Superstition against wishing an actor Good Luck! has led to the adoption of this phrase in its place. Popular etymology derives the phrase from the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth, the actor turned assassin, leapt to the stage of Ford's Theater after the murder, breaking his leg in the process. The logical connection with good luck is none too clear, but such is folklore.
There is no evidence, however, to suggest that this is the true derivation, and since the earliest usage of the phrase dates to the 1920s, there is much to suggest that it is not. The best that can be said is that the origin is unknown.
Meaning: A wish of good luck, do well.
Example: Break a leg in your game today.
Origin: "Break a leg" is sourced in superstition. It is a wish of good luck, but the words wish just the opposite. It was once common for people to believe in Sprites. Sprites are actually spirits or ghosts that were believed to enjoy wreaking havoc and causing trouble.
If the Sprites heard you ask for something, they were reputed to try to make the opposite happen. Telling someone to "break a leg" is an attempt to outsmart the Sprites and in fact make something good happen. Sort of a medieval reverse psychology. Of course it has became a popular wish of luck for theater performers.
To learn about the Woodstock Opera House’s very own ghost, Elvira, visit Haunted Woodstock. There you will find information about Elvira, the Woodstock Opera House, and other paranormal urban ledgends around Woodstock.
A DICTIONARY OF CATCH PHRASES suggests that there may be a connection with the German phrase Hals und Beinbruch, an invitation to break your neck and bones. The German phrase is used by aviators and is equivalent to the English phrase Happy Landings!. Both phrases arose about the same time, the early twentieth century, but the connection between the German aviation community and American theater is unclear, so they may be unrelated.
For contemporary English-speaking theater people, the ritual greeting reflects that calamitous 42nd Street production, "Break a leg."
However, the rather terrible curse may have had a more benign origin. Much earlier in stage history, when superstition had a less frightening hold on the craft, actors and their followers used a more gracious greeting: "May you break your leg," by which it was meant that the evening's performance would be of such grandeur that the actor would be obliged to break his leg - that is bend his knee - in a deep bow acknowledging the audience's applause.
Evidently, in the days of early vaudeville, the producers would book more performers than could possibly perform in the given time of the show - since "bad" acts could be pulled before their completion... so, in order to insure that the show didn't start paying people who don't actually perform, there was a general policy that a performer did NOT get paid unless they actually performed on-stage. So the phrase "break a leg" referred to breaking the visual plane of the legs that lined the side of the stage.
i.e. "Hope you break a leg and get on-stage so that you get paid."
(US) A light left burning overnight on stage to keep friendly spirits illuminated and unfriendly spirits at bay. Also believed to keep the theatrical muse in a "dark" theatre, and to stop people tripping over bits of scenery when they come into the theatre in the morning.
Also refers to the light emitted by a lantern when a dimmer has not been "trimmed" correctly, and is leaking.
Also known as the "Equity Light".
The historical reasons for it's existence (gaslights acting as pressure relief valves, keeping the ghosts away, keeping the ghosts happy, ensuring the theatre never 'goes dark' etc.) are many and varied.
Stephen Litterst:
The urban legend behind this (as I was told many years ago) was that a burglar had broken into a theatre one night before the advent of the "ghost light." He fell off the stage, breaking a leg or two and was found that way in the morning. Although he was trespassing, he sued the theatre for creating an unsafe workspace and won. So ever since, we leave a light on to protect ourselves from liability.
There is much about this story that is apocryphal. I prefer the "Ghost light" explanation where we leave the light on to keep the theatre ghost company overnight. Apparently when all the lights go out, the ghost thinks it has been abandoned and causes accidents to happen on the set.
It's also known as the "Equity Light" or "Equity Lamp". It's a term for the light/lamp that's turned on when all the other lights are turned off and the theater is locked up for the night. I suspect it's mandated by the rules of Equity, the Actors Union. I've found it on various web pages relating to locking up -- and as a reference in "Tex and Molly in the Afterlife"
