Replies: 65 Unseemly Comments
Well, in spite of all the theatre I've seen since I was a mere sprig of a twig of a lad I don't remember seeing many funny mishaps on stage, although I can relate two stories of shows that I was in which had mishaps involving me, one of which had the audience roaring and the other a tad worried.
I was doing a production of South Pacific, playing one of the sailors. At the end of the Dame number after all the talk we were supposed to exit in an orderly fashion. Well, I was up on a stage piece near Billis' washing machine. Another sailor walked by me, I lost my footing and fell backwards into the washing maching (a large barrel-like contraption). Luckily, my shoe caught on the rim of the piece or I would have fallen all the way through and landed on my head on the stage floor. The audience was roaring with laughter. I was wriggling, trying to get free when Billis (a very large man) reached into the washer, picked me up by the leg and carried me off like a prop. The audience loved it! For the rest of the run, I made sure I was NOT near the mouth of the washer. That was also the production where we had been blocked to enter through the house at the right side of the audience during the beginning of Bloody Mary. One night we (three of the sailors) forgot to make sure the side house door was unlocked and ended up entering, breathless from running, through the front of the house because of the locked door. Never forgot that check again.
The second mishap occurred when I was doing a new musical (a not very good show that never went anywhere) in 1978. We performed on what we called the Jim Jones Memorial Set (Jim Jones, the crazy preacher from San Francisco who took his church members to Guyana and had them drink Kool-Aid). It was a dangerous contraption and one night as I was doing my Peter Lorre imitation (I told you it was a bad show) I slipped on the notorious staircase and tumbled half-way down. I heard the audience gasp and the look on the face of my stair buddy was somewhere between breaking out in laughter and real concern for my safety. I was actually fine but had ended up upside down and had trouble extracting myself from the position I was in. So much so, that I had to turn a somersalt to get myself down the rest of the stairs where I ended up on solid ground, picked myself up (dust my self off and start all over again - A Donald Feltham, Guy Haines reference) and with extreme care walked off stage. "Ah, Dignity, always dignity" (Comden & Green reference)
Posted by Ben @ 11/26/2002 07:24 AM PST
Long story AND first post. Nice way to start my vacation.
Posted by Ben @ 11/26/2002 07:25 AM PST
Yes, I'am aware of the PAL videos and the Region 2 on DVD. It turns out when I ordered the film Fritz The Cat, from the UK, it got here and it wouldn't work in my VCR, so I e-mailed the company and told me why. But then thankfully I found a store nearby that converted the PAL onto VHS. Too bad they don't do the same for the DVDs because I ordered an Eraserhead DVD from the UK, but then a friend told me about Region 2 so I had to send it back.
Posted by Brandon @ 11/26/2002 07:34 AM PST
As with Ben - this is more an I Was There happening. As a member of the audience, I am usually so tense when something 'goes wrong' I can't be amused. However....
The Show: 42ND Street.
The Number: 42ND Street.
I am playing Andy Lee. My cousin Brad is Billy Lawlor. Just before he is to go out to join the tap number - the elastic on his tuxedo pants snaps. I grab him and say WAIT...I will get a safety pin...but of course he says "I am ON!!!"
The rest you can guess. The audience started laughing softly then as the JOE BOXERS were revealed little by little, they laughed more. The number finally ended and the troup came off.
Just as the audience calmed down, I started the next scene with the infamous line, "What an opening THAT was!" And the laughter started all over again.
Time heals everything - but that Thursday night audience still remembers the Tap Dance With No Pants.
Posted by Jrand55 @ 11/26/2002 07:40 AM PST
Like Ben, the worst mishap I have experienced happened to me. Back in my acting days, I appeared in a production of "As You Like It" and played a number of small roles, including the brother who only shows up at the end of the play to tell everyone gathered onstage that they may leave their banishment in the Forest of Arden and return to the kingdom. I was blocked to enter through the house, down the center aisle and leap onto the stage while delivering my speech. All went well until Opening Night when the costume designer handed me a new pair of boots to wear -- pointy-toed. When the time came for my entrance I did what I always did, except that when I leapt onto the stage, the pointy-toe of my new boot caught on the edge of the stage and I did a resounding belly flop onto the floor. (I could actually hear the assembled cast gasp). I laid there for a couple of seconds wondering whether I should just play dead. But being the trouper I was, I got up, brushed myself off, and finished my speech.
The next night I asked for the stage manager to help to restage the entrance so that there was always someone there with a helping hand to get me up onto the stage.
