Tag: Yale Rep

At a recent performance of “A Streetcar Named Desire” at Yale Rep, where Joe Manganiello is getting very strong reviews (“His Stanley personifies the fascinating combination of physical irresistibility and unsophisticated viciousness,” says the New Haven Register), Joe decided the sound and distraction of an audience member taking pictures over and over was too much to handle.

From Broadway.com:

After photos were taken during the first two acts, Manganiello reportedly stopped mid-line in the third act to pinpoint the offending audience member, shouting, “Can you stop with the camera? You have no idea how distractin’ it is!” The actor stayed in character as Stanley Kowalski during the aside, and then resumed the scene as if nothing had happened.

Manganiello took to Twitter backstage between the first two acts to issue a warning: “Dear person taking pictures during our show tonight… The ushers are going to be looking for you and you will be thrown out… you are insanely distracting to all of the actors onstage and incredibly rude. If you read this, please leave and don’t come back.”

Look kids – when they ask you to turn off the phones and not take pics – THEY MEAN IT. As an actor myself, I can attest to how distracting it is for audience members to continually take pictures during a performance. So not cool. Good for Joe for staying in character and addressing the situation.

Some have compared this to the famous Patti Lupone meltdown during a performance of GYPSY on Broadway, where during the 11 o’clock number “Rose’s Turn” she stopped the show completely to call out an audience photographer.  While I understand the feelings about it, I never liked that approach as a solution.  An entire evening was being built to make that number work, and she kills the entire momentum of the show by breaking character.  This sounds like a much better way to shut things down and move on.

Bravo, Joe.

(via Broadway.com)