My Biggest Onstage MISHAPS!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 เม.ย. 2021
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In today's new Stagey video I'm looking back on when we used to be able to perform onstage and things didn't always go quite as expected...
Find out about what mistakes I made during shows and which production caused me to break multiple bones 😅
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21 years and no broken bones on my watch. A trip to a and e with you what a lovely bonding experience. Mum
I think my worst one was being dropped by a bunch of sailors who shall remain nameless in Anything Goes and having to do the rest of the run with an enormous, swollen knee! 🚢
I was in a show and backstage had put a lamp in the line where the curtain is meant to close. They didn’t realise so as they pulled the curtain at the end of the first half the huge lamp fell (nearly onto children!) and as it fell set fire to the curtain...
Oh my gosh, setting fire to the curtain is new levels of onstage chaos, that definitely wins! 😮
Years ago, while doing a run of The Grapes of Wrath, we had a patched together truck that the company rolled around the stage with the Joad family in the back (in retrospect, an OH&S nightmare). One night, we missed our mark and drove the truck over a trapdoor, which promptly collapsed, leaving the truck stuck with one wheel below the stage. Thank goodness the intermission was only minutes away.
I was in a production of High School Musical On Stage as a cheer leader and the cast wasn’t very big, so the director thought it would be a good idea to have cheer leaders in get ya head in the game. this seems like a good idea at first, but we were 12 theatre kids who can’t play sports, so when the gave us the basket balls on the tech run, it was iffy to say the least. we spent a solid 35 minutes just going over and over this number backstage until it was okay. we got through 2 shows fine, but on show 3, my friend through the ball at me, i didn’t catch it and instead deflected it and fell over, it hit the guy playing troy in the back and he forgot the next two verses.
i also knocked Kelsey’s keyboard over in the finally on closing night. it wasn’t a great run.
Okay in the most supportive way possible, I'm OBSESSED with this story!
Also very much relate to the concept of theatre kids being terrible at sports 😅
Great story! I am unique in that I am great at several sports but they are tennis and swimming!
I'm crying laughing at the Wizard of Oz story 😂😂😂😂
That made my laugh!
My favourite two bloopers I've ever witnessed on a west end stage were: 1 - Rock of Ages, quite early in the run. The firework rain during Heaven set one of the chairs on fire. Full disclosure, my friends and I were fairly drunk so it was possibly not as funny as we found it, but the look of panic on Oli Tompsett's face and the subsequent "See you later, Fireboy!" From Justin Lee Collins (the line is "See you later, Wolfgang." Was priceless. 2 - We Will Rock You, Mazz Murray getting her coat caught in the trapdoor she comes up through before singing Killer Queen. If I remember correctly, she's supposed to walk up and down the raised platform as she sings she song but had to do it standing in place which I remember thinking was weird. At the end of the song, KQ yells "Commander Khashoggi!" And the actor playing Khashoggi appears via video link on the big screen behind. Mazz goes "I appear to have got my coat caught in the boardroom table." The ensemble are trying to yank it free and Alastair Harvey is on the screen cracking up laughing. Mazz didn't break character once, although she did break the forth wall when someone tried to sneak in late to their seat in the front row "You're late honey, you almost missed the best part." I don't recall how this mishap was resolved, I was too busy laughing.
I was doing a play where I end a scene on my own, there’s a black out and I had to exit, do a quick change & re-enter to start the next scene.
Opening night I end the scene, the lights go down, I go to exit quickly so there’s more time to change ... and crash into the front row of audience chairs (thankfully they were empty but the loud bangs did not go unheard in the dark).
I was so flustered when I came back on stage that I was whistling to calm myself down and get back into character. Strangely enough, the director’s note to me that night was: “I could’ve done without the whistling”.
On Pippin - he was out of breath because he'd been looking everywhere for you! Everywhere except the stage
"I don't want to but I can!" (; So many funny lines!
I had a career as a theater director but I did do some acting before that and I was playing a supporting character in a musical and when I came on to say my first line before a duet I burst into laughing and could not stop and did not stop for what felt like a half an hour! (; Directing went MUCH better for me! (:
I was in a variety show that was performed through an entire summer and at one point in the show, there was a long-ish speech that was made by one of the other performers. I honestly had never really listened to it closely as I was in the dance number immediately following the speech. Well, one day, the other performer didn’t arrive. We looked at our rotating THREE GROUP cast list, and there was no other backups for this speech other than me… the fourth alternate. I didn’t even know I was fourth alternate, because who expects SEVEN cast members to be unable to do a speech. So I panic and try to learn the speech about 10 minutes before starting. The speech comes, and I get through about 3 lines and go blank absolutely blank. I am standing onstage, in dead silence and for some reason, literally every stage experience just goes out the door and I look up at the sound guy and say “I don’t know. Just start the music”. Everyone laughs. The sound guy has panic in his eyes and just shrugs. This was the day that I learned the pauses in our variety show sound track were timed, and that it was just one long track. There was no “just start the music”. So I stood there for a solid, 45 more seconds (aka 4.5 million years) as senior citizens laughed.
