The beauty of a live performance, you never know what might happen. Earlier this week during a preview performance of the abridged revival of West Side Story, audience members in the first 5 rows got an unexpected surprise. They all got sprayed with STAGE BLOOD!!!!! The idea came from the production's director Tony winner Ivo van Hove. In some of his past shows, he is well known for using “surprising and visceral” stage effects.
The production officially opens at the Broadway Theatre on February 20th, 2020.
Thoughts?
What do you think of being sprayed with stage blood in the audience?!!
‘West Side Story’ audience sprayed with fake blood
Isaac Powell, who plays the ill-fated Tony, later said online, “Don’t worry, it washes out and also you’re welcome!”
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I was a part of that audience and being a professional actor/director, I can assure you that the spray was odd, unexpected, and at best an “impossible accident”. We were told by the house managers that this had never happened before and they were apologetic, took pictures and gave us business cards to contact the Shubert organization assuring us expenses would be taken care of immediately. Two things have really bothered our party of three!
ONE: Working with blood for years, both with charges wired on bodies and as planted capsules, never could an amount that was incurred that evening fly from down middle stage, over the orchestra pit (where the union would have had a field day if the orchestra was sprayed) and to our row, E center and cover a substantial group of us. My seat mate (a stranger) was covered from his face to his chest. My left hand and sweater were hit, as well as my pea coat and my adult son’s jacket, which were on our laps! Strange that this not only leapt the distance, but landed in our laps.
The blood came out if one was not wearing white wool or cashmere. Stain would be left behind, especially with those of us who were traveling and did not have the luxury of soaps/washing machines or the time to get to a dry cleaner. In our case, we had to go to the dinner with friends after the show with the blood still on our clothes.
TWO: But the saddest thing about this was we loved the show, and yet missed the entire last scene because of the distraction in the surrounding audience, who were both bemused and shocked, and offering handkerchiefs and tissues to many of us who were trying to figure out what happened and clean up. Between the talking and cleaning up, our party for one had no idea what was happening on stage. Everyone we encountered seemed to be in good spirits, especially after being handed cards and told that Shubert Organization would take care of expenses and being thanked profusely for being “good sports”.
THREE: I sent a detailed report in on Feb. 13th, and to date, after 2 more follow up communications, I have not heard one word from them. In my letter I began by heaping praise on the performance and ingenuity we saw. In reading the several articles that came out, the inference that this was planned and the quip by an actor in one article (and I had the same thing said to me as I exited to get to the restroom from another actor who was sitting at the sound booth at the back of the theatre) about our needing to be grateful for the implied souvenir, is most disturbing indeed. If this was a joke, some of the more solid parts of the blood that hit us could have caused even more damage had they gone into someone’s eye.
I for one can’t replace the Christmas gift my son gave me, and I’ve not put in a claim for the glasses that feel out of my jacket as I scrambled to get blood off in the dark, but I did ask for a refund for the evening, in hopes that when we return in Spring, we can revisit the play and enjoy the entirety without the “surprise”. If Shubert has enough money to try an experiment like that, surly they can answer a letter. Prior to the show they sent out an email reminding us of the “rules” attending the show, including no late entry at all, no water allowed in the theatre unless it was purchased there, no being let back in to the theatre if you needed to use the bathroom, etc. We followed their rules, but no where was there an indication that there might be a chance of being splattered with blood and missing a good chuck of the climax of the entire show and then dealing with the mess. How ironic.
And scene.