While Broadway shows have a strict policy against recording anything onstage, Second Stage Theater, which is producing the revival, has added Yondr pouches to protect the actors, many of whom are naked in shower scenes. Audience members arriving at the theater are asked to put their phones into a locked pouch that is only opened at the end of the show. Producers said they would beef up security in the wake of the violation.
“Theater is a sacred space, and everybody doesn’t understand that. Everybody doesn’t necessarily respect or regard that in a way that maybe they should, or we’d like,” Williams said.
The leaked video is the latest incident in which the privacy or well-being of a performer was put in jeopardy, following Will Smith’s Oscar slap of Chris Rock and when Dave Chapelle was attacked by a man at the Hollywood Bowl.
One of Williams’ co-stars, Michael Oberholtzer, who also earned a Tony nomination on Monday, called the incident “very disappointing.”
“People feel like that they can say and do things because they pay for admission or because they are a subscription member or whatever the case may be, that certain behavior is permissible. But it’s not. It’s a violation of people’s consent,” Oberholtzer said.
Williams says he was approached to do the revival of the play while starring on the long-running medical drama, “Grey’s Anatomy,” but it wasn’t until after he read the script that he realized it included nudity.
“If somebody had just said it’s playing with nudity, it would have been framed differently. But the nudity is honest. It makes sense. It’s not salacious. It serves the story. It puts the audience in an interesting position to relate to and empathize with the characters,” Williams said.