Posted by Philip Crosby @ 11/26/2002 07:46 AM PST
Witnessed: A production of LOOT, on a very raked thrust stage. The good news was that the actors had planned ahead, in case something went wrong. And sure enough, opening night, it did. A very necessary prop fell off of that very raked thrust stage, and it would be needed later in the act. So our two very professional actors, if unprofessional thieves, mimed opening a window through the fourth wall, one of them climbed out, fetched the prop, handed it to the other still on stage, mimed climbing back in, and they proceeded with the play. The audience was in stitches. (That one of the two actors involved had also trained as a circus clown helped, of course.)
Posted by S. Woody White @ 11/26/2002 08:00 AM PST
Not exactally a mishap, but I saw an awful touring production of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS where the mikes were so poorly placed that you heard the velcro ripping during every scene/costume change. However since this production dropped almost all of the film score for a new score, the sound of velcro ripping was better than the music.
Alas I was not present the fateful night of CARNIVAL where David Merrick kept Anna Maria Albregetti(SP?)'s mike on so you could hear her going to the john backstage. I've heard this story in several variations for forty years. Does anyone know if it is true or not?
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/26/2002 08:11 AM PST
William, Carnival was the first musical I ever saw (in 1962) and the story was familiar to me even as a kid, so there must have been some truth in it.
The biggest (unintentional) laugh I ever got on stage was in a dinner theatre production of Accommodations in Lubbock, Texas. I had to enter wearing nothing but a towel. That should have been only mildly amusing, but at one performance the audience roared with laughter. It seems that during the night, the local Texas-sized mosquitoes had marched up my back leaving a parade-like trail of big red bug bites.
Posted by Robert Armin @ 11/26/2002 08:26 AM PST
Off topic.
William E. Lurie, you mentioned the other day that you had seen Sharon McKnight in The Last of the Red Hot Lovers at the York. I bought the CD from her web site, but didn't see the show. Care to give us a capsule review?
Also: As to the Anna Maria Alberghetti story--that must have been the inspiration for the similar scene in The Naked Gun.
Posted by William F. Orr @ 11/26/2002 08:47 AM PST
This is an HHW Encore Presentation (from the archives):
While in college, I was cast as the Wayne of Morse in the comedy "MacBird."
My character carried a huge lance, and I was given a rather nice one for rehearsals fashioned from wood and papier-mache.
My first entrance was to be big, according to the director, and everytime I entered, it was to the thrilling strains of the William Tell Overture.
While I had a lance for rehearsals, our sound man kept telling me my sound cue would be ready "next week." This went on for several weeks.
At the start of a new week, the director wanted to start with my entrance. I called out to the sound man and asked if my sound cue was ready. It was not.
For the first time, I decided I'd do it myself -- venting frustration. I mentally recalled "The Lone Ranger" and then yelled out the opening notes.
As I stormed onto stage, I tripped just before I reached the curtain (stage right sight line).
What the rehearsal audience saw was the tip of my lance pierce the void and then hit the stage floor, where it promptly bent.
Pandemonium ensued.
Some 30 minutes or so later, I made my entrance again, without sound cue and with a bent-tipped lance.
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 11/26/2002 08:59 AM PST
Mr White did the LOOT prop happen to be a glass eye?
Ron your story is so funny...I am laughing out loud.
I am almost Almost ALMOST (that is 3 almosts) tempted to tell the story that changed the title of a popular mystery into
DIAL 'Z' FOR ZIPPER.
Posted by Jrand55 @ 11/26/2002 09:06 AM PST
Ok.. so it came out a month or two ago.. but I finally picked up a copy of "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" and I can't wait to watch this guilty pleasure of my childhood...
Posted by Craig @ 11/26/2002 09:12 AM PST
William F.:
I thought that Sharon McKnight as Sharon McKnight was quite good, but she never really caught the essence of Sophie Tucker (whom I have only seen on film and television years ago). However to look at the pictures of the real Soph in the lobby and then see Sharon on stage you know it was close but no cigar. The newly-blond Tyne Daly at Encores Sunday or Bette Midler in a picture in the Sunday paper looked more like Sophie. In addition, several monologues that "Sophie" did were ill concieved and it was not necessary to have three audience singalongs with the lyrics flashed on the screen (Karioke Night With Sophie Tucker). Yet McKnight is such a dynamic performer that I still enjoyed it. It's just like watching FUNNY GIRL: you don't believe for one minute it's Fanny, but Babs is so good you don't care. Same with Sophie and Sharon.
