Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are all grown up and the Tanners have been off the air for almost 15 years but the cast of Full House are still pretty tight. Bob Saget proved he still has John Stamos’ back the other night when a backstage malfunction left “Uncle Jessie” stranded on stage.
Wednesday night was the last preview performance of the Broadway revival of Bye Bye Birdie. Stamos, who seems born to play the Elvis-like Conrad Birdie role, is actually playing weak-willed agent Albert Peterson, the lead in the musical. The performance was well attended and the audience included stand-up legend Don Rickles and Full House castmate Saget.
According to WSJ, things didn’t go all that smoothly. A piece of the backdrop broke apart about a half hour into the show and then treadmills that help to bring the train set onstage failed to work. As a result, chorus members had to bid farewell to Conrad from the living room set rather than the train station.
Stamos came out, did some ad-libbing and quickly shuffled a couple castmembers backstage. After a few long moments, the star returned to the empty stage and quipped, “I was just ready to sing ‘Happy Face’ and everything went to s***!”
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Stalling for time, he joked that perhaps his old friend Saget was to blame and then pleaded to funnyman Rickles for help. Saget good-naturedly came up on stage and joked with his old co-star to help fill time. Without a microphone of his own, Saget had to talk into the body-mike on Stamos’ forehead. He quipped, “I’m really glad your crotch isn’t miked.”
After awhile, some other members of the Birdie cast came out on stage to entertain the audience.
Leading lady Gina Gershon asked Saget what it was like to work with Stamos on Full House and he quipped, “It was really special — kind of like Brokeback Mountain but a sitcom.”
Saget joked, “This is a Twitter moment.” “It’s a career-ending moment,” Stamos lamented.
But, just like an episode of Full House, this story wraps up happily. The show eventually got going again and finished without a hitch. At the end of the night Saget, Rickles and the rest of the audience gave the Birdie cast a standing ovation.
What do you think? Do you wish you’d been in the audience that night or would you rather see a problem-free performance?
