Wicked end to a musical
QUESTION Have there been any calamities caused by stage trap doors?
I suspect accidents occur in most shows with a complex stage design.
One such is the musical Wicked, which tells the story of unlikely friends, elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (the Good Witch). In the original Broadway production, elphaba was played by Idina Menzel, famous for singing Let It Go in the film Frozen.
At a matinee on January 8, 2005, at the Gershwin theatre, in the scene where elphaba is melted by Dorothy, the trap door that was supposed to take the witch slowly under the stage malfunctioned. Menzel fell down it, cracking a rib.
In 2008, her replacement Kerry ellis got her cape caught in a machine designed to lift her during the song Defying Gravity. she screamed ‘stop!’ After she was released, she returned to finish her song.
During rehearsals for Disney musical the Little Mermaid in 2008, a trap door was accidentally left open on a boat suspended above the set of the Disney musical. performer Adrian Bailey fell 20 ft to the stage, breaking his wrists and shattering his pelvis.
In 2012, a theatre worker was paralysed after she fell onto the stage through an unmarked door from a balcony in Romeo And Juliet at London’s soho theatre.
Alison Curtis, Wigan, Lancs. FReDeRIcK FeDeRIcI was an Italianborn British opera singer celebrated for his bass-baritone roles in Gilbert and sullivan’s savoy Operas.
On March 3, 1888, he was playing Mephistopheles in Gounod’s opera Faust at the princess theatre in Melbourne, Australia. At the end of the performance, he suffered a heart attack as he descended through a trap door and later died. He is said to haunt the theatre.
Tammy Lewison, Kidderminster, Worcs.
QUESTION Why did the emergency services phase out two-tone sirens?
sIReNs must be loud and have a variable pitch to help other road users locate their direction. It is vital for them to be heard through motorcycle helmets and in cars when music is being played and the windows are closed.
Bells were used until 1963 when rotating blue lights and a two-tone ‘nee-naw’ siren were adopted. this sound was created by two horns operating alternately.
these were phased out in the 1980s in favour of American-style wail, yelp or phaser sirens. these use a single speaker (or two speakers playing the same sound). they are calibrated to between 1kHz and 3kHz because this is where the human ear is most sensitive.
Different types of sound are useful. the main siren wail (a slow rise and fall of the pitch) can be heard from a great distance, but can be hard to discern its direction.
sometimes, the police will move to a yelp or phaser with faster oscillation or use an electronic digital buzz sound containing many more frequencies, which is easier for drivers to locate and conveys greater urgency.
Colin Johns, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION Why was Sir James Lowther called the Gloomy Earl?
SIR JAMES LOWTHER, 1st earl of Lonsdale, inherited a great fortune, land and property in the North-West of england, making him one of the wealthiest individuals of Georgian times.
His ruthless, bullying nature, parliamentary shenanigans and miserliness earned him the nicknames Jemmy Grasp-all, earl Of toadstool, Wicked Jimmy and the Gloomy earl.
Alexander carlyle, brother of the philosopher thomas carlyle, wrote that Lowther was ‘more detested than any man alive . . . a shameless political sharper, a domestic bashaw and an intolerable tyrant over his tenants and dependants’. carlyle added that he was ‘truly a madman, though too rich to be confined’.
His father Robert, a former Governor of Barbados, died when James was nine. It is said his widowed mother pushed him into becoming ruthlessly ambitious and that he was targeted by bullies as a schoolboy. the bullied became the bully — and so he remained all his life.
After attending peterhouse college, cambridge, he entered politics in 1757 in cumberland and proved adept at rigging elections and controlling rotten boroughs. He was also good at spotting talent, helping William pitt the Younger to enter politics in 1781 as Mp for Appleby.
pitt had a stellar political career and became prime minister aged 24 in 1783. For his services, Lowther, a baronet by birth, was given an earldom.
Lowther ended up controlling nine parliamentary boroughs in the NorthWest: the Mps who owed their patronage to him were known as Jimmy’s ninepins.
‘the earl of toadstool’ was a name he picked up when he won the carlisle seat for his preferred candidate, edward Knubley. He manipulated the electorate by creating more than 1,000 freemen who could be relied upon to vote as he directed. the 1786 poll became infamous as ‘the Mushroom election’ because of its suddenly growing electorate.
Lowther married the daughter of the earl of Bute in 1761. He had several mistresses, including a tenant farmer’s daughter with whom he eloped. When she died young, he had her embalmed and kept in a glass-topped coffin for seven weeks.
A miser, he dressed down and rode around in a rusty carriage. His main residence was Lowther Hall, later castle, a once magnificent Queen Anne house that had been damaged by fire in 1718. He lived in what rooms remained.
His lack of investment in making his mines at Whitehaven safe cost the lives of workers and pit ponies.
He ensured William Wordsworth grew up in poverty. Wordsworth’s father was his agent and when he died he was owed £5,000 (£330,000 today) by Lowther.
When the earl died on May 24, 1802, there were 16,000 guineas in his house, sorted into bags of 500 coins apiece.
It is said that on the anniversary of his burial, if the moon is full, his spectre can be seen driving his carriage at speed through the grounds of Lowther castle.
L. W. Cleverly, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts.