Back in 1978, I believe we were the first show to ever do a Noises Off/Play That Goes Wrong thing. End of act one and some of the biggest laughs I've ever heard. The reason it worked so well was, we first saw it done perfectly. The bit, a Victorian murder melodrama, lasts maybe ten minutes. So, the audience has seen it all work. Then opening night, everything that can go wrong goes wrong. So, they know where the mistakes are and that's the fun - they know how it should go and they see how it goes off the rails and how the actors deal with it - including sets that fall, guns that don't fire and then suddenly fire when they shouldn't, all of the stuff that came later. I don't know of any show anywhere that did it before we did, but there sure have been a lot since. Just like in 1981, long before all the musicals that meta-referenced other musicals, which continues to this day and which has become a winky-winky bore, we had a musical number called Ode to the Musical or I Hate Musicals - yes, long before Ruthless - which made fun of other musicals.
Does anyone know this? Noooooo. Does anyone care? Noooooo. But we were absolutely ahead of our time.