By the way, a couple of years ago the York did a Jolson show (which has recently re-opened in Union Square) and in this case I felt that Stephen Mo Hanan did capture the Jolson I always read about. I could never understand what was so great about Jolson from movies and records, but I actually felt that I was watching Jolson himself and can now understand why he was considered the world's greatest entertainer (plus the show featured Nancy Anderson, wonderful as both Ruby Keeler and Mae West). This was the only time that a "not the real (fill in the blank) but an amazing simulation" type show actually made me feel I was watching the real performer.
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/26/2002 09:19 AM PST
See Spot. See Spot run. Run to Dick. Run to Jane. See Spot run to Dick and Jane.
Posted by Puff @ 11/26/2002 09:21 AM PST
Ok...I think we've all had our fair share of pant slippage on stage and falls and what not...here's my version:
Picture it...a small theatre with a center aisle, at the dramatic climax of an otherwise unexciting show, the young leade comes running down the aisle to stop the villian. Well, the carpet was slick and so were his shoes. He tripped and slid most of the way down the aisle and smashed into the lip of the stage, creating a huge hole. He stands up, leg bloody and pants torn, loses his footing and falls backwards into the emergancy exit flooding the dark theatre with nauseatingly bright sunlight (it was a matinee). He gets up, finishes what is left of the scene and runs offstage. He is immediately met by two actors and the stage manager who carry him to the dressing room, clean his bloody leg, wrap an icepack around it and stitch his pants, just in time for him to be pushed out on stage, limping and in extreme pain, for the show's finale. Of course, the audience gave him an ovation for his re-entrance.
And you, guessed it, that actor was me...and they wonder why I don't do it any more???
By the way...the leg is fine, although I have a tiny little scar that I refer to as "an old theatre injury" in the same nostalgic way big burly men refer to "an old football injury".
Posted by David @ 11/26/2002 09:41 AM PST
According to today's New York Post, plans for Janet Jackson to sing the closing number in the movie version of "Chicago" have been scrapped!
By the way another oft-told story is of the in-the-round production of FINIAN'S RAINBOW (a musical which deserves a Broadway revival with the original book). The scene where Senator Rawkins turns black was done during a blackout at the top of the aisle where someone quickly applied the blackface to him It went well until one night when a patron decided that the blackout was the perfect time to go up the aisle for a bathroom break...
(Need I say more?)
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/26/2002 09:53 AM PST
Now I'm laughing out loud and it's thanks to JRand55 and Craig whose posts complemented each other mirthsomely -- one ended with a reference to "Dial 'Z' For Zipper" and the other referenced "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" and VOILA!
Yes, JRand55, I think you MUST tell that story!
By the way, I was ugly in a post to rec.arts.theatre.musicals today...toward a poster named Stephen Farrow who has never been unkind to me (or anyone that I know of). I sort of regret it...and many of you would concur with Stephen's POV anyway.
Someone asked who had bought the new Streisand/Manilow CD called "Duets". Farrow responded, "No, I have taste."
I wrote: "Ooh..."taste" plus the stick?"
I'm sorta ashamed, but sorta not.
R
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 11/26/2002 10:15 AM PST
According to Broadway.Com, the part of the witch in the INTO THE WOODS revisal (replacing the soon departing Miss America Vanessa Williams) has been offered to Gloria Estefan. She has neither accepted nor declined as of this morning.
Speaking of the Striesand DUETS CD, does anyone know why the full page ad in Sunday's New York Times said new recordings with Barry Manilow and a Special Guest? Since it is common knowledge that the special guest is Boy Wonder Josh Groban, why couldn't they use his name?
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/26/2002 10:22 AM PST
There was no accident involved with the phrasing of my opening sentence regarding Mr. L either.. good that someone noticed!
It IS true tho.. I did just pick up the DVD
Posted by Craig @ 11/26/2002 10:26 AM PST
Dear reader Ron - Stephen Farrow is an occasional dear reader, too, so don't be too hard on him - he's a very dear fellow.
One splendidly splendid funny moment - Hello, Dolly on Broadway, with Phyllis Diller. She'd just taken over the show. So, the trolly comes on, the first two women lower their newspapers and then it's time for Phyllis to lower hers and say "Dolly Gallagher Levi". Well, she doesn't lower her newspaper. She just sits there. Then suddenly you hear that familiar Diller laugh and she says from behind the paper, "You won't believe it - I'm stuck" and she continues to cackle. Some chorus boys go over and help her free her dress. The audience goes wild. She tries to carry on for a second then stops, walks over to the pit and says to the conductor, "Can we just start again?" The conductor waves his head frantically "no", saying that once the scenery is moving they can't back it up. She stands there for a long beat looking at him and then says, "This is my entrance?" The audience howled for about five minutes, then she got back on the trolley and picked up where she left off. And you know what, she was a GREAT Dolly.
