Just like that DVD you bring home, it wouldn't be right if I didn't offer some "bonus features" with this writing on "Our Town." So here are some outtakes.
A successful run of any show does not follow a smooth, steady arc of progress toward perfection. There are fits and starts, bumps in the road and, yes, a lot of funny moments along the way. Any theater veteran has his stories about things that have gone wrong through the years. I remember one musical in college where one of the leads was doing a dance during a song when his shoe flew off and arced into the orchestra pit. Nothing to do but see the humor in it and keep going, one shoe on and one shoe off.
So here are some things that made us laugh in Grover's Corners, N.H.
During a dress rehearsal, the Emily character, played so well by Wendy Raymond, called her stage brother Harvey instead of Wally. We made it through the scene and then laughed about it afterward. From that moment on, Clark Hamm, who played Wally, was called Harvey a lot ... except on stage.
During one speech in the third act, the stage manager describes the dead as being "weaned away" from earth. For some reason, that phrase "weaned away" caught the ear of some of us backstage, and we began to sing in a whisper "weaned away, weaned away, weaned away ..." as if that were the prelude to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." From now on, I know I won't hear that song without thinking of the phrase "weaned away."
Speaking of memorable lines, I was talking with one of the cast members during a break, who explained to me that he came to theater very late in life and wish he'd started sooner. He proudly outed himself as part of the "Gray and Thespian Community." That's a great line I'll always remember.
During my first scene as Dr. Gibbs, I finish delivering my lines and announce I'll go upstairs to catch as nap. Just as I'm walking off stage, Rebecca, played so well by Mackenzie Reilly, yells her first line "MAAAAAAAAA!" from offstage. As it worked out, every time she delivered that line, I was walking past her, my ears roughly six inches from her mouth as she yelled her line. The blast was deafening, and it soon became a running joke. Could I make it offstage and past Mackenzie before her first line blasted me? The other actors laughed every time I couldn't get past her.
There are a lot of other funny memories and other outtakes - we skipped about half a page during one of the performances, including the line which was everyone's cue to exit. When we realized what had happened, we had to drift offstage without an exit line, hopefully looking like we knew what we were doing.
In a cast refreshlingly devoid of egos, I suspect the applause we got and the success we had mattered less than the experience we all shared together. And these funny moments - and many others like them - are a big part of it.
Who knew Grover's Corners was such a funny place?