| Oh S#%t Award Recipients |
| 1. |
Fall 1974 :: Bells are Ringing
Bob Bennett
Screwed up a sound cue (just off stage) and said rather loudly, "Oh, Shit!" (the cue was for a doorbell rather than a telephone ringing). |
| 2. |
Spring 1975 :: Dating, Mating, and other Relating
No Award Presented |
| 3. |
Fall 1975 :: Kiss Me, Kate
Ginny Hunter
Playing Kate, had a line something like, "Comb your noodle with a three-legged stool", whereupon she was supposed to toss a stool across stage at Petruccio. She hooked the throw, and the stool sailed out over the audience. |
| 4. |
Spring 1976 :: Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Sandy Lyles
As everyone was standing around backstage wondering where Betty (Keate) Xander was, Sandy suddenly remembered that she had promised to pickup Betty on the way to the theatre. (Betty showed up about five minutes later and boy, was she hot!) |
| 5. |
Spring 1977 :: Anything Goes
John Carravagio
As lights crew chief, John at one point was madly trying to figure out why one of the dimmers was smoking. |
| 6. |
Fall 1977 :: Fiddler on the Roof
Linda Bartash
Linda was stage-managing and gave the 'all clear' signal after a scene change. Unfortunately, the stage was not clear and the lights were brought up while one member of the crew (Mike Reed) was still on stage. |
| 7. |
Spring 1978 :: The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd
Walter Smith
Walter got a sore throat before one of the performances and called virtually everyone in the cast to worry them about it (he went on after all and did fine.) |
| 8. |
Fall 1978 :: My Fair Lady
Gerry Payne
Playing the part of Doolittle, Gerry mumbled and la-de-dahed his way through one entire verse of "A Little Bit of Luck." |
| 9. |
Spring 1979 :: Company
Bill Smith
During his big number (in preparation for his marriage), Bill did the entire number with his fly unzipped. |
| 10. |
Fall 1979 :: The Music Man
Bob Kimball
Bob was the tenor in the quartet and during one second act, wore the shoes from his first act costume. These shoes were all white (everyone else had on black) and stood out like neon lights |
| 11. |
Spring 1980 :: Man of La Mancha
Donna (Bareis) Amico
Because of the vagaries of the dimmer board, Donna was forced into a situation of having to re-patch during the coarse of the show. Unfortunately, she told the backstage people the wrong circuit at one critical point, and during "The Impossible Dream", left Don Quixote singing in the dark and, finally wandering around the stage looking for a part that was still lit. |
| 12. |
Fall 1980 :: Oliver
Mary Pat Abernethy
There was one scene in the show which was played on a make-shift bed on top of a six foot platform. Mary Pat, props crew chief, was supposed to check the bed each night to see that it was in good shape. One night, much to the chagrin of the people on the platform, the bed nearly collapsed. |
| 13. |
Summer 1981 :: Pippin
Tom Reed
The sound crew person didn't show up one night and Tom attempted to set the levels etc. for her. Unfortunately, he screwed up and created a terrible feedback to the audience. This was so gross that the audience actually applauded when he finally shut it off. |
| 14. |
Fall 1981 :: Carousel
Eric Roberts
There was one scene that was played on a wharf represented by three large flats. Eric, working the stage right crew, forgot to place one-third of the set one performance. |
| 15. |
Summer 1982 :: West Side Story
Vicki Copp
As Maria, Vicki forgot to make her entrance in one critical scene (the balcony scene). Although she finally remembered, she nevertheless created quite a tense moment for other cast members. |
| 16. |
Fall 1982 :: Damn Yankees
Richard 'Bat' Battistelli
Bat won the award for an accumulation of things revolving around his dropping lines at various times on various nights. |
| 17. |
Summer 1983 :: Jesus Christ, Superstar
Lindsey Turner
Lindsey, as one of the tormentors (dancers), forgot one of the dance steps and was left doing one move when everyone else was doing something else. This was made more noticeable since the correct move took everyone else across stage, leaving Lindsey doing the wrong move standing all by himself. |
| 18. |
Fall 1983 :: Follies
Laurie Dunlap
While performing her big song on closing night, Laurie forgot one verse temporarily but covered fairly well by "la-de-dahing" until she remembered. When she remembered, she started the verse at the beginning causing the orchestra a bit of trouble skipping back to the right spot. |
