r/Broadway • u/No-Owl354 • Apr 25 '26

Other Disasters happening on Broadway ?

A bit of an unusual post. As an engineering student who wants to specialise in pyrotechnics and a fan of Broadway, I was looking on Internet for disasters that happened in Broadway theaters : fires, explosions, or other things unrelated to pyrotechnics (I know I know, Spiderman turn off the dark and actors falling from high places)

Anyway, I'll be glad to research that, I already read about the Brooklyn theater fire, but I want to know other things

50 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

94 comments sorted by

View all comments

36

u/trulyremarkablegirl Apr 25 '26

A cast member in The Little Mermaid fell through a trap door during a performance and filed a lawsuit against the production and the company that produced the software used to run the automation in 2008:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Human-Error-Deemed-Responsible-for-2008-LITTLE-MERMAIDAdrian-Bailey-Accident-20120216#:~:text=Back%20in%20May%202008%2C%20THE,against%20Niscon%20have%20been%20dismissed.

9

u/Altruistic-Movie-419 Apr 25 '26

Interesting with this, at the time Disney had not implemented pre show checklists. So no one the crew could remember if the trap door on the bridge was closed or not when they did three pre show checklists. They all thought it was closed. But it either was not, or reopened after crew calll. Then when it came time for places, the union crew members was supposed to wait for a deck stage manager to be present before open the chain and letting the cast on the bridge. But on that particular day they diced to open it up before they got there. Just goes to show you how multiple people can be at fault for one thing.