This is the day I learned that I was destined for the world of costuming in college, and never took another stage performance class. The good news is that I really liked the tech side of the theater world, and really didn’t miss being onstage (even though it was my passion for a decade).
You have me crying at woof and some of these stories are just 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was in how to succeed in business at school - and I wasn't onstage but backstage when it happened. But it was in the dress run (which students get tickets to) in one of the dance numbers the youngest member of the production tripped and fell backwards off the stage into the pit and landed on the trombone player!!! The boy broke his leg, meaning we had to re block a bunch of the numbers that evening as we were opening the next night. The trombone did not survive... I think the school had to contribute to a new one for this musician!
Crying at the WOOF!!
I was Polly in Crazy for You, in which there is just, ya know, SO much dancing. The set changes around Bobby and me as we get into our ballroom stance to begin Shall We Dance, which is a solid 4-minute duet dance number and then straight into the next scene. As we link up, he puts his hand on my back as we both realize that the zipper in the back of my dress has broken, exposing my entire back to the audience. We look at each other with identical expressions of horror and desperation, but also acceptance, as there is nothing we can do. We dance the 4-minute number, I run off to put on a different dress while he wanders around looking at the set. (And then later in the show the zipper of THAT dress broke.) (My hips and shoulders were too wide to get the dresses on without straining the zipper, a lesson we learned the hard way.)
Several years ago I was at a performance of Phantom of the Opera, when Christine first removed his mask (Damn you, you little prying Pandora…) he flung his arm up and it hit the mask, knocking it out of her hand, and it went skidding across the stage and into the wings.
He didn’t notice what happened to the mask, so at the end of the scene when he reaches out for it, she had nothing to give him. His hand flailed in the air for a moment before she grabbed his hand, he looked up and realised she didn’t have the mask. They ran off stage with him covering his face with his hand.
I understand that years back, Sarah Brightman managed to remove the mask and his wig at this point by accident, too - revealing the full deformity before the final scenes.
This isn’t about me, but in my first ever musical (oliver), the girl playing the artful dodger was taking selfies in the bathroom downstairs as her cue line was said. Needless to say our director was ~mad~
The Les Miz mishaps are so relatable, bc when things go wrong in Les Miz they go OH so wrong! I once played Cosette (yes Cosette, pls dont even start it) in an "in concert"-y version of the show and we basically laughed in the wings the whole thing through. Good times lol
Was Little Sally in a production of Urinetown. Opening night I was backstage climbing the scaffolding (which I’d climbed a million times before even before that show) to get to the set’s second level. Fully slip and slash my knee open. Do the thankfully quick scene and then climbed down, seeing that I’m definitely bleeding a significant amount. Luckily it was after the dancing was over but I Had a solid two minutes until the finale (in which I had a lot of lines). My lovely cast and crew rushed around me trying to get me cleaned up. Got back on stage and fully felt blood dripping down my leg and the audience wasn’t terribly far away. Got a lot of questions afterwards along the lines of “are you ok I heard you died?” For the rest of the run I wore band aids in an X shape to cover the wound, which people thought was part of the costume (I didn’t correct them)
I was in a high school show of wicked and I was a ozian and fell over during elphabas melting
I also had to hide the actress playing Elphie which always went wrong
There is a high school version of Wicked?
@@Showtunediva yeh
I did an extremely low budget performance of High School Musical once, where the music came through a speaker that was plugged into an outlet that was on the edge of the very small stage. During our finale, someone knocked the cable out of the wall, and we had to finish the show with no music. That was the last show we did before our director switched to Bluetooth speakers in that theatre.
Another time I was backstage about to go on as Maurice in Beauty and the Beast for the first castle scene, when suddenly I heard the sound of glass shattering. When the lights came on, it was immediately obvious what just broke; the Rose’s case, also known as one of the most important props in the whole show.
Even though I already know all of this I'm crying with laughter. 😂😂😂
I was in a production of The Mystery Of Irma Vep. It's a 2-man play where we play all the characters - a creepy perverted butler, an old lesbian housekeeper, the master of the manor, his beautiful young wife, a vampire, a werewolf, etc., you get the idea. The climax of the show is when my housekeeper is supposed to shoot and kill the butler who has been bitten by the vampire (or something silly like that). The stage manager had two starter pistols to fire offstage - she was smart to have a backup - but on this particular night, I raised the pistol and aimed at the butler, gave the cue line...and no shot. I gave the cue line again...no shot. In the wings I could see the stage manager furiously holding both guns in her hands, looking at me and shrugging her shoulders in essence saying neither gun would fire. So, I said "Bang!" and my scene partner fell to the floor. Meanwhile, the stage manager, in her frustration, pointed a starter pistol over her head and it fired. I could see my scene partner laying dead on the floor convulsing with laughter as well.
