'The Wire' Actor Intervenes As Crazy Attendee Begins Screaming In Middle Of Broadway Play
Ahh, New York City.
Truly a special place where you literally never know what you're going to encounter. Sinatra wasn't lying when he famously sang, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere." New York City residents have seen the city deal with a rise in crime, frightening subway attacks that occur almost on a daily basis, as well as a growing homeless problem.
As a New Yorker myself, you really never know what you're going to see. Most of the time we ignore it and just continue on our way - nothing really phases us anymore.
However, there was no way to ignore what occurred at Broadway's Hudson Theater on Tuesday night when some random female audience member got up in the middle of "Death of a Salesman" and began berating the cast and screaming nonstop.
At first the cast tried to ignore her. But it was so over the top and so disruptive that actor Wendell Pierce had to stop and break character to confront the lady.
According to an Instagram post from someone in attendance, Pierce "patiently and heroically pleaded with her to leave despite her insistence that she should be carried out forcefully."
The lady was wearing a fur coat and had been disruptive to those around her during the first act, according to eyewitnesses. However, they thought that she would leave during the intermission. They were wrong. The woman not only came back but then began her freak out just a few minutes into the second act, while screaming that she wasn't leaving and if she couldn't see the show, nobody could.
POLICE EVENTUALLY ESCORTED THE LADY OUT
The house lights came on - something that rarely happens on Broadway during the actual show. You can imagine all the things and types of people that show up in the audience of a Broadway show. Especially when people had been drinking for hours at dinner beforehand. So for the cast to actually call out an audience member shows just how serious it was.
Eventually the lady, who "may have been inebriated," was escorted out by police. Audience members praised Pierce for then immediately hopping right back into character as Willy Loman to finish out the show.
The show's producers told the New York Post, "We’re grateful to the entire team at the Hudson Theatre for working together to resolve the situation and resume the performance as quickly as possible.”
"The Wire" actor Wendell Pierce had to stop his Broadway performance due to an unhinged woman screaming. (Getty Images / NY Post)
Needless to say, this lady is the absolute worst. Imagine forking over a ton of money to get Broadway tickets during the week after Christmas. You're just trying to enjoy a relaxing show where it's relatively peaceful and quiet outside of the on-stage performers. Then all of a sudden some lunatic starts screaming. I'd be like "Oh great, now we got a crazy person on our hands."
Shout out to Wendell Pierce for handling the incident like a true professional. The 59-year-old star of HBO's The Wire has been involved in acting for years now and it showed on Tuesday. I'm sure plenty of audience members would have reacted differently if Pierce didn't step in.
Just another day in crazy ass New York City.