Before the curtain rises on Broadway shows, an announcement is made asking audience members to turn off their cellphones. Apparently, Kanye West did not get the message Monday night when he attended the opening night of “The Cher Show” with his wife, Kim Kardashian.
Jarrod Spector, who plays Sonny Bono in the musical, tweeted during the performance, ”Hey @kanyewest so cool that you’re here at @TheCherShow! If you look up from your cell phone you’ll see we’re doing a show up here. It’s opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much.”
And with that, Twitter was off and running with hundreds of comments, thousands of retweets and more than 17,000 likes. Many of those who commented invoked Tony Award-winning actress Patti LuPone, who in 2015 took a phone from an audience member who was texting during a performance of “Shows for Days.”
Others came to Kanye’s defense, suggesting that Spector should focus on his performance and not on what the audience is doing.
For his part, Kanye admitted that he had been wrong and apologized.
He tweeted: “please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece.”