An audience member who was watching Here You Come Again in Manchester was thrown out after shouting homophobic abuse. The Dolly Parton-themed musical was disrupted on Wednesday last week for about 20 minutes.
During the performance, a woman from the audience interrupted with homophobic slurs and was ejected from the theatre after the whole cast walked off in protest.
One of the actors from the production, Stevie Webb, disclosed that abuse from audiences across the country has been a ‘regular occurrence.’
Sharing his thoughts in a TikTok video on Sunday, he said: “The amount of audience members that we have had to eject from our show due to homophobia is insane.
“Just this week, in Manchester alone, last night we had to eject someone who was shouting out slurs.
“On Wednesday, we had to stop the whole show because a woman was so disgusted there was a gay character on the stage. She was shouting out, and then all the audience started shouting at her, and there was a massive ruckus.”
ATG Entertainment, who runs the venue in Manchester, stated it took a “zero tolerance” approach. The musical features a gay character, and Dolly Parton is widely considered to be a gay icon after being an early advocate for same-sex marriage.
Stevie said that the continued disruptions had “opened his eyes” to the amount of homophobia across the country. He said: “It’s a Dolly Parton musical mate … it’s going to be a little bit gay obviously.”
“But the amount of people, it has really opened my eyes because we are in such a bubble in this industry, but travelling the country and seeing how many people literally cannot bear to see a gay person depicted on stage, it is wild.”
In recent months, audience members have disturbed several theatre productions. Last year, Andrew Scott paused his performance of Hamlet after a theatregoer took out their laptop.
The Irish actor played the iconic role in 2017 at the Almeida Theatre, earning him an Olivier nomination. The Sherlock star recalled when an audience member took out his laptop amid the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy.
“When I was playing Hamlet, a guy took out his laptop – not his phone, his laptop – while I was in the middle of the ‘to be or not to f***ing be’,” he explained. “I was pausing and [the stage team] were like, ‘Get on with it,’ and I was like, ‘There’s no way’.”
He added: “I stopped for ages.” Scott then recalled that a woman next to the audience member alerted him and prompted him to put away his laptop. “He had absolutely no doubts.”