Anyone who has taken a theatre class knows that
the vertical curtains on either side of the stage
(which mask the backstage) are called LEGS! When an
actor enters the stage and crosses downstage (towards
the audience) of a “leg” then he is “breaking a leg”.
This is good because the closer to the audience, in theory,
the larger the role you are playing. Peon actors never
get a chance to “break a leg” since they remain in the
background.
From my University days (many years ago) and my drama classes, I seem to remember discussing this item.
It seems that the staff was very close in the response. It is extremely bad luck to wish someone good luck in the theatre business. It is even worse then mentioning that certain play by the great bard himslef. So, in order to wish someone good luck, you need to wish that person bad luck.
The worst thing that could happen to an actor is to break a leg. The understudy would get the part or the show may be cancelled for the evening. Also, with the long healing time from a broken leg, that actor is off work for a while. Extremely bad if you are in a touring production.
So, that is where I learned that break a leg came from. It seems to make the most sense.
I had always understood that “break” a leg meant bend a leg. In other words act well enough that you get to bow to the audience in a curtain call. Anyone else heard of that one?
The problem with many of the replies is that
the basic question of “Why is it bad luck to
wish an actor good luck?” is never answered.
Why would this seemingly bizarre switch of
events apply only to the stage actor? If
someone can explain this instead of just
accepting it as a “tradition” or whatever, then
maybe there’s something to it. If not, I stand
by my response above. I’ve been working in the theatre
quite a while (my Master’s thesis is in the works)
and nobody has given me a better answer.
It’s one of those theatre terms (like “green
room”) that seem to garner more ridiculous
history with each telling.
By the way, I always say Macbeth in the theatre.
The curse, in theory, is only on British theatres.
I’ve had only the best of luck on stage as a result, too.
Go figure.
I’m not claiming that my version of the explanation is any more valid than the others, but I always heard this:
“Break a leg” means that the actor should go out and give such a great performance that an AUDIENCE member stomps so hard in appreciation that HE breaks his leg. And doesn’t suggest any ill will to the actor.
That’s my two cents – and it’s not my theory to begin with, I’m just passing on what I’ve heard!
MrChowWow’s response was closest to what I’d heard. But my understanding is this: the term break a leg means to physically break one of the legs of the stage because the curtain has to be raised and lowered so many times to accomodate the lengthy applause of the adoring audience. In other words, that you’ll get to take so many bows that the the structure holding the curtains up will be snapped from repeated use.
Sometimes, I despair. Chow says, << The problem with many of the replies is that the basic question of “Why is it bad luck to wish an actor good luck?” is never answered. >> Evidently, he hasn’t read the Mailbag Answer, which stresses that this is NOT just so for actors, but is a long-standing way to avoid a jinx or hex.
And, to again repeat what’s in the Mailbag Answer, there are several theories and stories floating around. The one cited gets the most votes from experts in the field (etymology, not history of theatre), regardless of what your high school drama coach may have said.
Er . . . to put it politely, “No.” I have taken theater classes, my wife has taken theater classes and acted in plays, and many of my best friends in college were theater majors who have gone on to stage careers, albeit at low levels. Never once, in all my exposure to people in the theater, have I heard those curtains referred to as “legs,” except by people offering this particular folk etymology. No theater book, dictionary, or encyclopedia I have at my disposal references this particular piece of jargon either.
Actually, the term arises from the translation of a French fairy tale into English. The famous story of the girl who was dreaming of what she would do with all the eggs when they hatched, and the fortune she would make from selling the chickens, and then she drops the basket and breaks all the eggs. When this was translated from French into English, in 1643, the French article “le” was somehow not translated (computer glitch, most likely) in front of the word “eggs”, hence the term appears: “she breaks all l’eggs.”
This is the true origin, my Aunt Blanche tole it to me, and she heard it from her friend, whose cousin once saw a play in a theatre.
Now, I will not be shown up on my area of study PLDENNISON!
You say "my wife has taken theater classes and acted in plays, and many of my best friends in college were theater majors who have gone on to stage careers, albeit at low levels. Never once, in all my exposure to people in the theater, have I heard those curtains referred to as “legs,”
Let me quote from the FActs on File Dictionary of the THeatre: LEG-a cloth (curtain)…which is used as part of a set of borders (“borders” is the collective term for the curtains above and on the sides of the stage), usually to mask the wings.
Also, I have worked for theatres all over the nation and every one of them has used the term regularly in their rehearsals and such.
Nevertheless, there is no reason to assume that “break a leg” does not mean exactly what it says, rather than engaging in convoluted back-formations.
What is true is that each of the “legs” is made from exactly nine yards of red velvet material, and thus when an actor would . . . Hey! Ow! Stop throwing things!
The Mailbag answer notes that there are several theories about “break a leg” and the one shown is the one favored by Partridge, a distinguished etymologist.
Alternate theories abound.
F’rinstance, back in Elizabethan times, there were not only afternoon and evening performances, but also morning performances, and it was commonly thought that a breakfast of slices of mutton was a good, brisk, invigorating meal before a performance. Hence, “breakfast on leg of mutton” was the phrase which got shortened to “break fast on leg” and thence to “break a leg.” This origin story is referenced by Mrs. Polly Warner-Cracker, the famous 17th Century British theologan and theatrical diva, in her autobiography (1996).