[musicalsrokmysox]

write your funny bloopers for your preformance of west side story

my school did west side story last spring and we had some funny bloopers:

lets just start with the fact that our casting was completely crazy. we had a double casted maria, i'll call them maria A and B, but maria A was also anita B. and whenever one of the three girls didn't have a lead, she played francisca

*pretty much none of the jet girls could remember the cool dance properly, so we all wound up doing different steps at different times.
*second night, little john forgot to bring his comic book on stage so the whole officer krupkee scene was done without a newspaper to hit ppl over the head with
*after tony died, during the line "don't you touch him!", maria A flung herself so hard on tony that he jumped
*second night, the line "i know you do" during america was never said by francisca C (anita A)
*first night, maria A (who was playing maria that night) came to the show with a sprained ankle, so the whole somewhere scene had to be improve restaged so that she wouldn't have to run
*second night, consuello came with a sprained ankle, so basically, if you were to look at ppl's feet, you would see 2 girls with bandages on, and who aren't really dancing, more swinging in place.
*during cool, we decide dthat during the second verse we weren't going to sing "go man go but not like a yoyo school boy" we just sang the part before, danced during that part and then sang again during "just play it cool boy". problem was that everynight a bunch of ppl forgot and they would sing the line that they weren't supposed to. luckily, most of the m weren't miced.
*our cool scene was cut down so that there would be less dancing, it cut straight from the "cool! go! crazy! cool! go! go!!!" to the next verse, and that was the pert where everyone was supposed to sing, but nobody really knew when to start so it was sortof "...mmmoy, crazy boy"
*anita, bernardo, riff, tony and maria all had lava mics (not sure i spelled that right, for those who don't know, they're small mics that are very good and are attached over your ear to sortof your cheek). so when bernardo comes in during the firt scene with anita nad maria, he kisses anita hello on the cheek, and he kissed to close to the mic. the sound it made echoed through the whole room for like 30 seconds, very funny
*second night (cursed night), a huge hole broke in the middle of the stage during the overture. our chino nearly fell off, was saved by bernardo. this hole created many more problems:
*ppl steped in in and tripped
*our tony steped on one side of the loose plank and the other end went
flying up
*while trying to avoid the hole, half the girls during america did the
wrong dance segments
*our whole war council scene had to be moved up stage center since
the hole was right where the main table was supposed to be (the
hole was down-stage center).
*some of the guys had to do sort of balle jumps to avoid falling into the
hole
*during the promenad during the dance at the gym, we got completely
off beat and i (i played velma) didn't have time to step forward to the
front of the stage to do the "i'm not dancing with bernardo" face,
bernardo realized we were off and already streched out his hand to
catch anita, and action already streched out his hand to catch me, so
the whole thing resulted in a huge crash and a quick run to the other
side of the stage. wow that scene got way messed up that night
*i don't know if you're aware of this, but the note at the end of i feel pretty is very wierd, and i must say, most ppl, even really talented singers. can't sing it very well. so basically everytime i feel pretty was preformed, no matter of by maria A or B, te note sounded way off
*this wasn't really a blooper, but it was funny. during our preview show, our doc had to leave during intermission to go give a speech somewhere, so our riff (who died in the previous act) became our doc. it was hillarious to watch, i think the audience wou;dn't have noticed if it wasn't for the fact that riff has really short hair while doc had sortof an afro.

i must say that this was one of the shows with the least mess ups that i've ever been in. it's just the hole that will never leave our memories. we talked to our stage manager through the headset but he thought we were exaturating and that he whoel wasn't really that big, and refused to cut to intermission before america )which came before officer krupkee, both big dance numbers). when he finally saw the hoel he apoligized to everyone for not believing us. luckily the hole was fixed for tony's death, which had to be downstage centre and had a spotlight that wasn't movable fixed there. our director had no idea why we were restaging all the scenes and the audience couldn't even tell we were messing up or that there was something wrong, so i guess we handled it pretty well...i loved west side

