Most Disastrous Performances?- Page 2
Most Disastrous Performances?
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#25Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 4:34pmI've seen 3 Dianas. Alice is by far the best (IMHO).
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#26Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 4:49pm
For me mine is when something went terribly wrong with the set on December 18, 1993 at a performance of Sunset Boulevard.
This date is ingrained forever as one of my greatest musical theatre experiences! I had the extreme pleasure of seeing the incredibly gifted actress Glenn Close take one of the greatest female movie acting roles and bring it to the stage in the American premiere of Sunset Boulevard at the beautiful Gershwin Theatre part of the ABC Entertainment Complex in Century City in Los Angeles which unfortunately was demolished in 2002 and replaced with an ugly modern glass high rise--Ugh!
What an evening it was complete with a major set breakdown in the 2nd act about 15 minutes before the finale. It began when Betty (Judy Kuhn) and Joe (Alan Campbell) were working on their screenplay in the office at two desks. At the end of the scene one of the desks would not move off the stage and got stuck at the far right.
The scene continued with Glenn Close coming out on a bed being massaged. She sang but we couldn't see her since the desk was in front of her face and the stage hands continued to try and pull it off. Glenn didn't miss a beat in the scene.
Then the scene shifted back to the office but since the desk was still stuck on stage Joe & Betty just stood until it was time to take a stroll on the Paramount back lot together. The set then changed to fronts of buildings while they sang their song, "Too Much in Love To Care". As the building turned around to reveal marquees one of them got stuck on the desk which still hadn't been pulled off the stage. The whole set started moving back and forth as it turned but Judy Kuhn and Alan Campbell just kept on singing as if nothing was going wrong. If it had fallen on them someone would have been hurt seriously. When the scene ended the curtain came down and we heard the voice of Glenn Close say that obviously they were having problems and that they wanted to make sure we got our hard earned money's worth so the performance was being stopped for hopefully a short intermission.
For me I had already gotten my money's worth from all the great performances in the show--Campbell, Kuhn, George Hearn and Glenn Close. All together the set malfunction didn't diminish the fact that it was ***** show and performances for me.
#27Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 4:58pm
For me..
Joel Grey in ANYTHING GOES...for just the shear badness of seeing a Tony & Oscar winner ruining every moment he was involved with...
Norbert Leo Butz in IS HE DEAD?...for a performance that was the ultimate in masturbatory acting. I call that 'make a funny face' acting...it's all just cheap. That said I have really enjoyed everything else that I have seen him do.
#28Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 5:11pmI saw 9 to 5 in previews, and it was a technical disaster, and Allison Janney was a wreck as Violet. Also, Richard Kind as a repalcement in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a mess.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
rougeduck
Broadway Star Joined: 6/5/07
#29Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 5:31pm
For overall disasters, gonna have to go with Women on the Verge. Everyone just wasn't good and there were 2 hilarious bloopers!
There was a scene where Brian Stokes Mitchel was talking to Justin Guarini and in the middle of Guarini's line, Brian held up his finger and was like "Wait." then a random television moved across the stage...also at another point a building got tangled with a curtain or light or something stopping the scene.
Once again, the whole boring score/horrible pacing/completely underwhelming performances thing didn't help either.
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#30Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 5:39pm
In the revival of CAMELOT that played at Lincoln Center about 25 years ago (Christine Ebersole was Guinevere), Richard Burton was so filthy drunk that he wobbled about the stage calling out Merlin's name. In "I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight?" he was several beats behind the music. At the end of that number, someone dressed in a knight's costume came out and stood in front of Burton with his back to the audience. Obviously he was telling the actor something. He left and moments later the curtain came down with an announcement that Richard Burton was unable to continue with the performance. There would be a fifteen minute break and the show would resume with William Parry assuming the role of Arthur. Someone in the audience shouted out "Give Burton another drink" and the PA system quickly kicked on with an announcement that Burton had hurt his arm and was experiencing a reaction to Tylenol (Huh?)
We stayed for the show and William Parry was brilliant as Arthur.
The next day the newspapers were filled with stories about the event and it was learned that Burton had spent the afternoon drinking with Richard Harris.
We also got full refunds for our tickets.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
egghumor
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/9/11
#31Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:02pm
Hey, dollypop, thanks. Yeah, I remember all those stories cirulcating about Burton's performance at the time. How uncanny it was that Burton was ultimately (tour and Broadway of that production) by Richard Harris, who flailed and skidded (literally) and flounced himself through the performance of CAMELOT I witnessed months later. Clearly they both were doing it for the money, which in turn caused them to behave so contemptuously toward the show and audiences (far from one of my favorite musicals).
Updated On: 6/26/11 at 06:02 PM
Okayfine
Stand-by Joined: 6/2/08
#32Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:21pm
Wow. This thread is fascinating. The tuba story is still my favorite.
I guess I've seen so many technical problems it's hard to narrow it down, but there are many. A recent one is Nina Arianda getting her pegnoir caught on the stairs & falling, poor thing. The miracle of the thing is that it never happened until then.
