Air is so bad in NYC that Jodie Comer exited Broadway show mid-performance
10 minutes into a performance of her one-woman show, Comer said she was having trouble breathing
Aux News Comer
The climate emergency that’s been bearing on the world for the last 30 years claims its first Broadway show. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the theater isn’t immune against the toxic air from Quebec’s massive wildfires five-hundred miles north of the Great White Way. As such, 10 minutes into her performance of the one-woman play Prima Facie, Jodie Comer announced she couldn’t breathe and left the stage.
“I can’t breathe in this air,” Comer reportedly said, calling to the stage manager, who reportedly helped her down.
As the adage goes, the show must go on—though without its oxygen-deprived lead. Comer’s understudy Dani Arlington took over the role, restarting the play from the top.
Prima Facie isn’t the only show struggling through the crisis. Broadway World reports that today’s rehearsals for Shakespeare In The Park’s production of Hamlet have been canceled. On Twitter, Jeff Heimbrock, an actor in Wicked, wrote,
“The dressing rooms and backstage areas today smell like smoke,
everyone is having trouble breathing, especially during our physically
strenuous numbers. Folks with asthma don’t know if they need to call out
or try and push through.”
According to Rolling Stone, Canada is currently facing some of its largest and deadliest wildfires on record, with more than 6.6 million acres burning last month. The smoke from these fires has created a dangerous and toxic environment for much of the Northeast, including Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. However, the air in New York City is so bad that the city briefly ranked among the worst air quality in the world.
The EPA recommends those in areas with poor air quality wear N95 masks, which help prevent people from inhaling particles. The organization also recommends air purifiers with HEPA filters. There are even instructions for building DIY air purifiers and air cleaners. Stay safe out there.
22 Comments
“for much of the Northeast, including Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island”Someone skipped first grade geography…
Reminds me of Our Dumb World grouping Minnesota in with Alaska and Hawaii as “the bullshit states.”
Most Broadway shows go on at 8PM on Wednesdays. I imagine we will be hearing a lot more of this in the coming hour or two. I’ve heard of a few shows already cancelling their performances. Even if the theaters have supposedly installed better filtration systems as a result of the pandemic all these theaters have huge doors that are kept wide open as audience members make their way in, which will inevitably flood the theater with this awful smoke.I feel terribly for the performers, stage hands, and theater staff that have to put up with this. They should have closed every show until at least Friday when the smoke is expected to have dissipated.
I live in California; I get it. When the smoke is that bad, there’s really nothing you can do except stay inside and not exert yourself.
I think it’s finally time we all agree it’s time to blame Canada.
With all their beady little eyes, and flapping heads so full of lies…
Hey, you guys spread your far-right rhetoric up here, a little smoke aint no thing.
Why didn’t they just close the show for the night?
$$$
Money. Plus, if the understudy was physically capable, why cancel?
The current jet streams are basically pushing Canadian air due south so air quality is gonna get bad for pretty much every state east of the Mississippi. At least those above the Mason/Dixon. We got drought conditions in Northern Illinois as well. Gonna be a “fun” summer
You have drought already in N. IL? We haven’t had buckets of rain this spring, further down, but we’ve had a few big storms.
I was afraid this might happen. It shouldn’t be in the 90s either and we had exactly 3.8 inches of snow this winter. We seriously don’t need this right now. People are still all pressed after the pandemic. I’m predicting a summer of extreme gun-violence too.
I woke up to pale orange skies this morning and the smoke rolled in around 10 am in Upstate NY. I left work (working outside) because I worked all day in the smoke yesterday and it fucked up my sinuses. I already spent the month of April overcoming bad bronchitis, I’m not about to go through it again.
According to Cat Fancy magazine, Somalian drought and hunger crisis has grown to take the lives of…
HOW BAD IS IT?Oh.
Air is a bad movie wherever you watch it. Pretty unprofessional of Comer to try and watch it when she’s meant to be on stage. Still, can’t blame her for giving up after 10 minutes.
Maybe she should’ve watched The Last Duel instead? 😁
What worries me is this seems to be yet another sign of how fucked we are. Not that there’ll be fires like this every years, but it does seem scientists are predicting a definite increase, and in 20 to 30 years life could be very, very different unless we react now.
For once it’s not us in western Canada that’s on fire! (he said with ill-deserved bravado)
I’ve seen video of orange air so think you can’t see anything at all. That’s going to kill people.
Seeing the images of those apocalyptic skies brought bad memories of the horror bushfires we had here in Australia in 2019-20.