Posted by bk @ 11/26/2002 10:38 AM PST
Here's one of my theater flub stories. I was given a ticket to see the touring production of "Phantom" in Orlando. To be honest.. I wouldn't have seen it if I had to pay for the ticket - but I went to see the costumes, sets, etc (and also a friend was in the production). So.. The auction scene takes place just before the overture. The music swells into the overture and we are supposed to witness the "coming alive" of the old opera house into what it was. Well, to do this, they remove big black sheets that are coverting the sides and top portion of the proscenium. Well.. wouldn't you know it.. the top one got stuck! For the entire overture you kept seeing them try and tug and tug at it.. but it wouldn't budge (and I am sure they wouldn't want to risk tearing it). So daftly, one of the stage hands in darkness seems to repel from one of the spotlights and kick it with his foot (as best as he could get). Still nothing.. The overture is just about over and they give it one last tug and VOILA! It pulled away and the entire scene was "set". This was done as the orchestra hit the VERY last note of the overture.
Let me just tell you.. the applause that the overture got was probably to best reaction they had ever heard. It was like the applause one might hear as the winning touchdown was heard at a the superbowl. Sadly.. no other moment in the production got that kind of reaction.
Meanwhile.. I have to say.. the mood DURING the overture was a lot of laughter..and the couple sitting next to me asked if the show was supposed to be funny... I replied - no.. but it will be interesting to see if they can recover the mood early...
Posted by Craig @ 11/26/2002 10:55 AM PST
12 days until BK's birthday.
Posted by The count @ 11/26/2002 11:04 AM PST
I saw the musical JOLSON when it played here in Pasadena, California. In the lead was Mike Burstyn who comes from a family of entertainers - some, I believe, who actually worked with Jolson. I, too, have only seen film and tv clips of Jolson, but I felt Mr. Burstyn embodied the entertainer -- warts and all. IMHO, it was a GREAT performance. The writing of the Ruby Keeler role, however, was (IMHO) way off. The script portrayed her as more aggressive than I believe she actually was.
SHARON MCNIGHT is a real pro. I always look forward to her shows. I once saw her give a performance when she had a bad case of the flu and could barely sing. She was still great! She's also a long time member of Cabaret West.
FUNNY MISHAP: I played the role of Widow Corney in a production of OLIVER. At the end of the song, "I Shall Scream," Mr. Bumble--who is seated--and I are on opposite sides of the stage. When I got to the last "SCREAM" in the song, I was supposed to run full speed across the stage, jump onto his lap and give him a big kiss on the lips. Well...as I jumped and kissed him, the chair broke from under him and we both went down in a heap! EVERYbody was laughing (even US) and the laughter continued for, I swear, a full five minutes! We definitely STOPPED the show!
Posted by Donna - Cabaret West @ 11/26/2002 11:12 AM PST
Yes I heard the Alberghetti story as well.
Well....I was playing Tony Wendice in Dial M. It is the second scene of the first act. I have sent my wife to the theatre with her former lover and am blackmailing a man into murdering my wife. I am thinking that the audience is into this scene more than they have EVER been, when I sit down on the couch, see a flash of blue, and realize my fly has been open since the beginning of the play. And I am the LAST person in the building to know.
And there is MILES of exposition to go. I stand up, make a short excuse, and walk through the door to the "bedroom" - and just as I am adjusting my dignity - the other acting thinking I was adjusting the blocking opens the door to continue the scene.
We do finish the scene, the play, and the season. But the mere mention of it still makes me XYZ.
Posted by Jrand55 @ 11/26/2002 11:13 AM PST
"acting" = "actor"
Lisa Marie and Nic have split.
Posted by Jrand55 @ 11/26/2002 11:14 AM PST
Donna---
The show you saw was a different Jolson show. There are three or four floating around. This one was written by Hanan and features Hanan as Jolson and two others each playing a number of roles. It's all the classic Jolson songs.
One of the Jolson shows starred the late Larry Kert who was involved in another classic unintentioned on-stage laugh: the night he and Carol Lawrence sat on the bed in WEST SIDE STORY and the bed collapsed!
Why do I know all these disaster stories?
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/26/2002 12:18 PM PST
Awww...gee....poor Nic!
For Stephen Farrow, if you're reading this: As a fan of Barbra Streisand, totally confused at why she has so many detractors when she has give so much pleasure to millions of people, I occasionally bristle at "shots" taken when her name gets mentioned.
