Moment audience member 'screams' over The Bodyguard song before being thrown out

08 April 2023 , 12:58

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Moment audience member 'screams' over The Bodyguard song before being thrown out

This is the moment an audience member "screamed" over the top of performers while watching The Bodyguard musical at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.

The performance was disrupted and the show ended 10 minutes early, with theatre-goers unable to watch the end.

Two women were dragged away by security staff as other audience members clapped and following the incident, one of the main stars of the musical, Melody Thornton, apologised to those who paid for tickets and could not enjoy the musical properly.

Now, the Manchester Evening News shared a clip in which a member of the audience can be heard shouting the lyrics over 'I Will Always Love You'.

Two women were removed from the theatre and the musical was disrupted

In the meantime, other "confused and angry" theatre-goers spoke over the music and questioned what was happening.

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The video was filmed shortly before the show had to be halted as audience members sang over performers, despite the show's producers asking the public not to - and installing signs around the auditorium.

Karl Bradley, who filmed the video, described the scenes in the theatre as "chaotic" and said people were "screaming" and chanting "out, out, out" while some audience members sang over the performers.

He said the chaos started around half an hour into the first act and later got worse.

He explained: "We got about half an hour in and that was when it first all went black on the stage and everyone was a bit confused as to what was going on. I thought it might be the interval and I was thinking surely not so soon in.

"And then it became apparent once there was an announcement and there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the audience, they said they had to hold the show due to audience disruption."

He said the "screaming" over 'I Will Always Love You' came from the upper tier of the theatre.

The musical's producers had asked the audience to refrain from singing along

Police were called to the theatre on Friday evening (twitter)

"It was like people knew what was going to happen and we're sort of counting down to the woman screaming in the upper stalls", he added.

"Once it happened it was laughed about up top, everyone else was a bit more angry and confused about what was going on.

"The stage then just went black again and that's when it really started to kick off on the higher tier, you could really hear screams and audible gasps. Everyone starting standing up and looking over.

"There was chants of 'out, out, out' to get them gone, then once they'd left it was an awkward silence on stage. Even the actors were looking around to see what was actually happening."

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Karl said an announcement was then made to say the show had been halted due to "audience disruption". He added that there were "a lot of signs" around the theatre that advised people not to sing along.

"We didn't actually get to see the ending and you feel bad for the cast," he said. "I'm sort of new to the world of theatre but I've been to a few shows, nothing's ever been that bad."

This morning, Greater Manchester Police said two women were removed by security staff and then were spoken to by police officers.

The police force said in a statement: "Officers were called to the Palace Theatre last night (7 April 2023) after staff reported a number of people in the audience causing a disturbance.

"Two people removed by security staff were spoken to by police and a decision about any further action will be made once the evidence has been reviewed."

Chiara Fiorillo