Drag star gives audience member a dressing down for filming show
AN ACTOR and drag queen has criticised an audience member at the musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie who filmed a large part of the show on her phone.
Bianca Del Rio, also known as Roy Haylock, is starring as Hugo/ Loco Chanelle in the show at the Apollo Theatre, in London’s West End.
The former RuPaul’s Drag Race winner wrote on Twitter: “Dear blonde b **** with glasses, Thanks for distracting the ENTIRE CAST and SEVERAL PEOPLE AROUND YOU as you filmed during all of ACT ONE with your phone in your hand.
“This is not a concert, theme park or even a cruise ship ... it’s THE THEATRE! RESPECT IT ! @ JamieMusical”
The musical is inspired by the 2011 television documentary Jamie: Drag Queen At 16 and follows a teenager who lives on a council estate in Sheffield as he overcomes prejudice to become a drag queen. This is not the first time performers have criticised audience behaviour in a theatre.
Last year, cast members of Titanic The Musical at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham were horrified when two women in the front row watched England’s World Cup penalty shootout against Colombia on their phones and audibly celebrated each goal. In 2015, stars of Hand To God on Broadway were alarmed when one audience member walked on to the stage to plug his phone charger into a socket just before the production started.
In 2009, Patti LuPone famously stopped a performance of Gypsy when a phone flash went off and, in 2015, she snatched a phone from a woman who was texting in the middle of the play Shows For Days.
Benedict Cumberbatch had to urge fans to stop photographing and recording videos during his performances of Hamlet at the Barbican, and audience members at Doctor Faustus thought nothing of eating a box of chicken nuggets during a show in 2016.
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie features music by The Feeling singer Dan Gillespie Sells and book and lyrics by Tom MacRae.