Mistakes in shows

Guys and Dolls pre-West End, David Hague made his entrance, did a few lines then walked off stage with his hand slapped his forehead shouting “ARRRGGH”. Curtain came down and we were left waiting for a good half an hour before the director came on and said DH had a sudden attack of migraine, and the understudy would continued the show even though he’d never done a full run through. I think DH forgot his lines. 

Funny Girl Tour. Ziegfeld missed his cue, Sheridan was looking at the wings waiting for him to appear, he came on from the other side of the stage. She said, in character, “oh, you’re there!” and they carried on. 

Posted this in the Coriolanus thread on Saturday

Ended up taking almost an hour to sort it out with two guys on stage staring at the gates and shaking their heads. Eventually they left the gates (6 of them) open for the whole performance once they eventually got them open.

John Partridge took a tumble down the stairs on the La Cage tour- I thought it was a pratfall at the time but he was clearly in pain by the end and took his shoes off at the curtain call (and later tweeted about a trip to A&E). 'The Suicide' at the NT had a show-stop when I saw it as an actor got a leg stuck in a bit of set machinery- short 10 minute delay nobody hurt.

And as someone mentioned 'Streetcar' I didn't witness it but about 2 days before I saw it one of the plates smashed, a shard flew and took a chunk out of Gillian's leg- she did the rest of it still bleeding, and then I think had a couple of shows off? (I'm hazy on the details) anyway she was bandaged up when I went later that week and I winced a bit at those plates!

Didn't Simon Russell Beale break his finger during a performance of  Timon (or possibly Lear) and have to be replaced by the understudy half way through the show?

Ba-doom-tish.

Taxi for Phantom of London!

God, I remember seeing 'Phantom of the Opera' once and the bloody chandelier fell down. Onto the stage! You have to hand it to the cast though, no-one batted an eyelid and they just carried on.

I remember at Sweeny Todd at Drury Lane with Shelia Hancock. She was playing at a piano and picked up a glass of wine and it shattered.

At the Olivier Man and Superman Penelope Wilton I think it was entered and fell flat on her face. She picked herself up and Daniel Massey's next line was 'About that trip.' Audience fell apart and Massey just looked bemused at us.

At the Gate they turned the stage around so that you entered through the set. A man got ill part way through and left through the stage. A bit later the servant entered and asked the main character if a man could come through and the man who was ill came in and returned to his place.

Combination of shows I’ve worked on and watched from the audience;

Phantom: Too many to list them all... but here’s a few;

A very nervous understudy Phantom in one of his first shows lost his fedora into the stalls during “All I Ask of You Reprise”, made a desperate grab for it, without missing a beat. Crew collected it during the interval.

John Owen-Jones’ final performance of his original run, before returning to Les Mis, the Overture simply stopped playing after about 20 seconds. The house lights came up, there was a 10 minute delay, and it started from scratch.

The candle prop not firing to cut Raoul free in the Final Lair several times, the lasso getting tangled in the stage right wing as the Phantom captures Raoul.

The fireballs not firing from the Phantom’s staff at the end of Wandering Child on several occasions

The Phantom simply running off stage instead of using the trap after Why So Silent

Loads of line flubs, best was Earl Carpenter’s first performance



Elsewhere, a show stop at Les Mis (Queens) with the barricade getting stuck. Usual line flubs etc.

Jeeves and Wooster, Worthing, the main set piece (a sort of expanding box thing) falling apart during the show - the show had already started late due to the same problem

Idina corpsing for ages after being smacked full in the face by a ribbon thing during “One Short Day” at Wicked

Reece Shearsmith getting stuck in the coat hanger bit in The Producers (Manchester), actually the only funny memorable bit of the show which made me think it might have been staged. He couldn’t get the coat off, then it seemed to be stuck on his costume underneath, he needed Ulla to help him and added in character to the audience “this doesn’t usually happen”...

An entire portion of the Avenue Q (Selladoor) set falling forwards and hitting the false pros arch at the Brighton Dome. Long delay and continued with extra support braces in place

Last month in Nativity!, the second act opened with Jennifer (played by Sarah Earnshaw) singing on top of a Hollywood hill set with light up letters, however the D was delayed by about 10 seconds (and was met with a cheer from the audience!) so until then it said "HOLLYWOO".

In Alex Gaumond's first week as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda he threw his gym "TRUNCH" hoodie off to stage left, but it got caught on the letter tile set so remaining in character (and still during the moment of silence in the song) he walked over, threw it off and walked back and carried on. It was hilarious and he handled it brilliantly!

I also remember seeing the second preview of The Wizard of Oz in Southampton 10 years ago which was plagued with mishaps, such as Toto being pushed onto the stage against his will, actors referring to the Witch (played by Matthew Kelly in drag) as "he/him/his" and finally Glinda's bubble smashing into the false arch on it's way out.

There probably have been other little fluff ups, but those are the most noticeable. I've also seen the show stop due to technical reasons twice (but otherwise they were clean performances), the first being The Wizard of Oz (again!) at the Palladium and The Exorcist in Birmingham last year.

Phantom of the Opera, first UK tour, Edinburgh Playhouse (or could have been Manchester).

During the overture the dust sheet which covers the false prosc arch got stuck on the outstretched finger of one of the moulded figures. There was much pulling and flicking of the cover to try and get it unstuck, even to the point where the creaking of the set could be heard over the overture. In the end the cover was tucked around the corner of the set for the duration of the first act, and a crew member came and rescued it with a long pole during the interval, to great applause!