A showing of The Lion King at the Bristol Hippodrome was stopped at the weekend by technical difficulties, a Hippodrome spokesperson has confirmed. Audiences were surprised when the show on Saturday, June 3, stopped mid-way through the performance.
The hugely successful stage adaptation of Disney's 1994 movie arrived at the Hippodrome back in May and has left audiences speechless and in awe of a beautiful and powerful show. But audiences on Saturday were left confused when the show drew to a halt part-way through.
One theatre-goer who was at Saturday's performance said the show was stopped for "25 minutes or so" before restarting where it left off. On asking one of the ushers what had happened, he was told the show had experienced "technical difficulties."
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The theatre-fan said it came after an earlier medical incident where a man appeared to become unwell and left the auditorium. He told BristolLive: "I was at the Bristol Hippodrome on Saturday watching The Lion King. Show had to stop about four acts in due to an incident.
"About five minutes earlier, a bloke who appeared to be in his late 50s/early 60s who was sat in the Upper Circle (where I was) had become unwell and was staggering around with his wife and stewards trying to get him out of the auditorium. He looked in a very bad way and nearly collapsed a couple of times."
"Theatre wouldn't say what was going on, just that the show had to stop temporarily. Ended up being stopped for about 25 minutes or so in the end before the musical started again where it left off.
"I asked one of the ushers during the normal interval what had happened, but she said "technical difficulties", which is a bit ambiguous. It was very hot inside the theatre, so not sure how much of that played a factor in any of it."
A spokesperson from the Hippodrome has confirmed to BristolLive the two incidents were unrelated, and the show was stopped because of technical difficulties.
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