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Hey Pandas, What Was Your Funniest Theater Fail You’ve Witnessed Or Preformed In? (Closed)
Sooo, I created an earlier post asking the same thing and I utterly failed...miserably, so I might as well ask again (*laughs*) the funniest theater fail, go!
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I was on stage crew in our middle school performance of Freaky Friday. In the middle of one of our last rehearsals, the lead role had trouble in the middle of her costume change, and the microphone, which was clipped to her pants, fell out. A couple of helpful stage crew members rushed forward to help her, and forgetting that she was still mic'd, she whispered "just shove it down my pants", referring to the mic pack. Thankfully, it wasn't during a performance, but that sure got a laugh out of everyone.
Okay, so I saw a play in memory of the savoy club. They were doing the jump- dancing? Totally forgot what it’s called, but it’s like, when you dance really fast , especially your feet are moving fast. They were twirling actor 2 in the air, spinning her, but they slipped and hit their face. They had a bloody nose + Pretended like it never happened. I feel bad XD
Personally, I was in the theater tech for a performance of bye bye birdie (already hilarious) and there were some mixups in actors and relationships, complicated as all get out, so I was sitting there minding my own business, and a prop was being used at that time, curtain was dropping, everyone was getting back behind the curtain before it started closing, blah blah blah, turned out a single actor completely forgot where the curtain dropped and was stranded outside with a rolling (and heavy) prop, stopped, straightened his posture, turned around and said so, how is everyone's day going? That was really ducking smooth like wow.
Once in a school musical I was in, one of the main characters slipped and fell off the stage. She landed on one of the trombone players. She played it off and kept singing but man, she had a bruise on her face for a while since she whacked her head on the trombone pretty hard.
This actually isn't a fail (quite the opposite) but every time I remember it, I laugh, so figured I'd post it.
My grandmother used to take me, my brother and all my cousins to see a pantomime every Christmas and one of the first years I remember was Cinderella. We were seated in the front row of the second tier, so not the floor seats but the next balcony up and so, we had a great view. Before the show started, Granny bought all of us (with the exception of my brother who didn't want one) sparkly wands and tiaras that were being sold as merchandise. Well, my youngest cousin looked down into the crowd below as we were waiting for the show to start and the tiara fell off her head and onto someone else's below. Luckily he smiled and realising what had happened, tried to throw it back up to her. Cue a ten minute charade of my grandmother trying and failing to catch this tiara as other people realised what happened and also threw it up to her. Whenever she missed it, everyone in the theatre would go 'awww!' and no matter where it landed, the next person who picked it up did the same. Finally it feels like the entire theater is watching my gran when suddenly, she finally catches it and the theater literally ERUPTED into cheers and applause! The show started 5 minutes later but I think my gran was definitely the warm-up act that got the crowd going!
I was in a show that was actually more like a summer camp, where you rehearse for a week or two and then you perform it. We were in the middle of performing, and one of the actors forgets her line. Like, completely blanks. And the worst part is that no one tried to help her. They all just stared at her while she tried to remember. I still cringe about it to this day.
Amateur improve group. First public appearance. The four of us on stage were doing pretty well. Until I gave a cue to a team member that he reacted to by jumping up into my arms. Like head and shoulders on one arm, knees draped over the other. He was like 6'1", 160ish. Me, 6', 130 lb woman. Straight to the ground. Hard. We started laughing so hard we couldn't get up. Neither was seriously injured.
A choir of six and seven year olds were walking off stage when a little girl tripped and rolled down the steps. The audience laughed
I was the one messing up. I was on a “phone call” and I said my name instead of another characters name
I was a props master for the music man. Near the end, when Marion was supposed to meet Harold Hill in the garden, she missed her cue and Marcellus and Hill had to cover for her, which meant an in-character argument over whether the costume for another character was green or blue (it was green)
Not theater, but a dance performance. There was a bunch of us that had to wear tank tops and skirts. The group isn't really well funded, so some of the clothes fit better than others. There was a girl that was wearing a looser fitting top. Partway through the dance, in front of everyone, her boob popped out through the side. She was not wearing a bra. I still feel really bad for her. :S
So back at my old school there would be a LOT of drama productions. I vividly remember one time in 5th or 6th grade when we were rehearsing — mind you I only had like 7 lines — was following my stage directions and I’m pretty sure I broke part of the stage. How I managed to do so? No clue. It was really embarrassing bc the ENTIRE 5th-8th grades laughed at me but the show was a hit. And to be honest, I rlly wanna go back to that day again and do it all over.
A friend of mine was wearing a mic pack during a show, and it was turned up too loud. You could hear him breathing, and it was really loud 😂😂
TDLR: My old lady weave got snatched
I (my character) has a scene where I turn around and get startled/jump scared by the main antagonist. My reaction is supposed to be somewhat exaggerated because I’m an old British handmaiden and we scare easily. The problem here is: I have a giant absolute unit of a wig on. I’m talking an auburn poofball on top of my head + a frilly cap on top of that.
So anyway, during this scene one night, I turned out and “got jump scared” by the villain, meaning I physically jump and lurch backward. Evidently I did not have nearly enough Bobby pins in my hair… because my entire wig, cap and all, went flying backwards off the stage. My poor friend (the angry serious villain) was trying so hard not to laugh. I ended up whipping off my wig cap and continuing the scene with a frantic flourish of my not-very-old-lady hairdo. Tale of Two Cities was a heII of a show.
I was a tech member for a high school performance of murder on the orient express. During a performance, a prop was put into the wrong pocket of a costume. The other actor had to find it, but it took him a few seconds. The audience thought it was hilarious! 😂
Romeo and Juliet in an Open Air theatre. 'it is the nightingale and not the lark' and in exact this Moment a duck started to quack. The Timing was hillarious.
So… I once was watching a ballet school performance of the nutcracker. All the dancers where in their early teens. The dancer that was playing Clara fell down, dropped a *real* candle and managed to set her dress on fire. All during an opening scene. Yeah, it was a disaster
I was recently in "murder on the 518" (a mystery with some comedy) and it didn't go on with out a hitch. (I played one of the 9 lead roles.) The funniest fail though was that one of the other actors is really colorblind and so they ended up wearing two different colored shoes. One was blue and grey and the other was red and white.
First time I was in a production of Macbeth, Macduff's sword broke mid-fight. The actor just stared at the bladeless hilt for a solid 20 seconds until someone handed him a new sword from the wings, lady-in-the-lake style.
We had a mix of monologues we were preforming ( called A bowl of Soup) and the tech crew lowered the lights too early so our last line was "beef stew" instead of... memories? I think? But it was super funny and it became an inside joke for the rest of the year
We had a mix of monologues we were preforming ( called A bowl of Soup) and the tech crew lowered the lights too early so our last line was "beef stew" instead of... memories? I think? But it was super funny and it became an inside joke for the rest of the year
