Wow, that was a mess

[jbsegal]

Wow. That was quite the show.

Start with at least 3 missing performers - Triple Trapeze hasn't been in the show for more than a week now due to a hamstring injury; one of the Russian Swing guys hurt his feet on a bad landing last week; one of the Georgian Dancers didn't perform on Sunday or Today - and then add problems:

One of the Belo Brothers (Icarian Games) nearly planted his left foot firmly in the other Belo Brother's crotch on a missed flip. No damage

Dergin (Nightmare (dance on crutches)) fell and seemed to be vaguely winded.

Octavio (juggler) actually did perfectly, and even had a bit of extra flair going in his act tonight.

Something else went wrong, though I can't remember what right now...

And then, in the end, during Russian Swing - which they seem to have re-jiggered a bit to fill for the missing guy, while the swings were rotating to the facing position, one of the swings failed to rotate all the way. Much waiting for the right thing to happen occurred on stage, along with a bunch of looking lost and a heap of band-vamping.
Eventually, correct alignment was achieved. Unfortunately, the band was pretty much lost at that point. They tried to continue and managed for a while, but at some point they reached their end point. Unfortunately, this was before the swingers did the actual end of the act. Ah well. The rest of the cast, queued by the closing music, started out and thus was the end of the show started.

The exiting crowd seemed happy, though.

I've not yet heard if the problem was with the (human) controllers or with the mechanics.

Hopefully, it'll all be good tomorrow.

Comments

[tla]

The exiting crowd seemed happy, though.

Just wanted to say how weird it is that the above was actually not a misspelling of "exciting". :)

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

The exiting crowd seemed happy, though.

The crowd almost never notices, unless it's something egregious. Once you know The Show backwards, forwards, inside and out, you can see every little flaw and misstep. The crowd only notices when there's no earth-shattering kaboom! Or, at worst, they have a vague sense of the show being "a little off." This almost willful ignorance is part of what makes theater possible.

Hell, it's what makes a lot of life possible. People who Know Better can see all the little problems, the imperfections, while the rest of us blithely walk through and say, "Wow, cool!"

[Gee, ya think I've given this one a little thought?]

[dancingdeer.livejournal.com]

So true. And it's why for every performance I've ever done (piano recitals, school theatre, dancing), the most important thing isn't whether or not you mess up, it's whether you keep smiling and keep going. If you do that, whatever you've done is just part of the show as far as the audience can tell.

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

yes. same goes for auditions even generally... just KEEP GOING (and don't apologize in body language etc) and they won't know you've screwed up :)

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

People knew.

Everyone stopped moving, other than trying to rotate the swing.

They stood there. They stepped down off of the other swing and stopped it.

They looked confused.

One of them signaled the audience to clap along with the music after nothing else had happened for 30-45 sec.

No one missed it.

That said, they still had a good time.

[foms.livejournal.com]

The first time that I saw Alegria (in Montreal, some ten, twelve years ago, it may have been the opening stand) something in the rigging went spung during the aerial act. The show stopped rather abruptly, the performers put a little extra into their dismounts. I'm sure that a few people noticed but, as a whole, the crowd was oblivious.

I saw the show again, this past weekend. The changes were interesting. New music for the new performers in the same acts? The strong-man act was absent. The hoop act had added and subtracted, as had the fire-dancer. I don't think that that was Francesca.

The last time, I sat in the second row, with the trampoline tumblers coming straight at my face. This time, I sat front row, centre. It was a different perspective. Harder to see with the storm blowing into my eyes.

I was disappointed that the length of white cloth wasn't allowed to come home with me. I tried to offer the cloth to the clown but he stopped me with the smallest of gestures of face and hand. It was collected later by one of your stage-ninja brothers. Given that that is my favourite scene in all that I have seen of Cirque du Soleil, having the butterfly land on my head was consolation enough.

Interestingly, this is the second dramatic landing on my head this year. In malaysia, in February, whilst swimming in a natural waterslide in what is called the oldest rain-forest in the world, a dragonfly perched there, to Con_girl's delight. I am sorry to report that there is no photo of either experience.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Heh. So maybe during the opening run, and certainly during the closing of the NA tour.

One of the Alegria performers seems to have been a Dralion usher in DC a few years ago and was down at Varekai last night.

They open in Japan on 10/29.

[sarahshevett.livejournal.com]

This is something that is strangely similar to milking!
But also like anything that happens repeatedly, restaurant work, theater; routines that progress from beginning to middle to end.
Everytime, it's exactly the same, but slightly different.
I really like work like that.

Some times are better than others. It's these messed up times that make you truly appreciate the rare occasions where everything goes perfectly right.

Then again, both ends of the spectrum have their merit, and you make it through.