| 19. |
Summer 1984 :: Chicago
Donna Amico
Running the light board for her first time in this show, Donna inadvertently executed a blackout about eight bars too early during one of the dance numbers. |
| 20. |
Fall 1984 :: Kismet
Alan Hannenbaum
Alan, who was supposed to announce the entrance of the Caliph, forgot to make his entrance one night, leaving the three leads on stage wondering what was going to happen (the Caliph, Bob Kimball, finally went on without being announced). |
| 21. |
Summer 1985 :: The Robber Bridegroom
Robert Orndoff
In the show's finale, Bob managed to forget the words to his section of the song. When he finally remembered and came in, he threw off some of the other singers. |
| 22. |
Fall 1985 :: Little Night Music
Andy Gantt
Andy accidentally stepped on Madame Armfeldt's dress while carrying her off-stage. Naturally, he tripped, dropping Ms. Armfeldt (Joan Bradfield) in the process. |
| 23. |
Summer 1986 :: Sweet Charity
Trish Hogan
Trish was the Asst. Stage Manager (stage left) and on two occasions forgot to set some critical props. She left the champagne glasses off the scene where Charity and Vittorio are to toast and she left the wedding present off of a scene causing one of the other actors to leave the stage to go get it. |
| 24. |
Fall 1986 :: The Sound of Music
Colleen Tunney
Colleen, playing Elsa, the Baroness, got her scarf caught in Max's (David Levin) costume wrapped around one of his buttons during their song. She was going about her blocking while he was following her around trying to unwrap himself. |
| 25. |
Summer 1987 :: Annie
Helen Lebowitz
Helen was panicing about props problems on closing weekend and in her worries about other people, forgot to set on of her own props. This wasn't too bad by itself, but while she was berating herself about that small mistake, she forgot to take one of the "bubble" signs from Miss Hanigan (who finally decided just to drop it offstage making a bit of a racket!) |
| 26. |
Fall 1987 :: A Chorus Line
Eric Roberts
Eric, as one of the dancers, managed to trip over a dance bag on his way off stage one night. While he didn't actually fall, he did take a rather big chance steadying himself by grabbing the flat serving as a tormentor on that side of the stage. |
| 27. |
Summer 1988 :: Hello Dolly
Daphne Kahn
Daphne and another one of the cast were assigned to clear Dolly's table from the thrust in preparation for the next scene (this takes place during dialogue, however). Daphne stumbled, however, causing the plates, wine glasses, etc. to fall from the table onto the stage -- quite a mess. (Dolly (Laurie Dunlap) never missed a beat w/ her dialogue). |
| 28. |
Fall 1988 :: Oklahoma
Debbie Peoples
During the big finish to the number "Oklahoma", Debbie is supposed to end up sitting on her dance partner's knee. One night instead, she lost her balance and she and her partner ended up spralled on the stage. Quite a finish! |
| 29. |
Summer 1989 :: The Wiz
Sue Price
During one of the darkened scenes onstage, Sue was crossing backstage and walked full tilt into an open (but painted black) cage door, nearly knocking herself out in the process. Fortunately, given a little ice and TLC she was back on her feet for Act II. |
| 30. |
Fall 1989 :: Camelot
Helen Lebowitz
During the first scene change of the show, Helen (Stage Manager) gave the "all clear" signal to the lights crew and when the lights came up, there were still three crew members on stage. The infamous words "Oh, Shit!" were sure to have been uttered by those three, Helen and the lights crew. |
| 31. |
Summer 1990 :: 42nd Street
Ann Kellogg
In "The Shadow Dance" Ann (one of the dancers) began to lose the headpiece part of her costume. In order to steady it, she made the fatal mistake of letting go of a ball she was carrying, which proceeded, of course, to bounce into the orchestra pit. |
| 32. |
Fall 1990 :: Cabaret
David Lashof
Was responsible for a number of problems related to the curtain in front of the orchestra, including, closing it at the wrong time and it actually breaking while opening on two other performance nights. |
| 33. |
Summer 1991 :: Showboat
Barbara Berger & Jeannie Hay
Barbara and Jeannie were responsible for unhooking the door onto the boat so that the actors could exit. They didn't and the cast was left to find other ways off stage. |
| 34. |
Fall 1991 :: Sweeney Todd
Robert Jones
