Mistakes can be gifts. As George Bernard Shaw said, "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." In live theater where anything can go wrong on stage, mistakes happen all the time. "Mistakes are human. Theater is a human thing because it's happening live," says Ivo van Hove who won a Tony for directing A View From the Bridge. "And in rehearsal, a mistake can bring a new energy and new ideas."
NewYork.com asked Broadway stars to share memorable mistakes that they have experienced onstage.
Danny Burstein, Fiddler on the Roof
"When they happen, you try to turn mistakes into a positive. At the very end of the show when Chava leaves, I run center stage after her, but it's too late to call her back. One night, I threw my hands up crying. It's such a hard show, and you cry every single time. A metal button fell off my jacket. It rung so loud throughout the theater -- ding, ding, ding, ding. It was a magical moment. I reached down and picked up the button and kissed it.
And it was like God giving me a gift telling me that everything was going to be okay. Everybody in the company mentioned it afterwards. They were all crying. Even people who came back afterwards mentioned it. Bryan Cranston was there and talked about that moment to me that night. It was a beautiful thing. Sometimes that happens. And sometimes a fly is open, and there is nothing you can do."