Jodie Comer had to end a matinee performance of her Broadway play Prima Facie early after being unable to breathe due to wildfires blowing into New York City.
Comer, 30, said the air quality prevented her from breathing before she was helped off stage by a stage manager about 10 minutes into Wednesday’s show, eyewitnesses said. Variety.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has urged millions of residents to stay indoors as dangerous smoke from Canadian wildfires has roared in from across the border.
Huge swathes of the country, from the northeast to the Great Lakes, are bracing for several more days of smog as Canadian officials continue to grapple with more than 400 wildfires.
A thick, nicotine-yellow haze hung over the famous Big Apple skyline on Wednesday, as the city briefly became the most polluted in the world when its Air Quality Index score rose above 200, considered “very unhealthy.”
Jodie Comer had to end a matinee performance of her Broadway play Prima Facie early after being unable to breathe due to wildfires blowing into New York City
Yankee Stadium pictured Wednesday afternoon, as of this writing, the fate of tonight’s game has yet to be decided
More than a dozen US states and more than 100 million people are under air quality alerts, as health experts warn that inhaling the mist could be as harmful as smoking six cigarettes. Nanoparticles from the smog are so small that they can enter the lungs and bloodstream, causing side effects such as eye and throat irritation in addition to breathing difficulties.
The smoke problems have scheduled a large number of Major League Baseball games for Wednesday night, including the White Sox at the Yankees and the Tigers at the Phillies.
Yankees officials previously said they will meet at 4 p.m. to determine next steps. The Phillies game starts at 6 p.m.
“All New Yorkers should limit outdoor activities as much as possible. Stay indoors, close windows and doors and use air purifiers if you have them,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Wednesday.
Public libraries in the Big Apple closed early at 3:30 p.m. due to the weather. Outdoor activities for public schools were also suspended. A fireworks event at Coney Island was canceled, as was the opening of the 45th Annual Celebrate Brooklyn! concert series.
A cloud of smoke from the wildfires first descended on New York on Tuesday before thickening during the afternoon, preventing those in Manhattan from seeing the New Jersey skyline across the Hudson River.
According to the National Weather Service, not only were New Yorkers sent indoors, but air quality warnings were also introduced in states such as Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Virginia and the Carolinas.
Jodie received acclaim for her one-woman show Prima Facie, a role she began at London’s Harold Pinter Theater before taking it to Broadway.
On Tuesday night, the role earned her another trophy for her work at the Drama Desk Awards.
The British actress, 30, won Outstanding Solo Performance for Prima Facie, in a role she started at London’s Harold Pinter Theater before taking it to Broadway.
Forced to quit early: Comer, 30, said air quality prevented her from breathing before being helped off stage by a stage manager about 10 minutes into Wednesday’s show
Unlike the Tony Awards, the Drama Desk Awards honor not only Broadway performances, but also Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway performances.
This year, for the first time in its history, the Drama Desk Awards have opted to make the acting categories gender-neutral—or, in their preferred parlance, “gender-free.”
In her category, Jodie defeated David Greenspan for Four Saints in Three Acts, Jessica Hendy for Walking With Bubbles, Anthony Rapp for Without You and Tracy Thorne for Jack Was Kind.
She’s also received a Tony Award nomination for the same role, going up against Jessica Chastain in A Doll’s House, Jessica Hecht in Summer, 1976, and Audra McDonald in Ohio State Murders in her category — ahead of the awards ceremony on June 12.
Jodie has received acclaim for her one-woman show Prima Facie, a role she started at London’s Harold Pinter Theater before taking it to Broadway.
Prima Facie marks Jodie’s West End and Broadway debut. Speaking to CBS News this week, Jodie explained, “I’ve been very honest in public speaking about the fact that I auditioned for theater a lot and a lot of the feedback was, you know, the fact that I wasn’t. classically trained, never attended drama school.’
“That was kind of a hindrance. So then I was sent this one-woman play written by Suzie Miller to be on the West End. I was like, wow, it just seemed like such a gift.”
When asked if she expected the impact the play and her performance would have, she replied, “No, no, I think we were all really surprised by it, actually.”
“But I remember when we did the first preview in London – and this was the first time we performed in front of an audience – there was a lot of crying, like very audible and very quite loud and impudent, and very guttural.”