Robert was seting up the next scene's lights by clearing off the dimmers which were up but did this on the wrong preset, which essentially turned off most of the lights onstage. |
| 35. |
Summer 1992 :: No, No Nanette
Penny Russell
Penny dropped one of the balls during the big dance number which bounced around a bit before finally leaving the stage and rolling into the audience. |
| 36. |
Fall 1992 :: Evita
Bill Tedesco
Taking his curtain call opening night, as Bill bowed his wig fell off! |
| 37. |
Summer 1993 :: Gypsy
Jim Turner (Accepting on behalf of the entire stage crew)
The stage crew had difficulty with the set on several nights. These problems included: leaving a 2' gap between a door flat and the rest of the set, calling the "all clear" too soon and catching crew members on stage, not ringing the telephone, setting one of the scenes too far SR by 4' or so leaving the actors standing in the dark. |
| 38. |
Fall 1993 :: Into the Woods
Amy (Hines) Narron
Amy forgot to put the card with the Act I cues into the lighting computer. She did not discover this until the show had started and the only fix was to turn off the board and load in the card. This was accomplished by using the spotlight for one of the cues, wreaking havoc on the cast who did not know why all the lights went out. Amy reprised this error on closing night, but with Act II (actually, the card was in the computer, but it was not loaded (at least we did not have to turn off the computer to make the fix!) |
| 39. |
Summer 1994 :: Guys and Dolls
Sandy Burns
Sandy was in the dressing room chatting away when she should have been making her entrance into a scene with all the gamblers. This, of course, left quite a few people on stage with nothing to do! Finally, we heard "thump, thump, thump" as Sandy ran across from the dressing room to stage right to finally make her entrance. |
| 40. |
Fall 1994 :: City of Angels
Donna Amico and Tom Reed
When Donna and Tom were fixing some cues before the show, they must have somehow or other messed up the Act II computer card because at intermission on the opening Saturday they could not get the Act II cues to load in the computer. While they rebuilt the cues from the cue sheets the orchestra played a few tunes (the intermission turned out to be 50 minutes long!) |
| 41. |
Summer 1995 :: The Pajama Game
Andrea Oram-Radler
Playing Gladys, Andrea forgot one verse of Hernando's Hideaway. I mean completely forgot. no la-dee-dahing or anything. As there was very little orchestration, there seemed to be quite a gap in the action until the piano player tried to put in a little fill music. |
| 42. |
Fall 1995 :: Grand Hotel
Dick Curran and Richard Klein
Dick and Richard were blissfully changing their clothes in the dressing room when someone asked them who was supposed to set one of the stair units (a major set piece). As they stood there in their underwear realizing that the answer was...them, they surely must have said, "Oh, Shit!" |
| 43. |
Summer 1996 :: Mame
Alison Crichton
During the course of "The Moon Song" Mame dropped a jingle bell off her costume onto the stage. As Alison entered on stage, she cleared the bell by kicking it into the orchestra pit, hitting the trombone player in the head with it. |
| 44. |
Fall 1996 :: On the Twentieth Century
Beth McAlexander Kubiak
Beth (Lily Gardner) was supposed to bring onstage a check for $35 which Oscar was supposed to "magically" turn into $200,000. Unfortunately, the magic took a different form, since Beth forgot to bring on the $35 check. |
| 45. |
Summer 1997 :: Annie Get Your Gun
Mike Reed
Mike was running spotlight and inadvertently pulled up a green gel into the light instead of the more neutral gel color called for in the cue. The people he was spotting looked very sick indeed. |
| 46. |
Fall 1997 :: Chess
Debbie Peoples
The "all clear" to bring up the lights was just given as there was a crash on stage. As the lights slowly came up, there was Debbie picking up a table she had knocked over. As was reported by the backstage crew, she was using most, if not all, of the four letter expletives as she came off stage. |
| 47. |
Summer 1998 :: Once Upon a Mattress
Liz Bizzel
Liz had a scene where she was to knock a vase of water off the dressing table. On various nights, the following happened: she knocked it off the stage into the pit; she knocked it off the table twice; she had trouble knocking it off (couldn't get it to actually fall off the table); she knocked it such that the water fell dominantly into the pit (musicians got wet). |
