Two Idiotic Audience Members Were Ejected From A 'Bodyguard' Musical Production For Yell-Singing Along And Ultimately Cut The Show Short
[Variety]
"A touring production of the stage version of 'The Bodyguard' was brought to a halt and canceled in Manchester, England on Friday night after patrons would not stop singing along with the musical’s songs, leading to house lights coming up during the climactic number 'I Will Always Love You.' Two women were forcibly pulled out of the theater by security, and several police cars arrived to oversee the evacuation of the theater after what patrons on social media described as 'fights in the aisles' and even 'a mini-riot.'"
Something bloggable about THE THEATRE!? Don't mind if I do.
Unfortunately, it's an ugly moment starring self-absorbed dumbasses who decided to interrupt an entire touring production of The Bodyguard, based on the renowned movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.
Kind of fitting in an "art imitating life imitating art" sort of way that security had to drag these two morons kicking and screaming out of the venue. A little less life-and-death stakes, granted, but the parallel is too obvious not to point out.
Lead actress Melody Thornton had a classy response in the aftermath of the debacle. She's a better human than I would've been in this situation. Thornton fought really hard to finish the show and apologized to those in attendance for the behavior of a couple bad apples.
So bizarre, I was actually just telling my buddy on Friday to check out Bodyguard, the miniseries (streaming now on Netflix) for which Richard Madden deservedly won a Golden Globe. I shit you not it is one of the flat-out best leading acting performances I've ever seen in my life. Madden is un-fucking-believable in that show.
Anyway, I can't remember a time where an interruption this blatant, obnoxious and brazen occurred other than the Broadway production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, starring Tom Hiddleston, his eventual real-life fiancé Zawe Ashton, and Charlie Cox of Daredevil fame. A freaking cellphone rang four separate times, leading to multiple stoppages and Hiddleston shedding tears on stage amid the incessant interruptions. These weren't part of the show. These weren't trademark "Pinter Pauses" built into the script. This was audience member incompetence to the nth degree.
You'd think even the biggest dunce among us could figure out how to turn off a damn phone after the first slip-up. Maybe you're so in your head that it happens a second time. But three times? Much less four? What are we even doing here, people!? That incident, too, led to a mini-riot mid-show, as other patrons began shouting for the culprit to be tossed from the theater.
Theatre audiences tend to be polite and respectful for the most part. After all, you're paying a good chunk of change just to be there. You want to be entertained. If anything you're hyper-conscious of being the one to spoil everything with your ringtone blasting through the space and pissing everyone in your general orbit off.
…And yet…we have these gravely stupid Bodyguard spectators who think they can not only out-sing Whitney Houston, but are really doing a disservice to the whole cast and crew who worked so hard to bring the production to life. You can hear the reaction of everyone as they're being escorted out. No one feels sorry for them. I'd heckle them and gloat about their abrupt departure to no end. Only drawback would be their lack of memory of it, because I can only assume they were piss-hammered-drunk or on some kind of mind-altering substance to pull a stunt like this.
I'll play you out with a movie theater full of impassioned Bollywood stans singing and dancing along IN THE APPROPRIATE CONTEXT to a musical number so that we can end this thing with some positive vibes.