Calling for Phantom Show Goofs, Gaffes, and other Fun Stories!

Always fun to read about bloopers... Here's two I ran across today, in Mia Karlsson's blog:

The worst thing that has happened to me was when I pulled a muscle in my calf just one minute before my entrance as Christine in Phantom of the Opera. She is supposed to dance as she comes in and I could’t stand on my left leg. That was a very special show…. Or when the mirror fell with Christine (not me) and Phantom still in it.
http://miakar.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/interview/

When I saw the 24th anniversary performance there were some little mishaps. First of all they must had managed to get all to much smoke out from the smoke machine, because I've been in front row before but never before have I had to cough and really try to clear the smoke out of my face. People next to me were coughing and for a while you really couldn't see The Phantom and Christine on stage. It was like, where are you?, oh there you are After a while the smoke cleared and we could see them

During MOTN Scott stepped on Sofia's dress and for a while I thought, uh oh, we gonna hear it rip apart now. He was standing on it and Sofia started to turn around to face him, when she did that you could see dress stretch out and I thought if she moves to much they now will rip the dress. But at the last moment Scott stepped away and it was all ok. Actually, I'm not sure they might even had noticed what had just happened because Scott had the mask covering half of his face and a bright spotlight on the other side of his face, so he might not have had a great vision And Sofia was facing the audience so she might not have seen, unless she felt it, what happened to the dress.

In the final lair something went wrong with the magical lasso, Scott didn't manage to get it around Will's neck. It might have been that Will tried to move away to quickly and then Scott missed him. They had to do without it and they covered it up pretty good but then of course nobody could move the rope so it had to stay there on the stage throughout the rest of the scene. It sort of got in the way for the actors, Scott almost ran into it a couple of times.

David Gaines:
"I played Raoul for about four months on Broadway and broke my ankle jumping off the bridge. I finished that show on my knees.”

While Gaines broke his ankle early on in New York, finishing the show on his knees, he also succumbed to food poisoning one night, stranding Christine to finish “All I Ask of You” without him.

http://www.lastagetimes.com/2010/10/phantom-of-the-opera-tour-ends-two-decade-run/

operafantomet wrote:

http://www.lastagetimes.com/2010/10/phantom-of-the-opera-tour-ends-two-decade-run/

Interesting article. I didn't know that Davis Gaines auditioned for LND.

Hello, all!

As you may know, I (on and off again) run the website A Lamentable Mess, which is a repository for flubbed lines, prop/wardrobe malfunctions, technical failures, amusing anecdotes, backstage antics, and any other fun and memorable stories associated with official Phantom productions around the world.

I've, rather shamefully, neglected the site for a few years but I have just added a few stories from a small backlog of emailed submissions and I'm ready to accept new submissions.

I'm sure board members have a ton of fun stories to share, so please go to the website: http://www.freewebs.com/lamentablemess/ and follow the instructions on the 'Submit' page http://www.freewebs.com/lamentablemess/submissions.htm to send in your stories.

In particular, we need more stories from Las Vegas (should be no trouble getting those around here!), Canada, Europe, Asia, Mexico/Spain, and Other Countries. I'll be adding some of the flubs I know of from the 25th RAH Performances and also the recent Opening Night 'disaster' at Cape Town, South Africa, as well.

I'd also like to ask if anyone would be interested if I created a mailing list to notify for updates to the ALM site. As the site is currently arranged, I tend to shuffle in submissions in chronological order of when they occurred (as opposed to when they were submitted) according to production location. Would it be helpful if I placed a sign-up form on the website that will be used for an email list in which I'll send out all newly-posted stories each time I update the site?

Hope to hear from you and thanks for your patience and support!

~Madame~

If I can find the reference on the incident from Denmark where the "mirror" back tipped over and fell during the first bars of the title song - WITH the Phantom and Christine - I will SO send it to you...

As for new entries, what about have a ticker or similar on the front page, telling what is new?

ETA: merged two topics.

I merged an elder topic with the recent requests for bloopers. The mirror mishap from Copenhagen is there, plus a few other goodies!

EarlFan wrote:

operafantomet wrote:

http://www.lastagetimes.com/2010/10/phantom-of-the-opera-tour-ends-two-decade-run/

Interesting article. I didn't know that Davis Gaines auditioned for LND.

Yeah, he didn't make it because he was too talented and too old to play the Phantom 13 years after he last played it in the original show.

AL: Phantom is full of special effects and technical surprises. Do you have a tale to tell of any mishap during a performance?

RA: There was a performance when the chandelier didn't fly out. I was so busy preparing for my opening cadenza I didn't know until I got on stage. Apparently the stage manager had been gesturing to me from the wings not to go on stage, but I was oblivious. I walked on, singing, carried on until the end, at the same time walking around the chandelier on the floor.

When I finished, the stage manager came on stage and stopped the show. So I had to go off while they sorted it! It was all to do with the air conditioning being installed in the theater apparently, someone hadn't switched a simple switch back on. So it didn't take too long to sort out. Then I had to come back on and sing the cadenza again. The audience went wild. It was a matinee day too!

http://accesslondon.blogspot.com/search/label/Rosemary%20Ashe