'To Kill a Mockingbird' on Broadway ends in panic after sound mistaken for gunshots in NYC
A Broadway performance of "To Kill a Mockingbird" was interrupted Tuesday night after the sound of a motorcycle backfiring, thought to be gunshots, sent crowds of people into a panic.
"Stopped our show tonight due to a motorcycle backfire that was mistaken for a bomb or a shooting," tweeted Gideon Glick, who plays Dill Harris in Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of the Harper Lee novel.
Glick recalled "screaming civilians tried to storm our theater for safety. The audience started screaming and the cast fled the stage."
USA TODAY reached out to representatives for the show, Sorkin and star Jeff Daniels (Atticus Finch) for comment.
Theaters on the same street that house "Dear Evan Hansen" and "Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of The Temptations" went under temporary lockdown, according to Playbill.com and audience tweets.
"This is the world we live in," Glick wrote. "This cannot be our world."
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Celia Keenan-Bolger, who was delivering her final speech of the show, recalled the "terrifying" experience for audience and cast members and thanked security and stage management for keeping people "as safe and as calm as possible."
She added: "I'm still processing the whole experience but all I can think about are the young people who've had to go through the actual thing. The trauma and fear that they have had to endure and what something like that does to a young person's brain. We cannot go on like this."
on the doors, so they hid or ran & tried to flee. It was terrifying for us because we didn't know what was happening or what to do. Our security and stage management did an amazing job of keeping people safe and as calm as possible. I'm still processing the whole experience but
— Celia Keenan-Bolger (@celiakb) August 7, 2019
Stage and TV actress Merle Dandridge, who was in the audience, said she "crouched on the floor... fearing for my life."
"This is our world now," she lamented, mirroring Glick. "Open panic and ready for life shots. I'm still shaking and scared for our country. Thinking about all of these perfect strangers who were piled on top of me thinking we could die together. I’m horrified that our children and fellow countrymen live the real thing daily now. #GunControlNow"
Crouched on the floor of the Shubert Theatre during an astounding performance of Mockingbird fearing for my life. This is our world now. Open panic and ready for life shots. I’m still shaking and scared for our country.
— Merle Dandridge (@MerleDandridge) August 7, 2019
One attendee tweeted that he heard "loud screaming from the lobby" of the Shubert Theater at the end of the show and "people started trying to burst through the doors into the show. Crowd panicked and ran out the emergency doors. The street was all running, so I ran until no one was running."
I was in the Shubert at the tail end of To Kill A Mockingbird. Loud screaming from the lobby and people started trying to burst through the doors into the show. Crowd panicked and ran out the emergency doors. The street was all running, so I ran until no one was running. https://t.co/uJRBNQO4oV
— Ranked Choice Now (@PeterTWalsh) August 7, 2019
Another audience member recalled hearing "a rumbling sound, banging on doors" and people yelling "get down."
"Announcer tries to calm panic; many in tears," @carmcjlee added. "No shooter; a motorcycle backfired. This is America."
Authorities say a loud noise of a motorcycle backfiring caused a panic and sent people running throughout Times Square. Witnesses told WNBC-TV that they saw people screaming and trying to climb over each other after hearing the loud noise north on Broad around 9:30 p.m.
There is no #ActiveShooter in #TimesSquare. Motorcycles backfiring while passing through sounded like gun shots.
We are recieving multiple 911 calls. Please don’t panic. The Times Square area is very safe! @NYPDnews @NYPDTimesSquare— NYPD Midtown North (@NYPDMTN) August 7, 2019
Video taken from above and posted on Twitter late Tuesday evening shows a mass of people scrambling to get out of the open area and trying to find places to hide as they thought there was an active shooter. According to the tweet, the cellphone footage was recorded from the tenth floor of a nearby building.
Contributing: Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY; the Associated Press.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Broadway's To Kill a Mockingbird ends in panic as motorcycle backfires