Adam Lambert is earning praise after shutting down a distasteful audience member.
The American Idol alum is currently starring in the Broadway adaptation of Cabaret, a story that tackles the rise of Nazis and fascism in 1930s Berlin. And during a recent show, the messaging behind an antisemitic line clearly went over an audience member’s head… But Adam shut it down!
In the scene, Adam’s emcee character sings the love song If You Could See Her to a gorilla, which crescendos with the jarring line:
“If you could see her through my eyes she wouldn’t look Jewish at all.”
According to several witnesses, this is the line the audience member laughed at. Podcaster David Rigano even went as far as to fully document the moment on Instagram last month in an open letter to Adam:
“You were cut off by people in the audience laughing at the joke. Not nervous laughter, not shocked laughter, but people who found the surprise that it was a Jewish gorilla legitimately funny.”
Yeesh. But the Whataya Want From Me singer did something about it — without breaking character! Rigano explained:
“As I was shaking my head that we live in a world that didn’t get the point of the joke, you turned to them and — without dropping the accent — said, ‘No. This is not a comedy. Pay attention.’ Especially the week of this inauguration, I really appreciated that. And from the applause you got for it, I feel like the rest of the audience appreciated it, as well. Thank you so so much.”
Good for Adam! The point is not to laugh along with depictions of antisemitism — but to be shocked by it, to learn from the horrible mistakes of the human race. Damn, we could use more people getting some education like that right now.
Love how he worked it in as the emcee, too! Several other social media users told similar stories thanking the musician for correcting the heckler — and eventually he responded to Rigano’s post. In the comments, he wrote:
“Thank you so much for your kind words. I really consider it a privilege to be working with such a gifted cast and creative team on a show that has so much to say about what is happening RIGHT NOW. It’s been relevant since it premiered in the late 60’s and I HOPE audiences walk away THINKING and feeling empathy towards how marginalized groups can be scapegoated as political strategy. That’s my hope and motivation every show; to pull you into an irresistible community and then make you miss us as we are stolen from you. Maybe just maybe we can change some minds.”
Amazing! We need more strong voices like his!
Reactions, Perezcious readers?
To learn more about antisemitism and how you can help fight it, check out https://www.adl.org/.
[Images via MEGA/WENN]
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