PANTO bosses have scrapped a bloodcurdling Beauty and the Beast knifing scene at a theatre near to where a man was stabbed to death.
The brutal opening night stage killing stunned the audience, which included children.
And it was made all the more chilling coming only weeks after the murder of dad-of-two Peter Duncan outside a Greggs 400 yards away.
One audience member said the “harrowing” death of the Beast at Newcastle Theatre Royal “came from nowhere”.
He said: “The show was hysterically funny and beautiful – then it turned into an episode of Casualty. The children were shocked.
"To think someone was murdered just yards down the road and then they include a stabbing in a panto is ridiculous. It ruined it for me.”
Producers Qdos Entertainment said it was “appropriate” that future performances would be “altered” and they were “mindful of the very sad case of Peter Duncan in making that decision”.
A court heard lawyer Mr Duncan was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” when he was stabbed with a screwdriver by teenager Ewan Ireland in an unprovoked street attack in Newcastle city centre in August. Ireland, now 18, admitted murder.
He will be sentenced this month.