I don't know why I don't temper my responses more...possibly because I'm one of those "snot-nosed PC people" who feel compelled to combat the "snot-nosed snobs" I encounter from time to time (quoting the guy who warned you about the snot-nosed PCs).
: )
Ron
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 11/26/2002 12:21 PM PST
In re: Jolson.
Anyone remember Richard Wexler, the "Broadway violinist" who used to play on the sidewalk during intermissions and between shows, with his dog in front of his violin case? He got a lot of media attention in the seventies.
I used to chat with him between gigs (i.e., when no show was in intermission). He said he had written a show about Jolson and approached a big star about playing Jolie, a person he thought would be perfect for the rôle.
Trouble was, Bette Middler hated Jolson and refused to play him.
Posted by William F. Orr @ 11/26/2002 12:31 PM PST
And while I'm on my Richard Wexler stories:
In those days, the city thought of street musicians as a nuisance rather than part of the charm of the city. Police used to hassle Richard all the time--he actually made a pretty penny from people tossing money into his violin case.
One time an angry police officer asked, "Why don't you get a job?"
"I do have a job," Richard replied. "I play the violin on the street."
"That's not a job!" the officer said. "You like it!"
Posted by William F. Orr @ 11/26/2002 12:35 PM PST
As for The Special Guest on Babs' Duets album:
Warner Brothers has forbidden the use of Mr. Groban's name to help publicize the CD. I would love to hear the story behind that one!
Posted by Philip Crosby @ 11/26/2002 12:36 PM PST
My, my, my!
A google search reveals that the aforementioned Mr. Wexler is now a Professor of Music at the University of Maryland. Well, it's a job. I hope he likes it.
Posted by William F. Orr @ 11/26/2002 12:40 PM PST
Phil:
Does Warner Bros. allow him credit on the CD itself or is the listener supposed to guess?
Ron:
I think the reason people dislike Barbra so much is that with few exceptions she is wasting her talent with poor selection of material and over-produced songs. I listen to the CD reissues of her early LPs on a regular basis and they are as wonderful as ever. However her recent CDs are painful to listen to. Just compare her 1967 Christmas album to her 2001 Christmas album. The first is a classic; the newer one a disaster. Also, she is mostly recycling old material in new packaging with one or two new tracks to help sell them. This is what her "Duets" CD is. I think she still has the finest voice of anyone singing today, and I keep hoping that she will return to singing classic pop songs in simple arrangements - the kind of material that made her a star in the first place.
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/26/2002 01:30 PM PST
Since Josh won't have a NEW CD out until next fall, WB probably didn't want his name used to publicize an album NOT on their label. His fans (his Cd is double platinum) are chomping at the bit for new material and he is "hot" right now.
Once the reviews are out - the Cd is due November 27 - everyone will know, but it is NOT general knowledge that Josh is on the CD. The track listing has been printed in various places with and without his name. Officially it is still a "secret."
Posted by Jrand55 @ 11/26/2002 02:28 PM PST
A lull.
Posted by bk @ 11/26/2002 02:38 PM PST
Why do MY posts always precipitate a Lull?
Posted by Jrand55 @ 11/26/2002 03:47 PM PST
Bought a new car today!!!!
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 11/26/2002 04:45 PM PST
Regarding Anna maria Alberghetti. In Howard Kissel's biography of David Merrick. He mentions the microphone/bathroom story.
It seems that AMG wanted to leave Carnival. Merrick wanted her to stay> He waged a war to disparage her in the press and private. This story was given to the press by Merrick himself. The gossip collumnist was Sheilah Graham.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 11/26/2002 04:57 PM PST
Interesting regarding Groban... especially since one of the NY papers had a story last week about his visit to the Striesand/Brolin home to discuss the recording; Brolin did crossword puzzles and Josh was afraid to ask Babs if he could use her bathroom. If that isn't helping to sell the CD, then what is?
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/26/2002 05:09 PM PST
Maybe it is to make us talk about it on websites.
Posted by Jrand55 @ 11/26/2002 05:16 PM PST
Websites? Plural.. Oh no Jr.. there is only ONE jiggy website and this here it IT! This is THE website to talk about everything and anything...
Can ya dig it?
Posted by Craig @ 11/26/2002 05:38 PM PST
A lull. Lull a. I shall be on my way home quite soon. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that just too too?
