Taron Egerton Collapses On Stage During Opening Night Performance Of New West End Play

Taron Egerton gave audiences quite the scare after he collapsed during the inaugural performance of the new play Cock at the Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End over the weekend.

According to the Independent, the 32-year-old actor had completed only three-quarters of the play when he suddenly looked very ill and fainted on stage. The frightening moment immediately brought the curtain down, and a doctor from the audience came rushing to help the Rocketman star. After a 40 minute intermission, director Marianne Elliot appeared on stage to assure the crowd that Egerton was “absolutely fine.” The last 15 minutes of the production then resumed with understudy Joel Harper-Jackson stepping into his part. The show must go on, apparently! A statement from the production team also said at the time:

“During this evening’s first preview of Mike Bartlett’s play ‘Cock’ at the Ambassadors Theatre, Taron Egerton fainted towards the end of the performance. A doctor who was in the audience attended to Taron immediately after the incident, and whilst he felt fine, it was decided that Taron’s understudy, Joel Harper-Jackson would continue in the role to complete the performance.”

On Sunday, Egerton took to Instagram Stories to confirm that he was “completely fine” in his own statement. He wrote:

“As some of you may have heard, I passed out during the first performance of COCK last night. I am completely fine. Slightly sore neck and a bruised ego but I’m fine.”

Although his big night was ruined, the Golden Globe winner explained that he decided “to put a positive spin” on the incident, saying:

“I would appreciate it if anyone who was in the theatre last night just said I gave such a committed, electrifying performance that my body couldn’t handle it and I checked out. That being said, apparently you’re meant to actually do the full show and not just three quarters of it. So I’ll be back with a vengeance tomorrow night.”

He then thanked his fellow cast member Jackson for taking over for him:

“Thank you to the amazing team at the theatre and my wonderful castmates for being so lovely. But mainly I wanted to say thanks to Joel Harper Jackson who stepped in to do the last bit of the play. Joel is an amazing actor and a lovely person. Thank you Joel. T x.”

Wow, what a great attitude to have about the situation!