[acting=life]

*our action got way off in gee, officer krupke, so the whole song was sort of umm bad.
*the 1st night when tony was singing maria the music played like 5 different songs before it started, then it stopped in the middle, he handles it well tho, he kept saying"maria, maria"
*me(riff)hehe, forgot to tell doc to pass out the cokes to everyone, so doc is standing there holding all these cokes, and i'm like OH doc cokes all around, lol.
*a lot of people missed their cues
*our tony's voice broke in one hand/one heart
*at the school dance both cirlcles are supposed to be doing the same dance at one point, but the PR's were doing it at the wrong time.
*our chino was supposed to punch tony in the rumble, before the all-out fight happens, but she totally missed and it looked REALLY fake.
*our anita's voice broke in i have a love and america
*Half of each gang really got punched in the rumbles, i had a huge welt on my face, and so did bernardo
*snowboy's bloodied makeup was really messed up, he looked like a guy with makeup on.
(that's about it tho, people had some very nice saves tho, and it was an amazing show and cast)

[Ulla Dance Again!]

During dress rehearsal I missed my cue because I couldn't find a bobby pin to keep my mic in place. So when I came out, I couldn't say my line right away because I had clearly missed my entrance. My friend, who played Action, then improvised a scene, covering over my abscence - it went something like "Oh there she is. She was probably in the bathroom. Y'know how women are."

I was Doc, by the way, but we changed the name to "Mrs. B" (still the same character).


Another time at rehearsal, I slapped Tony a little too hard and he fell off the stool. Needless to say, I felt awful but everyone else got a kick out of it.

[bwayluvor31]

I love hearing other people's catastrophe stories, here are mine for WSS.

*Our Tony and Bernardo had a real fight before the show and Tony stabbed Bernardo so hard that the prop knife broke in two and went flying into the audience.
*During "Dance at the Gym", the CD skipped, and we missed the whole circle dance, after which everyone was so confused, it was a miracle we made it to the next scene.
*While dancing on the balcony waiting for Tony (I was Maria), [note, the set left just enought room for me to stand without touching the ceiling], I spun around too fast and my head went right throught the plastic tiles of the roof resulting in the tile falling down on me.
*During "Cool", [I doubled as a swing] I had to climb over the barbwire fence and my black tights ripped right down the middle exposing quite a bit of me to the audience.

Others as well, but not as big, and only amusing if you know the actors.

[Jekkienumber24601]

this wasn't my production, but a friend told me that one night in his the chino forgot the gun to shoot tony. so through his amazing improv skills he pulled his boot off and threw it at tony shouting "Poison Boot!"

Tony gave him a "are you serious?" look and died. Maria then proceeded to do her speech saying "is there enough boot left for you or me?"

[musicalsrokmysox]

first off, that is so increadibly hillarious, i actually started laughing so hard that my sister came in the room to see what's going on.

second, i actually forgot the most emberassing blooper of all:
on the day of our first show (we do three) we do a preview show in the morning to the sixth graders from the feeder elementary school (btw, i'm from montreal, it goes k-6 then 7-11, no grade 12, no middle school). i don't remember which maria it was, but it was anita A (who caused most of the bloopers concerning anita). and it was the first time we were doing the show in full, complete cotumes and props, no stopping in the middle for anything.

the way we had the quintet set up was that during anita's bit, she was on sort of a platform that was like 7 or 8 feet off the ground. so she's there and she's getting all sexy and stuff for bernardo for when he returns from the rumble. so anita wore sort of this short skirt and corset thing and was supposed to put her leg up on the chair and sort of stroke it (in the movie, anita puts on socks, that's how close we go to it). so she put up her upstage leg and it wouldn't have been a problem if she was wearing shorts under the skirt. she was turned towards the jets, so all of us (plus the cute little innocent 6th graders, got a nice look at her thong and what not. quite hillarious, she could not have turned redder when we told her.

wow, i still can't get over the poison boot...