Also saw a flying set piece in The Producers come unbuckled & swing wildly so that Broderick had to duck. I'm not sure it was all that close to him, but I would have ducked, too. That sucker was MOVING.
Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit ad-libbing until she could remember her lines or be prompted.
Stuff like that.
#33Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:27pm
Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit ad-libbing until she could remember her lines or be prompted.
I saw an open-captioned performance of Blithe Spirit. Let's just say that the words appearing on screen were not the words coming out of Ms Lansbury's mouth. 
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#34Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:29pmI was involved with a production of Beauty and the Beast where some sort of machine was used to lift the Beast during his transformation. But nobody knew how to operate it, so he fell numerous times, including opening night
Okayfine
Stand-by Joined: 6/2/08
#35Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:32pmGathering this wasn't a union production....
gypsy4
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/07
#36Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:48pmwhen I saw the Phantom tour there was a Mishap with the chandelier at the top of act one that led to a 10 minute delay it didn't rise during the Overture the actress playing Carlotta who was in character came right on to the stage singing her first note not noticing that the chandelier was right in front of her she took a look and ran right off.
PennybankBill
Stand-by Joined: 11/1/10
#37Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 6:59pmDollypop, are you talking about the same William Parry who originated the roles of the Boatman in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, The Proprietor in ASSASSINS, and Papa Mizner in ROAD SHOW?!
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#38Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 7:08pmYes, that's the same William Parry.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
#39Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 7:38pmWhen I saw the Aida tour, one of the museum set pieces got stuck in its track and wouldn't move. The stagehands came out to get it, but they had so much trouble with it that it was halfway through "Fortune Favors The Brave" before they finally wheeled it away. It was funny watching watching the cast dance around the crew and the totally out-of-place set piece. There was a round of applause mid-song when they finally got it out of there.
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
#40Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 8:43pm
I have two that I wouldn't call disasterous, but they were pretty bad:
1) Sherie Rene Scott in WOMEN ON THE VERGE...Let's just say I never realized Pepa was "americano".
2) Colman Domingo in CHICAGO...He has the slick ruthlessness that Billy Flynn requires, but could not sing "We Both Reached For The Gun" worth his salt. It definitely killed the performance for me to a degree,
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#41Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 8:48pm
I haven't seen a relatively large amount of shows so I don't have much to report, but Elaine Stritch's performance in NIGHT MUSIC was easily the most 'disastrous', there were line flubs, mistaken lines and audio prompts. Although this wasn't her first performance as previously reported, but near the end of the run (December) :P. Still, I enjoyed her performance a lot. It's a shame she didn't do a Lansbury in Blithe Spirit and Cook in Sondheim on Sondheim and have a earpiece/video feed or something..
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 6/26/11 at 08:48 PM
LegallyBroadway2
Broadway Star Joined: 8/19/10
#42Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:19pmDuring a scene in Hello Dolly at my high school, a performer on a stage extension around the orchestra moved her dress over the clarinet player's head during a song. To see him try to get out of there was hilarious. He was a teacher. As she danced the dress would liffftttt and he would frantically reached his lips to the instrument to pick up, then the dress would plop back down on his head. a riot. The last couple nights, he ducked during that song.
#43Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:29pm
I'm going to go with any performance of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark.
Game over
LegallyBroadway2
Broadway Star Joined: 8/19/10
#44Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:30pm
@Luner_onTheatre, I eat poop
Updated On: 6/26/11 at 10:30 PM
redmustang
Broadway Star Joined: 5/14/03
#45Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:38pmI once saw a high school production of Mame in Ohio. The only song in the show was "Mame" and the entire cast waved to family and friends the entire show. Without music, it ran close to 3 hours. I had to take a valium when I got home.
#46Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 11:25pm
Nothing will ever top this...
The guy's reaction "Well that's not good" is priceless.
And then just when you think all is well....well, just keep an eye on John.
Peter Pan set fail
#47Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/26/11 at 11:56pmqolbinau-I saw A Little Night Music 5 days before it closed, and Elaine Stritch still flubbed a lot then. I recall Bernadette and Katherine McNamara trying to give her hints.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
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#48Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/27/11 at 12:09am
The Peter Pan video never fails to make me laugh. Poor kids.
PS: this line from earlier: " Reeve entertained us with some harness tricks." Also made me laugh. Kinda hot too. 
#49Most Disastrous Performances?
Posted: 6/27/11 at 12:16am
It's a shame to know that Elaine Stritch had many nights where she flubbed lines terribly, but I must say that the two times I had the privilege to see her, she didn't flub her lines once. The worst it ever came to was she paused for a slight second at the beginning of act two for the line "We mustn't be seen sitting around like bohemians." Other than that, she was on her game.
I will say that the most blatant "I don't care" performance I've seen recently was Chester Gregory in Sister Act. He just stood around on stage, barely looking at anyone and pretty much just throwing his lines around. The only time he put in any effort was his one song. I'm sad to say that because he put in an effort for that one moment, the audience still gave him a big round of applause.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
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