Jodie Comer pulled out of the matinee performance of her Broadway play “Prima Facie” after she couldn’t breathe due to the fire air that blew across New York City.
The show started 10 minutes behind schedule. When it began, Comer was about three minutes into her performance when, according to Deadline, she coughed and shouted to the stage manager, “I can’t breathe this air.”
The 30-year-old comer was then escorted off the stage and the curtain was lowered. An understudy watched the remainder of the show in their place, prompting many viewers to leave the show and try to get tickets to performances with Comer, the publication said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has urged millions of residents to stay home as dangerous smoke from Canadian wildfires billows from across the border.
Huge swathes of the country from the Northeast to the Great Lakes are bracing for several more days of smog as Canadian authorities continue to grapple with over 400 wildfires.
A dense, nicotine-yellow haze shrouded the famous Big Apple skyline on Wednesday as the city briefly became the world’s most polluted city as its air quality index rose to over 200, considered “very unhealthy.”
Jodie Comer had to pull out of a matinee performance of her Broadway play Prima Facie because she couldn’t breathe from the scorching air that blew across New York City
The picture shows Yankee Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. At the time of writing, no decision has been made about the fate of today’s game
The smoky haze begins to settle over the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital
More than a dozen U.S. states and over 100 million people are subject to air quality warnings as health experts warn that inhaling the mist can be just as harmful as smoking six cigarettes. Nanoparticles from the smog are so small that they can enter the lungs and bloodstream, causing side effects such as eye and throat irritation and breathing problems.
The smoking problems have threatened a number of Major League Baseball games scheduled for Wednesday night, including the Yankees’ White Sox and the Phillies’ Tigers.
Around 4:00 p.m., Yankees officials announced that their game had been canceled and that the two teams would play in a double-header tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
The Phillies game was also canceled. The Washington Nationals have announced their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks will be played at 7:05 p.m. as scheduled.
The Toronto Blue Jays will close the roof of the Rogers Center for their game against the Houston Astros tonight. Some Blue Jays fans were upset that the roof was open for Tuesday night’s game over air quality concerns.
The WNBA game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx was canceled due to reports of smoke entering the Barclays Center.
“All New Yorkers should limit outdoor activities as much as possible.” Stay indoors, close windows and doors, and use air purifiers if you have them,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Wednesday.
Adams was scheduled to attend an event honoring Oscar winner Robert De Niro at the Tribeca Grill as part of the Tribeca Festival, which could also be cancelled.
Due to the weather, public libraries in the Big Apple closed at 3:30 p.m. Outdoor activities for public schools have also been suspended. A fireworks display at Coney Island has been canceled, as has the opening of the 45th Annual Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series.
A plume of smoke from the wildfires first settled over New York on Tuesday before thickening throughout the afternoon, preventing people in Manhattan from seeing the New Jersey skyline across the Hudson River.
People walk through Times Square while Manhattan is shrouded in haze and smoke
A man tries to take a picture in the haze
The Manhattan skyline was shrouded in smoke on Wednesday afternoon
At the time of writing, the smoke has not resulted in the cancellation of the Governor’s Ball, the music festival scheduled to take place this weekend.
“We are closely monitoring air quality with weather experts and are in close contact with the city government.” As always, the health and safety of New Yorkers is our top priority. The festival is currently continuing as planned. “We hope conditions improve in the coming days and look forward to a great weekend!” a festival representative told Pitchfork.
The music festival, directed by Kendrick Lamar, Lil Nas X and Lizzo, is scheduled to take place June 9-11 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in her remarks she was confident the smoke would clear by the weekend.
Software giant Google has told all East Coast employees to work from home. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy closed all state offices at 3:30 p.m. At least three school districts in the Garden State have canceled activities.
Schools in the Baltimore area have followed suit, canceling all outdoor activities scheduled for Wednesday.
In addition to sending New Yorkers indoors, according to the National Weather Service, air quality warnings have also been rolled out in states like Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Virginia and the Carolinas.
Forced to end early: The 30-year-old comer said air quality prevented her from breathing before she was helped offstage by a stage manager about 10 minutes into the show on Wednesday
Jodie received critical acclaim for her one-woman show Prima Facie, a role she originally played at the Harold Pinter Theater in London before taking it to Broadway.
On Tuesday night, that role earned her another trophy for her work at the Drama Desk Awards.
The 30-year-old British actress won Outstanding Solo Performance for Prima Facie in a role she originally played at the Harold Pinter Theater in London before taking it to Broadway.
Unlike the Tony Awards, the Drama Desk Awards recognize not only Broadway performances, but also Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway performances.
This year, for the first time in its history, the Drama Desk Awards have opted to make their acting categories gender-neutral — or, as they prefer, “gender-free.”
In her category, Jodie beat out David Greenspan for Four Saints in Three Acts, Jessica Hendy for Walking With Bubbles, Anthony Rapp for Without You, and Tracy Thorne for Jack Was Kind.
She also received a Tony Award nomination for the same role, competing in her category with Jessica Chastain in A Doll’s House, Jessica Hecht in Summer 1976, and Audra McDonald in Ohio State Murders—before the June 12 awards ceremony .
Jodie received critical acclaim for her one-woman show Prima Facie, a role she originally played at the Harold Pinter Theater in London before taking it to Broadway
Prima Facie marks Jodie’s West End and Broadway debut. Speaking to CBS News this week, Jodie explained, “I’ve been very public and honest about auditioning for theater a lot, and a lot of the feedback has been, you know, the fact that I wasn’t classically trained.” ‘didn’t go to drama school.’
“It was kind of an obstacle.” Then I was sent this one-woman play, written by Suzie Miller, to the West End. I just thought, “Wow, it just felt like a gift to me.”
When asked if she expected the impact of the play and her performance, she replied, “No, no, I think we were all actually really stunned.”
“But I remember when we did the first preview in London – and this was the first time we performed in front of an audience – there was a lot of crying, very audible and very quite loud and outrageous and very guttural.”