Posted by bk @ 11/26/2002 06:21 PM PST
All that trouble from a mouse! not a funny story - I have seen revolves not work but the curtain coming down at the wrong time and such are not really that memorable. I did go to a L & L tribute one night which was so dreadful that I tried to escape out of a side door. The door led to palyground and I had to climb over a ten foor high fence (well it seemed like ten feet in the dark - not to bad for me but it was really fun for my female companion.)
If BK were to produce a Babs album the world would indeed be perfect. How can you not love the talent?
How can you afford that car Michael? I thought all your money was spent on postage stamps!
The advantage of living in OZ. We have long been able to buy in "normal" retail outlets, multi system video players and DVD likewise. All this zone everything has no meaning here. Lucky us. We are a Pal & NTSC friendly environment.
It's so good to be back.
Posted by Tom from OZ @ 11/26/2002 06:33 PM PST
Stories, stories, stories...
The earliest one where "I was there": High school production of Camelot. The Joust starts off, and as the one young lady front and center starts to sing her line with her hands shaking in the air and "passion" in her body, her blouse comes loose and so does the rest of "her".
Same high school, but a production of Brigadoon this time. We had one show where we could just not stop laughing and giggling. The first incident to stop the show was during the wedding. Charley and Meg just started giggling. Then the preacher started giggling. Eventually, John, who was playing the preacher - sorry I can't recall the characters name right now - just breaks character starts laughing uncontrollably and "surrenders" by doing his Richard Nixon impersonation. So... later on, we get to Harry Beaton's funeral sequence, and as soon as we notice that the "dead" Harry Beaton is starting to giggle.. Thankfully, the audience ate all of it up.
Unfortunately(?), I don't think I've ever been in the audience for a theatrical mishap - at least a noticable one. However, I have worked with this one conductor who would always try to make his actors laugh on stage - the things you can do with a piece of paper and a Sharpie!
OH! -It was the closing performance of the tour of Anything Goes I was playing. We all knew going into it that it would be a "very special Anything Goes. We put porn in the conductor's book. There was one sequence where one of the Angels would run by me and rub my hair - for this show I put a big glob of hair gel on my head. And the best one of the evening was when the champagne bottle was thrown overboard, and then a few seconds later it "bounced" back up to Reno and Evelyn.
Fun, fun, fun.
Posted by Jose C. Simbulan @ 11/26/2002 06:41 PM PST
Community theatre production
of West Side Story with many
friends of mine in the cast...
The rumble... Bernardo and
Riff circling each other, knives
drawn... During a brief tussle,
the audience can clearly see
the lovely plastic blade fly free
from Bernardo's knife, landing
off left... Later during the fight
Bernardo holds both knives,
and very kindly returns to Riff
the still bladed knife. Quite a
few guffaws from the audience
on that one.
Posted by Jed @ 11/26/2002 06:43 PM PST
I am pleased to report that an e-mail I just opened and read -- and came her to pass on the contents of -- is now moot, as Tom from/of Oz is back online earlier than he feared.
G'day, Tom! Glad your probs got solved.
Oy! HAd an atrociously long meeting this afternoon. I'm hunger, tired and ready for bed -- but first, there's dinner and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Later.
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 11/26/2002 07:00 PM PST
Well the only thing I can add to the topic. I saw the original Broadway cast of On the twentieth century. There was a scene involving drawing rooms a & b. The main scene was in drawing room a. Imogen coca was in drawing room b. She needed to exit. She open the door to get out and the door knob came off in her hand. She tried to put it back on and open the door and couldn;t. She then tried to open the door between A & B but there were too many people in the room. She decided to step off the set and "sneak" around the set. The audience laughed. The other actors on stage had no idea why the audience was laughing.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 11/26/2002 07:00 PM PST
This one actually connects with On the twentieth. (same composers/lyricist) In Will Rogers' Follies (which I disliked) there was a "fake" accident and breakup. If I remember it was in the second act and the leading lady "Mrs. Will ROgers" was on stage and the one or two dogs get loose and runs across the stage in the middle of her scene. The actress "breaks breaks" character and laughs. Of Course that was all in the script and very well planned.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 11/26/2002 07:04 PM PST
Any body remember any more shows that had these phony break ups? There are others but I at the moment they escape me.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 11/26/2002 07:05 PM PST
I saw the Incedible Mr. Limpet as a child and I thought it was one of the worse films I ever saw. Maybe I just didn't understand how he could have turned into a cartoon character or maybe I just didn't care for Don Knotts.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 11/26/2002 07:15 PM PST
Off-topic:
Today in my Shakespeare class, we were studying one of Hamlet's soliloquies (I don't know which one. They're all the same) and the teacher was asking all of us what we thought about it. By the time he got to me, all the good answers were taken, so I just said, "This is really funny because he just keeps talking to himself and he doesn't shut up." The teacher looked askance at me.
