Last night during the last line of Alice Ripley's beautiful performance of "I Miss the Mountains" there was a scream heard from the mezzanine. Alice did not know what to do so paused and kept going as audience members started to yell "Stop", etc. Then Aaron's understudy came on for the next song and waited since he too had no idea how to react. An announcement then came on saying that the perfomance would stop and resume shortly. There was plenty of screaming going on as the house lights came up and the entire audience was a buzz about what had happened. I was in the orchestra so I have no Idea what actually happened that caused people to start screaming.
Despite all of this, the entire cast was able to get fully back into the show after 10-15 minutes. They were all fabulous.
After the show as I was leaving I heard a familiar voice and I was amazed to find that it was Bernadette Peters. She looked stunning and was an absolute sweetheart when I spoke to her.
...everyone was doing the mambo and drinking golden cadillacs...
I don't need a life that's normal. That's way too far away. But something next to normal would be okay. Something next to normal is what I'd like to try. Close enough to normal to get by.
Louis Hobson's status on Facebook: Let's see...Understudy on last night (good job Tim!), someone had a seizure during I Miss the Mountains and we had to stop the show for 10 minutes, my acting coach came (Thanks Michael Howard!) and Bernadette Peters came backstage after to say hi. We made it through but GEEEZ what a night!
One of the comments said the woman collapsed but didn't have a seizure... Let's pray this woman is alright!
Weird... when a few of my friends went in late June, a woman in the orchestra had a seizure during "You Don't Know/I Am The One". Though I don't think they stopped the show that time.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
The woman was conscious by the time she left in the ambulance, but she did have a minor stroke or something along those lines. The reason they had to stop the show was that she was in the front row of the mezz and there was no easy way to get her out without disrupting the whole area, plus the people she was with were fairly hysterical.