This amusing sequel to the Kurt Masur story is reported from London in the
Daily Telegraph today.

   "Staging an exit"

   First Kurt Masur, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, marched off
   stage mid-performance because the audience was coughing too much.  Now
   another dramatic exit has occurred, this time at the Lyceum Theatre,
   London, at the sell-out Oklahoma!  Saturday's matinee had got under
   way with Maureen Lipman, playing Miss Eller, on stage churning butter,
   before Hugh Jackman, playing Curly, strolls on.  "He got the opening
   line out, 'There's a bright golden haze on the meada', before he
   collapsed in a coughing fit," an audience member tells me.  "Everyone
   was shocked, but he apologised and said he was leaving the stage to
   fetch his understudy."

   Lipman, consummate professional, turned to the audience and said:
   "Don't worry, there are plenty more where he came from."

John G. Deacon
Home page:         http://www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon