Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
bwaybabe2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/5/08
#1Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/11/08 at 3:46amAfter the last post, I wonder how many accidents there have been involving the audience...? And which was the worst? You never hear much about this.
#2re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/11/08 at 3:55am
Not Broadway, but on the West End...
During the run of The Woman In Black, there were a reported 6 Fear Induced Heart Attacks. 1 of these fatal.
Not an accident, but an injury of sorts.
A little known fact is that in the original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth was Pan's FLAByrinth. Hmmmmmmm...glad they changed it.
bwaybabe2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/5/08
LePetiteFromage
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/19/08
bwaybabe2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/5/08
#5re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/11/08 at 4:25am
Sounds like the St. James is up for some serious maintenence...don't they keep up with this kind of potential hazard...? Makes you wonder...
Such a serious accident can wipe out their insurance!
AvenueQ_81
Understudy Joined: 5/28/06
#6re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/11/08 at 1:28pmI was in a perfomance of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and a light fell into a old lady's head. That was at the Hilton Theatre. It was the first row under the mezzanine. The old lady was part of an Oklahoma group of 30 or 40 people. She was bleeding terribly. The police came in and she was taken to the hospital. The show started 45 minutes late. It was terrible.
#7re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/11/08 at 3:10pm
In the early run of POTO when the chandelier "came down" one man had a heart attack. 
dramagirl487
Featured Actor Joined: 2/19/08
#8re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/11/08 at 11:51pmHARDLY a serious injury/accident but my school had nosebleed seats for Curtains and the entire time, bizzare objects from the lighting booth were falling on our heads. Including a coke can, a stress ball, a pen, and a bunch of scrap paper.
#9re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/11/08 at 11:53pm
I heard Patti ran out of scenery to chew on during GYPSY and starting chewing on an audience member's earlobe.
(I'm sorry y'all. I know Patti is great, but I couldn't help myself. She didn't deserve that, but that just came to me, and I wanted to put it down somewhere.)
#10re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 12:01am
dramarama, what was that show about/why was it so scary?
dramagirl- thats funny :-P
"I told you, NO Rodgers and Hammerstein!"- Bart Simpson
ShbrtAlley44
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/1/03
#11re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 12:05am
Dramagirl, were any of the students texting? Maybe the guys in the booth got fed up and started pelting you all 
bwaybabe2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/5/08
#13re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 1:05amI'm in with tobiasragg...anyone knows?
Idinster87
Understudy Joined: 2/12/08
#14re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 1:30am
Dramarama and Ohshizz,
I saw Woman in Black in london while on a high school trip a few years back. We had just seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the night before, and although we had been warned about the show being REALLY scary, we had no idea. It was probably the scariest show (movies included) I have ever seen. Everything about it...there were girls in our group who were crying during it. It's no surprise people had heart attacks. Yipes, indeed.
But still, the show was incredibly effective and it certainly met its objectives.
LePetiteFromage
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/19/08
#17re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 1:47am
Woman in Black- essentially, it's a ghost story. Don't want to ruin it or give away too much, but here's the basic plot:
A lawyer enlists an actor to perform a play regarding a mysterious woman in black. Through the performance and the interaction between the two men, the story of what happened in a secluded village in the marshes of England comes out into the open.
Here's the Wikipedia link, but just warning that it will give away the plot twists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_Black
#18re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 2:49amI don't care what the students were doing. That is just completely unprofessional. You'd think people working on a Broadway show would know better.
"I seem to have wandered into the BRAIN load-out thread... "
-best12bars
"Sorry I am a Theatre major not a English Major"
-skibumb5290
-best12bars
"Sorry I am a Theatre major not a English Major"
-skibumb5290
#19re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 4:25am
The Woman In Black is the scariest thing I have ever seen on stage. It's a ghost story, about a man, growing old, who has seeked the help of a young actor to help convey a horrible experience of his in the house of a deceased lady, while sorting out her legal matters (will, unfinished business). He becomes aware of a popular myth that says if you see this mysterious ghost, The Woman In Black, and the fatal impact she can if witnessed..
I don't wanna give away too much. It's a cast of 2 and a relatively short 80 min play, but it's a must see - for the use of sound and visual effects alone. It has some terrifying moments and - no joke - gets screams and shrieks out of every audience member, every performance. See it if you ever get a chance. Let's hope it comes to Broadway.
A little known fact is that in the original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth was Pan's FLAByrinth. Hmmmmmmm...glad they changed it.
Updated On: 5/12/08 at 04:25 AM
#20re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 4:57am
A very good friend of mine, Nicki, was the the very first actress to play 'the woman' in the original production of 'The Woman In Black' in London for its first 2 years. She says to this day that it was the best fun she has ever had in a show. Almost on a daily basis audience members were walking out because they couldn't handle the immense tension that builds up. Any stories of people having heart attacks etc during the performance are entirely true!!!
A young actress with Noel coward after a dreadful opening night performance said to him 'Well, i knew my lines backwards this morning!''
Noels fast reply was ''Yes dear, and thats exactly how you said them tonight'!'
#21re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 5:20pmThe poster scares me.
A little known fact is that in the original screenplay, Pan's Labyrinth was Pan's FLAByrinth. Hmmmmmmm...glad they changed it.
ShbrtAlley44
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/1/03
#22re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/12/08 at 5:30pm
TheActr, I was kidding. But I wouldn't put it past them. You'd think people attending a Broadway show would know better, but they don't.
The Woman in Black was quite scary, but I was disappointed that I didn't find it scarier. I suppose I've become jaded over the years. I did get a little freaked out at night, though!
andsym9001
Stand-by Joined: 5/16/08
#23re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/16/08 at 8:45pmi can understand why people with heart problems would have trouble getting through that show. i slept with every light and tv on that night with a bat by my bed.
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#24re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/16/08 at 8:50pmWhen my aunt saw THE BOY FROM OZ four separate people had to be taken out at four separate times during the show due to heat stroke. Apparently the A.C. wasn't working that day.
andsym9001
Stand-by Joined: 5/16/08
#25re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/16/08 at 8:50pmthis girl who saw phantom told me that right before intermission and the chandelier falls she heard a "AHHHHHHHHH ****!!!!" from someone in the audience some lady had gotten up in the dark and literally broken her leg. so the chandelier did not go down until they got her out.
#26re: Most serious Broadway audience accident...?
Posted: 5/17/08 at 7:16am
'The Woman In Black' is a seriously beautiful and wonderful play. I didn't sleep properly for a month after I saw it, and I still get shivery walking around on my own after dark in case I see her. I used to get frightened of all manner of horror movies and video games, but since 'The Woman In Black', things just haven't been the same. I'm still trying desperately to find something that frightens me as much, but no luck so far.
Read the original novel by Susan Hill. Honestly, it's not as scary as the play, Stephen Mallatratt is a magnificent story-teller, but the play is a most faithful adaptation. Also, I ADORE that Susan Hill dedicated her recent ghost story 'The Man In The Picture' to the memory of Mallatratt.
I have got to get me some 'Woman In Black' going again. Three times just isn't enough. :3
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