UPDATE, with device information The producers of Broadway’s Hadestown and Jujamcyn Theaters have apologized to an audience member with hearing loss whose use of a captioning device, provided by the theater, drew repeated onstage reprimands from one of the musical’s stars who mistakenly assumed the device was recording the performance.
Audience member Samantha Coleman posted a tearful Instagram video last night describing the “horrifying and embarrassing experience” of being called out by Lillias White from the stage “not once but twice, at least.” She said the incident was both hurtful and “super embarrassing” and left her feeling “ostracized and publicly ridiculed.”
Coleman, who was seated in the front row at the Jujamcyn-owned Walter Kerr Theatre, acknowledged that she didn’t believe White acted out of malice but rather misunderstanding. “But we still need to talk about it,” Coleman said.
White joined the show just last month, succeeding André De Shields in the role of Hermes. She has not commented on the incident.
Watch Coleman’s Instagram video below.
In a statement provided to Deadline, the musical’s producers, along with Jujamcyn, affirmed their “commitment to accessibility in all forms.”
“The incident yesterday is a reminder that this is an ongoing process needing constant revisiting and renewal,” the statement continues. “Providing access is also about educating everyone in the theater about how we can be more supportive. We are reviewing our policies and internal protocols to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“We extend our deepest apologies to Samantha,” it continues, “and extend our gratitude to her for sharing her experience so that it can be addressed.”
A spokesperson for Hadestown said the production “also connected directly with Samantha earlier today to convey their apologies and thank her directly for bringing this to their attention.”
Coleman didn’t initially identify the type of captioning device she used, but later posted on social media that the device was provided by the theater. Though many Broadway theaters are equipped with relatively new captioning technology that can be accessed via smarthphones – most widely the Shubert-owned GalaPro system – Coleman said she was not using her smartphone. She posted a photo of a similar device she recently used at a production of Into The Woods:
In a written statement accompanying her Instagram video, Coleman writes that she went public with the incident to “prevent another horrifying and embarrassing experience for someone else.” She called the experience “my worst fear, and it was realized. i don’t know if/when i’ll feel comfortable using a captioning devices again.”
Theater, she writes, “systemically is an exclusionary space for people who are disabled, has always been. this is just shining a light to that. if we do not address the underlying issues of inequality in theatre, we will never truly progress as an industry. we are just now reaching the technological peak, where tech can allow more people to see & understand theatre. as we continue to make inclusionary progress in the audience tech, how do we create an equitable experience for every person in the building? can we push ourselves, to strive to do better? can we allow everyone to experience theatre?”