The actors in a Dolly Parton-inspired musical have said they were forced to halt a performance in Manchester after an audience member allegedly expressed their “disgust” over the inclusion of a gay character.
Stevie Webb, who plays a super fan of the country music icon in the musical Here You Come Again, shared a TikTok in which he addressed the abuse he and his team are met with “almost every week”.
“The amount of audience members we have had to eject from our show due to homophobia is insane,” he said.
“Just this week, in Manchester alone, last night we had to eject someone who was shouting out slurs.
“On Wednesday (5 February), we had to stop the whole show… leave the stage, because a woman was so disgusted that there was a gay character onstage.”
Webb said there was a “massive ruckus” during the performance as the rest of the audience began to shout at the woman, forcing them to take a 15-minute break.
“This is a Dolly Parton musical!” he continued. “It’s just me and [an actor playing] Dolly Parton onstage, my character and Dolly Parton.”
Here You Come Again, directed by Gabriel Barre, is a musical comedy that features Parton’s character as a fairy godmother giving life lessons in song to a fan going through difficult times.
Webb said that London had been the worst experience, as he recalled a man who allegedly shouted the F-slur during one performance, complaining that he “just wanted to see Dolly Parton”.
“It’s really opened my eyes, because we’re in such a bubble in this industry, but travelling the country and seeing how many people literally cannot bear to see a gay person depicted onstage, it’s wild,” Webb said. “I feel very sorry for them.”
Webb urged potential audience members to read the synopsis of the production, as well as reminding themselves of the fact that “it’s a Dolly Parton musical”.
Parton is renowned for her longtime support of the LGBT+ community, and is considered by many to be the “original gay icon”. She declared her support for gay marriage in 2014.
ATG Entertainment, which runs the Opera House in Manchester where one of the incidents took place, told the BBC that it has a “zero tolerance” approach to such behaviour.
The Opera House said these incidents were rare and that anyone engaging in abusive behaviour would be removed immediately.
Parton announced the world premiere of her own music, Dolly: An Original Musical, last month, telling fans that it would have its first production in her home state of Tennessee.
Parton, who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, continued: “I’ve outlived so many plastic surgeons. But I actually have always wanted to do my life story as a musical.
“And I just thought that I wanted to see it done while I’m still around, to be able to oversee it and make sure that it’s done properly in a way that I would want to see it, rather than to wait ‘til I’m gone and let somebody else decide how they think it should be done.”