| 48. |
Fall 1998 :: Meet Me in St. Louis
Erin Lashof
In the ice skating scene, Erin fell, tried to get up, fell again, tried to get up, and fell again. |
| 49. |
Summer 1999 :: Man of La Mancha
Dave Lashof
Dave raised the stairs too soon in one of the dungeon scenes; i.e. before all the actors who were supposed to use them had left the stage. One of the actors turned and walked into them as they were halfway up. |
| 50. |
Fall 1999 :: My Fair Lady
Patty Kokoszka
Patty was walking across the stage carrying a tray with a pitcher on it and she dropped the pitcher off the tray - created quite a noise as it hit the stage. |
| 51. |
Summer 2000 :: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
John DeCore
John, as Hysterium dressed as Philia, asked for a flower and jewelry from Pseudolus, which he got. Unfortunately, during his song ("Lovely") John broke the flower (pulled off the bloom) much to the amusement of the cast, crew, and audience. |
| 52. |
Fall 2000 :: Victor, Victoria
Richard Klein
Richard was frequently the first person to enter the hotel suite and he frequently would forget to turn on the light switch, hence, the lights came on as if by magic! |
| 53. |
Summer 2001 :: Big
Patty Kokoszka
Patty was sitting offstage on the floor, but she wasn't far enough offstage... we could see her feet on stage... tapping to the beat of the music! |
| 54. |
Fall 2001 :: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Jack Stein
Jack had many issues dealing with his beret: had trouble twirling it, threw it over the set and landed it on top of the set (twice), and threw it more or less straight up, hit a curtain, and had it come down on the actor's (J.R. Owens) head standing behind him (where it stayed until the end of the number!) |
| 55. |
Summer 2002 :: Anything Goes
Josh Lashof
Josh was manning the red main curtain at the end of the show, but it failed to close all the way, leaving the cast to stand there after the curtain call and just wave to the audience until they finally left the stage. |
| 56. |
Fall 2002 :: Will Rogers Follies
Amy Narron
The bulb in the spot went out and while trying to change to another spotlight, Amy killed the power to the light board (eventually causing the lights on stage to all go out) |
| 57. |
Summer 2003 :: Jesus Christ Superstar
Reese Frier
Reese was responsible for setting the easel with JC's picture on it. He had multiple difficulties with it, including dropping the paper, collapsing the easel, etc. |
| 58. |
Fall 2003 :: Li'l Abner
Amy Narron
Amy had a number of problems calling the cues and running spot, including: getting distracted and being late calling a cue, leaving an actress walking into the dark; getting up on a crate to run spot and falling off; calling "go" twice causing confusion for the substitute board operator bringing full stage lighting up for a scene change! (The cast was scurrying around like roaches in the light!) |
| 59. |
Summer 2004 :: High Society
Diane Pick
Diane was responsible for calling the cue to bring on the trees (which were fabric and pulled onstage on the curtain tracks). She was busy putting things away and missed the cue, so the trees were very late and very hesitant coming on. Their slow progress was noted by the audience with some chuckling. Perhaps to make up for this late entry, the trees ended up being struck too early! |
| 60. |
Fall 2004 :: Ragtime
Shelly Horn
Shelly left her cell phone on during a performance. It rang and that caused interference with our lead's (Sara Charbonneau) microphone, causing it to fail! |
| 61. |
Summer 2005 :: Pippin
Michael Mejia
During one scene Michael and one of the other cast members come out to "sword-fight" as practice for the upcoming battle. Michael was a little too aggressive and broke off his (wooden) sword. |
| 62. |
Fall 2005 :: Honk!
Keith Tittermary
Keith had a number of problems including: missing a prop thrown to him by another cast member (x2); in tossing the same prop off stage, missed and hit the curtain; later, hit the stage manager in the leg with his toss and then left the stage to go pick the prop up. Multiple issues with "Now I've Seen You": skipped to the ending verse and then started over, had a false start, then added "I'm not sure what I've seen"; jumped up on the sofa and broke it; and, played the beginning of Act II with his fly down! |
