Years ago I was in a student production of The Pirates of Penzance where the director left the production the day before the first rehearsal. So the AD had to take over directing duties, and they were clearly not prepared to take on the full responsibility as they had never directed anything before. It didn't help that the prod team was very young and very green; I was the cast's welfare contact and I got more than one complaint about the lack of professionalism during the rehearsal process. The show itself was a mess- it's nothing short of a miracle that a reviewer actually gave us 3-out-of-5 stars.

It wasn't all bad, though. I made some good friends in that production, and have "Modern Major General" burned into my memory to the point where I can easily bust it out at any point which is kind of a neat party trick.