The Liverpool Empire Theatre has issued a statement following yet another interruption during a performance, this time affecting the current run of The Bodyguard. The musical, which features Whitney Houston's iconic hit 'I Will Always Love You' and is based on the 1992 Oscar-nominated film, is scheduled to run in the city until Saturday, June 20.
The cast includes Sidonie Smith as Rachel Marron, Adam Garcia as Frank Farmer, Sasha Monique as Nicki Marron, and Matt Milburn as Sy Spector. The Tuesday, June 16 show was halted during the second act. A production spokesperson declined to comment to the ECHO, stating that all details were explained on the night.
According to social media posts, there were 'technical difficulties five minutes into the second part.' Some attendees speculated that an understudy was needed for one of the roles, as 'her voice went.' In a separate video, an announcer can be heard saying: 'Good evening, due to the indisposition of Sidonie Smith, the role of Rachel Marron will be played by Miranda Mambo. This performance is now able to continue.' Although the average attendee might view this as illness, in the theatre world, it falls under the umbrella term of technical difficulties.
Theatre Director Responds
Theatre director Diane Belding told the ECHO: 'I can confirm that there was a brief show stop during the evening performance of The Bodyguard on Tuesday, June 16. This was due to an illness affecting the voice of a performer. We host over 350 top-quality West End and Broadway standard performances each year, and nearly all run without a hitch in the fast-moving environment of live theatre. Show stops such as Tuesday's are very rare, but health and safety are our top priority. When a stop does have to take place, we make sure announcements to the audience are accurate and made as soon as possible.'
Previous Incidents at the Empire
Another illness caused the Olivier Award-winning show Dear England to be cancelled a few months prior. The theatre issued an update stating that the popular show, which tells the inspiring story of Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England manager, would not go ahead on Thursday, March 5, due to 'cast indisposition.'
Similarly, when the Empire’s Fawlty Towers was delayed by '10 minutes,' it was because a cast member had fallen over on their way to the stage. The last time The Bodyguard came to the Empire, it was also halted during its interval after a power cut in the building. The outage occurred at around 8:30 PM, just as the show was entering its interval, and did not come back on. Theatregoers were told at around 9:20 PM the show was cancelled due to the outage, and the audience left the building.
More recently, The Rocky Horror Show and Legally Blonde also experienced technical difficulties. During the Thursday, April 16 performance of Legally Blonde, a video posted to TikTok showed a man on stage telling the audience: 'Good evening everyone, we are having very difficult problems with the sound system. The system has gone down, and we are still trying to fix it. We are very close to the end of the performance and want you to see that so please give us a few moments as we try and resolve this.' The video ended with a round of applause from the audience.
A spokesperson for the Liverpool Empire Theatre said at the time: 'There was a show stop towards the end of the sold-out evening performance of Legally Blonde on Thursday, April 16 due to a temporary technical fault in the sound system. An announcement was made to patrons from the stage by the company manager and the show resumed a short time later with no further issues. The Empire Theatre looks forward to this weekend's performances of Legally Blonde, which is receiving enthusiastic feedback and standing ovations.'
Last year, hundreds of guests were left waiting outside the theatre due to 'technical difficulties' during the opening night of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which was delayed by around 20 minutes. The preview production was supposed to start at 7 PM, but guests were still taking their seats at 7:15 PM due to the late opening of doors.
Audience Reactions
Following the latest interruption during The Bodyguard, several social media users suggested similar incidents were becoming familiar. Helen Smith wrote: 'Seems to happen quite often,' while Lottie commented: 'Happened to us when we went to watch Rocky Horror.' Willis added: 'Happened to me in Legally Blonde, mics went off but they fixed it,' and Sam said: 'Happened at Mary Poppins as well.'
Despite the interruptions, many audience members praised the productions themselves. Avril wrote: 'We still didn't let it spoil our night haha.' Daniel Findlay-Belfield said: 'It was a brilliant matinee,' while Megan added: 'That was amazing.'
The Empire stressed that all of the productions mentioned completed successful runs in Liverpool, with the vast majority of performances taking place without incident.
