Madonna allegedly left Natasha Richardson with ‘steam coming out of her ears’ after braiding her hair while watching a Broadway musical.
Actor John Benjamin Hickey has claimed that the pop icon was in the audience for a production of Cabaret in 1998, which he starred in alongside Richardson and Alan Cumming.
“One night in the audience Madonna was there, and we were all so excited that she was there,” Hickey told US talk show Watch What Happens with Andy Cohen. “There were lights on the audience, and Madonna proceeded to sit and braid her hair through the entire performance.”
He continued: “I didn’t really give a s***, I didn’t care one way or the other. [But] our leading lady Natasha Richardson came backstage with steam coming out of her ears. ‘How dare she?’”
“She was absolutely right,” Hickey added. “If you’re gonna come to the theatre, don’t sit and braid your hair, have some manners, especially if you know all eyes are on you.”
Earlier this year, while appearing on the Talk Art podcast, Cumming claimed that he reminded Madonna of the incident after they became friends.
“She talked about coming to see me in Cabaret and I said, ‘I remember you were braiding your hair’,” Cumming said. “She was like, ‘Was I? That’s incredibly rude.’ And I went, ‘Yes, it was rude.’”
Unusually, Madonna has been accused numerous times of poor audience-member etiquette. In 2015, Hamilton actor Jonathan Groff claimed that Madonna could be seen texting throughout a Broadway production of the blockbuster musical.
“It was a black void of the audience in front of us and her face there perfectly lit by the light of her iPhone through three-quarters of the show,” Groff claimed.
Reports in 2013 also claimed that Madonna was banned by a US cinema after texting during a screening of 12 Years a Slave. Film critic Charles Taylor, who attended the same screening, claimed that a woman tapped Madonna on the shoulder to ask her to stop texting, only for the star to allegedly reply: “It’s for business, enslaver!”
The Independent has contacted Madonna’s representatives for comment.
