This one time during a show...

There is no such thing as a perfect show.  Whether the oops happens on stage, behind it, or in the pit, it just happens.  Such is life.

One time, in the sixth show of a ten-show run, one of the stage hands or stage managers was absent, and the conductor told us in the pit orchestra that one of the transitions might take some extra time and that we'd have to repeat short scene change music.  So, when the time came, we all repeated the sequence.  After playing it twice the conductor made small circles in the air with his hand to indicated to keep playing.  And so we did.  For maybe 2 minutes, repeating the scene change music about 20 times.

This scene change music was obnoxiously cheery, and at first I couldn't stop giggling at the fact that we were playing it over and over again.  Eventually my midsection was sore from trying to stifle myself and I started to get concerned: what was happening backstage that was causing this delay? The audience, luckily, overcame its initial confusion and started to clap along to the music as it continued on and on...and when the lights finally were raised to reveal the new set, they applauded and cheered (with joy? with relief?).  The actor who walked onto that scene ad libbed the line, "It's funny, I've had this song stuck in my head...".  I don't know whose burst of laughter was greater, the audience's or the pit orchestra's.  It made us feel relieved and gave us a chance to make some audible noise that came from ourselves and not our instruments.

We learned during intermission that, in addition to being a man down, a piece of the scenery got stuck or hooked to one of the fly's that was being lifted up, and the delay was mostly due to trying not to have one or the other fly come crashing down onto the stage.  Eventually gravity helped to wiggle the stuck piece off and bring down the correct scenery for the next scene.

Most of the time the mistake comes in the form of a missed cue or forgotten line or mic issue, and these mistakes happen so frequently as to be almost unremarkable, forgettable.  But this is one instance I will never forget.