Click to return to History Page:
'Funny Moments'
Click to return to History Page:
IT'LL BE ALRIGHT ON THE NIGHT - OR WILL IT!!!
CAROUSEL : 1957
A Stage Manager's worst nightmare - the carousel hadn't arrived! All was not lost, the enterprising leading man 'borrowed' a lorry and drove to the Rail Goods Yard to collect both carousel and all the horses!
OKLAHOMA : 1964
A 'too early' stage cue brought down the gauze for 'Dream Ballet' too early, resulting in Curly being one side and Laurey being the other. Panic!
A horse was used in this show, very impressive - until it decided to do what horses do naturally in the middle of the leading man's opening song! An enterprising member of the male chorus hurried on stage with fire bucket and shovel and proceeded to remove the offending matter. The loudest applause that night was when he took his bow complete with bucket and shovel!
KISS ME KATE : 1964
Male dancers had to wear red elastic cat suits for one number in this show. Proved to be a real problem for one of them, who couldn't make his entrance one night! The reason why will remain a secret between those involved!!
CAROUSEL : 1966
The Producer left the rehearsal hall after announcing the cast for this production of Carousel, only to be faced by an irate member of the Society revving her car and aiming it towards him. Luckily there was a low wall nearby! She obviously wasn't happy with the casting!
CAMELOT : 1967
Lancelot, wearing a full suit of gold armour, fell over during the fight sequence and couldn't get up. He had to be dragged off stage into the wings. Not a pretty sight!
GUYS AND DOLLS : 1968
During the duet between Adelaide and Nathan, Adelaide was required to pull his hat down in mock temper. She got carried away in one performance and pulled it down over his eyes, getting it well and truly stuck. Several minutes were spent trying to pull it off, with Nathan nearly falling into the orchestra pit.
NEW MOON : 1969
Over zealous use of smoke led to the entire cast wandering around bumping into each other trying to find their way off stage.
HALF A SIXPENCE : 1973
Never work with animals! During the opening scene, Kipps took the 'shop cat' to the USC door, opened door - delivering dialogue about putting him outside - at which the cat leaped out of his arms and ran downstage and off into the wings.
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF : 1973
People got so carried away during the final scene in the first half, when the 'wedding breakfast' is broken up by Russians smashing crockery, that plates etc. were flying everywhere. One landed in the orchestra pit, hitting the M.D. and giving him a nasty cut on the head.
PINK CHAMPAGNE : 1974
Again, never work with animals! Princess Orlofski entered on the US rostra with two large Borzoi dogs for her big entrance. One dog fell off the back, pulling the other and the Princess out of sight. Needless to say, there was only one dog used thereafter.
VIVA MEXICO : 1975
One of the principals got totally lost near the end of one performance and said the wrong line. Unfortunately, this was picked up by the other principals - resulting in the next twelve pages of dialogue being missed out! The poor prompt was seen wandering around backstage frantically turning pages in the Lib. trying to find out where everyone had ended up. The audience must have left the theatre totally confused that night because not only did the missing dialogue bring the whole story together, it also brought in the hero to 'save the day'.
VAGABOND KING : 1979
One of the men in the chorus bought his wife to watch the dress rehearsal - not a very good idea! She obviously didn't like what she saw because he didn't come back for opening night and was never seen again!
This caused some problems because in one scene all the men were required to hold 'cut out trees' at various points of the stage, with the ladies hiding behind them. One of the stage crew volunteered to don the costume and stand in for this scene. All was well until he took his glasses off just before entering and couldn't find his way on stage! The 'author' and another lady in the chorus suddenly found themselves with a panic stricken young lady desperately trying to fit in behind their tree before the curtain opened on the scene. Needless to say, it was a very tight fit and you can be sure not much singing was done by the three ladies concerned during the song that performance!
CAROUSEL : 1984
There must be hundreds of misquoted lines in a Society's history, my favourite is from this show, when a member of the ladies chorus referred to Billy Bigalow on stage as 'BILLY BIG BELOW!'
CAMELOT : 1990
Again, over zealous use of smoke caused problems. It was during the 'rescue of Guineverre' when Lancelot ran across the stage, jumped on the rostrum and picked Guineverre up in his arms to carry off to safety. Unfortunately he couldn't see a thing when he ran across the stage to exit SL and didn't notice one of the chorus had laid in his path. Lancelot fell over, Guineverre shrieked and, although he managed to pick them both up - the Stage Manager spent the next day repairing Lancelot's armour and poor Guineverre spent the rest of the week rubbing witch hazel into her derriere!
SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS : 1989
One of the 'brothers' got over excited one night when carrying his 'bride' off stage. He swung her round and hit her head on a brick wall. As she had a blanket over her head at the time, she must have wondered what on earth was happening to her. Like a true trooper, she carried on the rest of the show, albeit with a splitting headache and concussion.
Click to return to History Page:
Author:
Mary Meredith
Owners: IODS Executive Committee