I’m going to watch every guest appearance this guy has ever made.
After John Lacy stopped in the middle of the show to confront a drunk man who called his co-star Anton Tory a “fag,” the actor says Repertory East Playhouse’s company director Ovington Michael Owston told him “go ‘F’ yourself” before firing him.
The doors at the Repertory East Playhouse in Santa Clarita, Calif. — roughly 27 miles north of West Hollywood — opened at 7 p.m. but the cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof didn’t take the stage until 8 p.m., leaving the audience plenty of time to have a drink and unwind in the 81-seat theater, or if you’re like one guest, get hammered before Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play about latent homosexuality and acceptance.
Well, there was little acceptance last Saturday night when ten minutes after the intermission, an unidentified heckler called actor Anton Troy a “fag.” Troy’s costar John Lacy stepped down off the stage and confronted him with a shove that sent the man to the ground. Lacy was cheered by the audience but fired by company director Ovington Michael Owston, who according to Lacy and Troy claimed the heckler’s friend threatened to return with a gun after he was thrown out.
I’m a comedian, so I’m predisposed to not liking hecklers, but at least I am allowed to deal with them from the stage. Theater actors don’t have that luxury. Theater crowds also used to be better behaved.
Here’s the thing about hecklers-they always think they’re being cute. In a stand-up show, many of the idiots believe they are adding something to the performance.
What they really do in any setting is ruin it for the other audience members. Theater and club owners are so desperate to hang onto every dollar that they’re willing to risk the polite people not complaining rather than kick one idiot out and refund his money. The idiot theater owner here had to cancel that night’s entire show after this and refund all the money because he wouldn’t corral one drunken moron.
Good.
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