In Nassim Soleimanpour鈥檚 White Rabbit Red Rabbit, a new weekly guest star is handed a script鈥攕ealed in an envelope鈥攖o perform cold. Without the help of a director, rehearsals or a designed set, anything can happen. The first actor to dive into the experiment was Nathan Lane, but has since starred solo performances by Darren Criss and Ramin Karimloo to Kathy Najimy and Cynthia Nixon, and more.
In celebration of the production鈥檚 final performance December 19, producers Tom Kirdahy and Devlin Elliott have shared exclusively with 半岛体育 fun tidbits collected throughout the run by the producers and stage manager.
Here are 17 unrepeatable moments from the run of the Off-Broadway play.
THE AUDIENCE
1. An audience member rescues F. Murray Abraham: Apparently determined to save the Oscar winner鈥檚 life, an audience member ran onto the stage and grabbed two glasses of water from the set鈥攖he play depicts that one of them 鈥渃ontains poison鈥濃攁nd dumped them onto the stage floor before Abraham could drink them. She then ran up the aisle and out of the theatre. While production staff paused the performance to clean up the water, Abraham entertained the crowd with a story of another 鈥渁udience vigilante鈥� who once exposed himself onstage during a show before making a similar dash to the exit. Abraham also brought his Oscar onstage at White Rabbit Red Rabbit, and gave it to an audience member.
2. No director? No problem! Darren Criss decided to take on the role of director himself, challenging audience members to show off their acting chops and 鈥渃ount off鈥� with silly directives鈥斺渨ith joy!,鈥� 鈥渨ith anguish!鈥�
3. Refusing to leave after Brian Stokes Mitchell: One audience member, after Mitchell鈥檚 performance, refused to leave the theatre at the end of the show, claiming that she was very impacted by the play鈥檚 鈥渕essages about conformity,鈥� and therefore shouldn鈥檛 have to leave just because she鈥檚 being told to.
4. Ramin Karimloo鈥檚 鈥渞andy鈥� audience: One audience member shoved money down Karimloo鈥檚 T-shirt when she was pulled on stage. When Karimloo assigned the number 鈥�246鈥� to an audience member, the gentleman gave his best Jean Valjean impression and sang out 鈥�24601!鈥� At the end of the show, two people battled each other to get the chance to read a section of the script onstage with him.
5. Upstaging Kathy Najimy: Najimy had to calm down an audience participant whose performance onstage got a bit too carried away, joking with him that this wasn鈥檛 going to earn him an Equity card.
6. Post-election with Alex Brightman: During Brightman鈥檚 performance, the first to follow the election, the communal experience in the theatre was stronger than ever and elicited quite a few vocal references to Donald Trump from audience members. One particular audience member, when asked the date, said she didn't know since the election had her 鈥渁ll f*cked up.鈥� Brightman joked, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e most certainly the only one who feels that way,鈥� but then went on to say more earnestly, 鈥淎ll we rabbits are in this together.鈥�
7. Crack Rabbits: A host of audience members kept returning to the show called themselves the 鈥淐rack Rabbits.鈥� A group of German theatregoers bought the same exact seats for the first seven weeks, so they could participate in a specific section of the show that is based on your seat location.
8. Props for Michael Urie: Patrons brought props to Urie鈥檚 performance: a red hat, so that they could play the red rabbit, and a carrot!
THE ACTORS
9. Stopping the show: Alarmed as he recited the line in the script that prepares the audience for a participation component, Nathan Lane stopped mid-sentence, dropped the script, and warned the crowd, 鈥淚 don't like audience participation. It falls somewhere between incest and folk dancing.鈥�
10. Audience self-sacrifice: When it came to the point in the play where the actor had to drink the aforementioned 鈥減oisoned water,鈥� Brian Dennehy made an audience member come onstage and drink it for him instead. The man happily sacrificed himself for the Tony winner.
11. Whose Line with Wayne Brady: As was customary when Brady performed on the improv TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Brady took an audience request to perform a mime of 鈥渟uicide by shark attack.鈥�
12. Bobby Cannavale鈥檚 ostrich: When the script demanded an 鈥渙strich impression,鈥� Cannavale did so without losing an ounce of swagger鈥攁s one audience member exclaimed, 鈥淚t鈥檚 if Marlon Brando and Danny Zuko had an ostrich child!鈥�
13. Singing the script: During Grammy-winning opera singer Joyce DiDonato鈥檚 performance, she chose to sing the first few lines to the audience.
14. A family affair: Cynthia Nixon brought her wife and son onstage to perform as part of the show. She specifically chose her family members as the participants, and she did her best to seem unbiased towards them. Her son ended up getting the carrot.
15. An emotional ending: Billy Porter was moved to tears at the end of the show. He was incredibly touched when he got to the very end, specifically mentioning how we never 鈥減ut the inventor of the gun on trial.鈥�
16. Going Gotham: Almost the entire cast of Fox鈥檚 Gotham came to support their 鈥淧enguin,鈥� Robin Lord Taylor, at the Halloween performance.
17. Stana Katic鈥檚 scavenger hunt: Katic had the most rabid fans in attendance. They were at the theatre by 3 PM (for an 8 PM show). Via her Twitter account, she posted clues for a rabbit-themed social media scavenger hunt throughout New York City to keep her fans entertained on the day of the show. They screamed as she entered the theatre, as she came out onstage, and when she left, so she graciously took an hour to sign autographs and take pictures with everyone who wanted one.
