Theatre Superstitions
What is the superstition with a bouquet of flowers in the theatre?
Well, everybody likes flowers and generally, it's like a congratulatory thing. You like to get your flowers after the show. Before the show, it sort of presupposes something and that's not always good when it comes to superstition. So, me personally, I like them after the show not before the show. Before the show you kind of say to yourself, "Oh, great, the flowers are here. Is it a funeral or is it a play?"
What is the superstition with candles in the theatre?
One or two is fine but when you get 3 around there, then it's kind of tricky. If you have 3 candles burning in the theatre, particularly in the dressing room, the idea is that the person sitting closest to the lowest candle will be the first one to get married. Or die. Which can be closely related in this business.
Are cats unlucky in the theatre?
No, they are fine backstage. You know, lots of actors I have known have had their cats with them in their dressing rooms. And they can give you good luck but you don't want to see the cat onstage. If a cat runs across the stage in the middle of a performance, you know people, actors generally start looking around like you know, 'Is something about to fall on me?' – or whatever. It portends bad luck when they are onstage.
What is the 'Ghost Light'?
It protects us on stage especially when you because know a lot of theaters have a history of being haunted and you don't want that ghost around you haunting your show or haunting you during rehearsal. So, generally what happens is, at the end of the night, when whether it's a rehearsal whether it's an actual show, always what comes out after the show is struck for the night is a big, tall single bulb no shade light that sits in the middle of the stage to protect and to give you vision so if a ghost does happen to come and bump into you, you can at least kind of seeing him a little bit.
What is 'pinch for luck' in the theatre?
It's just a good greeting to give somebody right before they go on stage. I did a show in Chicago several years ago at the Steppenwolf Theatre and it featured John Mahoney from "Frasier" fame and recently was just here on Broadway. And we had a scene that he finished a scene and would come off stage and I would go on shortly afterwards and every time when I came off stage he gave me a little pinch on my arm right before I came on. It got to the point where if I didn't get that pinch I felt like I'm not going to have a good play and it's not going to be a good scene here tonight. So, yeah, a pinch of luck.
What is 'dress rehearsal' superstition?
Well, you want something to go wrong. You want a little something to go wrong. Because if you have this flawless dress rehearsal, and it's the last one just before your opening, then it's not a good sign for the opening. Something didn't go wrong during dress rehearsal, what's going to go wrong during opening? If you have something go a little off during the dress rehearsal, a door slams, something, then it's better for the opening. You got it out of the way.
What is the 'whistling in a theatre' superstition?
Well, it's not good. Backstage, if somebody whistles in a dressing room, it's a sign that somebody is about to either have a bad show, break a leg, something bad is going to happen. You don't go around whistling in people's dressing rooms. On stage, the history of whistling was that years ago, that was how they would bring in different set pieces from above. So you would give a whistle to the person who was holding the flies, what we call the scrims and different rails that come in and fly in and out of the proscenium down onto the stage, they used to signal the guys to bring those up and down with whistles. So if you were just whistling on stage, and you were walking across and whistling on stage, you never knew when you might get a pipe falling on your head because the guy thought he was supposed to bring something in. So, yeah, no whistling in the theater, please.
