Times health writer Tara Parker-Pope got some unexpected thrills during last night’s performance of Gypsy, which stars Patti Lupone at Broadway’s St. James Theater:
Toward the end of the show, as Ms. LuPone’s Mama Rose was about to launch into her show-stopping number, there was a crash in the balcony. A huge metal plate, about 30 inches in diameter and used to cover a diffuser, came crashing down from the ceiling. It hit a young woman in the head and ricocheted into the back of my friend’s neck before rolling into my seat.
The performance continued as a doctor checked the woman, who was then further treated by emergency medical technicians and released. What’s weird is that on the way into the preview performance, Parker-Pope’s friend had presciently remarked that “sometimes technical things happen, like stuff falls out of the ceiling,” when a show is in its first performances. Though the debris hit the friend on the back of the neck, she was protected by her coat collar and is “bruised but feeling better.”
Associate theater manager Hal Goldberg says they're still trying to determine what happened, and the show will go on tonight. And yes, LuPone will once again bring the house down.
