in my car at a restaurant and help had still not arrived an hour before the show, and I had to do everyone's wigs, beards, and some makeup too...My director came down and picked me up (it was really awkward), and I got right down to business.

[chip08ME]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 12:08pm

When I was doing Dead Man Walking, the women playing Sister Prejean's father died the night of our final dress. So she drove up to Des Moines that morning than made it back to Kansas City for our Matinee and evening performance for the entire run! The fact that she was on stage the entire show and gave an amazing performance just wowed me!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 12:15pm

I sat through Cats. Yes, the whole thing!

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 12:18pm

I sat through Sueleen's post about Cats.

Yes, the whole thing!

Posted: 8/26/06 at 12:22pm

I was doing an original musical based on Robin Hood, and we rehearsed and rehearsed our sword fighting scenes so as to make it look real, but not kill ourselves with the very real metal swords we were using. Opening night rolls around and our Sheriff put the 'ham' in Nottingham and was overdoing everything, including our battle. He pretty much ignored the delicate and intricate dance we were to do and just hacked away at me, cutting my hand badly and breaking my sword! Thankfully, Robin Hood comes in to dispatch him and my track was to sit back and watch. Fortunately I had mutton wrapped in gauze (I was Friar Tuck), and I subtly dressed my wound with the gauze as the scene progressed.

In dinner theater years ago, we would prepare the food, serve it, do the show, clean up, etc... all by the actors. Chopping cabbage for cole slaw, I whacked my first two fingers really deep, kinda saw some bone, but the show was to go on an hour later...bandaged it up like mad, digits throbbing, and did the show dancing and all (blood was flying from my bandage...i know, dinner theater, blood, gross!) Made it through both shows that day, and the fingers healed, though i just love the scars..rememberances of a great time in my life when I made an actual living doing theater.

[All_For_Laura]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 12:39pm

I was really ill my last weekend of the Importance of Being Earnest, as with the rest of my cast, allergies, but we all pulled off our British accents despite a terrible coughing fit in act 2

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 12:46pm

Lauren Molina in Sweeney - amazing.

[JustABroadwaybaby2]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 12:55pm

I sat through Tarzan...AND LIKED IT!

[Duckie93]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 1:03pm

my friend got her period durning Jack and the bean stock about 2 mins before she had to go on and she just tied a jacket around her wasit and when thought the whole show.
Thats what i call commitment!

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 1:11pm

I sprained my ankle really badly two days before I did Alice in Wonderland. I wasn't really able to walk. AS the Dodo, I had to do a bit of running and wlaking around. They wanted to have the director go on for me, but I said no and I did it anyway.

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 1:33pm

Maneol Felciano careening into the pit and playing the remainder of JCS with a broken hand.


It had to be mentioned.

Posted: 8/26/06 at 1:39pm

not exactly what you were asking, but i wanted to share this story from Peggy Lee's autobiography

....on her way onstage she slipped & fell (& unknown to her @ the time, broke her pelvis)...she proceeded to perform her entire set sitting on one hip, paramedics waiting in the wings.
at the end of her set, as the paramedics carried her away, George Burns leaned over her, cigar in mouth, & said, "You're a brave girl, Peg."

[KelRel]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 1:46pm

Not theatre related, but I was in color guard in high school and right before our semi-finals preformance at Grand Nationals I got food poisoning. I literally threw up as we were marching on to the field. I made it through the show and as soon as we stepped off I threw up again. I felt like crap, but I went through with it anyways.

On a theatre related note, I was in a play in high school with a girl who was passing a kidney stone during her monologue. She forgot a few lines, but she made it through. We were all floored that she made it through. As soon as she finished she was rushed to the hospital because she passed out from the pain when she got to the wings.

[BwayBaby18]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 2:41pm

Being barefoot on stage having to clean up broken glass without dropping character.

During Diary of Anne Frank we had a real light on stage well Anne knocked it over on opening night I (Mr. Van Daan) played this whole being angry with Anne and started to look for something to clean it up with. Luckily there was a nasty broom backstage i had to manuever through broken glass to clean it up.

Then During then end of act 1 the table caught on fire when a candel fell out of the menorah. Our Mr. Frank ended up turning around and put it out with a dish rag.

[Julian2]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 3:35pm

During my school's production of Much Ado About Nothing, I was playing Verges and got reallllllly sick. My right eye was actually swollen shut. I had to go to the hospital and eventually had to have surgery. It was all do to the terrible sinuses I inheirited from my father. I was actually replaced and he rehearsed for one night. I felt fine, but my parents weren't letting me go back. I begged and pleaded alll night long and they eventually said yes. My father still calls that night begging my best preformance.

Updated On: 8/26/06 at 03:35 PM

[Janelle188]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 3:42pm

I saw a performance of My Fair Lady starring a friend of mine. During the intermission, they were moving some set pieces around and something fell on his foot. His foot immediately swelled up, broken very badly, but he refused to go to the hospital until after the show. He did the rest of the show with a broken foot. . .no one even knew anything was wrong because he was walking normally. It was only afterwards when the cast came out that we saw how gross his foot looked. He went to the doctor and it was fractured.

[Taryn]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 3:52pm

I was in Henry V in a Shakespeare in the Park production in PA and the girl who was playing the Princess's lady-in-waiting was so sick one night and, during the last scene, threw up in her mouth and swallowed her own vomit until her last line was said and she could discreetly go off-stage.

[HeartandMusic]

Posted: 8/26/06 at 4:07pm

About two years ago I was the lead in a show that had no understudies, and on the last day of the show I came down with a fever of 102 degrees. I performed the matinee and the evening show, and then went home and slept for about ten hours. : )

[elvisitis1302]

Posted: 8/27/06 at 9:12am

I was Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar at a well known equity theater nearby, and during my suicide I jumped off the bridge with the noose around my neck, and i landed (mid-air), but the noose was too tight and was slightly choking me. In addition, i spun around and hit my head against the metal pole behind me, as the noose was not properly balanced for some reason. I hung there for about 15 seconds, didn't flinch or move a muscle.