'Muck up matinees'

This very topic is currently being discussed on the Kinky Boots thread in the musicals section of this forum.


They are a kind of thing at shows with fanatical followings. Generally speaking someone attending the show as a one off wouldn't notice the muck ups in question as they are designed to be subtle. It happens at Wicked too and doesn't tend to detract from the standard performance so it doesn't worry me too much

Yes, this has been a thing for a long time.
It's usually the final matinee of a show, but I guess with never ending musicals they have extended that to cast changes.
It's never (in my experience anyway) anything too disruptive. Usually just small pranks with props or costumes.
I remember in one play (but I can't remember which one) a character had to open a bottle of fizz, and they had obviously shaken it up backstage so it went everywhere.
Silly little things like that.

I think I've only seen one, but handing someone a banana instead of a gun is too noticeable in my opinion.

i wonder how it would go down with the actors if the audience decided it was ok to mess about and not take the performance seriously?

As we've said before the vast majority of the people in the audience don't know it's a cast change and couldn't care less. Just perform it as directed and have some respect.

Perhaps it shouldn't be either. I get muck up day at school, because it's your last day of being 'a child,' but imagine if you were a teacher and on your last day you decided to teach the kids something that was completely wrong. They wouldn't know, but you would and you'd find it hilarious.

I don't know, it just seems quite arrogant and entitled to me. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter at all, and I hardly ever go to matinees but it leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

Again it sounds like I'm being harsher than I intend to. Oh well.

I've seen a few and some of the jokes are funny others in more serious shows don't work so well. If it is a major cast change is it those that are leaving that do the "pranks" or those who are staying or a mixture?

My thought would be it could be more those who are leaving given they could get less comeback.

That i actually think is quite bad as it doesnt fit with the character.

i agree, there is an element of arrogance and disrespect with muck up matinees. considering how much people have paid these days its a tradition that probably should end

I was at the final matinee of Notre Dame de Paris in London and having seen it several times before, noticed the muck ups....but they were so subtle, and the one i can remember clearly was the acrobats during the bells song - they sprinkled glitter from high up at the end of the song. Little things like that. However chatting with a friend who was in the show a few days later, it also transpired that when Esmeralda was singing Bohemienne and washing herself in the font, there was one of the smaller male acrobats curled up naked in the font who only Esmeralda could see...

Where we lead @emicardiff, others follow!

What happens at muck-up matinee of any of the shows in the '...Goes Wrong' franchise? Presumably, they play it straight.

I don't think TPTGW has ever had one, at least not in the West End production, as all the cast changes have happened on a Tuesday so there have not been matinees to muck up. PPGW I don't know as I've been to the final evening shows but not the matinees. At TCAABR's cast change they didn't do one though, so from that I'd make a tentative guess that it's not something they do.

I've seen muck up matinees for a few shows & really enjoyed them. In general the muck ups have been small things that I don't think would affect the show for people seeing it for the first time. At the first Wicked London cast change back in 2007 they did do quite a lot of things & rumour had it afterwards that the cast got hauled over the coals for it. My favourite muck up matinee was for Zorro's closing. I remember especially when Adam Levy, as the villain Ramon, ordered his sidekick to throw the people out of the pueblo "by ten thirty tonight" ratherthan the usual time, which was poigniant.

We also had some fun with Zorro closing in Russia back in 2011. The next show in the theatre was supposed to be The Sounds of Music, so when Ramon was alone in the church getting more and more mad and talking something about silence he added smth like "they are getting closer and closer.... these sounds of music"
And the Zorro himself, when he was acting as the silly Diego, been telling his brother and Louise about him performing with the gitanes: "we dance and sing on the streets and give performances... I didn't get into the next one (as he didn't get part in SoM) so I'm here"

Last week during the Tanz der Vampire closing night  the very same actor who played Zorro in the previous story story was on stage as Professor. And at some point he asks his assistant Alfred why the boy is so scared and pale. He added just one line - "as if you've seen a GHOST", and it was a perfect subtle muck up for those who know - guess which show the theatre is having next season?  

I've been to a few muck ups. Those at Wicked I have managed to spot a few and to be honest the screeches of delight from the obsessives in the front row have been far more distracting than the muck ups themselves.
At other shows that I'm less familiar with I've only known theres been muck ups because I've been told afterwards.
I really dont see that as being disrespectful of the audience as a whole. I do think at shows like Wicked perhaps those who see it regularly are the ones who should be more respectful to their fellow theatre goers.