From the Dec 16 – Dec 22, 2004 issue

Love Hurts

Actress Takes a Spill, Audience Gets a Scare at Brown Derby's 'Showgirls'

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As anyone who's experienced its merciless barrage of crap dialogue, spastic dancing, and well-buffed boobs can attest, Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls can be a terrifying experience. But for audience members at Monday's opening-night performance of the Brown Derby series' Showgirls--a three-night staging of the original shooting script, adapted and directed by Ian Bell, starring psycho-drag superstars Ursula Android and Jackie Hell--the terrors of Verhoeven's original film were supplemented by a mind-fucking fright not even Bell and his thoroughly warped cast could've anticipated.

"It happened during the backstage-at-Cheetah's scene," says director Ian Bell, who'd cast beloved theater MVP Imogen Love to play the horny bitch stripper "Annie." During the scene, an offstage Bell heard a mysterious thud. "I thought, 'I didn't block that,'" says Bell, who was soon called onstage to address the problem. Namely, Imogen Love, who appended her decade-and-a-half of theatrical grace and brilliance with show-stopping wipeout on the Re-bar stage. "Basically, she just disappeared," says Bell of the gravitational assault that brought Love to the ground behind an oversized set piece. Once the cast and audience identified the extent of the unlucky Love's injuries (bloody forehead, dilated pupils), the show was stopped in its tracks, and Love was whisked to the hospital.

"I offered refunds," says Bell. "Almost immediately, someone stood up and yelled, 'Screw that! We love Imo!'" Of the 130 people in attendance, 10 asked for their money back; all remaining proceeds went to cover Love's ER expenses. "It was amazing," says Bell. "It was one of those legitimate wonderful-power-of-theater moments."