My Favorite Apocryphal* Broadway Stories
1. Ethel Merman brought her own food for Hello Dolly’s dinner scene. Sometimes it was a lavish banquet, sometimes it was as simple as a tuna sandwich. She would eat it like she normally would. The audience went wild.
2. Outraged by The Producers, a couple of members of The Anti-Defamation League threw tomatoes at Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick during opening night. Ever the professional, Nathan Lane picked up a tomato and said “Look, Leo, we really are PRODUCE-rs!” The audience erupted in applause.
3. In one performance of Phantom of the Opera, a masked man jumped on stage and destroyed the set during “Masquerade.” The audience thought it was part of the show. The actors thought it was a joke. No one stopped him. For the next hour, he continued to demolish the set, then exited the theater. To this day, no one knows who it was.
4. When Les Mis premiered in London, there was concern that the French would be “unsympathetic.” The entire preview period was dedicated to trying out different nationalities and even some fictional ones. Eventually, they thought of a solution: the show takes place in France nominally, but everyone has British accents.
5. In an embarrassing mix-up, Barbara Cook sang “Vanilla Ice Cream” instead of “Glitter and Be Gay” during a performance of Candide.
6. Arthur Laurents went to his grave believing that Anyone Can Whistle flopped because a mysterious cloaked figure asked him for money and, in a rush, Laurents walked right on by. From that point on, the show descended into madness.
7. During a performance of the 2009 revival of Waiting For Godot, an unruly heckler shouted profanities at stars Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin. Ever the professional, Nathan Lane shouted “Wait, I think I hear Godot! Nevermind, it’s just a drunk asshole!” The audience erupted in applause.
8. Many of the actors in the original CATS went too method and would relieve themselves on stage. Some of the actors playing older cats, such as Skimbleshanks and Munkustrap, knew to use litter boxes, while others playing the “kittens” knew that their characters would not be litter-trained yet and went in the middle of the stage. It made the choreography more difficult but more authentic.
9. The Church of Latter-Day Saints originally pushed for real Mormons to be cast in The Book of Mormon but then they saw Andrew Rannells and backed off.
10. Daniel Massey had to learn how to read and write for the role of Georg Nowack.
11. In one performance of Avenue Q, Princeton’s head fell off. The quick-thinking actors improvised the rest of the show to be the dramatic fall out of his death, his funeral, and the symbolic gentrification of their neighborhood.
12. In one production of Anything Goes, Nathan Lane’s costume unraveled leaving him completely naked. Ever the professional, Nathan Lane said “Wow, I guess anything does go!” The audience went wild.
13. The lighting director of A Chorus Line forgot to turn the lights off at the end of the show. The cast was stuck in a kick line for hours and the audience remained in their seats.
14. The propmaster inThe Music Man delivered the instruments too early, thus ending the show.
15. During a performance of Little Shop of Horrors, one of the ensemble members’ hand was sliced off by a malfunctioning prop. Ever the professional, Nathan Lane exclaimed “Looks like we got a little shop of horrors right here!” The audience went wild.
16. Jason Robert Brown did not like an actor playing Jaime in a local theatre production of The Last Five Years in Westchester, so he pushed him off stage and took over the role.
17. Nathan Lane was rocked by scandal: accusations that he was paying people to heckle shows he was in so that he could make puns about it in response. For months, no one would work with him. Finally, he made his triumphant return to the stage and to tremendous entrance applause announced “The Iceman is here!”
*totally made up right now by me
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