Comments on: Break a leg

By: Peter Fry

Peter Fry — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:38:16 +0000

One very believable explanation is that the side black curtains which hide the actors before they enter in a pros arch stage are known as “Legs”.
So, in order to arrive on stage the actor has to “break the leg”

By: Allen

Allen — Wed, 25 May 2011 00:36:10 +0000

I can assure you, as a stage actor, that what truly matters about the term is that we are a severely superstitious bunch. Set construction is as much about nailing together planks of wood and scrim as it is about not walking through ladders or breaking glass. Saying “Good luck” is akin to saying the name “Macbeth” backstage- it simply isn’t done. Anything going too right is bound to end up in disaster at a theater. Saying “Break a Leg” simply means that spiteful fortune (the far more likely variety) is forced to act in our favor.

By: Dominique Jackson

Dominique Jackson — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:12:26 +0000

In traditional curtains, the legs of the curtain were constructed from long wooden rods. In the case of many encores, curtains would be lifted and dropped numerous times causing them to “break.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_a_leg

By: vazzir

vazzir — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:15:58 +0000

In theater, simply saying good luck and have an outstanding performance is given in 3 words alone and that is “break a leg”. Actually, i find it very sweet phrase.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:48:09 +0000

Hello Evan and all the cats.

Sorry to hear you were sick. Glad to hear you are doing better. A ‘silver lining’ sort of observation, I think your dreams could rival Stephan King’s. I can’ wait for the movies.

Now, down to business. I am writing about the “break your leg” origin. My husband does a lot of acting and I being the dutiful wife usually work back stage on props or costumes or diva control. Whatever. And the origin of ‘break your leg” has caused us lowly little prop minions many a discussion between requests such as “I want you to make my bosom glisten under the left spot light” and “be a dear and sew this sleeve back onto my jacket before I have to go on stage in 25 seconds” .

Your comment about it being funny that we should wish a broken leg just for actors and not hope your heads fall off to the bride and groom was the same thought I had when I first started to become interested in words. Why a broken leg, not an arm or why just actors. Hmmm.

This is what I discovered.

In Shakespear’s time there were many traditions concerning the stage and the actors. Briefly after the show for the fisrt bow an actor just slightly lower his head (his head, since no woman except Gwnyth Palrow could go an stage) to the crowd. If the audience liked him then he would take a second bow from the waist. And if the audience loved him, he would get an encore, an ovation, resulting in a third bow by bending his knees.

Now this is where Thee Olde Medieval Urban Legend comes into play (pun intended). ‘Brak thy limb’ is Olde English for ‘Bend thy limb or leg’ So when an actor who worked for Willie Shakes was told to Brak thy Limb, he was in fact being wished “good luck, great show and hope that the audience loves ya baby, and you get a third ovation!”

I suppose that the Americanize version of brak became break and now we say break a leg without truly meaning it!

Keep up the great work!

Cathy

By: Warren

Warren — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:56:32 +0000

Further to “break a leg”, it’s significant that the stage community consider “Good luck!” to be the kiss of death for a performance! But they’re a very superstitious lot … just look at the way they refer to “The Scottish play”.

By: Slim

Slim — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:10:56 +0000

Actually, if you take the tour of Ford’s Theater, you learn that John Wilkes Booth did not break his leg when he jumped to the stage. He fell off a horse or was stepped on by one later in the evening.

By: Holg

Holg — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:38:27 +0000

I’ve never heard “Hals und Bein” without “bruch”, but a quick search on Google does seem to deliver several hits especially on riding-related sites. Must be a shortening of the longer phrase, because it makes little sense otherwise. Note that the shortened form has no hyphen after “Hals”.

BTW, the Wiktionary says that “Hals- und Beinbruch” is a corruption of the yiddish phrase “hazlokhe un brokhe”, meaning “success and blessings” or something like that. I’m not sure if that’s authoritative, but if it is, then the idea of outwitting the demons would have been applied after the fact.

By: Damm

Damm — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:01:33 +0000

As far as I know the origin of the phrase,which actually reads “Hals- und Bein” only, not “bruch”, was used when mounting a horse.
MD

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:29:48 +0000

Your explanation seems reasonable. Similarly the french say ‘merde’ to wish people good luck before they begin a quest. ‘Merde’ – as I’m sure you’re aware means ‘shit’.
I don’t expect that our thespian friends would want to land on shit on stage either !

By: Holg

Holg — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:41:01 +0000

For the sake of accuracy, the correct spelling of the German phrase is “Hals- und Beinbruch”. (I’m German.)