My second story is less laugh and more cringe. I was in a college production of Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You. For one of our cast on opening night, it was her very first role and she was quite nervous. At the beginning of the play, there is a Christmas pageant where I and another cast member are draped with a sheet portraying a camel of one of the wise men. We are unable to see anything. At the end of the pageant, Sister Mary Ignatius shoots and kills one of the characters - the brand new actor - and the pageant comes to a standstill. We remove the sheet - we are no longer a camel, but our characters - and the play continues with the dead character being moved offstage. During the course of the play, I noticed there was some water spilled on the stage. I couldn't figure out how it might have gotten there except for maybe some condensation from an overhead air conditioner or a leak in the roof. The play ends and the actors go backstage. The new actor was no where to be found. Turned out that when she had been "shot", she got a little excited and relieved herself on the stage. All the other actors had seen what happened when it happened except for myself and my fellow actor who was under the sheet with me. The new actor never returned and the director had to step into the role for the last two shows.
First off, I'm not going to call anybody out, or name names. When I was 10 years old, I did a community theater production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I was cast as Jeremy Potts, it was one of the most fun shows I've ever done in my life. One of our set pieces was a 12" diameter turntable (we weren't allowed to install it in the stage), it was about a foot of the ground, on the SL side, there was a ramp. There was a ramp so we could drive our Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (a decked out and remodeled golf cart) onto the ramp. Near the end of the show, Grandpa Potts drives Chitty from SL onto the turntable. But on our invited/press dress rehearsal, our Grandpa Potts drove a little too fast, and ended up going off the platform with the entire car. Did I mention that I, as Jeremy, was directed to stand in the back and yell "CHARGE". Anyway, in response to the previous night's mishap, the director had gotten a 4' wall built at the end of the platform, to stop Chitty from going over again. Opening night, the stopper was in place, but we just drove right over it and onto USR. The next day, the director built a 6' tall stopper at the end of the turntable, to make sure it couldn't go over. That night, it finally worked. We had no more mishaps the rest of the run.
It was a very good show, a lot of fun. I learned so much, and I made a lot of lifelong friends. Still whenever I see the guy who played Potts (Jeremy's father), I go up to him, give him a hug and he'll say, "My son! How you've grown"
I went to see the phantom of the opera at the arts centre in Melbourne, now, I have seen the show many times before and I am very familiar with the quick onstage change in think of me. so when I saw the show, I was very surprised when after the brief instrumental, Christine strode out triumphantly to centre stage, with both hands behind her back, evidently holding the dress together. so for some backfill, in this version of the show, three dancers come onstage, give Christine the scarf, and then go off. but since Christine had both hands, literally trembling with the effort of holding that monster costume together for 5 minutes. when the dancers entered, Christine looked at them, shook her head slightly, and then went on looking out into the audience as if nothing was wrong. so the dancers, obviously confused, went off the way they came quite awkwardly. how did I know this was a mishap? well I have seen the show many times before and Christine has never looked so distressed during think of me, when she bent down to bow at the and think of me, she still had her hands behind her back, and eventually, when angel of music came around, the actress (Amy Manford) was flexing her fingers and rubbing them like they were sore, which they probably were. Anyway, thought I'd just share that funny bit of phantom info with ya :)
I remember a performance of TTB when the sound designers were probably on crack, first Jon started sounding like he was stuck in a trashcan and after Therapy Susan was like "turn that device on your hip to 0, you sound like an idiot!" :D (which sounds like an easy task if a) the whole device isn't coated in 3 layers of ductape, b) Jon had any offstage moment whatsoever, however he somehow managed to do so. Then when Susan and Jon were talking on the phone, the phone started ringing again and Jon, trying to save the moment went "sorry, I have another call" to what Susan replied "wtf do you mean you have another call, who is calling you?". And then when we though we're done for the day with the mishaps, the birthday song at the end was considerably delayed so the previous scene had henceforth befome known as the "monodrama of Jon unwrapping the presents".
This 24 hour musical thing sounds amazing, I would love to both see and do this :D
In Damn Yankees there was a scene where the baseball team were supposed to all run across the stage. The smoke machine had left the stage particularly slick, and the guys started running and it was Bambi on ice. Pretty sure every actor absolutely ate it, the scene devolved into chaos of running, slipping, skidding, and falling straight on their rears before all basically crawling or gingerly walking off stage. It was one of our recorded shows, and the director edited "Another One Bites the Dust" over it and played it at the cast party following the final show.