[snowhite880]

I was Anita(Maria u/s) in WSS in August. It was a great show, even though I never got to perform as Maria. Anyway, on our second show
we were in the middle of the Tony death scene, and Chino had just shot Tony. Normally, there was supposed to be pre-recorded gunshot, but that day the sound people were talking, so one of them forgot to push the gunshot sound button, and they ended up pushing it like 50 seconds to late. basically it went like this. "Hold my hand and we're halfway there, Hold my hand and I'll take you (BOOM!). Then, our Chino(who was a complete moron) goes "Oh F**k." and our choir mic. amplified it aroud the theatre. This all happened on a matinee in front of a bunch of grandparents and little kids. I could practically see the directors eyes bulge out of her head. It was somewhat funny, but when it actually happened I felt like I wanted to sink into the stage.

[mistocopat]

In the production I saw tony's shoe came off as he ran off stage at the end of "Maria". Once the lights had gone down he came out and picked it up.

[bwayluvor31]

I can't stop laughing at poison boot and late gun shot!
I just hit the desk really loudly and my mom screamed, then couldn't understand why I was so hysterical.

[Fyra]

My brother played A-Rab (I was too young to be in the production, but I attended rehearsals as a "cheerleader") a couple years back. He sustained so many injuries during that show...

Toward the beginning, when he gets beat up, the Sharks were supposed to grab his arms and legs and swing him. Well, one rehearsal, they swung too hard and he went flying into one of the "brick" walls upstage. They also actually punched him by accident, and he had a gigantic black eye for the next week of rehearsals.

Another time, during one of the dances, he had to do a belly-slide, but he slid too far and flew right off the stage.

(Those were just during rehearsals; I don't remember if anything happened during the actual shows.)

[Salome]

years back I saw a local production of the show. their Tony was violently ill backstage and never came out for tghe final scene where he gets shot by Chino. to the audiences horror, and amusement..chino shot maria instead!! LMAO

[What Is This Feeling?]

LOL you are joking, correct?

[Salome]

No! dead serious.. my stoqmach hurt so much from laughing i thought i was dying LOL

[NoOneMournsTheWicked]

[Nick Tamila]

Wow! I'm scared now after reading all of those! I've just got the role of Bernardo in WSS. I hope I dont have anything else to write in here after we perform ours!

[SeiryuuNoMiko]

This did not happen to me, but to my violin teacher.

Years ago, she was playing in the pit of a WWS college production and during a fight scene, one of the actors lost control of his knife (not sure if it was real or a prop) and it flew down almost an inch from the scroll of her violin. Naturally she was really upset! Especially because she's a professional, and her violin is really old and valued for major $$$$$.

[Sam I Am]

When I played Maria at the end of the show when she is pointing the gun at the gangs and then breaks down and then drops the gun well when the gun hit the stage it went off. One of the techs must have put an extra blank in the gun that night and the impact of the gun to the stage floor set it off. Well it not only made the audience jump, but the performers as well including Tony who was to be dead. We all had a good laugh about it after the performance.

[Dancediva19]

[metaphor17]

Okay, the "poison boot" thing is pretty much killing me... I'm laughing soooo hard...


Also, the late gunshot and the whole Chino shooting Maria thing...

[Webster]

The poison boot thing is a total myth. Hilarious, but a myth.

I played Chino once. I got my gun in a rehearsal and practiced firing it. Little did I know that gun powder sprayedout of the top to give the smell and look of an actual gunshot. HOT gun powder. 1st degree burns on my face. Missed three rehearsals.

[NoOneMournsTheWicked]

I don't care if it's a myth, I told everyone in my cast the poison boot thing. Now it's like a cast joke. We all love it.

[Little_Fall_of_Rain]

When I did West Side Story regionally, we had SO many blooppers. On the first night of the show, during the scene with Tony and Maria on the bed, the nightmare like scene, the bed broke in half.

