Chookas!

Ooh ooh ooh.

Found some good stuff about 'break a leg'.

I got it at the glossary of theatrical terms - a very useful resource:
http://www.theatrecrafts.com/glossary/morebreakaleg.html

1)
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.

2)
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."

3)
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.

4)
In the nineteenth century theatre, when it was the norm for actors like Keen, Tree, and Irving to be actor managers. They would perform a role many times and for many years. When a new actor would take over a particular role that had become closely associated with one of these legendary actors he was told "break the legend". Over time this gradually got changed to "break a leg".

***

The many variations here make it hard to know which might be the proper one - but interesting all the same. Sadly, there is no listing for 'chookas' in this database nor could I find a definition online.

Hope someone can enlighten us!!

Toby

PS - apologies about multiple posts above.