And then we were watching the video of Laurence Olivier doing the "to be or not to be" thing, and everyone was oohing and ahing about how great it was, and all I could think was, "He looks like Hayley Mills." I think I'm ready for the semester to be over.
Posted by Sandra @ 11/26/2002 07:15 PM PST
Yes, I, too, have been errant and truant. Busy as a bee when I haven't been fighting this bronchial/sinusitis thing-a-ma-bob.
I missed chat due to rest-time, and bundled up beneath my blanket, I took in ATTACK OF THE CLONES, which, I thought was incredibly well-done. I really liked it, despite the non-acting of a certain star.
And, I also had synopses/reviews to write for HOUSEBOAT and ROMAN HOLIDAY. I came across a wonderful connection between haineshisway and HOUSEBOAT, which appears in my review, btw.
And, speaking of reviews; there's nothing that repels me more than an uneducated review. I've harped on this before, and I'll probably harp on it again, but, if you're gonna write about something, PLEASE, do your research. Tonight, I found this uneducated review:
http://www.dvdmg.com/producers.shtml
Posted by td @ 11/26/2002 07:59 PM PST
When the Cassidy brothers were in Blood Brothers, the spitting/breaking up sequence eventually became a staged bit. However, I saw them three times, and all three times it seemed rather genuine.
Posted by Jose C. Simbulan @ 11/26/2002 08:11 PM PST
Thank you Ron P. I was considering therapy without my daily dose of HHW to keep me sane. Insanity is obviously the best cure for everything.
Dear reader Sandra. Have you found out whence comes your history teacher.
Posted by Tom from OZ @ 11/26/2002 08:32 PM PST
Well, I wasn't actually there, but a friend of mine was playing piano and conducting for a production of I Do! I Do! in Salt Lake City with Loretta Swit and Ken Berry.
On the last night, when Ken Barry turned to the orchestra and said, "Mr. Orchestra Leader, would you play that part again?", my friend folded his arms and shook his head "no".
Posted by William F. Orr @ 11/26/2002 09:34 PM PST
I've been thinking all day long, and except for the same Phantom of the Opera thing happening with the drapes not disappearing during the the overture, I can't say as I've seen a real mishap in a pro show.
Once during a college performance of the opera Hansel and Gretel, the curtain became tangled in the roof of the house. It was a couple of minutes before the stagehands could get the curtain free. The audience applauded the curtain.
Maybe the actors covered the mishaps so well that I didn't even know there was a mishap!
Posted by Laura @ 11/26/2002 09:43 PM PST
td: I availed myself of the link to e-mail by clicking on the reviewer's name and wrote him the following note:
"The Producers opened on Broadway LAST year....not years ago.
"The movie The Producers was WILDLY POPULAR in its day and the number "Springtime For Hitler" -- which was in the movie -- is one of the CLASSIC sequences in all movie history.
"I offer this comment kindly: Your review is under-educated. Anyone with any knowledge of movies will read it and wonder where the heck they dug you up.
"Read and learn. Read some more. Talk to people of all ages about movies BEFORE writing reviews like this one -- ever again."
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 11/26/2002 10:24 PM PST
Dear Reader Sandra: Your account of your classes was first-rate. Your response to your teacher -- and your observation of "Sir Larry" were those of a die-hard HHW Hainsie/Kimlet smartass.
Well Done!!!
: )
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 11/26/2002 10:26 PM PST
The Producers, is a great film although I have not seen the Broadway stage show. I heard the DVD of the film will be coming out soon so that is good news. I also think you can buy the taped Broadway performance.
Posted by Brandon @ 11/26/2002 10:39 PM PST
Most mishaps I have seen have occurred to me or other actors on stage.
I do recall seeing one mishap. It was a musical that was playing in the Wilbur Theatre in Boston. It's been so long ago I can't remember the name of the show. However, it was a period piece set sometime around the Civil War era. The two leads were onstage singing. The actress in this scene was wearing a period costume complete with hoop skirt. The male lead was standing on the other side of the stage as she finished her song. She rose to rush across the stage to him when one of the hoops on her skirt caught on a wooden railing near the chair she was sitting in.
It was like watching a human sling shot. She got too far away from the railing when, like a rubber band that is stretched too tight, she was catapulted backwards landing in the orchestra pit. The look on the face of the other actor was priceless.