During Kiss Me Kate during Tom, Dick, or Harry, the song ends with Bianca jumping into the arms of our actor for a pretty end pose, him standing triumphantly holding her. One show she jumps, he catches her, and his pants fall down, exposing his lovely heart print boxers for all to see. He quickly hikes them up and poses, holding her with one arm and the other arm planted on his hip holding up his pants for the button while the audience applauds the song (and chuckles a bit).
I was in a production of My Fair Lady . In the scene where Eliza goes back to her former flower market, I had just discovered that drying your front teeth and applying black electrical tape gives a neat toothless look. When Eliza looked at me, she completely lost it. You can imagine the s… I got into for that little trick🤪
Alright so we did The Wizard of Oz one year in high school and someone friggen knocked over the wagon set piece ontop of our wizard at the beginning of the show. He said he was fine and did the rest of the show but did not recall any of it. Probably concussed but thank God no one died 😬 twas a close one.
Someone knocked our tree down during Wizard of Oz right after the Poppy scene and thankfully no one got hit
I want that t-shirt! Amazing!
what that 24 hr musical sounds so cool?!
I was doing a One act play of One Flee Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I was playing Cheswick. We didn’t get that much rehearsal. On performance day, no tech rehearsal, after the big blowout after a character “leaves”, we were supposed to leave stage. That day is was pitch black and half the cast including myself bumped into the chairs with an ear shattering scrape.
I missed a cue on closing night cause I ran downstairs to grab my fake glasses
Not had a major one YET, will update if Footloose (jr) has any accidents
SO far in rehearsals, people will walk off when they're supposed to be on etc etc, meaning I have nearly missed cues a few times in the churchyard scene (as the reverend) because I'm trying to keep the thing running with a bunch of 9 year olds that are NOT on when they're supposed to be
there may be an update
I can relate to being bad at roller skating. I could NEVER audition for Starlight Express.
My school did a production of Grease. We went for three nights and the second night was when all hell broke loose.
At the beginning, the T Birds and Pink Ladies all come on to sing a parody of the Rydell school song but out Danny just forgot. So everyone is excited to see all the characters for the first time and Danny just... isn’t there.
There is this scene where Patty tries to convince Danny to do track and I was in the background, cheerleading it up. But then one of my friends in the audience choked on a mento and seriously almost died. Because of the stage lights, I couldn’t see what was happening so after the scene was over and we left the stage, we all at the same time asked each other “did you hear that person in the audience? I think they were throwing up” so that was fun.
During Grease Lighting, this teacher was supposed to bring the ensemble down into the wings at the right time so we could sing the backing vocals but they didn’t. So it was really bare and quiet.
Another amazing thing that happened on the second night was during Sandra Dee, right before Rizzo was about to sing, her microphone broke. Surprisingly, she sang louder without a microphone than the other nights.
Also, during Beauty School Dropout, to get more people involved, there were five people singing the song. They only choreographed the song the day before we were meant to perform it so all five of us were sidestepping in different directions. Then, the second night we were already down to three Teen Angels because two had developed Covid that morning.
And on the third night, everyone was supposed to run on for Hand Jive but one of the dancers tripped over and winded themselves. But they didn’t just subtly shuffle off stage, they screamed and sobbed so loudly. I know they winded themselves and it was just a school production but it was REALLY unprofessional.
And it wasn’t actually during the show but during the dress rehearsal, the understudy for Danny brought what looked like a switchblade. I just ran to the one who plays Jan and said “DANNY HAS A KNIFE” it was a comb but it was terrifying before I knew it wasn’t a weapon.
And that was just one of our productions we did.
Whep one time I switched my vocal and violin scores when playing the Hunyak and violin in the onstage orchestra in Chicago. Myyyyyyy MD and I have not spoken about it in 7 years. 🙃🙃🙃
Also good GOD this Priscilla/Starlight story. My 4-year broken foot saga began with Priscilla (although not by prepping for an additional audition). I feel this but also....god.
But THE WIZARD OF OZ. I’m dead. 😂😂😂
I've sung on stage but not acted. Whenever I feel like a pick-me-up, I re-watch a short TH-cam clip of a US amateur(?) production of Peter Pan ("The Greenport Peter Pan Fiasco"), which I'm sure you've all seen. Hilarious unless one was on stage at the time! (In fact, I'm not sure whether it was all a brilliant parody.) Where did you perform Les Mis, btw, with a revolve? Guy's and Dolls in 24 hours? The ballet alone should have at least a day's full rehearsal and that's for skills hoofers. It sounds as though your company did extremely well overall.
LOL I imagine being medically advised to not do a sport, I can understand the appeal ofroller skating though
I went to the dressingroom believing I did my last scène and started changing.... missing my final scène leaving the other actors on stage not able to continue the show.
Me watching it when he is at 18 k subs