Live animals on stage

[chad2]

Besides Jesus and his feathered and fur friends..what other shows have creatures that steal the show?

Legally Blonde
Annie
Cats

[WaltSummersPI]

Gypsy

[LizzieCurry]

Baldwin-Wallace's Phantom of the Opera. :)

[MargoChanning]

What about the camels at Radio City and the horses at the Met?

[WickedBoy2]

Doves, 20 of them in 'Beyond The Rainbow' -a musical of the 2nd flood! (West End). Half of them never being recoverd ready for the next performance. Theatre was a bit of a mess by the time the show closed. (a short run!)

[fakemyway2thetop]

I thought the animal act in The Will Rogers Follies the best part of the show.

[WickedBoy2]

Film not stage, but in Midlers 'Gypsy' poor old Chowsey gets thrown back and forth from one arm to the other in the opening with Uncle Jocko! i sat there open mouthed at such incredibly bad continuity! Very fun when you see it!

[Justin D]

Chitty in london had some dogs that were adorable.

and in Xanadu, well, Cheyanne is those short shorts stole the show for me, lol.

[ActualReality2]

During Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's run they used tons of dogs during the scene at the factory, after Toot Sweets :)

[Pippin]

I believe they used Deer in a community theatre production of Troilius and Catiesus in Alabama.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

I was in a community theatre production of Seussical once and we had a llama in the Circus McGurkus scene. The best part was when it would go to the bathroom on stage...not.

[morosco]

SUGAR BABIES and the original production of NINE both had doves.

[chad2]

How about any fish? I want to see jaws with a live shark!

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

There was a trained white rat in THE WOMAN IN WHITE.

[musicandtemiror]

There is a theater in Lancaster PA called Sight and Sound.
Its a circular stage (so the walls of the theater open up and their is really 3 stages one in the middle and two on the right and left) but they do religious shows and have a ton of animals.
Quite amazing
(besides the pre-recorded music)

[AbbaRabbit]

this isn't bway but it's theatre nonetheless.
when my school did "oliver twist", we had a parakeet in a cage hanging form the ceiling in fagan's den.
that little bird sang more than anyone else on stage haha

we had at least 4 people come up to the directer asking if they could adopt the bird after the show was over. i think it ended up going home with one of the cast members.

[MikeMagbaleta]

Have there ever been any other types of animals besides dogs onstage ever? For me, I'd hope for a musical that features koalas.....

[AngryDeer]

"I believe they used Deer in a community theatre production of Troilius and Catiesus in Alabama."


Were they hit by a car?

I'm available, if anyone can you a big Buck.

And I won't crap on stage!

[tazber]

don't trust AngryDeer guys, he has his own agenda.

[miss pennywise]

Taz is right. AngryDeer is out to avenge the death of Carol.

[Discogaud]

Do they have people that watch over animals in productions? Y'know, like humane societies check out major film productions to make sure no animals are hurt. I wonder how well the animal trainers are paid, too. They're there every night. Do they have a union? What's the pay scale?

[winston89]

I think that they use animal trainers who work in this sort of thing.


The people who train dogs for the shows are people who make a living out of doing that.

[chad2]

(CBS) In the rough and tumble dog-eat-dog-world of Broadway, there is an agent/manager/personal trainer with more clients seen by more people than any one man.

"All the clients I work with take direction well and don't argue," says Bill Berloni, who adds that in his management stable, there are "No divas."

Berloni represents about 700 animals, 30 of whom live with him. Each a star and each with a rags-to-riches story worthy of Broadway, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger.

"Anybody could have walked into the shelter they were in and adopted them, but nobody chose to," Berloni says of his animal clients. "Many of them were going to be put to sleep."

Instead a pack of Berloni dogs were put to work in Broadway productions like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

They had to hit their marks and make their entrances just like their two legged costars.

"The animals make less mistakes than the humans," Berloni says.

Among Berloni's housemates: Two Sandys from "Annie" and four Totos in total.

Berloni admits that the situation for him and the animals is a win-win situation. "I mean, each one of them coming into my life has brought me something, taught me something," Berloni says.

And they have made him quite comfortable as one of Broadway's go-to people for animals. Berloni trains and represents anything with fur or feathers or scales. A Berloni client does not have to be cute or cuddly.

For instance, Beatrice the rat is one of the stars in "Woman in White." Berloni trained her to run all over actor Michael Ball, who rehearses with her off-stage before donning his fat suit and makeup for their star turn on-stage.

"When I saw the affect that it had on the audience, I though I want a bit of that," Ball says. "I love the, you know, we all love the attention and she steals the show completely."

Managing stars is always difficult. Berloni has to keep the rat away from the cat and the cat away from the bird. They are all part of his stable of stars along with the horses and the llamas, who live happily, if not quietly, waiting for their next gig.

[Mattbrain]

Don't forget the penguin in The Man Who Came to Dinner with Nathan Lane.