There was a collective gasp from everyone in the audience and you could hear a pin drop. When she could get to her feet, she waved an "I'm OK" from the pit as the conductor and stage crew helped her back on to the stage. The show continued but she received a tremendous ovation for the ordeal she went through.
Posted by Dennis Clancy @ 11/26/2002 11:10 PM PST
The very first non-musical that I was in was "Amadeus." During the first week of performances, everyone in the cast had their script either right off stage or hidden somewhere in their costume (mine was inside my vest) because no one was prepared. During the opening night performance, the actor playing Salieri (who was also the producer) had this one speech where he almost went up. He sort of fumbled but found a place to come back in on, but it wasn't where he was supposed to be. He gave a cue line but it was for another scene and the actor playing Mozart entered and started in the new scene. Everyone offstage was frantically thumbing through scripts trying to find out where they had ended up. It turns out that 15 (yes, fifteen!) pages were cut from opening night! There were a couple of people whose only scenes were within those 15 pages! They took their bows at the end of the show but they didn't get to perform that night at all. The worst part was that the reviewer who was there that night had a personal gripe with the Salieri/producer and wrote a scathing review that was very inappropriate.
Posted by George @ 11/27/2002 12:13 AM PST
Hi all, and Happy Turkey Day!
We're off to Maryland for a family reunion, so these notes are quick. Went to the opening preview of "Tommy Tune's White Hat & Tails" last night at the Little Schubert Theatre. A wonderful mix of (mostly) old and new, featuring the Manhattan Rhythm Kings. The Lighting Director deserves kudos for her imaginative use of color - and there's a great tap number late in the program with Tommy and the MRK's dancing in and out of 3, then 6, then 9 spots.
The evening also includes a Q&A with the audience (quite a risk, IMO). I asked TT about the possibility of finally bringing "Buskers" to Bdwy (not likely - apparently its been in legal limbo as Lloyd's didn't want to pay up on the policy for TT's broken ankle, which closed the show while still in Tampa).
Even my 10 year old son enjoyed the evening, as he recognized many of the tunes from a 40's revue we did together last year.
TT was not in the best of voice -he had some difficulty with his attack on a few of the high notes. But his warmth and love for the material shone throughout the evening. After the show, we had no problem going backstage to meet Mr. T and offer our good wishes. He's as tall and lean as he appears onstage, especially in a terry robe. He was also quite congenial and warm to us, total strangers, and graciously gave Kyle a personalized autograph on his program (this after remarking how Kyle must be an old soul to appreciate the music of the night, as well as probably being the youngest in the theatre last night!)
Jason, Robert (and anyone else in the Big Apple area) - you should check this one out!
Posted by Phil @ 11/27/2002 05:34 AM PST
Phil -- shortly after getting married, my wife left me for 13 months to tour the country with Tommy Tune in Bye, Bye Birdie. I agree, he is a very congenial and warm person. P.S.: I'm still married.
Ron -- In addition, The Producers won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay (and a nomination for Supporting Actor Gene Wilder) so it certainly had considerable attention when it opened. I somehow missed the film in theatres, although my father saw it and loved it. I grew up listening to the RCA soundtrack album like a radio play. I knew all the great lines before I ever saw it on TV.
Posted by Robert Armin @ 11/27/2002 06:01 AM PST
The Broadway THE PRODUCERS itself is not out on DVD. What is available is a DVD of the PBS special "Recording the Producers" which is really a 90 minute infomercial for both the show and the CD (and one of those shows originally designed to get non-viewers to watch PBS during one of their begathon periods).
Posted by William E. Lurie @ 11/27/2002 06:11 AM PST
my, my! Thank goodness that I am not the only one who considers that review of THE PRODUCERS to be ill-conceived and uneducated. I don't consider myself to be a "great" writer, but, I'm working on it, and I do do (if I had put one more "do" it would have been a Gershwin reference) my research willingly and happily before I set pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. I always appreciate feedback, positive or negative, regarding my writings, so, I would assume others in this ether world on online reviewing would also appreciate educated comments from their readers.
Posted by td @ 11/27/2002 06:30 AM PST
Incidentally, the only reason The Producers disappeared from the public's notice for a while was the demise of the production company AVCO Embassy. The ownership of the company's film library has bounced around a lot over the last several decades, which accounts for the numerous reissues of the film on different labels. This supposedly obscure film has rarely been unavailable for long and even had a deluxe Criterion Laser Edition released more than a decade ago, the first time I was able to see it letterboxed. The pan & scan version makes the cinematography look horrible and should be avoided.
Posted by Robert Armin @ 11/27/2002 07:10 AM PST
