Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club halted mid-production on Friday as actor Price Waldman suffered a medical emergency on stage at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway.
Waldman, an understudy playing Herr Schultz in the award-winning Cabaret revival, reportedly froze during the first act.
According to People magazine, the house lights were brought up and Waldman was escorted off by a stage manager.
Waldman was taken to hospital in an ambulance, where a source told People he was treated and is “doing okay.” Theatergoers were told in an announcement that he was “conscious” and “responsive” as he was taken to the ambulance.
An official diagnosis was not shared. The Independent has contacted the production for comment.
The setback is the latest blow to hit the Broadway staging of the West End musical after Emcee star Billy Porter pulled out due to “a serious case of sepsis” earlier this week.
Doctors are confident that the Tony-winner will make “a full recovery,” a statement said.
“Billy was an extraordinary Emcee, bringing his signature passion and remarkable talent,” wrote producer Adam Speers, for ATG Productions. “We wish Billy a speedy recovery and I look forward to working with him again in the very near future.”
However, Cabaret’s producers have announced that the show will close on September 21, about a month earlier than planned.
Set in Berlin in 1930-31 as the Nazis are rising to power, the story follows American writer Clifford Bradshaw as he navigates a complicated romance with flamboyant cabaret singer Sally Bowles, all under the watchful, unsettling eye of the Emcee.
The immersive revival — which reimagines the theater as the Kit Kat Club itself — premiered in London’s West End in 2021 with Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee and Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles. It transferred to Broadway in April 2024, again with Redmayne in the lead role.
Since his departure, though, ticket sales have slumped, with The New York Times reporting they have been “unsustainably low” in recent months.
In her five-star review of the West End production in 2021, Alexandra Pollard wrote for The Independent: “Redmayne is excellent, contorting his sinewy body and singing with a closed-throated vibrato and hammed-up German accent.”
Marty Lauter and David Merino will share the Emcee role on Broadway until closing night.
