Has an audience member ever stopped a show? — Page 2

When I was in college I went to see Lanford Wilson's "Fifth of July" for a third time. I had seen it off broadway with William Hurt and On Broadway with Christopher Reeves (who wasn't very good). Richard Thomas had just taken over the role. In the audience was a large group from a high school. In the first 5 minutes, Richard Thomas's character kisses his male lover. This prompted a lot of noise from the high school group. Finally Richard Thomas stepped forward, and said they were going to restart the show. He then read the riot act to the high school group, basically telling them if they couldn't act their age they should leave. This got him a standing ovation.He walked off stage - someone cued the sound board and the show started again. The high school group didn't make a noise the rest of the show.
And Richard Thomas was amazing in the role.

Many a West End theatre was evacuated in the 70s and 80s due to regular IRA bomb threats.
A few weeks after 'Mama Mia' opened in London in 1999, a Friday night full house of 1350 was evacuated just 30mins into the show. A home made bomb had gone off in a gay bar 100ft away from the theatre and killed 3 people. I was in a cafe next door to the theatre and felt the explosion and had my ears pop very painfully.

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Updated On: 6/2/08 at 11:53 AM

Which was stupid, if you ask me. Why would anyone sneak off to meet up with Henry when you could sit there with Gio's arm around your shoulders, huh?!

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The Homecoming incident is a great example of a perfectly avoidable incident.

A woman was having the beginnings of a panic attack. Needn't have caused a stir, but some IDIOT jumped up & started screaming that the show should be stopped. With him screaming at the top of his lungs, the stage manager had little choice but to bring the house up. If we had to stop a performance every time someone started coughing too long or having a panic attack, we'd have to interrupt nearly every performance.

People having heart attacks & so on, now that's different. I remember one poor man having a Vietnam flashback at Ride Down Mt Morgan (when there was offstage pounding on a door & screaming). The poor thing ran right into the stage & cracked his head. Obviously, under those circumstances, you need to stop the show.

When I saw the original JOSPEH, Laurie Beechman had to stop the show right after the second act starter when she sang "Joseph handed them sack loads of food..." I think she actually got that line out but as the sacks flew in, she stopped the show because someone in the audience was having a heart attack. She looked off-stage and the curtain came down. 45 minutes later, the man was taken out on a stretcher and the show resumed at that line.

A little off topic, but I saw someone have a heart attack at a Bette Midler concert in Boston a few years ago. He was seated about 6 rows back, center. The paramedics came and somehow got him on a stretcher and out of the venue without turning on the lights. And Bette just kept singing through it all.

I saw a high school production of THE MASTER BUILDER and a gentleman seated directly next to me on my left stood up in the middle of the show and shouted to the young actors "Sorry! We have to stop the show! Stop please! Ma'am, are you alright?"

Seated to his left was an elderly woman who was leaning on him, passed out, and making slight gurgly sounds. She wasn't asleep, she was passed out. She came back into consciousness a minute later after someone had already called 911. The woman wanted to stand up and exit the theatre so that the show could continue. She did and the gentleman next to me waited outside with her until EMS arrived. She came to the theatre alone, apparently.

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When I saw LOVEMUSIK, the show SHOULD have been stopped. It had just begun and an elderly couple up in the Mezz, where I was also sitting, was arguing with a couple sitting down in their seats. They were late and this was the first moment in the show where late-seating occurs. The usher was perplexed as hell because both sets of tickets were the same. The house manager stepped in and noticed that the tickets which belonged to the couple who arrived on time was for the following evening's performance. Somehow the ticket-taker missed it. So the couple got up and were leaving and apologized and the couple who arrived late asked "how could you not know which night your tickets are for?"

To which an audience member seated behind them (whose vision of the show must have been obstructed now for the past 5 minutes) shouted "And how the **** could you not know it is customary to arrive on time, not only because it is polite, but in case **** like this occurs?!?!"

EVERYONE in the Mezz was shushing them. The house manager raised his arms to silence the crowd and then rushed the couple who came on the wrong day out of audience.

The gentleman whose vision was obstructed due to this mess and made the retort to them then stood up, said to his wife "Let's go, we didn't spend $300 so that we have to miss the show." He shouted to the couple in front of him "Jerks!" as he exited.

The person seated next to me leaned over to me and said "Well that was morning entertaining than the show!" I agreed.

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A few weeks after 'Mama Mia' opened in London in 1999, a Friday night full house of 1350 was evacuated just 30mins into the show. A home made bomb had gone off in a gay bar 100ft away from the theatre and killed 3 people. I was in a cafe next door to the theatre and felt the explosion and had my ears pop very painfully.

A friend of mine was nearby when that bomb went off as well. I was staying in London a couple of months after it happened and I kept one eye on the news constantly.

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I have posted this before....At a matinee of "The Wiz", after it moved to the Broadway Theater, during the song Be A Lion, a man decided to stand up and take a flash picture. Stephanie Mills got up, walked across and off the stage. The music continued and Ted Ross (I think he was still the Lion) sat there and improvised licking his paws while the ushers came down to the man's row and escorted him out of the theater. About 3 minutes later, Ms. Mills walked back on and across the stage, took her position next to the lion and picked up right where she left off. The whole thing took about 6 minutes.

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Sandra Bernhard from WITHOUT YOU I'M NOTHING:

"Lets turn the spotlight on you and see who is in our very....late...rude...and thoroughly irritating audience this evening! Thank you for dropping in!

"9:35? You were in the tunnel? I'm sure you were. Whose?! Whose tunnel were you in?"

(To someone trying to find their seat) "Honey, if you have to, you can come sit here on my face...as long as I have a face you always have a seat. Table for two???"

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i heard a story from when Matt Damon and Casey Affleck were in This is Our Youth in London and a girl's cell phone rang and she continued to talk saying things like "yeah, no... i'm at the show right now. they're right in front of me".
From what i remember, Matt and Casey stood on stage and stared at her until she finished her conversation.

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A cell phone rang during the Roxie Monologue in Chicago (the tour. it was in Boston at the time). Belle Calaway was Roxie -- if I remember correctly -- and as she vamped across the stage, she motioned to the person and said "go ahead, you can answer it... I've got alllll day"

A woman had a heart attack at Spamalot a month or so back, but I think it happened during intermission. It didn't affect the show, aside from it taking about 10 minutes longer for the curtain to go up.

On a non theatre related note, while cell phones are being mentioned.... I sing in my church choir. About a month ago, the choir was walking up to the altar to take communion before singing, it's dead silent in the church and this cell phone goes off. The really loud, obnoxious, generic Nokia ringtone. We all figured the woman would silence her phone (she was sitting in the 2nd pew) but then we heard -- quite loudly, actually and I'm sure the whole church could hear -- "hello? No, I'm still in church. I dont know -- 15 more minutes? I'll call you when I get out. okay, bye."

It was all we could do not to start cracking up because, although it was completely inappropriate, it was funny as hell. Monsignor must have said something to her though because the next time we saw her at mass, she was sitting all the way in the back of the church behind the soundproof glass dividers (which are there for screaming children). I don't understand what's so hard about just putting your phone on silent? Or not bringing it into church (or a theatre).

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