It was closing night of my big show “A Magical Christmas” at Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX.  We were sold out with 1150 people in the audience. This was a huge show with 8 dancers, 2 singers and a cast and crew of twenty performing on a 50’ stage with concert lighting & sound!  We were down to the final number called “ROCK STAR” where I play the drums, keyboards & guitar only to vanish and reappear in the back of the theatre!

I was right in the middle of my VERY LOUD and raucous drum solo when suddenly the audio went completely out, and the theatre went dead silent. I mean you could hear a pin drop.  I had been playing electronic drums, so when they stopped making ANY sound it was beyond surreal.  I didn’t know what to do.  1150 people were staring at me in dead silence, and all I could think was, “Don’t panic.  Don’t panic.  Think of something.”   To make matters worse I had already removed my headset microphone so I couldn’t even talk to the audience.  This is the stuff of which nightmare are made!  When people today ask me the worst thing that’s ever happened on stage, I always say this moment.  It was terrifying.

I could kind of see the audio engineer all the way in the back of the theatre.  He was scrambling as if trying to fix a terrible problem.  He’s the best audio guy I’ve ever known, so I knew something must have gone very wrong with his system.  I had to kill some time so he could fix it.

I got the audience to do “The Wave”…then had them say, “Oooohhh and Aaaaahhh…” which killed about a minute, but there was still no sound.  I was running out options and ideas.  Then I noticed the audio engineer running out the back door!  Not a good sign!!

I figured I needed to stall for a few minutes more, and (thankfully) I always have an emergency trick stashed by a speaker at the front of the stage…just in case.  I picked up the rope and scissors and (reaching back to my theatre days) projected my voice as loud as I could while I did my trusty rope routine from my corporate show.  At one point I noticed all of my dancers standing in the wings looking at me like I’d gone crazy.

When I finished, the audience applauded and I could see the audio engineer back in his spot.  A power breaker had tripped, and he somehow knew where it was located and flipped it back on.  I threw him a visual cue, and he started the music for the next part of “Rock Star.”  The dancers came flying out from the wings and we finished as if nothing had happened!  After the show some customers asked me if that part was planned.  I said, “Of course!”

The next day our director, Jonathan Gonzalez, posted his take of the experience on Facebook:

“So as Peter Brook observes, Deadly, Rough, Immediate, and Holy theatre all intersect as one at times. Last night in A Magical Christmas 2 at Moody Gardens, during Curt Miller’s drum solo, the stage power went out. Curt then proceeds to whip out a rope and does an amazing rope bit while doing his comedic patter sans headset mic to a room of 1150. The room at Moody became a outdoor boardwalk for 5 minutes. He had the audience in his hand and jumped into the RUN RUN RUDOLPH number without missing a beat. A terrific example of the highwire act that is live theater and how the performer can overcome the odds. Mad respect Curt Miller, mad respect.”