Ambassador Dennis Richardson and Council Member David Catania among them — had just settled in as the house lights dimmed and the first scene’s deep, symphonic music thundered out of the speakers. Only one problem: The light jazz that had been playing as house music had yet to stop, creating some odd counterpoint.

As the rest of the players were gathered around a casket, lead actor Wallace Acton stepped out of the scene to beg the audience’s pardon. “We’ll start again,” he said.

Rising from his 10th-row seat, the theater’s celebrated artistic director, Michael Kahn, explained that the soundboard “is one of the only ones like it in the country,” but it crashed. “If you’ll just bear with us and sing,” he joked.

Turns out, Kahn said, the preview performance of “Tamburlaine” late last month had its own troubles. In one scene, lead Avery Brooks was supposed to emerge on a chariot, but the chariot got stuck off-stage, causing a lengthy delay.

“We’ll come back with some more information,” Kahn continued, now sounding like a gate attendant at an airport.

Brooks himself — whom TV audiences may know from “Spenser: For Hire” and “A Man Called Hawk” — soon entered and walked down the aisle to loud applause, seemingly poised to entertain the crowd in the interim, but his services weren’t needed. As soon as he began to speak, Kahn got word that the show could go on.

We’re not worried. Heck, even the Bard of Avon himself took a few years to get into the groove.