Chino during the second weekend of the shows, fell during the prologue and hurt his knee and had to leave. We had to find a someone who could play the role by the next scene almost, luckily we had amazing actors who picked up on the roles really fast.

And on the last weekend, during the cool dance- I was Anybody's, when the guys were dancing, I ended up popping my left foot out of place. I had to miss the rumble, which I had a huge part in. Everyone was pushing me to go straight to the hosptial because they thought I tore my tendens. I couldn't leave though so I continued the show with my foot wrapped up in tape and a crutch we found. I was so embrassessed, but everyone thought it was part of the show until the end, when the director annouced that I had been injured and still continued on. I got carried off stage.

During a few shows we had interruptions from cellphones over the microphone, one was froma voicemale, man saying, "Young blonde with blue eyes." It was hilarious.

[Jekkienumber24601]

I trust the person who told me about the poison boot thing. This is coming from a guy who during pimpernel called me a "platypus". Tried to get Percy's men to break character backstage and when Margurite aksed him to help Percy he said "I can't there's still too many spiders" I think "poison boot" is kinda mild enough to actually believe.

[Bianca.]

OHMG SALOME THAT'S HILARIOUS!!


how'd they play it off from there?!?!

[alex591]

Haaa! Poison Boot! And wow he shoots Maria! lol! thats funny!

[NoOneMournsTheWicked]

Here's a new one:

The gun didn't go off. Opening night. Chino runs onstage, me and Tony are preparing to hit the floor...and *click click*. Chino looks at the gun. I freeze up and Tony goes "No, Chino, don't, please, don't." *click click* "Chino, please, you've got it wrong, Chino" *click click* "Chino, you don't understand!" *click click* (from backstage) *The gayest sounding "BANG" you'll ever hear*. A pause, and then Tony goes down. I did the finale to an audience in hysterics.

[Salome]

rule number one..always have a back up pistol for someone to shoot backstage.

[NoOneMournsTheWicked]

[Radames's_Angel]

we had a sound effect shot and Chino went to shoot and it didn't go off, then Tony died like he was supposed to and in the middle fo the next scene the sound effect went off, and Maria pretended to shoot off into nowhere, nice save by her but it was very amusing

[MaryMag]

I bet there are so many WSS bloopers caused by the gun not going off! We have like 3 backup plans. We have a sound effect at the ready, we have a back up gun... thank goodness we haven't needed it yet.

There are so many bloopers from my production of WSS, but they're all stupid dancing issues. Like Nardo dropped me in one of the lifts, I tripped him in the mambo... I'm gonna upload the video clips so yall can see em. Pretty funny.

[rcs]

[suzy_09]

We didn't have too many "bloopers" per say, more like, accidents.
*first, everyone and their mom has had a chino gun firing accident as far as I can tell. We did too, but only during rehearsals.
*Almost our entire cast was female. Most of the shark gang (all but two) and half of the Jets. I was a female gang member (Tiger).
*Our first perfomance, we all got into the mini rumble during the prologue because we were getting so pumped and Chino accidentally really punched me in the face and then I proceeded to punch another Shark straight in the gut. The same Shark had given me bruises all up and down my arms. Completely unintentional.
*During the dream sequence, I tanked it over our smalled Jet girl, which just caused a mini domino effect, but there was enough going on that it looked almost planned.
*Our very flamboyant Baby John was kicked out of the play 2 weeks before production (missed too much school, like, an entire month for no reason). Scary.
*Our Officer Krupke could never get the one line (something about rumbling under the high way) and would always just come out you...s...oh...under the hiiiiighwaaaaay.
*Our Arab ripped his pants in the very end. We had a few members of both the jets and sharks pick up tony and carry him off-stage. Arab bent down to pick him up, ripped his pants. aaawkward.

Overall, awesome performance.

[rcs]